Karan Casey - Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale
Irish Times Review
"Karan Casey’s latest album is revelatory. She’s always been a singer of songs that tell a story and show their muscle. But this collection sees her step into a space that’s likely to appeal equally to fans of alt-country and Irish folk alike.
Her opening cover of Dylan’s Hollis Brown is a triumph: producer, Capercaillie’s Donald Shaw and engineer Seán Óg Graham support her to soar higher and further than ever before, and her telling of the tale of that South Dakota massacre is strangely resonant of these times we live in.
Her reading of Janice Ian’s I’m Still Standing Here and of Eliza Gilkyson’s Man of God are remarkably comfortable bedfellows with the traditional Sixteen Come Next Sunday, all connected by the subtlest arrangements, with Niall Vallely on tiptoeing concertina, Michael McGoldrick on flute and contributing vocals from Karen Matheson, Aoife O’Donovan, Niamh Dunne and others. This is a strikingly three-dimensional work that stands the test of intensive and repeated listening with ease. A vivid and dazzling snapshot of Casey invincible, at the height of her powers." (Siobhán Long, Irish Times 19/10/18)
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Karan Casey - Two More Hours
Two More Hours features guest appearances by singers Mick Flannery, Abigail Washburn and Aoife O'Donovan and was produced by Niall Vallely. This self-penned album is a first for Karan. Contemporary in tone it takes a much more personal approach to her writing and singing.
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Karan
Casey – Ships in the Forest
Karan Casey is an artist who proves
that the ancient and the modern make excellent bedfellows. One of the
most influential and imitated vocalists in Irish or American folk music,
Karan is a natural innovator. On Ships in the Forest, her fifth solo
album, Casey's warm, soulful voice ebbs and flows around ballads both
timely and timeless.
Produced once again by Donald Shaw (of Capercaillie fame), the album
was recorded at Karan’s home in County Cork and features the members
of her current touring band, Caoimhín Vallely (piano), Kate
Ellis (cello) and Robbie Overson (guitar) along with some special guests,
including Kris Drever and Niall and Cillian Vallely.
The songs found on Ships in the Forest range from fresh arrangements
of tried and true folk standards ("Black is the Color of My True
Love's Hair" and "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye") to "The
Fiddle and the Drum", Joni Mitchell's 1969 anti-war madrigal and
Martin Furey’s newly-composed “The Town of Athlone”.
Karan says of the album:
“I feel that this is by far my most ambitious album to
date. I think it has taken me all my years as a singer to come to the
point of feeling confident enough to tackle the big songs within the
traditional repertoire.”
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"One
of the great voices in contemporary music has just gotten even better." Sing
Out "Ships
In The Forest shines with unsentimental emotion and moments of rare
beauty." BBC.co.uk "Genuine
honesty carries hope and the possibility of redemption, and both, however
fragile, subtly inform these beautifully brooding renditions of honest
songs from one of Ireland's most passionate and probing vocalists." Irish
Echo "...shiver-inducingly
excellent." USA Today 
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Karan
Casey - Chasing the Sun
"Chasing the Sun" was released in April 2005. This album represented
a new departure, featuring as it does a significant number of her self-penned
songs. Recorded at her home in Co. Cork and produced by herself and
partner Niall Vallely, the album largely features her touring band
of Robbie Overson, Paul Meehan and Niall Vallely along with Ewen Vernal,
John Anthony, Michael Aharon and Erik Johnson.
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"This
album has irresistible, addictive qualities that make it very hard to
switch off from." Living Tradition 
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Karan
Casey - Distant Shore
Karan's third album was released throughout
the world in 2003. Produced by Donald Shaw it features a mixture of
contemporary and traditional material. Guests include vocalists Tim
O'Brien, Karen Matheson and John Spillane. Karan's regular band of Robbie
Overson and Niall Vallely are joined by the likes of Dirk Powell, Michael
McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly, Paul Meehan, James Grant and Cillian Vallely.
Traditional songs sit alongside new
material from John Spillane & Louis de Paor, Billy Bragg, Ger Woulfe,
Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott, Ewan McColl and Karan herself.
