working with esteemed artists such as Ray Davies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Mary Black and Sinead O’Connor.
Dublin based, Bill is one of Irelands top session and touring guitar players and producers. Bill has established himself internationally too, through touring and contributing to albums with Ray Davies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Paul Brady, Mary Black, Roy Harper, Alexandra Burke, Sinead O’Connor, Judy Collins, Jackson Browne to name a few.
Being an accompanist has always been of key interest to Bill, enjoying the great scope and limitless backdrop you can create as a player for the artist you’re working with. This skill was commented on in the Financial Times review of a Ray Davies show a the Royal Albert Hall…
“Is there a finer sideman around? It’s unlikely.” – Financial Times Review, Royal Albert Hall
PAUL BRADY:
Paul Brady has won Lifetime Achievement awards from both The Irish Recorded Music Association and the BBC. He was inducted into the British Composers and Songwriters Academy in 2004 and the (Irish) IMRO Songwriters Academy in 2013 and was further honoured by the President of Ireland with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Paul Brady, singer, songwriter, musician and producer has for over fifty years been at the forefront of popular music in Ireland. Spending the first decade and a half of his career absorbing influences from Jazz, Blues, Pop, Soul and Irish folk music in bands while at college in Dublin, and later with The Johnstons, Planxty and Andy Irvine, his dramatic interpretations of classic traditional ballads such as Arthur McBride and The Lakes of Pontchartrain firmly established him as one of the cornerstones of the new wave of Irish music and song in the 1970s.
George Lowden is a luthier based in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. He constructs steel and nylon string acoustic guitars by hand without any UV finishing as well as solid-body electric guitars.
The Lowden Story:
In the late 1980’s George Lowden accepted an invitation to visit the main Lowden dealer for Switzerland, Servette Music in Geneva. Upon his arrival, co-proprietor Yves Imer thanked George for coming, because some of the Lowden customers he was to meet had not realised he actually existed – they thought “George Lowden” was merely the figment of some marketing man’s imagination – a leprechaun, in fact!
This served to enlighten George to the principle that an ‘information vacuum’ will always be filled – sometimes benignly, sometimes bizarrely.So, for the record, HERE is the complete story of George Lowden and his guitars.
LEAH SONG & DUNCAN WICKEL:
Leah Song is a storyteller, song-catcher, and cultural bridge-builder, best known as the frontwoman of Rising Appalachia alongside her sister, Chloe. She plays claw-hammer banjo, bodhrán, and guitar, and is a keeper of both traditional and contemporary songs. For over two decades, she has carried her voice across borders, blending Appalachian folk and global roots music into songs that honor both land and lineage. Her repertoire includes Southern folk, old-world balladry, and Appalachian traditionals.