Tradition Now hosts Luka Bloom, The Unthanks, Paddy Keenan, Louise Mulcahy and more this October

The National Concert Hall in collaboration with the Arts Council host the 10th instalment of the Tradition Now series, which explores innovation in traditional music today.

The Tradition Now series is set to run from Wednesday 26 – Sunday 30 October.

The upcoming edition features English folk dignitaries The Unthanks, acclaimed singer-songwriter Luka Bloom, founding member of The Bothy Band, Paddy Keenan, contemporary vocalist and visual artist Ceara Conway, Breton guitarist Soïg Sibéril and Liam O’Flynn Award winner Louise Mulcahy.

This bi-annual series has garnered a growing audience over the past seven years, evolving into an increasingly popular event designed to celebrate innovation in traditional music while staying true to its roots. This Autumn’s edition celebrates the voice - from sean-nós to folk from the North-East of England, as well as instrumental innovations from Ireland to Brittany.

English folk outfit The Unthanks are set to dazzle audience and sit among the festival highlights. Their record Mount the Air was 2015’s BBC Folk Album of the Year, while recently they've scaled up to symphonic levels with Charles Hazelwood and the BBC Proms, and stripped down to unaccompanied singing for Diversions Vol 5. Their Tradition Now appearance follows two years off the road for sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, and will see them showcasing music from their forthcoming album, Sorrows Away, alongside favourites such as ‘Magpie’, ‘The King of Rome’ and ‘Mount the Air’.

Joining The Unthanks in their performance is Louise Mulcahy - recipient of the 2022 Liam O’ Flynn Award, renowned uilleann piper and flute player. Mulcahy brings together an exciting collaboration from the uilleann piping, harping and singing traditions of Ireland. Louise will be joined by wire-strung harper Paul Dooley and neo-Irish harper and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Mulcahy. This special project takes inspiration from Liam O’Flynn’s incredible legacy.

Luka Bloom

Renowned singer-songwriter Luka Bloom makes a welcome return to the NCH, showcasing music from his latest album Out of the Blue – which features RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award-winner Susan O’Neill and multi-instrumentalist Jon O’Connell. Created during lockdown, the musician speaks about his latest confection, saying: "The tunes are uncomplicated, the only way I know. Each one resonates with me deeply, because of the time that was... An invitation to play these tunes in NCH is just a huge honour."

Also on October's Tradition Now bill is founding member of The Bothy Band and Irish Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Paddy Keenan. Dubbed the "the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes" by Donal Lunny, Paddy’s style of playing is comparable to great Travelling pipers such as Johnny Doran. For his National Concert Hall performance, Paddy is joined by uilleann piper Colleen Shanks, Clare-based bouzouki player Cyril O’Donoghue, and Éamonn de Barra on flute and tin-whistle.

The Tradition Now series places exploring the voice as an integral part to autumn’s iteration of the festival, with the voice seen as central to the artistic expression of another featured artist, Ceara Conway. Ceara is known for her unique use of traditional song and lament in contemporary art. For this performance Conway collaborates with musicians Kevin Murphy and Ultan O’Brien of Slow Moving Clouds and Sean Mac Erlaine to bring a collection of sean-nós and world music songs exploring the beautiful sounds and sentiments of love, loss and longing, found in traditional praise songs, lullabies with core emphasis on the traditional Irish ‘caoineadh’, lament.

Ceara Conway by Dragana Jurisic

Sunday 30 October brings the second strand of autumn’s Tradition Now - instrumental innovations. This section sees a special performance by Breton guitarist Soïg Sibéril. Soïg is known for his rich, dense, colourful style of playing and for this concert he brings the audience on a musical journey through the sunken paths of the Celtic countries, from Kreizh Breizh, through the country of Vannes or Redon. He's joined by fellow Breton, bass player Alain Genty.

Ceol Connected’s TREEHOUSE is a unique big band music and puppetry performance for children ages 3-7 and their families, sure to have the audience singing along. With mesmerising original music and songs by some of Ireland’s finest musicians and performers, TREEHOUSE presents a wonderfully interactive show that will have audiences of all ages hooked. This event also includes the launch of SongTales presents TREEHOUSE album. TREEHOUSE is produced by Ceol Connected with support from the Arts Council and presented by the NCH, the Arts Council and Song Tales is produced by Ceol Connected with support from the Arts Council.

Tradition Now is an initiative of the Arts Council and National Concert Hall and is supported by The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Tickets for all performances are available here with more information about the Tradition Now series available on the National Concert Hall website.

TRADITION NOW AUTUMN 2022

CAOIN by Ceara Conway - Wednesday, 26 October at 8.30pm, Tickets €15
Paddy Keenan - Thursday, 27 October at 8.30pm, Tickets €15
TREEHOUSE - Saturday, 29 October at 12pm and 2pm, Tickets: Young Maestro €8, Child €10, Under 2s Free, Family Ticket €37 (family of 4 with maximum 2 adults)
Luka Bloom - Saturday, 29 October at 8pm, Tickets €22, €27.50
Soïg Sibéril - Sunday, 30 October at 6pm, Tickets €15
The Unthanks and Louise Mulcahy - Sunday, 30 October at 8pm, Tickets €25, €30