About The Artists

Liz Carroll (fiddle - Chicago)

The 21st Century has become the most prolific recording century of Liz Carroll's career. That little joke helps to celebrate the 2002 release of Liz's latest, "Lake Effect." After the success of 2000's "lost in the loop," which came 12 years after her first solo album, getting another recording from Liz is, in fact, a cause for celebration. 

Since she was 18, when she astounded the Celtic music world by winning the Senior All-Ireland Championship, Liz and her fiddle have been amazing audiences around the globe. Her recordings and appearances on concert stages, television and radio, have established Liz as one of traditional music's most sought after performers. "lost in the loop," released in 2000, won Liz new fans around the world, as it garnered an Indie Award and Liz being named Traditional Performer of the Year for 2000.  

Not that that's the first time a solo record by Liz has been praised. Liz's first solo, in 1988, "Liz Carroll," was chosen as a select record of American folk music by the Library of Congress, no less. That same recording was called "a milestone achievement in the career of a fiddler reaching beyond herself," by noted critic and radio host Earl Hitchner. 

It should be noted that Liz's recordings are in the majority her own compositions, and they have given her a stature equal to that of her playing. When you listen to a Liz CD, you're hearing the tunes of a composer celebrated for invigorating the traditional styles of Irish music. Her compositions have entered into the repertoire of Irish and Celtic performers throughout the world. If you walk into an Irish pub and a group of Irish musicians are in the corner, buy them a pint and ask for a set of Liz tunes. They'll probably buy you a pint in thanks! 

But it is Liz in concert that has entranced audiences throughout the States, and also in tours of Ireland, Europe, and Africa. Neil Tesser of Chicago's Reader marvels that "her quicksilver lines can captivate violin admirers way beyond the bounds of Hibernia." P.J. Curtis of the Irish American says that Liz "conjures up a dizzying mixture of the sweetest tones, the fastest runs, and the most dazzling display of musicianship imaginable." One of Liz's proudest concert moments was at the 1st American Congress of the Violin, hosted by Yehudi Menuhin. 

In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz a National Heritage Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America, as a performer and a composer. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the award which bestows national recognition on artists of international stature.

 

Dermot and Tara Diamond (fiddle, flute, tin whistle - Dublin)

Dermy and Tara Diamond have been playing traditional Irish Dance music together for over 30 years.  

Tara is from near Killinchy in Co. Down, and comes from a musical family.  She is part of the strong flute tradition from the North of Ireland.  Her father, Leslie Bingham, is a well-known flute player, and her brother Terry plays concertina. She has taught for many years at the Willie Clancy Summer School and the Frankie Kennedy Winter School.  Tara has performed at many festivals and workshops across Europe and in Japan.  Her music can be heard on 'Wooden Flute Obsession Vol.2' (Kevin Krell) and 'An Gaoth Aduaidh' (Frankie Kennedy Winter School).  

Dermy is a native of Belfast and his fiddle music has a strong northern bias, with Fermanagh and Donegal being particularly important sources of tunes.  Like Tara, he plays and teaches at the Willie Clancy Summer School, and has played concerts and taught workshops across Europe and the USA.  In Ireland, he toured twice as part of the Arts Council of Ireland 'best of Irish' music network programmes. 

Tara and Dermy have appeared on many occasions on national radio and television, and are regular performers at festivals, concerts and sessions across Ireland.

 

Tommy Martin (uileann pipes, flute & tin whistle - Dublin via St. Louis)

Tommy Martin took his first Uilleann Pipes lesson from Dublin piper, Mick O'Brien, a cousin, in 1984 at the age of 12. By 1988, with the great help of Mick's tuition and guidance he won first place at the Annual Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in the 15 -18 age group Uilleann Pipes competition, and again in 1991 in the senior competition.  From his late teens Tommy has been very much involved in encouraging traditional Irish music, especially uilleann pipes, by teaching younger musicians around Ireland at various Tionol and Scoil Eigse,  His professional career started in 1996 when he took a job organizing and playing at Irish music nights in Irish pubs in Hong Kong.  This led to more work in Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore and Tokyo over the following years. One great time was had playing support to 'Shooglenifty' at the Hong Kong Folk Festival in 1996. 

