glór will host a new online ‘concert and chat’ series within its folk music strand this Spring beginning on Thursday.
The popular music, culture and arts venue has again teamed up with Paula Carroll of The West Wind the traditional music strand on Clare FM to curate ‘Folk Nights at Glór’, a series of online ‘folk clubs for our times’ where both emerging and well established folk artists take to Glór stage to perform, and to the couch to chat about making music in a radically altered Arts world.
Folk Nights at Glór will be streamed online beginning on Thursday April 8th at 8pm and will run until Thursday May 6th.
Concert guests:
Ger O’ Donnell and Maria Ryan – April 8th – 8pm
Dermot Sheedy, Aisling Lyons, Sean Lyons April 22nd – 8pm
Dermot Byrne and Steve Cooney – May 6th – 8pm
Folk Nights at Glór is a series of online ‘folk-clubs for our times’ says series producer Paula Carroll. ‘Glór’s auditorium is mostly empty these days, but it’s still an atmospheric place, maybe even more so! I wanted to fill that auditorium with music – even if the only audience were the crew!’ And then present that music to the world. It felt absolutely magical to have these great musicians perform for us. We hope you’ll feel the magic too’.
‘After the performance we took to the armchairs to chat about how music-making has changed in today’s world and what it might now mean for musicians and for us the audiences.’
‘I know we’re all confined to our couches for entertainment these days, but through the wonders of technology, you can still join the conversation, we can still have a collective experience. Hope to ‘see’ you there on the night!’ Carroll concludes.
The musicians
Thursday 8th April 2021
Maria Ryan, violinist, fiddle player and singer from Pallasgreen in Co. Limerick, is an alumnus of Cork School of Music (CIT), where she co-founded the highly acclaimed music ensemble Strung. In recent times she has also toured internationally with Galician piper Carlos Nuñez, played with Crash Ensemble and the Irish National Opera. She comes into her own in this folk collaboration with singer and multi-instrumentalist Ger O’ Donnell.
Ger O’Donnell, multi-instrumentalist, singer, music educator, arranger, was born in Limerick. His musical journey has led him through fife and drum bands to classical flute to rock bands to his current focus on strings and voice in folk arrangements. Long before lockdowns, his online collaborations with singers and instrumentalists, have garnered him a huge and loyal following.
Thursday 22nd April 2021
Dermot Sheedy, from Co. Clare, first came to prominence as the percussionist with ‘Ciorras’, a new band formed by Donal Lunny as part of the TG4 series ‘Lorg Lunny’. Since then he’s gone on to bigger things and an international touring career with Hermitage Green. Back home again now in lockdown, he proves himself a senstive and imaginative collaborator in the folk world.
Aisling Lyons from Co. Clare is one of the rising stars of the Irish harp world – rooted in tradition and beautifully inventive. She is also an accomplished concertina player and trails a string of accolades on both instruments. She comes from a musical family in Co. Clare, her parents and brother (see below) being multi-genre singers and instrumentalists.
Sean Lyons from Co. Clare is one of the county’s most sensitive folk singer / guitarists. From the same musical family as Aisling Lyons, he is also a piper and whistle player. With his striking lyrics and imaginative melody-making, he has also proven himself a fine song-writer in folk and other idioms.
Thursday 6th May 2021
Dermot Byrne shot to fame as a child prodigy on the accordion in his native Donegal, and is still considered one of the finest accordion players in the tradition. He toured for many years with Donegal trad band Altan. He has lived in and around Co. Clare for many years. As well as the Irish folk tradition, he also dips into European and global accordion repertoires.
Steve Cooney is best known for his development of an influential style of guitar accompaniment to Irish dance music which he developed in West Kerry in his legendary collaboration with Séamus Begley.
Despite participating in the making of over 250 albums, he only recently released his first ever solo CD – to huge critical acclaim. In 2020 he was given the RTÉ Folk Awards ‘Lifetime Achievement’ Award.
About Paula Carroll
Paula Carroll is an independent radio producer, documentary-maker and specialist music broadaster. She is one of the producer/presenters of the long-established West Wind traditional music strand on Clare FM, and creator of the highly popular Kitchen Sessions Series on Clare FM.
