I’ve recently gotten into a position where it would be useful to be updated about some of the good ITM/ITMish bands nowadays, but having been out of listening to them for so long that I’m quite out of touch. Could anyone recommend me the stronger gateway bands for ITM these days? I know Flook has disbanded, Lunasa is still around (although I think they haven’t developed much since their early albums). Altan and the Chieftains are still about. Who else?
Thanks!
Off the top of my head … “bands” only, ITM-ish, currently stable (I think):
Téada
Danú
Gráda
Sólas (the new lineup is still good)
Bohola (or bohola, if they insist)
Cherish the Ladies
Dervish (Eurovision aside!)
Déanta (regrouped)
Irish & Scottish fusion & rock:
Afro-Celt Sound System
Kíla
Croft No. Five
Shooglenifty
Capercaille
Black 47
Flogging Molly
Gaelic Storm
I hadn’t heard about this until now. Any clips anywhere for us U.S. folks? I have always liked Mary Dillon’s voice, and Dee Havlin’s flute, of course.
Kevin Krell
Nevermind - here:
Deanta
(Blas Ceoil Series 2 Episode 2 Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EwWk7aFm6o
w/Mary Dillon:
(Blas Ceoil Series 2 Episode 2 Part 3 about 4:28 in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH9IbHB-FnI
w/Mary Dillon:
(Blas Ceoil Series 2 Episode 2 Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1PaSzfKdzU&NR=1
Kevin Krell
Nice one Kevin
Great to hear Mary Dillon singing again, she was always my favourite female Irish singer.
Now all it would take is for Rosemary Woods and Siobhan Skates to start singing again and I would be a pig in shit.
David
How about Island Eddy? http://www.islandeddy.com/
At First Light: http://www.atfirstlight.net/
North Cregg: http://www.northcregg.com/
Gráda: http://www.gradamusic.com/
I’ve been very impressed by the new Green Fields of America album. Don’t really know anything about the history of the band, but this current line up has some great musicians in it.
Or, as we would have said in Salford, as happy as pigs in Shudehill… 
I think they’d be considered more of a traditional band than a gateway band, but anyway… I’ve heard good things about Bua, and I like what I hear from the sample songs on their myspace page.
(Apparently, Gan Bua – the original band name – was a joke, meaning something like “No Talent,” but they later felt the need to change the name once they decided the band was not just a lark… it’s described in their myspace blog.)
I’m looking forward to seeing them this summer at the Old Songs festival.
MTGuru had an excellent list.
I LOVE Lúnasa. They just keep getting better, IMHO
I would add
Karan Casey and Buille ( or for that matter, anything from the Vallely clan… 
Jim Malcolm and/or Old Blind Dogs. Jim’s new release ships any day now. And despite the recent departures of Jim and Rory Campbell, Johnny Hardie continues to lead a really crackerjack outfit.
Beoga
Julie Fowlis
Karine Polwart
Tim O’Brien (notably “The Crossing” and “Two Journeys”)
Dervish (despite the Eurovison debacle… 
)
The Makem and Spain Brothers (Maybe not my style exactly, but gosh, they’re really good at what they do!)
The latest from Malinky is excellent.
I’ll put in a plug for two Cape Breton groups…so there is a mix if Irish, Scottis, and CB music…Beolach is one, with Wendy MacIsaac, Mairi Rankin, and Ryan J. MacNeil to name a few.
The other is Slainte Mhath, although they are on hiatus…they mix in a lot of different types of muisc, looping, some electric instruments sometimes, but lots of hardcore trad as well. They are on hiatus now, as the two younger Macneil brothers are playing with the Barra MacNeils.
“Teada”.
Like a lot of people that have played trad. music for a while, I’ve kinda gotten curmudgeonly and gravitated toward the deep end of the trad pool…When I was 17, Solas’s first album blew my world apart; now, I still think they’re damned talented, but they make me nauseous and bored after two minutes…
If we’re talking strictly gateway bands/musicians that are actually good (i.e., talented musicians that people with little or no previous exposure to traditional music could potentially sit through without thinking it was totally pants), I would say the following (and I am going to include both Scottish & Irish music here):
Julie Fowlis Band
Croft No. 5
Bua
Téada
Martyn Bennett (RIP)
Iarla Ó Lionáird
With the exception of the Croft boys (who I’m not totally crazy about, but they’re just a lot of fun anyway), these are all people who I feel have realized that, by and large, relying on heavy amounts of newly composed, all flash and no substance syncopated tunes combined with instantly-dated-sounding backing (Capercaillie, anyone?) is in all likelihood going to make you sound musically naive and overly desperate for acceptance. I think Julie Fowlis epitomizes a new approach: her music is not very dressed up at all; it’s just damn good songs, not overly-arranged, and performed by talented people, and it’s gotten her a lot of much-deserved mainstream attention. Martyn Bennett’s and Iarla Ó Lionáird’s albums continue to blow away many people that I play them for who otherwise would have zero interest in listening to traditional music. I recently played some of Iarla’s stuff for a friend who’s a big Sigur Ros fan, and she was floored by it. Again, they take a much different approach to presenting traditional and traditional-influenced music from, say, Flook, or Michael McGoldrick and co., but it’s much more interesting and complex to listen to, and in my opinion, a whole lot better.
As for bands in general that may or may not be aiming at “gateway” listeners, I would second the praise for Bua. I recently got to meet their singer/concertina player Brian Hart, and was deeply impressed. He may be American, but his knowledge of Irish and the singing culture of Connemara was seriously the real deal. He sings with a degree of linguistic and cultural fluency that I dare say surpasses that of certain Irish-born singers (I won’t name names, but I get the sense with a few people that when they sing in Irish, they’re not 100% aware of the meaning of the words that they’re singing).
Okay, I suppose that’s enough of a divisive, curmudgeonly rant for now…
I’ll put in another vote for Bua. Love them.
Tater’s great, what can you say?
I also like some of the stuff Sharon Shannon’s doing lately with Mike McGoldrick, etc. Her “Tunes” CD with McGoldrick and Frankie Gavin is brilliant.
Finally, these guys are pretty different and not exactly what most people would call “rockin,'” but I love The Fuchsia Band. They’re beautiful tasteful players and just fun all around; lots of variety.
Well, thanks for that, folks. I just downloaded the Bua ‘An Spealadoir’ tracks, and it was ten bucks very well spent. Great,great stuff!