Irish traditional music – AcousticMusicScene.com https://acousticmusicscene.com Wed, 29 Jan 2014 23:15:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Winners Named in Sixth Annual Irish Music Awards https://acousticmusicscene.com/2014/01/29/winners-named-in-sixth-annual-irish-music-awards/ Wed, 29 Jan 2014 23:12:50 +0000 http://acousticmusicscene.com/?p=7394 The sixth annual Irish Music Awards were presented by the Irish Music Association on January 25, 2014 at O’Malley’s Pub in Weston, Missouri. The awards were determined through online voting by the association’s members.

RUNA, a Philadelphia, PA-based contemporary Celtic vocal and instrumental ensemble whose repertoire features traditional and more recently composed music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the Untied States and includes both high-energy and more graceful acoustic melodies, was named both Top Group and Top Traditional Group in a Pub, Festival or Concert. Keith Harkin, a singer-songwriter from County Derry, Northern Ireland, who also is a principal singer with the popular vocal group Celtic Thunder, won two awards for Top Solo Performer in Concert and Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue.

RUNA is (l.-r.): Cheryl Prashker, Maggie Estes, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, Dave Curley and Fionan de Barra (Photo: Kendra Flowers)
RUNA is (l.-r.): Cheryl Prashker, Maggie Estes, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, Dave Curley and Fionan de Barra (Photo: Kendra Flowers)

“We are unbelievably excited and honored to be recognized with so many incredible artists,” said Shannon Lambert-Ryan, who fronts RUNA with her rich, vibrant vocals. “We are so grateful to all of our fans (our spectacular RUNAtics) for their unending support and for voting for us,” she continued, expressing thanks also to the Irish Music Association for its support of Irish music and culture. The five-member group, which previously won an award for Best Song in the World Traditional category in the 12th annual Independent Music Awards, is set to release its fourth album this spring.

Phil Coulter, a popular musician, songwriter and producer, who also hails from Derry, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award., while the Tommy Makem Award went to The Dubliners, an Irish folk band that played its final concerts last month, following a career that spanned more than 50 years.

A complete list of Irish Music Award recipients follows:
Irish Music Awards trophyTop Solo Performer in Concert: Keith Harkin
Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue: Keith Harkin
Top Duo in Pub, Festival, and Concert: Ryan Kelly & Neil Byrne
Top Group: RUNA
Best New Irish Music Artist(s): Gothard Sisters
Top Celtic Rock Band: The Fighting Jamesons
Best Irish Tenor (individual): Emmet Cahill
Best Female Vocalist (individual/traditional): Meav
Best Sean-nos Singer: Brid Ni Mhaoilchiaran
Top Traditional Performance Show: The Chieftains
Top Traditional Group – In Festival, Pub & Concert: RUNA
Tommy Makem Award: The Dubliners
Top Harpist: Moya Brennan
Top Uilleann Piper: Kieran O’Hare
Top Fiddle/Violin: Cora Smyth
Top Button Accordion: Danny O’Mahony
Lifetime Achievement Award: Phil Coulter

The Irish Music Association produces, promotes and perpetuates Irish music through sponsored events, festivals, concerts, pub shows, and an annual network production, according to its website.

]]> Irish Echo Names Joe Derrane Trad. Artist of the Year for 2010 https://acousticmusicscene.com/2011/01/20/irish-echo-names-joe-derrane-trad-artist-of-the-year-for-2010/ Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:50:02 +0000 http://www.acousticmusicscene.com/?p=3308 Joe Derrane, a Boston-born button accordionist and composer, has been named top traditional artist of 2010 by the Irish Echo, the largest circulation Irish-American weekly newspaper. He is the first to receive this honor twice since its inception in 1993.

In addition, Grove Lane, an album Derrane recorded for Compass with guitarist John McGann that features seven of the master button accordionist’s original tunes was named the paper’s traditional recording of the year. The Irish Echo’s Earle Hitchner also tagged “A Concert for the Ages” tribute to Derrane — a sold-out Nov. 13 show at the Fairfield Theatre Company’s Stage One in Fairfield, CT, featuring more than 30 musicians and dancers — as the paper’s concert of the year.

Joe Derrane
Derrane, 80, was born into a musical family in 1930. His father played the accordion and melodeon, his mother, the fiddle. His interest in the accordion spurred at an early age, Derrane was actively playing house parties by the time he was 14. An active participant in Boston’s flourishing Irish ballroom scene during the late 1940s and 1950s, Derrane impressed the Irish music world when he made his first 78 rpm records as a teenager. With the demise of the ballroom scene in the late 1950s, Derrane felt compelled to veer towards “pop” and ditched his beloved button box for a new piano accordion. Although his love for Irish traditional music never waned, he had pretty much retired from music by 1990.

The re-issuance of his 78 rpm recordings on CD by Rego Records in 1993 prompted a resurgence of interest in Derrane, and he was invited to perform during an Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia in 1994. The warm response to his comeback prompted Derrane to return to performing, recording, and influencing other players. In 1998, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eiereann (North American Provinces) for contributions to Irish traditional music. Six years later, he was awarded a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“I’ve been covering Irish traditional music for more than 32 years, and in all that time I have never encountered a talent like his,” writes Hitchner in the Jan. 19 issue of Irish Echo. “Another brilliant Irish-American button accordionist, Billy McComiskey, put it succinctly: “Joe Derrane is absolutely as good as it gets.’ “

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