Back in Europe, Tommy's talent and experience took him to perform in almost every mainland country.  Performances have varied from solo uilleann pipes performances to playing with 5 piece folk bands and have been as diverse as being an Uilleann Pipes tutor in New Zealand to performing with "Riverdance" in New York, to performing with the Chicago Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra.  Tommy is also an experienced uilleann pipes teacher. He has tutored students all over Ireland, England, New Zealand and now the US.  Tommy was teacher of the advanced uilleann pipes class in Na Piobairi Uilleann, Dublin up untill he moved to St Louis in 2003.  

His first solo CD, "Uilleann Piper", was released in 2000 and Tommy can be also heard on 12 other albums, as a guest musician.  Tommy's second album, "Shady Woods" , was released in Dec 2005. That month he also toured as a guest with traditional band Teada as they celebrated their "Irish Christmas in America" tour. Other guests were Grainne Hambly on harp and singer, Cathie Ryan.  Tommy, Grainne and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh will be traveling again with Oisin, Sean and Tristan from Teada in Dec '07.  

Tommy now lives in St. Louis Missouri where, while not traveling, he now works for St. Louis Irish Arts teaching Irish traditional music on fiddle, flute, and Uilleann Pipes. He also makes tin whistles www.thorntonwhistles.info

Dáithí Sproule (DADGAD guitar, song in Irish and English - Derry via St. Paul)

Dáithí Sproule, a native of Derry in the North of Ireland, is a singer and guitarist and one of the premier accompanists in the Irish tradition. When he played with Skara Brae in the late 60's and early 70's, he was the first person to use and develop the DADGAD tuning in Irish music, a style now widely used in Irish and Celtic music in general. Skara Brae recorded a ground-breaking album in 1971 involving intricate arrangements for guitars and keyboards of traditional songs in Irish -- the other members of the group were Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill and her sister and brother, Mícheál and Tríona, later of the Bothy Band and Nightnoise. He had met the ÓDomhnaills first in Rannafast in Donegal where he learnt the Irish language and many old Gaelic songs while spending every summer there of his teens. 

After the breakup of Skara Brae, Dáithí, who by then lived in Dublin while pursuing academic studies and a career in book editing, became heavily involved with the traditional instrumental scene in Dublin, gaining a great grounding in a broad repertoire of Irish music and styles and playing sessions many nights a week with the legendary fiddler, John Kelly Senior, and his sons, John and James, at the Four Seasons in Capel Street. In that period he also played frequent gigs with other musicians as well as making solo appearances. At the end of the 70's James Kelly and Dáithí and their friend, Paddy ÓBrien, came to the US to record an album with Shanachie Records and to tour for a few months. This led over the course of the next year or two to all three settling in the States. Minnesota was Dáithí's home for the next 20 years. The Twin Cities provided a good home for Dáithí (and Paddy too) since it had a very active Irish music and dance scene. In that period, Dáithí taught Old Irish, Celtic mythology and Irish music at various times at the University of Minnesota, the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul and University College Dublin. He also, of course, continued his music, playing locally in Minnesota with the Northern Star Ceili Band, touring and recording with Trian (Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey), Peter Ostroushko (Ukrainian- American fiddle and mandolin virtuoso and long-time star of the "Prairie Home Companion" radio show), and with world-renowned Irish band, Altan. 

With Altan, Dáithí has toured the US and Canada numerous times playing concert halls from coast to coast (last year they played the Hollywood Bowl), all the major folk festivals, such as Edmonton, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, Telluride and Milwaukee, and as far afield as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand as well as many tours throughout Europe. Dáithí has appeared with Altan on a recent Chieftains album, on several Dolly Parton recordings and performed on stage with Ricky Skaggs and Bonnie Raitt. Among his many other recordings are albums with Tommy Peoples and Seamus and Manus McGuire, and a solo recording, "A Heart made of Glass". As well as his actual playing, Dáithí is a composer of songs and instrumentals, some of which have been recorded by Skara Brae, Altan, Paddy O'Brien, Laoise Kelly, Trian and Liz Carroll. He has also published a volume of short stories in Irish and several academic articles on early Irish poetry and legend. 

Dáithí now lives in West Saint Paul, Minnesota and tours regularly with both Altan and fiddler Randal Bays.