New albums and feast of shows at Tuam Trad
The third annual Tuam Trad Festival will feature at least four album launches, as around 100 musicians prepare to descend on the town for the three-day event.
The festival takes place from September 20 to 22 and a highlight will be the performance of legendary céilí group, Shaskeen.
The many musicians travelling to the festival are using the opportunity to launch new albums, among them Tipperary singer Dick Hogan, who will release a collection of his favourite songs. Dick will launch his new album in The Abbey café on the Saturday of the festival. He has been a very popular attraction at the event in the past.
At an early stage in his music career he was introduced to the legendary Brendan O’Dowda, a renowned interpreter of Percy French’s songs, and went on to produce a much acclaimed album back in 1997 entitled Wonders of the World for which he was joined by a number of well known musicians. That album featured four songs by Percy French, and he was accompanied on three of them by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Dick, who cites one of his main influences as the piper and singer Seamus Ennis, is now a full time performer and regularly provides workshops on traditional Irish singing, which he will also be doing in Tuam during the festival.
Meanwhile Colm Naughton, the banjo and mandolin player from Creggs in North Galway, will be launching a new CD in Reapy’s, also on Saturday at 9pm.
Colm comes from a musical family and has been performing from an early age. When he moved to Galway city he became a familiar part of the sessions in Taylor’s, Taaffe’s, The Crane and Tigh Neachtain. He has played with Steve Earle and Peter Rowan as well as touring to America, Germany, Norway and Poland and spent a year as a resident musician in Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria. He currently plays alongside Matt Keane from Caherlistrane and is married to Orlath Keane.
At the same time Roxanne Meehan from the Tuam area will be launching her debut album in The Rustic Vaults. She started out competing in the West’s Got Talent in Tuam back in 2010 and won the Credit Union Factor before going on to represent Tuam in the Connacht finals. Roxanne is releasing a CD entitled Priority 21 which has 13 tracks, including a number of original songs – all with a traditional theme.
Finally Enda Seery from Westmeath, one of the country’s finest whistle and flute players will release his new album in Canavan’s on the Saturday of the festival at 3pm.
Enda grew up with music, song and dance, alongside his musical siblings Ciarán (button accordion), Siobhán (flute) and Pádraig (fiddle) who were part of The Mona Dubh Céií Band.
This is his second album and is called Síocháin na Tuaithe (Peace of the Countryside) with Enda featuring on whistles, flute, keyboard and vocals, and guest appearances from John Byrne on guitar, Eoghan MacAogáin on whistle, James Hughes on fiddle and Tom Delany on guitar.