Jackie Daly & Matt Cranitch
Come and celebrate St. Patrick’s weekend in Youghal and enjoy the fantastic Jackie Daly and Matt Cranitch in concert style on Saturday 16th March, 8pm.
Tickets €12.
Jackie Daly and Matt Cranitch are acknowledged masters of the rich musical tradition of Sliabh Luachra in the southwest of Ireland. This culturally unique area on the Cork/Kerry border is renowned for its distinctive style of playing and special repertoire of tunes, and has been for many years a source of inspiration for both Jackie and Matt. In both their performances and on their recordings, they draw upon this rich legacy.
Matt and Jackie are the benchmark of the current generation of Sliabh Luachra musicians. … This is the definitive voice of Sliabh Luachra in our generation. – Sally Sommers Smith, Irish Music Magazine.
Jackie and Matt have performed throughout the world, individually and with groups who have set the standard for Irish traditional music. They have established enviable personal reputations. Their playing together, on CD and in live performances, displays not only virtuosity, but their respect, love and deep understanding of this vibrant musical tradition.
It’s a rare thing how easily and naturally Daly and Cranitch’s music articulates together, and through it one can sense the rare reverence they not only have for each other, but for the shared tradition they represent. – Dan Neely, Irish Echo, NY.
Their most recent album, Rolling On, is sure to become a reference point of the tradition. It features a wide range of tunes, old and new, from slides and polkas to reels and airs, played in the wonderfully expressive manner for which Jackie and Matt are justly famous. Speaking about this recording in the NY Echo, Dan Neely said “Separately, they are brilliant to hear but together they are sublime.” They are joined on this CD by Conal Ó Gráda (flute), Geraldine O’Callaghan (fiddle) and Paul De Grae (guitar). These wonderful musicians add a further dimension to an album destined to become a classic of the genre.
It’s a beautifully observed musical portrait of a region and music that stands out so distinctively on the traditional map. – TradConnect.
Jackie Daly (accordion)
The words ‘Button Accordion’ and ‘Jackie Daly’ are synonymous in the world of Irish traditional music. Described in the New York Times as “probably the best accordionist in Ireland”, Jackie was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork, where he grew up surrounded by the rich music tradition of Sliabh Luachra. One of the greatest influences on his early musical development was Ballydesmond fiddle-player, Jim O’Keeffe, a pupil of the famous Sliabh Luachra fiddle-master, Pádraig O’Keeffe. Over the years, Jackie’s lifelong affinity with fiddle-music has resulted in highly-acclaimed albums featuring fiddle and accordion – with the late Cork-based musician Séamus Creagh, with Kevin Burke, and now with Matt Cranitch. Jackie was a central figure in some of the most dominant groups playing Irish music in recent times. His performances with bands such as De Danann, Patrick Street, Buttons and Bows, Arcady, Reel Union and Kinvara all attest to his wonderful music and versatility. However, it is the style and repertoire of the Sliabh Luachra tradition that has made the most significant impression on his accordion-playing, a fact well exemplified by his performances and recordings. He has toured extensively throughout the world, and has also presented workshops and classes. In 2005, he received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil (National Music Award), and, in 2009, the Kanturk Arts Festival Award.
Matt Cranitch (fiddle)
Matt Cranitch is renowned as a fiddle-player and teacher, both at home in Ireland and abroad. He has performed extensively at concerts and festivals, on radio and television, and has presented lectures, master-classes and workshops on various aspects of Irish music. He has won All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles, as well as The Fiddler of Dooney and Oireachtas Crotty Cup. Author of The Irish Fiddle Book, first published in 1988 and now in its fourth edition, he has also contributed to other books on Irish traditional music. He has made various albums, including those with Na Filí, Any Old Time and Sliabh Notes, in addition to Éistigh Seal which consists entirely of slow airs. With Jackie Daly, he has recorded The Living Stream and most recently Rolling On. He is an authority on the music of Sliabh Luachra, and received a PhD from the University of Limerick for his study on the fiddle-playing tradition of this region. A long-time consultant for the Geantraí series on TG4, he is a former advisor to the Irish Arts Council scheme for the traditional arts, and has served on the board of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. In 2003, he received the Hall of Fame Award from University College Cork, and, in 2017, the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Award for dedication to the music of Sliabh Luachra.
Information reproduced with the kind permission of Matt Cranitch and Jackie Daly. Photo credit Con Kelleher.