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"Casey
shifts her focus to contemporary folk-pop songs and emerges as the
Irish
equivalent of Emmylou Harris." Washington
Post "Karan's
out in front and from the looks of this will be for many years to come." Irish
Music Magazine 
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Karan
Casey - The Winds Begin to Sing
Karan's second solo album, 'The Winds
Begin to Sing', was a major critical success throughout the world. Voted
Best Folk Album of 2001 by the readers of Irish Music Magazine, it blended
her intimate grasp of traditional music with a daring new approach.
The album featured a mixture of traditional
songs collected from the likes of Frank Harte and Áine Uí Cheallaigh
and contemporary songs by writers such as John Spillane, Louis de
Paor
and Andy M.Stewart.
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Karan
Casey - Songlines
Karan's debut album was produced by
Seamus Egan and largely featured the playing of her Solas colleagues.
A stunning collection of mostly traditional songs it still sounds
as
fresh today as it was the day it was recorded.
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Karan
Casey & John Doyle - Exiles Return
Long awaited duet album from former Solas bandmates Karan
Casey and John Doyle. Produced by Dirk Powell and recorded in Nashville,
the album draws mostly on the traditional repertoire of Irish, Scottish
and English songs alongside one John Doyle original.
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Buille
Buille first came
into being during the summer of 2004. It combines the unique talents
of Niall
Vallely on concertina, Paul Meehan on guitar and Caoimhín Vallely
on piano. Their debut album, produced by Donald Shaw, was released
on
the Vertical Records label in 2005. The album consists mostly of new
music composed by Niall Vallely over the past couple of years. While
based in traditional Irish forms, the music draws on a wide range of
influences from the worlds of jazz and classical music in particular.
We are currently out of the stock of the Buille CD but you can download it here:
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"Buille
is as fresh a breath that's blown through traditional (and roots)
circles
in a long, long time." The
Irish Times "...a
classic of new Irish music. Miss it if you dare." Irish Music
Magazine 
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Buille
2
Second album from
Niall and Caoimhín Vallely's Buille.
The album features guest musicians including Zoe Conway
(fiddle), Neil Yates (trumpet), Cillian Vallely (pipes), Ed Boyd (guitar),
Brian Morrissey (bodhrán, banjo, percussion), Kate Ellis (cello),
Paul Meehan (guitar), Karen Dervan (viola).
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"...another spine-tingling
collection that bursts with originality...A thoroughly challenging
collection that will stimulate brainwaves and
pelvic girdles in equal measure." The Irish Times
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Buille
Beo
Stunning new live album from Buille. Featuring Niall and Caoimhín Vallely with Ed Boyd (guitar), Brian Morrissey (bodhrán/percussion) and Kenneth Edge (soprano sax), it was recorded at the Ionad Cultúrtha in Baile Mhúirne in West Cork.
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Niall
Vallely - Beyond Words
Debut album by virtuoso concertina player, featuring
Gerry McKee and Frank Torpey of Nomos, Caoimhin Vallely and Paul Meehan
of North Cregg, Cillian Vallely of Lunasa, plus Mel Mercier and Gerry
Culloty on percussion.
We are currently out of the stock of the Beyond Words CD but you can download it here:
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Niall
and Cillian Vallely - Callan Bridge
Niall and Cillian’s album, ‘Callan
Bridge’, was released by the Nashville-based company Compass
Records in early October 2002 and is now being re-released by Crow
Valley Music.
It was recorded over several months on two continents during those
intervals when the brothers’ tour itineraries made it possible for them
to get to the studio. Practice time was limited, but years of playing
together have given Niall and Cillian a near-telepathic musical understanding,
as demonstrated by the extraordinary note-for-note synchronicity achieved
in their duet selections. They were also helped out by some of their
friends, who happen to be among the best and most innovative in the
business: for the Philadelphia recordings U.S.-based guitarists Donal
Clancy and John Doyle; and for the sessions in Ireland younger brother
Caoimhín Vallely on the piano and Armagh guitarist Paul Meehan.
Six original tunes by Niall are balanced by a number of pieces unearthed
from old manuscript collections. The boys from Armagh play these melodies,
which for decades existed only as fading dots on forgotten pages, not
as antiquarian curiosities but with a vigorous virtuosity that brings
them fully to life and affirms the unbroken continuity of the Irish
musical tradition.
