Lúnasa - The Merry Sisters of Fate (2001) MP3 CBR 320Kbps / 114 Mb | 11 tracks | Covers (600 dpi) Celtic / Irish Folk | Green Linnet GLCD 1213 | RAR 3% Rec. | Time: 43:27 | FileSonic, FileServe “ That said, there are a few electric guitars and other exotica (clarinet, lap steel, etc.) on The Merry Sisters of Fate -- but they mostly provide little more than subtle shadings of texture. As usual, the sonic focus is on the outstanding fiddler Sean Smyth, flutist Kevin Crawford, and piper Cillian Vallelly; on barnburning rave-ups like the "Merry Sisters of Fate" reel set and the "Minor Bee" jig set, they fly through the tunes with joyful abandon, pushed along by Donogh Hennessey's percussive guitar and Hutchinson's thrumming bass. And on more restrained fare, such as the eerie "Killarney Boys of Pleasure," their multitracked parts combine to produce a dark and complex atmosphere. Lúnasa has become one of the best and most exciting Celtic ensembles in the world by updating Irish tradition in a way more subtle than usual. Where other bands incorporate Asian or African percussion, synthesizers, and electric instruments, Lúnasa mostly relies on a different rhythmic approach while keeping the core instrumentation largely traditional (with the exception of string bassist Trevor Hutchinson). That said, there are a few electric guitars and other exotica (clarinet, lap steel, etc.) on The Merry Sisters of Fate -- but they mostly provide little more than subtle shadings of texture. As usual, the sonic focus is on the outstanding fiddler Sean Smyth, flutist Kevin Crawford, and piper Cillian Vallelly; on barnburning rave-ups like the "Merry Sisters of Fate" reel set and the "Minor Bee" jig set, they fly through the tunes with joyful abandon, pushed along by Donogh Hennessey's percussive guitar and Hutchinson's thrumming bass. And on more restrained fare, such as the eerie "Killarney Boys of Pleasure," their multitracked parts combine to produce a dark and complex atmosphere. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson, AllMusic The seeds of one of the most highly rated contemporary Irish bands were sown in 1996, when former Waterboy and Sharon Shannon bassist Trevor Hutchinson teamed up with guitarist Donogh Hennessy for a Scandinavian tour. From such tiny acorn beginnings have grown mighty oaks. Back home in Dublin, they drafted uillean piper John McSherry and flutist/piper Michael McGoldrick to record some shows, then hit the jackpot when they landed Kevin Crawford, also a member of Moving Cloud, whose flute and whistle work took them to another level, alongside the whistles and fiddles of Sean Smyth (a qualified doctor who'd achieved musical prominence with his 1993 solo album Blue Fiddle). Their 1997 debut, Lúnasa, leapfrogged them ahead of the competition, and not only became a best-seller in Ireland, but was named one of the albums of the year by the prestigious Irish Echo -- not a bad beginning. By then, Lúnasa was on the road, touring Europe, America, and beyond, and winning plenty of friends with their spirited performances, where they might have taken the music seriously, but had no problem making fun of themselves. McGoldrick had moved on and McSherry had decided not to tour (his replacement for live dates was Cillian Vallely). It was in 1999 that the band really achieved their breakthrough in Celtic circles with Otherworld, recorded for Green Linnet. With a bigger budget, they were able to achieve greater production values, which went a long way to capturing the power of their live performances, with "The Butlers of Glen Avenue/Sliabh Russell/Cathal McConnell's" being a true standout. McGoldrick made a guest appearance, and there was even that traditional Irish instrument, the flügelhorn, in there somewhere. Pushing the envelope on the music, they weren't content to simply play the tunes, but added real live grooves to the music and took it into other areas. This helped bring in plenty more friends when they toured through much of 2000, hitting even more parts of the globe and acquiring an even more glittering reputation. In June 2001 they released their third album, The Merry Sisters of Fate, again mostly comprised of traditional music. 