Karan Casey Trio
Irish folk & trad fusion; special guests The Wood of O
Clonmel World Music is delighted to welcome back one of the best Folk/Traditional singers in Ireland to Clonmel, for her fourth show with us. For this special show, Karan Casey is joined by two world-class virtuoso musicians to create an ensemble sound that fuses deep Irish roots with global musicality. The Karan Casey trio performed at The Cobh Tradfest in July, to great acclaim.
The two other members of the trio are:
Niall Vallely: An Armagh-born concertina virtuoso and composer who has “reinvented” the instrument. Known for his technical brilliance and a “genius for improvisation,” Niall has contributed to over 80 albums and performed globally with legends ranging from Paddy Keenan to jazz icon Cassandra Wilson, as well as trad supergroup Buille. Niall will be the recipient of The Gradam Ceoil TG4 2026 composer award.
Niwel Tsumbu: A Congolese-born, Ireland-based guitar master whose exhilarating style blends jazz, classical, and rumba. A Grammy Award-winning contributor, Niwel is a “citizen of the universe” whose intricate finger-picking and thrilling improvisations create a sophisticated global fusion.
Karan Casey is originally from BallyDuff Lower, near Kilmeaden Co Waterford, and has long been one of the most innovative voices in Irish traditional and folk music.
Karan’s career has spanned 37 years from the early days as a jazz performer in Dublin to her heady days in New York with the band Solas, to her now well established solo career. Karan has sold over half a million records. Karan released her first album with the group Solas, which quickly became the most celebrated Irish band in the U.S., and her four years with the group were pivotal. Since embarking on her solo career
Karan has released 7 solo albums, a duo album (with John Doyle), an album for children and numerous contributions to other artists’ projects – appearing on more than 50 albums in total.
She has toured constantly throughout North America, Europe and Japan, performing solo, with her own band and with many other diverse artists. Recent years have seen Karan appearing with Folk legends James Taylor, Liam Clancy, Peggy Seeger, Mick Moloney and the Dubliners and Imelda May as well as performances with Solas, Lunasa, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones and Tim O’Brien.
Karan has won awards for “Best Folk Album” and “Best Folk Female” from Irish Music Magazine and been nominated for the BBC Folk Awards and the Danish Grammys and was a key member of Paul Winter’s Grammy-award winning “Celtic Solstice”.
She has appeared at major festivals in Europe and the US such as WOMAD USA, the Cambridge Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Festival Cornouaille, Festival Interceltique Lorient, Milwaukee Irishfest and Merlefest as well as appearing at many prestigious venues including the Kennedy Centre (Washington DC), New York’s Symphony Space, Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, the Hollywood Bowl, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, the Cathedral of St John the Divine, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and many others.
She has made many TV and radio appearances on both sides of the Atlantic and has been a frequent guest on nationally syndicated US radio and TV shows such as Garrison Keillor’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and NPR’s “Mountain Stage”.
Special guests: The Wood of O
Breege Phelan & Will McLellan have been mesmerising audiences for the past six years with their unique original material. If you enjoy haunting, heartfelt vocals that reach into the bottom of your soul, melodic fingerstyle acoustic guitar that flows between genres, then this duo is for you. They have been gaining notice at Irish festivals for their unique sound, channelled through the passionate and dynamic vocals of their lead singer, Breege Phelan.
Their sound takes inspiration from their eclectic tastes, citing influences from 60s folk bands ‘Trees’, ‘Pentangle’, and Bert Jansch, ‘Steeleye Span’, rock icons ‘Led Zeppellin’, modern icons ‘Radiohead’, to vocalists like Kate Bush, Anne Briggs and Joni Mitchell. Their music also has deep roots in Irish cultural identity: the 6 track EP was written and recorded at home during lockdown and encapsulates this duo’s diverse storytelling ability, with songs inspired by the pirate queen of Irish history, Gráinne Ní Mháille, the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, the Leannán-Sí of Irish mythology, the political Aisling style poems of the 17th and 18th century and of course, the obligatory nod to heartbreak and revenge.
Tickets: € 21.50 at https://clonmelworldmusic.com/events/karan-casey-trio/
