Wishing you all a Very Best New Year. We had a great gig in the Crane, Ged Foley, Steve Sweeney and myself, and I ll have some video clips up soon.

Meanwhile, Féileacán na Saoirse is listed for Album of the Year on Tradconnect.com …. to vote for it, please  go to http://tradconnect.com/profiles/blogs/traditional-irish-album-year-2014-1

Happy about a lovely review from FolkWorld.

“Féileacán na Saoirse” – Butterfly of Freedom – is not just the title but a fair description of the fiddle player’s at the same time rhythmic but gentle style. Anna Falkenau grew up in east Germany but made her home in Ireland. She studied for a Bachelor of Music Degree at University College Cork, being a member of Liz Dohertys Fiddlesticks group. The past decade saw her in Galway City, playing regularly with Johnny Connolly, Mary Shannon, and Johnny Moynihan. With her duo Murray & Falkenau she has toured internationally. So now this is Anna Falkenau’s first solo album, featuring tunes from the Irish and American traditions (e.g. the old-time tune “Richmond” which evolved from “Cuckoo’s Nest”) but also new compositions from herself and others, just to mention the prolific Irish-American fiddler and composer Liz Carroll. Anna is joined by a stellar cast: accompaniment by guitarist Ged Foley (Patrick Street) harpist Holly Geraghty and bodhrán veteran Johnny McDonagh, embellishment by banjo players Lena Ullman (Buffalo in The Castle) and Mary Shannon (Bumblebees, Sharon Shannon Band). However, Anna Falkenau’s rootsy playing is always in the centre. Her personal style lends itself equally to swinging jigs, fiery reels and emotional slow airs. The Butterfly of Freedom has started its journey, and we will probably learn more of Anna’s art in the coming years. (Tom Keller, Folkworld)

Looking forward to tomorrow eves concert at The Crane with Ged Foley and Steve Sweeney. Some great song, Irish, American and original tunes…

Welcome to Out of the Woods, a 3-hour program of mostly acoustic music produced in Concord, New Hampshire. The show airs weekly on the following national and international FM and online
stations: WSCS-FM in New Hampshire, Saturday at 7 pm e.s.t., The Global Voice,  http://www.theglobalvoice.info – Sundays at 5 pm  e.s.t.,  (repeating at 11 pm on Mondays),  Boston Free Radio,http://bostonfreeradio.com/, Sunday at 7 am e.s.t., PineKONE Radio, 100.9 FM, Pine Mountain Club & Bakersfield, CA, Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:30 pm Pacific,  WYAP-FM in West Virginia (check schedule), Addicted To Music Radio in the UK, http://www.a2mradio.com, Tuesdays at 2 pm, KXCR-FM in Oregon, Tuesdays at 9 pm, and Wednesday at 7 am, KGIG-FM in Modesto, CA (check schedule), KONR-FM in Alaska, Tuesday at 1 pm, and Neopa Community Radio in Canton, OH (check schedule), and weekly at http://aircheck.us


The show can also be heard anytime by visiting the archives.


To listen to the archived version of the show online, go here:
http://archive.org/details/OOTW20141213

For the syndicated version for broadcasters (split for local breaks), go here:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/78399

click on image to listen to podcast…. a wonderful program that also featured some great archival Tommie Potts tracks and much more….

The launch in Spiddal of Sean O hEinaighs new CD was a really lovely night. You should check the CD out when you get a chance! … Called into Paidricin’s on the way home and caught a few tunes with Charlie Lennon who was standing in and Steve Sweeney and Johnny Connolly and friends. Lovely, lovely music. Got to try out a new Viola bow curtesy of Gary Leahy, it makes all the difference! The weekend continued as musical as it started… Will be calling into Custy’s in Ennis to do a podcast on Friday morning and looking forward to another of these wonderful tunes in Paidricin’s on Friday. Saturday  I ll join Jimmy Dillon in Taafe’s in Galway City.

some nice gigs coming up this weekend….Upstairs in Giblin’s CD launch of a lovely new CD by Connemara Singer Sean O hEinaigh, I’ll be joining him on some of the songs.  Saturday night a session in Donnelly’s in Barna….it will be a surprise since I haven’t played there before, nor with the musicians there. Fundraiser for the Moycullen Comhaltas Branch, with tutors, student and the fab Porterhead. And to round it all off a session on Sunday afternoon with Steve Sweeney in Spiddal in An Cruiscin.  Here a few pix from the recent concert in Germany….

Siobhán Long – Review in The Irish Times!

The riches afforded by this textured tune selection (along with a skein of thoughtfully composed sleeve notes) is a reminder of the benefits of the hard copy over the virtual. Anna Falkenau is a fiddler with a highly developed ear for music from Sliabh Luachra and American old-time music. She often favours a deliciously stripped-down style, letting the fiddle’s most primal qualities shine through. This spartan style is a perfect fit for her tune choices, including her own beautiful Ivan’s Waltz. There’s a vitality to Falkenau’s ability to marry tunes, and her pairing of Caoineadh Uí Néill with Liz Carroll’s sublime That’s Right, Too!lingers long after the final notes have faded. Falkenau’s singular voice is ever audible, but never at the expense of the tunes.  

just a few pix taken before the concert in the beautiful Klosterkirche in Oschatz. It turned out a wonderful concert, lovely audience, great accoustics! I ll post a few more concert pix when I ll get a chance!

Murray & Falkenau will be performing in Germany in the town of Oschatz in the medieval Klosterkirche Saturday 25th at 7pm.

Just home from lovely tunes in Padraicin’s in Furbo with the great Johnny Connolly and Steve Sweeney. Flutist and radio presenter Caoimhín O Sé also joined us for some tunes which was a splendid surprise.  Looking forward to the beautiful drive from Galway to Clifden tomorrow and a gig with Darren Roberts in the Station House Hotel there. VERY excited about a gig in June 2015, just confirmed, at The Westport Bluegrass Festival. With five-string banjo virtuoso Lena Ullman and in the great company of old-time fiddler and singer Rayna Gellert, Locust Honey and The Henry Girls.