About Fingal
James Keane - accordion, Randal Bays - fiddle, Dáithí Sproule - guitar and vocals
James Keane was born to a musical family in Drimnagh, Dublin, and took up the button accordion at age six. He spent his youth surrounded by some of the giants of Irish traditional music; Seamus Ennis, Leo Rowsome, Sonny Brogan and many more. As a teen he co-founded the famous Castle Ceili Band, which won the All-Ireland ceili band competition and played to sold out dance halls all over Ireland. James went on to win four All-Ireland championships on the accordion, and became an important figure in the Dublin folk revival. He emigrated to America in 1968 and performed with many of the great Irish musicians in New York and beyond, including a concert at Carnegie Hall. In the years since, James has established a worldwide reputation as one of the finest Irish accordion players of our time, and has released a series of highly acclaimed solo recordings. James lives in Queens, New York.
Randal Bays is a self-taught American born musician who's been playing Irish fiddle for thirty years and through his recordings and performances has built up a reputation as a master. He's "among the best Irish style fiddlers of his generation", according to Fiddler Magazine. Randal has toured and recorded with many of the great Irish musicians of the day, including James Kelly, Martin Hayes, Michéal O'Domhnaill and many more. His live CD "House to House" (with Roger Landes) was picked by the Irish Times as one of the "top five traditional recordings of 2005". He's performed all over the US, Europe and Canada, and is a respected teacher of Irish fiddle. Randal is a co-founder of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp, which takes place every March in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state.
Dáithí Sproule is a native of Derry in the North of Ireland, a renowned traditional singer in both Irish and English, and one of the world's premier guitarists in the Irish tradition. He's widely credited with pioneering the use of DADGAD tuning in the accompaniment of Irish music, a style now used around the world. He's worked with many of the greats in Irish music, and has been for some years a member of the famed Donegal group Altan. The Rough Guide to Irish Music called him "a seminal figure in Irish music." Dáithí has also taught Old Irish, Celtic mythology and Irish music at the University of Minnesota, the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul and University College Dublin. He published a volume of short stories in Irish and several academic articles on early Irish poetry and legend. Dáithí now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
CD Review from Dirty Linen Magazine
58 March/April '09 #140
Fingal [New Folk NFR 0502 (2008)]
James Keane, originally from Dublin, plays the accordion and has several well-regarded solo albums to his credit. Randal Bays is a self-taught fiddler from America who has been playing for more than 30 years, and along the way has toured and recorded with Martin Hayes, Michael ODomhnaill, and others. Dith Sproule, singer and guitar player from Derry in Northern Ireland, is a scholar and teacher of Irish music and mythology, as well as a member of the top Irish band Altan. These three got together for a couple of sessions on Whidbey Island in Washington State, in New York, and in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The 15 cuts here are just that a crisp, high-quality session of mainly traditional Irish reels, jigs, songs, set dances, and hornpipes from three men who really know what theyre doing. There are a pair of original tunes from Bays and one from Keane, and some authentic singing from Sproule in both English and Irish. Notable cuts include the Luke Kellys set and the song O Bean a Ti.
(KD)
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