What is your favorite trad band/s? You can choose more than one. Since I do say trad I am going to have to draw the line at bands like Lunasa and FLook great bands but not really trad. Mine are Derrvish and Danu.
Enya and Sinéad O’Connor. So sue me already. 
But I also listen to the Dubliners and Niamh Parsons and Cherish the Ladies and stuff…
Favourite is the Dubliners. Not Trad with a capital ‘T’ but trad enough for me any day. They have been a huge inspiration, especially John and Barney.
Other favourites: Bothys, Fureys, Danu.
I’m shallow, so I prefer this more accessible stuff to hardcore old-time fiddlers and pipers.
I prefer stuff with words, even if just a few. All-instrumental music can’t hold my attention anymore. Talk about shallow, eh? 
You’d get on well with my wife. Lindsey focuses more on the words than the instrumentals, I think.
Instrumental can still hold my attention, and I have a few all instrumental MP3 playlists set up, but I do love songs too.
Nowt shallow about songs, mate
I can see the point with Flook but not with Lunasa. 90% of their arrangements are recognizably Irish dance tunes, in which the melody is played in a recognizably traditional way on traditional instruments. The same could be said of Danu, or Planxty, or the Bothy Band. The really distinctive thing about Lunasa is the double-bass playing.
At the moment I am heavily into The Poozies. 2 harp players and an accordion. Sounds like an absolutely weird combination but it works wonderfully.
I enjoy listening to Lunasa and Solas on occasion, but most of my trad listening is to more relaxed stuff. Geez, I sound like an old fart.
Margo O’Donnell 
I am worried about the Trad Cops coming after me. I would say 80% of Lunasa’s Tunes come from modern composers who haven’t really been around long enough to become part of the tradition. The Guitar playing is really distincitive also.
Teada, Begnish, Mixylodia (esp: Kirsten Allstaff, flutre player and a real cutie pie), Genticorum (from Quebec), Crucible from England.
MarkB
I like the Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers and such. And listen to the Chieftains quite a bit. (Let’s not get into that whole Trad/Not Trad argument - I know what they are).
But I prefer simpler, less commercial arrangements. I recently ripped a bunch of CDs to my PC so I can cycle through my favorites - and what I ended up loading were:
Cathal McConnell
Catherine McEvoy (My favorite player at the moment)
Eoghan MacAogain (Not quite up with C McE, but I can listen to him for hours. A gentleman to deal with, too.)
Grey Larsen (I have mixed feelings here - I love his mastery, but not his personal style)
Louis McManus (Not always traditional, but DAMN than man could play)
Paddy Carty (Up there with C McE)
Ronan Browne
“Wooden Flute Obsession I & II”. (A must-have. I’m particularly taken by the Micho Russell track “Fermoy Lasses/Reel with a Twist” at the moment)
I’ve noticed something else, too - the more I listen, the more I’m moved not to learn more tunes, but to work on the ones I already know. It’s not that I really know that many - 70 or 80, I suppose - it’s that the more I listen, the more I realize that I haven’t even really mastered those. And that speed isn’t that important - if you can’t play it slowly and sound good, you can’t really play it at all, no matter if you can spit out a rough approximation at machine-gun speed.
I am worried about the Trad Cops coming after me. I would say 80% of Lunasa’s Tunes come from modern composers who haven’t really been around long enough to become part of the tradition. The Guitar playing is really distincitive also.[/quote]
From an authorship standpoint that’s a sound argument I hadn;t considered. Actually, it’s probably the only truly objective way to define “trad.” Stylistically, though, new tunes can fit right in.
On the guitar issue, I;d say Donal Lunny’s stuff with the Bothies (yes I know it’s a zouk) was far more groundbreaking. Then again, a lot of ppl think the Bothies aren’t trad either.
In any event, what
I have to say that I’m a fan of the ‘Old Geezers’.
My personal favourites lean towards the likes of Leo Rowesome,Willie Clancy,Seamus Ennis,Micho Russell, Johnny Doran, John Docherty,Peter O’Laughlin etc ,etc…
I do enjoy ‘group’ playing
,but have to agree with the maxim that all of the stylistic parameters of ITM can be encompassed by a solo instrument.
As a case in point, of my retrograde preferences,I was listening to the first C.D. of ‘Wooden Flute Obsession vol. 2’ today,whilst doing some decorating (AAGH!! : 
)
and I have to admit that,whilst I admired the virtuosity of some of the more ‘Contemporary’ stylists (Sarah Allen,Brian Finnigan,Kevin Crawford,for instance),it was the ‘older’ style of players that stopped me from my wall scraping and made me listen up.
Incidentally,my RSI dogged left shoulder is now giving me ‘gype’,so U.P. practise is certainly out of the question this weekend!!
Well to Bothies were one of the first Irish bands that had a Zouk (but they were in sessions for some time before that) so yes his playing was more ground breaking as it was a different instrument than that which was usually associated with ITM, but I am agreeing with you. Yes a tune can be in the trad style but that doesn’t make it a trad tune. In the end I love Donogh’s playing and I am awaiting hearing more of the new guy whose name escapes me. Flook and Lunasa are two of my favorites but I waould not consider them trad.
First by a longshot is Steeleye Span (you didn’t specify Irish)
Next are Altan and Deanta and Chris Norman (2 of the best flute players on earth, and 1 of the best in heaven)
Others:
Cathal McConnell, Garry Shannon
Other other:
Preservation Hall Jazz Band (earlier stuff). Again, not Irish, but there is actually some overlap in material, and you can learn an awful lot about music from listening to them.
Hi Chas
I’ll go with you on Frankie Kennedy, my favourite flute player by miles.
As to bands.
Deaf Shepherd.
Old Blind Dogs
Milladoiro
Deanta
Fred Morrison’s band (or solo or whatever)
Dervish
The Sands Family
The Easy Club
Boys of the Lough
etc etc etc.
David
For bands, which seems to be what people are focusing on mostly here, I would have to say Planxty, Planxty and Planxty, but only the trad stuff. Their folky stuff is awful. I can abide the Chieftains in small doses, but the rest just don’t do it for me. Beyond that I prefer solo recordings best.
djm
Ditto. I’d rather play songs than tunes, too. The problem with the whistle is that I can’t play and sing at the same time–at least nothing recognizable.
That’s why I’m glad we have the new strings forum. (But I wonder why there’s nothing for squeeze boxes.)
Oops. Brain cramp on my part. I’m with you on Planxty; I’d add the Bothies, too.
The Dubliners have always been one of my favourite bands.Luke Kelly in full flight is a thing of great beauty.Once you get past the Wild Rover/Whiskey in the Jar stuff there are a huge amount of songs in their repertoire which are pure class.Luke was probably the finest interpreter of Ewan McColl songs in the business.
Other bands that get regular playing here would be the Bothys,Altan,De Dannann and Planxty with a touch of the early (1-4) Chieftains.
Slan,
D.
My current favourite CD is ‘Top of the Coom’ by Conal O’Grada.
As for groups, I have always had a soft spot for Craobh Rua.
Mukade