I’m a big fan of Patrick Street.
I love Silly Wizard but they have a lot more vocals in their tunes, although their playing is second to none. They are Scottish for the most part but the music appeals to the same crowd.
If you want to sample Cape Breton music, Natalie MacMaster is fantastic
The Irish Rovers ?
This year I decided to dust off an old violin I and try learning traditional irish fiddling. To help me along, I creating a Pandora station of mostly instrumental irish music (plus some traditional scottish, english, american, cape breton, etc.). I’ve found some wonderful music this way.
I second the recommendation for Natalie MacMaster. I’ve yet to hear anything of hers I don’t like. If I had to pick a favorite tune of hers, it might be “Cape Classico.”
Some other recommendations: Old Blind Dogs (I’m trying to learn the set “The five pound flute/Donald McLellan’s Exercise/What pain have I endured since last year”). The Corrs. Liz Carroll (irish fiddler from Chicago), Lunasa, Culann’s Hounds, and many more.
I’ve found Pandora to be a very effective way to find interesting new music.
Here are some examples:
The Corrs: “Old Hag”
Old Blind Dogs: Five pound flute+
Natalie MacMaster being awesome
I’ll second Lunasa. Instrumental, very talented. Old Blind Dogs are very good too - vocals and instrumentals. Natalie is an awesome fiddle player. Solas is another great band.
Where do you live? The Celtic Classic is being held in Bethlehem, Pa. the weekend of September 27th. Highland games, massed pipe bands and ALOT of Celtic music. And its free (food and drink available at additional cost).
The Corrs do a mix of “Celtic Rock” and more traditional stuff.
This was how I learned of Shaun Davey! (His stuff isn’t exactly traditional, but, wow, is it impressive. He writes really big-scale “festival” music – music for massed bands of bagpipes, etc. And some smaller-scale stuff too. My favorite album of his is Granuaile, a musical telling of the life of Grace O’Malley.)
Apologies for the highjack: enthusiasm compelled me!
I am fond of Moving Hearts, mostly instumental, Planxty has some good traditional songs, but they do sing as well as play instumental.
Enter the Haggis - Lancaster Gate. Okay, maybe not traditional but definitely an instrumental bagpipe piece. An awesome rockin’ bagpipe piece.
Actually, lots of hardcore traditional Irish music fans think the Chieftans are rather schmaltzy. Bothy Band, Planxty, Altan–these bands tend to garner a lot more respect from the diehards.
Solas are fantastic.
Here’s the schedule for the Celtic Classic. Plenty of band names to check out on Pandora etc. Check all three days.
Best known for singing but they also play instrumentals. I recommend the jigs & reels on the Gems CD.
A multi-talented, multi-instrumental family band.
Even their earlier stuff? I can see regarding their more recent crossover albums as less authentic, but their earlier albums seem pretty uncompromising, at least to me.