In less than three years’ time, Ireland’s new all-star quintet 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. Called an "Irish music dream team" (Folk Roots), Lúnasa make their worldwide Green Linnet debut in October 1999 with their new release Otherworld.

From the start, Lúnasa has met with instant acclaim. Their first, self-produced album became an immediate best-seller in Ireland, topping Hot Press’ folk charts and called one of the year’s top ten by the Irish Echo. International festivals across Europe, Japan and Australia included a main-stage performance this summer at London’s Guinness Fleadh. 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."

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 Seán Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Dónal Lunny’s Coolfin; and Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland, also plays with the acclaimed traditional group Moving Cloud.

Add to this Otherworld’s guest performers (and original Lúnasa members) uilleann piper John McSherry (Coolfin) and flutist Michael McGoldrick (Capercaillie), and touring member piper Cillian Vallely (of the same talented musical family as brother Niall Vallely of Nomos) and you have the makings of a powerful new band.

Like the younger generation of Nashville musicians such as Béla 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 Seán 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 Seán. "In my books, the most influential band was the Bothy Band, who were flute, pipes and fiddle based."

Seeds for Lúnasa were planted when Seán hooked up with Trevor and Donogh for a short tour of Scandinavia in late1996. 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 Seán. 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!"

At the end of 1997, the band 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.

Otherworld, the exciting second album from Lúnasa, is a stunning cycle of instrumentals that captures all the performance intensity for which they’re widely acclaimed. The album impressively fulfills the promise of its title, taking listeners to a realm of Irish music full of imaginative leaps and blazing skill. The recording will surely strengthen Lúnasa’s growing global reputation as one of the hottest, most electrifying bands in Irish music today.

  

Band Members

SEÁN SMYTH: Born in Straide, County Mayo, and now living in Galway, Seán is an All-Ireland champion on both fiddle and whistle. His 1993 solo debut, The Blue Fiddle, was named one of the ten best albums of that year by the Irish Echo. Other recordings on which Seán appears include Ceol Tigh Neachtain, Music at Matt Molloy’s, Brendan O’Regan’s A Wind of Change, Alan Kelly’s Out of the Blue, and Dónal Lunny’s Coolfin.

KEVIN CRAWFORD: An exceptional flute, whistle, and bodhrán player, Kevin is a member of another all-instrumental, all-star Irish band, Moving Cloud, with whom he’s made two albums on Green Linnet Records: 1995’s Moving Cloud and 1998’s Foxglove. Born in Birmingham, England, and living in Ennis, County Clare, he has also recorded with Grianán, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, and Seán Tyrrell, and appears on the 1994 recording The Sanctuary Sessions. In 1994, Kevin made his first solo album, ‘D’ Flute Album, available on Green Linnet Records.

TREVOR HUTCHINSON: From Cookstown, County Tyrone, and living in Dublin, Trevor played bass with the Waterboys from 1986 to 1991. With that rock band, he recorded Fisherman’s Blues (1988) and Room to Roam (1990), the latter featuring Sharon Shannon. After that, he made three albums as a member of the Sharon Shannon Band: 1991’s Sharon Shannon, 1994’s Out the Gap, and 1997’s Each Little Thing, the last two available on Green Linnet Records. A much-in-demand musician, Trevor has also recorded with Moving Cloud, Altan’s Dermot Byrne, Máire Breatnach, and Eileen Ivers of Riverdance fame.

DONOGH HENNESSY: Among Ireland’s most talented guitarists, Donogh is a Dubliner now living in Galway City. Like Trevor, he was a member of the Sharon Shannon Band, with whom he recorded Out the Gap and Each Little Thing. Donogh’s guitar playing can also be heard on Brendan Larrissey’s A Flick of the Wrist, Alan Kelly’s Out of the Blue, the Irish TV special Runway One, and a duet album with Mark Crickard.

CILLIAN VALLELY: A gifted Armagh-born uilleann pipes and low whistle player, usually performs with Lúnasa throughout their tours of America. Cillian comes from the same talented musical family as his brother Niall Vallely, concertina player with the group Nomos,