Texas native Karen Ballew and 'Suantraí Hiúdaí'

In February of this year we came into contact with Tim Kennedy from North Texas School of Music about an album they had produced at the school called Winter Air. It was quite an inspirational recording in many respects. The music itself was outstanding and the funds it generated enabled a large party of students from the school to visit Ireland this year. You can read our album review and listen to a track here.

This video is the start of another project by the school and features Texas native Karen Ballew. She is the choral director for the North Texas Gaelic Youth Chorus, and also teaches harp, voice, and piano. Karen has led the choral group in Texas that has now grown to over 30 students learning the Gaelic language as well as learning traditional Irish songs in the Irish language. She also arranged the vocals on the Winter Air album.

Tim confirmed that 'The song is a beautiful lullaby called Suantraí Hiúdaí, and was recorded on a recent trip to Galway and the surrounding area. Its not on a CD yet, but will be part of a new project coming out next year. This video features some brilliant footage from Karen’s husband, Emmy award wining videographer, Brad Ballew.'

It once again shows outsanding levels of output that are being achieved in a state that you would not immediately associate with Irish Traditional music. We recently featured an album called Just One More by Jonathan Milton, also from Texas, which is also worth checking out.