Lúnasa

2011 sees a welcome return to the Festival for Lúnasa. The band, which last visited us in 2002, was founded in late 1996. It released its first CD, Lúnasa, in October 1997. A mix of concert and studio tracks, it was hailed as one of the freshest recordings of Irish music in years and became an immediate best-seller in Ireland. It topped the Hot Press folk charts and was nominated one of the year’s top ten albums by the Irish Echo in the USA.

From the beginning, Lúnasa met with critical acclaim. The band features an all-star instrumental line up of Seán Smyth – fiddle, Kevin Crawford – flute, Trevor Hutchinson – bass, Paul Meehan – guitar and Cillian Vallely - uilleann pipes and whistles. Inspired by Ireland’s great 1970s group, The Bothy Band, Lúnasa combine melodic interweaving of wind and string instruments, pairing flutes, fiddle, whistle and pipes in unique arrangements, with distinctive use of the upright acoustic bass and percussive guitar accompaniment.

The band has released a number of highly acclaimed CDs – Otherworld in 1999, The Merry Sisters Of Fate in 2001, Redwood in 2003, The Kinnitty Sessions in 2004, Sé in 2006, and The Story So Far... in 2008.