i like clannad, maire brennan and enya on their own as well. altan is rather good.
Moving this to Cafe Society.
Nitro beat me to it, but Flogging Molly’s “Devil’s Dance Floor” get’s me about as buck as some AC/DC, and “Grace of God go I” just makes me have to lay down, smoke a cig, and relax.
The Young Dubliners are one of my favorite bands. They do a great mix of rock with Celtic influence. If you’ve heard the Killian’s beer commercial, they do the music for that.
Riverdance!
In the same vein as Great Big Sea, there is Carbon Leaf. They opened for Great Big Sea when I saw them last February. I was instantly in love.
And if you ever get the chance, see Great Big Sea live!!! They put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of shows.)
Gotta throw in a ditto for these guys. I don’t drink much, but I can appreciate good Irish drinking music, and it doesn’t come much better than Flogging Molly. I saw them play a club in New Orleans and was absolutely floored by their live act (as was the lead singer, who got knocked flat on his ass by a crowd surfer during one song :)).
nitro, thanks for the tidbit about Dave King. I didn’t know that. Also interesting is that FM’s accordian player, Matt Hensley, is a pro skateboarding legend.
The Saw Doctors are another band I really like. Their songs really run the gamut from very well-written pop rock songs like “Villains” to haunting tunes like “Same Oul’ Town,” “Green & Red of Mayo,” and “Clare Island” to empowering songs such as “All the Way from Tuam,” “Sing a Powerful Song,” and “This is Me” to high energy numbers like “Hay Wrap.” Great stuff.
Just looking down my CD collection, I can recommend:
Altan
Capercaillie
De Dennan
Clannad
Solas
The Tannahill Weavers
The Chieftans
Deanta
Wolfstone
Leahy!!!
The last is HIGHLY recommended. They are a Canadian family of 9 brothers and sisters who are all multi-instrumentalists. Wonderful stuff. For a sample, check out the DVD of “Gael Force.”
The thread has gotten this long with no mention of Silly Wizard??
Dervish out of County Sligo, is the best trad band out there now IMNSHO.
The Thistle and Shamrock is a good radio show to hear a wide variety of Celtic and related music from the old traditionals to modern Celtic. It’ll give you lots of leads for performers you might like.
Try this page as well, it’s a great sampler album.
I really like Talitha Mckenzie-a New Yorker who taught herself Gaelic and 4 yn y Bar-a Welsh group.
I don’t even know if they are still in print, but a lot of us old guys cut our teeth on The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Their stuff may be old but it is good.
For Scots stuff its hard to beat The Battlefield Band and Old Blind Dogs.
The Chieftains, of course, just go on forever and get better and better. The Boys of the Laugh (bad spelling) are well liked by many but don’t resonate with me the way the Clancys did when I first head they banging away on their Rebel Songs like The Rising of the Moon.
No one mentionned “Anuna”, one of the best modern Irish choirs that does a lot of new takes on old classics, most of which they sing in irish.
They do some fine work.
For something very special in this style you could give Dan Ar Braz (from Brittany) a try.
Small group, rather local, but beautiful music:
My co-worker told me of another group called Pooka. I haven’t listened to them yet.
I’m quite fond of Danu, young trad players with lots of energy.
The Barra McNeils