This piece was composed for the thematic Shorelines record which I recorded with Tara Breen and Tony Byrne. The first tune is intended to represent the challenging seaborne voyage of the female adventurer as she first sets sail… with the reel ‘Flow’, I saw the heroine with her sails unfurled- the wind at her back as things take a turn for the better!
ITMA SAOTHAR Bio
Nuala Kennedy is an award-winning traditional musician, singer, composer, producer and flute player. She tours in Europe, Australia and North America and has released work with Nashville’s Compass Records, Domino Records (USA), Borealis Records (CAD) Ta:Lik (NOR) and Vertical (UK) before founding her own independent label ‘Under the Arch’ in 2014.
Kennedy’s roots are in Irish music, and she plays in a trio with fiddler Tara Breen and guitarist Tony Byrne, in Oirialla with Gerry ‘fiddle’ O’ Connor and The Alt with John Doyle and Eamon O’ Leary. However she is also ‘something of a genre bender’ (Living Tradition Magazine). She holds a Masters degree in Music and trained as a classical pianist under Prof. John O’ Connor. She has toured and recorded with Indie-Poet Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billie, with Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Euros Childs (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci), and with cutting-edge Canadian composer, the late Oliver Schroer. Kennedy was a featured artist on Janis Ian’s 2022 Grammy nominated release End of The Line.
Now living in Ennis, County Clare, Kennedy is noted for her songs and a unique Irish flute style, formed in Dundalk and honed in her long time home in Scotland. She enjoys researching and collecting traditional songs and greatly admires the music of her long time friend and fellow flute player and singer Cathal McConnell.
Rattle the doors [comp. Nuala Kennedy], hornpipe
Downtown Troy [comp. Nuala Kennedy], reel
Distant colours [comp. Nuala Kennedy], reel
Whirlpools [comp. Nuala Kennedy], jig
Lighthouse polka [comp. Nuala Kennedy]
Saltwater [comp. Nuala Kennedy], march
Flow [comp. Nuala Kennedy], reel
Coole Park on an Autumn day [comp. Nuala Kennedy], air
Baby bird [words: Nuala Kennedy, melody: traditional], song
A mother’s croon [words: Nuala Kennedy, melody: traditional], song
This tune was inspired by the swirling Atlantic waters around the coast of Clare. And I was also thinking of the Muñeira, a type of jig from Galicia.
Inspired by a visit to Loop Head Lighthouse in West Clare.
Composed for friend and fiddler Troy MacGillivray; I associate G Minor with the fiddle so I thought I’d try a tune in that key in his honour. Troy is also the name of a tiny village in Cape Breton Island, which sports a comically huge neon sign announcing “Downtown Troy”. It always cracks me up when I see it.
This tune was composed to commemorate Celtic Colours Festival, Nova Scotia. It’s a brilliant festival, where I’ve been lucky to make lots of friends over the years. Myself and Troy MacGillivray were artists-in-residence together in 2020, collaborating from afar – hence the title ‘Distant Colours’.
This hornpipe emerged over the lockdown period while myself and fiddler Liz Carroll were in conversation about tunes and life in general. We would correspond often, and at the time I had a nuisance neighbour – who would come out to bang his bins loudly and rattle the front door! After an amusing discussion on this subject one night, Liz wrote an appropriately annoying hornpipe entitled ‘Bang the Bins’ and in response I came up with this tune ‘Rattle the Doors’ to go with it.
This piece was composed for the thematic Shorelines record which I recorded with Tara Breen and Tony Byrne. The first tune is intended to represent the challenging seaborne voyage of the female adventurer as she first sets sail… with the reel ‘Flow’, I saw the heroine with her sails unfurled- the wind at her back as things take a turn for the better!
Written after a lovely fresh Autumn afternoon with my kids, fiddler Anna Falkenau and her son Davie together at Coole Park. Alan Murray played bouzouki with me here.
This little song was inspired by a recording Alan Lomax made of Máire Ní Shúilleabháin in 1951 – she sang as Gaeilge a song traditionally sung while milking cows and Lomax labelled it ‘Cow’s Croon’. I loved the melody so much, and at the time I was working on Husheen – a new lullaby project with my friend Cathy Jordan. So I made a song called ‘A Mother’s Croon’ for the old melody.
After hearing a traditional song in the French language, I composed this song ‘Baby Bird’ for the Husheen lullaby project.