2004 saw the release of The Kinnitty Sessions, an 11-song set recorded live at Kinnitty Castle, Co. Offaly, in Ireland. ~ Chris Nickson, AllMusic ” “ “Ireland’s newest ‘supergroup’…the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet.” - IRISH VOICE. “An amazing new instrumental quintet…state-of-the-art Irish music as aggressively infectious as you’ll ever hear.” - DIRTY LINEN. “Lúnasa’s musicianship is awesome … I’d sell my soul to be able to play like that” - MOJO; “Lúnasa ,,, have catapulted both themselves and the music onto another plane where creative juices (and not precious entanglements with the past) reign supreme.” - THE IRISH TIMES (23/11/02). The original line-up: Seán Smyth – fiddle Kevin Crawford – flute Trevor Hutchinson – bass Donogh Hennessy – guitar (no longer with Lúnasa) Cillian Vallely - uillean pipes, whistles Paul Meehan now replaces Donogh on guitar. In October 1997, Ireland’s all-star quintet Lúnasa released their first CD ‘Lúnasa’, a mix of concert and studio tracks gathered from their prolific year together. It was immediately hailed as one of the finest, freshest recordings of Irish music in years, called "moving, pulsating, and thrilling to the very marrow" by Folk Roots and "a true must-have disc" by the Irish Voice. From the start, Lúnasa met with instant acclaim. Their first album became an immediate best-seller in Ireland, topping Hot Press’ folk charts and nominated one of the year’s top ten by the Irish Echo in the USA. Since that auspicious beginning, Lúnasa has become one of the most sought-after bands on the international Irish music scene. The band’s inventive arrangements and bass-driven grooves are steering Irish acoustic music into surprising new territory. On their first American visit, word-of-mouth led to sold-out shows and rave reviews. "A standing-room only crowd in New York confirmed Lúnasa’s reputation," wrote the Irish Voice. "This is the hottest Irish acoustic group on the planet." Like the younger generation of Nashville musicians such as Bela Fleck or Edgar Meyer, pushing the boundaries of bluegrass into jazz and beyond, Lúnasa are redefining Irish music by going right to the heart of its rhythms. With its distinctive use of the upright acoustic bass -- brought front and center by Hutchinson’s remarkable playing -- teamed with Hennessey’s percussive guitar, the group seeks out the essential heartbeat of a tune. "There are lots of great melodies in Irish music but often people don’t hear the rhythms underneath," says founding member Sean Smyth. "We try to relate the swing or energy out of the music, using new rhythms, letting each instrument add its own unique layer. We’ll play the same tune over and over searching for the groove, exploring it. We let the music find its pulse." The result is a sound that, though distinctly Irish in flavor, touches on jazz and other improvisational music forms. Inspired by Ireland’s great 1970s group The Bothy Band, Lúnasa use melodic interweaving of wind and string instruments, pairing flutes, fiddle, whistle and pipes in often breathtaking arrangements. "I had a vision of the type of music I wanted to create," says Sean. "In my books, the most influential band was the Bothy Band, who were flute, pipes and fiddle based." Seeds for Lúnasa were planted when Sean hooked up with Trevor and Donogh for a short tour of Scandinavia in late 1996. The trio clicked so well that back in Ireland, they brought in John McSherry and Michael McGoldrick to record some concerts. A tour of Australia in January 1997 brought Kevin on board, and the band began to take off. "The response when we started playing at home was just great," adds Sean. Within several months, they were filling venues with spellbound audiences in Ireland, and began to expand their tours to other parts of the world. After a particularly memorable concert at Matt Molloy’s -- a renowned music pub in the West of Ireland, owned by the former-Bothy Band and current-Chieftains flutist -- Molloy himself gave the new band his blessing, remarking "they remind me of a band I used to play with!" Named for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is indeed a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. Its members have helped formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade - Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys, and later he, with guitarist Donogh Hennessy, would form the dynamic rhythm section of The Sharon Shannon Band. Fiddler Sean Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Donal Lunny’s Coolfin; Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland played with the acclaimed traditional group Moving Cloud; and, piper Cillian Vallely (of the same talented musical family as brother Niall Vallely of Nomos). They were rightly called an "Irish music dream team" in the magazine Folk Roots. In 1999 Lúnasa signed a 3 –album deal with US label, Green Linnet. The deal was the largest Green Linnet have ever offered a new signing. In October of that year ‘Otherworld’ was released. The album was described as a stunning cycle of instrumentals that captures all the performance intensity for which they’re widely acclaimed. This record strengthened Lúnasa’s growing global reputation as one of the hottest, most electrifying bands in Irish music today. The album was Green Linnet’s fastest selling record in its 25-year history. They performed at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL to 13,000 people in Summer 2000. June 2001 saw the release of “The Merry Sisters Of Fate”, ...
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