Clannad & Moya Brennan News

Children of Haiti

Moya Brennan will take part in a very special event in New York to support the Haitian people after the devastating earthquake that hit the densely populated nation. Joining Moya are Ashley Davis (whose new album was recorded in Moya’s home), Academy Award-nominated director and writer Terry George, Black 47, Jameson’s Revenge, Creole Jazz band Mozjaik, Clay Ross & Matuto, Seanchaí and Unity Squad, as well as a Haitian band Brother High Kanaval. Readers will include National Book Award winner Colum McCann, the amazing Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Malachy McCourt, T.J. English, Michael Patrick MacDonald and others.

The event, called “Relief for Haiti: Island People Supporting Island People” will take place on Wednesday, February 24th (7:00 pm sharp) at Klub 45, the music venue above Connolly’s Pub on West 45th Street near New York’s Times Square.

Proceeds from the event will support the Haitian relief efforts of Concern Worldwide, the international humanitarian relief agency that was founded in Ireland 41 years ago.

T with the Ms

T with the Ms (previously known as ‘T with the Maggies’) is now online! The band featuring Moya Brennan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill have put tracks up on MySpace and are also on Facebook and Bebo! What a supergroup, T, the M’s and no doubt a hint of Clannad, Altan, Bothy Band and of course Manus Lunny! Check the pictures and stuff out on their website: TwiththeMs.com

I love the red

Joe Girardi will be delighted to know that a brand new Enya thingy has been added to her official store: the baseball cap! I’m terrible with sports, but the caps are actually cute! They have the logo in yellow and red. More of a Tweet than a blog I suppose, but they really are cool. Is this the first ever official Enya clothing item? Let us know by commenting below, or give us your opinion! (:

Killing Time EP

Moya Brennan band member Yoshi Izumi (bass, guitar, vocals) and his band UFEARI release regular free downloads! We’ve just discovered his band, which has been going for a while now! His easy listening/blues music if available to download from the UFEARI blog on their MySpace page. It’s amazing to see other sides to the Moya Brennan band members, they all have so many projects going, and Moya herself barely gets time to sit down! Check UFEARI out on the UFEARI MySpace page.

© Mella Travers

You can check out a new portrait of Moya Brennan from the ‘Music of Ireland: Welcome Home’ series on WLIW’s press section,! The photo, by the one and only Mella Travers (who photographed Moya’s ‘Signature’, ‘An Irish Christmas’ and Ciarán Sweeney dress pictures), is really cool! You can also check out a picture of Moya recording for the show, and a collage of the ‘Music of Ireland: Welcome Home’ series from the official programme website. Click on the left for a medium version of the portrait, or click here for the montage. Gah, we can’t wait for this to come out! You can pre-order the album from Barnes & Noble with US national and some international shipping. We hear Amazon’s coming soon, but only the CD/DVD combo, watch this space!

Also, check out Music of Ireland on FACEBOOK!

Cat cuddling a teddy bear - click!

Hey everyone, happy V-day from Northern Skyline! I hope you all got cards. As for me, today I shall buy myself a card, a huge amount of chocolate, a bottle of wine and a few black and whites. Bliss… haha. Hope you all have a lovely day and smile, cause you’re all amazing! Happy cuddling, daydreaming, smiling, inspector-day day! And remember, we love you lots x

All Dressed In Yellow

Fionán de Barra’s Shetland trad band Fiddler’s Bid has been nominated for a Spiral Award for their new album ‘All Dressed in Yellow‘. Fiddler’s Bid have been going for a more than a decade now and are the forerunners of Shetland music. Voting closed yesterday, but we are very confident from votes that they’ll win!! The new album is amazing, you can buy it from the newly-designed official Fiddler’s Bid website along with a few specialities… make sure to keep an eye out for their EU tour schedule!

Two thirds of Luna

Fionán de Barra and his wife of almost one year, super-singer Shannon Lambert-Ryan (you’ll LOVE her voice) performed last night in Titusville Falls with their new band Runa (which is keeping Fionán very busy!). Fionán, who is a member of the Moya Brennan band and Clannad’s live big-band had a wee story in Irish Philly, here. As posted on our old site, their début album, ‘Jealousy’ is available now from their official website. Fionán is quite busy stateside, as well as in Europe with Moya’s band and his other band, Fiddler’s Bid, whose new album ‘All Dressed in Yellow’ has just been released. A portion of CD sales from Luna’s album will go to Haiti relief projects.

DVD cover

Moya Brennan’s US show, “Music of Ireland – Welcome Home” (click for trailer) will be broadcasting its first part in March 2010. The two-part programme celebrates half a decade of traditional and contemporary Irish music. Part one will feature performances and exclusive interviews from the likes of The Chieftains, U2, The Dubliners, Riverdance, and Bob Geldof. A sneak peak of Part 1’s chapters:

1. History of Irish music – Early 1900s
2. Pub session
3. Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
4. Pete Seeger’s Discovery of Irish Music
5. The McPeake Family
6. The Dubliners
7. The Chieftains
8. Clannad
9. Planxty
10. Riverdance
11. Van Morrison
12. Thin Lizzy
13. The Pogues

You can pre-order the CD, and soon DVD (CD/DVD combo) at Barnes & Noble.

Also, Clannad and Moya Brennan WILL perform exclusive tracks on the documentary, as will Órla Fallon and U2. Part II will feature Sinéad O’Connor and The Cranberries, who have just regrouped after a break. Mary Black, Gaelic Storm, The Script and Celtic Woman will also contribute interviews and/or songs.

Still from 'Dust'

Pól Brennan has composed the music for the November 2009 film ‘Dust’. The short film is set in Dublin in the year 2007. From the press release the storyline comes across very profound, we bet it’s a brilliant film and can’t wait to get it! “Dust is a film about people’s fear of getting involved in someone else’s problem. James, a Dublin taxi-driver, works hard to make a living. When a Latvian man, Valdis, is mugged next to his taxi, James finds himself reluctantly looking after him. Shot on S16 film, Dust captures the harder side of life in Dublin just before the fall of the Celtic Tiger.”

Pól also composed the music for ‘Kings’ and Irish language film that was considered as Ireland’s non-English entry to the Academy Awards (Oscars). We hope to see Pól do more soundtrack work in the future. With Clannad he recorded the soundtracks for the BBC’s ‘Atlantic Realm’, ‘The Angel and the Soldier Boy’ and of course ‘Robin of Sherwood’. Pól’s work since leaving Clannad has included working/producing with Irish singer Eimear Quinn, working on an album with his partner Tara Ní Bhroinn and releasing an album on Real World Records with Jori Hirota and Guo Yue.