Nuala Kennedy is a traditional singer and flautist playing a range of music from Scotland, Ireland and beyond. As well as her eclectic contemporary traditional band, she has worked with a diverse range of artists from other genres including Will Oldham, Norman Blake, Euros Childs and Oliver Schroer. She is becoming more recognised for her quirky sense of composition, having been commissioned to write a New Voices piece ‘Astar:Journey’ for Celtic Connections, ‘Touya’ for Distil and taking part in new music residencies: OMI International Compositional Residency in New York and The Burnsong Songhouse in Scotland, where she experimented with song-writing.
Her debut traditional album ‘The New Shoes’ received rave reviews from pundits around the globe, was voted album of the week in the Irish Times and was featured in Hotpress’ Top Ten Folk Albums of last year. She is currently completing ‘Enthralled’ a duo album of original music she recorded with the late great fiddler and composer Oliver Schroer, due to be released in 2010.
Her second album ‘TUNE IN’ was inspired by an old wireless radio, and features fellow regular collaborators Julian Sutton, Donald Hay, Mario Caribe, and Mike Bryan, as well as guests including fiddler Alasdair White, mandolin player Iain Macleod, jazz pianist Brian Kellock, and singers Will Oldham and Norman Blake. (Compass Records 2010)
She plays in 'Voyage de Nuit', a new music quintet blending flamenco, jazz and trad. They toured Scotland as part of a Scottish Arts Council Tune-Up tour in June 2009. Check www.myspace.com/travelatnight for details.
As part of OIREALLA she performs the music and song of her native South-East Ulster in Ireland, with Gerry 'fiddle' O'Connor, Martin Quinn and Gilles Le Bigot.
In late October 2009, following a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan, she tours Ireland with MISLAID, a collaboration with Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Euros Childs (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and Dublin based fiddler Caoimhin O’ Raghaillaigh. See www.nualakennedy.com/mislaid for details.
www.nualakennedy.com www.compassrecords.com
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
Hello Nuala... Thanks for the friendship, and bravo for your work... I'll come back here to listen to you, sure!!!! Perhaps will you come give a concert here, in France... Respect!!!
