Fingal

Artist Information

Biography

The world of Irish traditional music is in some ways like the jazz world - there are certain musicians known to insiders as the "real thing", the genuine creative artists of the music. These players often combine and recombine in new groups, searching for fresh inspiration. It's safe to say that the members of Fingal would fall into that category, and the fact that they've formed a touring group has got the trad music world abuzz. These guys have got the goods, as a quick perusal of the literature will show. For example: Daithi has been a member of the band Altan for many years; Randal made two seminal recordings with fiddler Martin Hayes; James was a founding member of the great Castle Ceili Band in Ireland and is among the legendary figures in Irish music. Although this trio was formed only two years ago, Fingal's musical connections go deep and wide. Now they're playing exactly the music they want, and the result is a powerhouse of a trad group that knows how to deliver the full voltage of the Irish music tradition.

Instrumentation

James Keane - button accordion
Randal Bays - fiddle
Daithi Sproule - guitar and vocals

Discography

"Fingal" - 2008 New Folk Records

Audio

• The Hag's Purse set (Jigs)
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• The Bonnie Light Horseman
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• Luke Kelly's Reel / Casey's Broom / Farewell to Connacht
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Fingal Wows 'Em [+ Show ]
  

  Three of the world’s top trad musicians create some audience thunder at the Philadelphia Irish Cent...Three of the world’s top trad musicians create some audience thunder at the Philadelphia Irish Center.
  
  Nov. 20, 2006
  
  By Tim McLaughlin
  
  Randal Bays and Dáithí Sproule at the Philadelphia Irish Center
  “Don’t listen,” Dáithí Sproule instructed the crowd with a Guinness in one hand and his guitar in the other, “this is the sound check.” Suddenly, the men of Fingal broke into a jig that had the whole audience yippin’ and hollerin’ without a pause. “Now you can listen,” Sproule joked again.
  
  Fingal played to a packed house at the Philadelphia Irish Center on Saturday, in a concert sponsored by the Philadelphia Ceili Group. The three musicians, Dáithí Sproule, Randal Bays, and James Keane kept every foot in the room tapping as they played traditional Irish jigs and reels.
  
  Fingal formed only a few months ago, but the men already sound like they've been touring together for years. Bays told the crowd that he and Sproule have been playing music together "over coffee and donuts" for quite a while before the band started. And each has a long musical history:
  
  Sproule is a longtime member of the Donegal trad band, Altan, which was recently honored by the Irish government with a postage stamp. (Unlike the U.S., you can be on a postage stamp before you die in Ireland!) Keane, who played at the Coatesville Irish Traditional Music series last month, is a four-time All-Ireland accordion champ. He is a co-founder, with brother Sean of The Chieftains, of the famed Castle Ceili Band. Bays has been called “one of the best Irish-style fiddlers of his generation.” Self-taught, Bays’ recent live album, “House to House” was picked by the Irish Times as one of the “Top Five Traditional Recordings of 2005.”
  
  Sproule, a native Irish speaker, followed the rousing opening number with a song in Gaelic while Bays accompanied him on the fiddle. Sproule played several melodies by famed uilleann piper and folklorist Seamus Ennis that were also in traditional Gaelic. (Their homage to Ennis doesn’t go without notice: Fingal is the location of the Seamus Ennis Cultural Center, the site of Ennis’s home, in North County Dublin). While most of his audience probably didn’t understand the words, they certainly felt the message: Each song received thunderous applause.
  
  And it was clear that the trio had a long history together as friends. They bantered wildly between songs, with Bays, the only American-born member, joking at one point that it was a “pleasure working with masters of such phony accents.”
  
  Before Fingal stepped on stage, a hot new group on the local trad scene comprised of teenage musicians Caitlin Finley, Emma Hinesley, and Sean Earnest played an opening set. The trio doesn’t have a name yet, but their music spoke for itself. With Finley on the fiddle, Hinesley on the flute, and Earnest on the guitar, the three young musicians warmed up the crowd with a spectacular set of jigs and reels. (They did the same for Keane in Coatesville.) Unfortunately, the musicians joked, they didn’t know the names of some of the songs they played—another of the great traditions of Irish traditional music.
  
  Irish music aficionado Tim McLaughlin is a student at Arcadia University.

Setlist

A typical concert is two 50-minute sets, comprised of instrumental tunes and songs in both Irish Gaelic and English.

Basic Requirements

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