I haven’t been seeing as much Irish trad music sourced from old archives these days, but that just might be owed more to the state of my inbox than anything else. Regardless, these three young Irish musicians – fiddler Aoife Níhave produced a gem of an album by going way back to an early source: the Goodman manuscripts. Here’s how Nicholas…

New England fiddle super-group Childsplay always needs a bit of an explanation. Not musically, but conceptually: the group is formed of stringed instrumentalists who are all playing instruments made by renowned violinmaker Bob Childs, hence the name…

I kind of think of The Paul McKenna Band as a Scottish version of Solas. Maybe it’s just me, but their tight-as-roofing-nails arrangements, adventurous choice of songs that will stick with you, and hell-for-leather instrumental tune…

Battlefield Band have been the flagship band of Scottish traditional music for what feels like years now. Literally. The band has been around since 1969 and has over 30 albums released. No original members remain at this point, as the band's basically been adopted by a new generation of Scottish…

Technically this album came out in 2012, but since it wasn’t released outside of Canada, I figure it counts as new. Les Chauffeurs à Pieds have long held the torch as one of the best bands of young traditionalists in Québécois roots music. Their newest album,…

Released in 2012, but not yet released stateside, this album is a pure delight from start to finish. Anyone schooled in the Celtic lands knows that Manx music, or music from the Isle of Man, figures into the Celtic cultures, but until now I’d had really no chance to hear this music. On their debut album, the three lads in Barrule – Tomás Callister on…