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"This
is drawing room grandeur mixed with muscular belly punches to the solar
plexus...Glorious." The Irish Times "...brilliant...a
recording that bristles with vigour and clearly inherited musicality." The
Herald 
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Caoimhín
Vallely - Strayaway
Stunning collections of traditional
music played on piano by Caoimhín Vallely - also features contributions
from Paul Meehan (guitar), Brian Morrissey (bodhrán), Niall
Vallely (concertina) and Cillian Vallely (pipes)
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Armagh
Pipers Club - 40th Anniversary Album
Double album recorded to celebrate the
40th Anniversary of the Armagh Pipers Club. Features new recordings
by
current and past pupils of the Pipers Club featuring: Niall, Cillian
and Caoimhín Vallely, Brian Finnegan, Paul Meehan , Jarlath Henderson,
Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, Stephanie Makem, Barry Kerr and
many more.
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€20
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Live
Recordings from the William Kennedy Piping Festival
Live Recordings from the William Kennedy
Piping Festival featuring performances from the World's leading pipers:
Gordon Duncan (Scotland), Michael McGoldrick, Jose Manuel Tejedor
(Asturias), Kathryn Tickell (Northumberland), Allan MacDonald (Scotland),
Anxo
Loremzo
(Galicia), Luig Lai (Sardinia), Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn,
Cillian Vallely, Ceri Rhys Matthews (Wales), Mick O'Brien, Gianni
Perilli and
Guido Iannetta (Italy), Robert Watt, Tommy Keane, Moebius (England)
and the Field Marshall Montgomery 'Mini' Pipe Band.
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"What
can I say? Allow yourself to be convinced. There is so much bland music
being peddled nowadays - various shades of grey all posturing as ‘the
alternative'! These recordings are the real alternative. Ignore the
preconceptions about bagpipes that you have been hobbled. This is a
path into a different set of possibilities. Dare to take it. There is
another landscape, different to the ones to which you are accustomed".
JMI
"If
you had a dream about piping this would be it. If the pipes stir your
blood then get your hands on a copy of this album a.s.a.p." Irish
Music Magazine
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Live
from the Katherine Cornell Theater
A Double-album collection of the highlights
of seven concerts held at the Katherine Cornell Theater on Martha's Vineyard
during 2002. Niall and Cillian Vallely along with Donal Clancy are featured
alongside such notable musicians as Paddy Keenan, Tommy Peoples, Sean
Tyrell, Teada and the Kane Sisters.
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Anglo
International
Anglo concertina playing from around the world
A 3 CD set featuring some of the best
Anglo concertina players from around the World. Lovingly compiled by
Alan Day, it includes a lavish 48 page booklet, and almost 4 hours
of music! For full details and a download of the booklet, go to the
Anglo
International website. Featured musicians include Niall Vallely, Noel
Hill, Mary McNamara, John Kirkpatrick, Bertram Levy and many, many more.
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€30
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Cillian
Vallely & Kevin Crawford On Common Ground
Two of the most well-known
musicians on the Celtic music circuit, flute player Kevin Crawford and
uilleann piper Cillian
Vallely have just released
this exciting new album, “On Common Ground”. A couple of years
of researching tunes in between a heavy schedule of band commitments has
directly led to this recording from Lúnasa’s powerhouse melody
makers.
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“Tasty tunes and terrific playing make "On Common Ground" one
of the recording triumphs of this still young year” Irish Echo 
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Niall
Vallely - CD Rom Concertina Tutorial
Learn to play the concertina with Niall's
CD ROM concertina tutorial. Video and audio files combine with music
notation, text and photos to make the learning process as easy as possible.
The tutorial caters for all levels from the absolute beginner to very
advanced players. The tutorial also includes a performance piece and
an interview with the tutor.
In the beginners' section the Anglo-concertina keyboard is simplified
by initially dividing it into sections, and Niall demonstrates the basic
skills of playing the instrument using easy, slow-paced tunes. Jigs
and Reels are then introduced and ornaments are added gradually. The
individual parts of these tunes are demonstrated on video at a slow
pace and the full tune is subsequently demonstrated at a medium pace
so that you can play along.
The advanced section features jigs and reels that are more highly ornamented.
The scope of the tunes is broadened and the extensive keyboard is fully
explored. Niall also introduces ornamental techniques unique to his
style.
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