North Cregg - Summer At My Feet

(August 2003) 12 tracks: Jigs * The Pitchfork Reel * Reels * Hornpipe and Reels * Fred Finn’s Polka * Slides * Polkas * Summer At My Feet * Swallow Sing * There Was a Maid in Her Father’s Garden * The Recruited Collier * Deoindi.

North Cregg consists of Christy Leahy, Martin Leahy, Caoimhin Vallely, Fiona Kelleher, Ciaran Coughlan and Paul Meehan. Formed in Cork, Ireland, in 1996, the group have in their short history established themselves as one of the premier bands playing traditional Irish music today.

Voted Best Traditional Newcomers in the Irish Music Magazine Millennium Poll, their enviable reputation for exhilarating live performances continues to enthral audiences at home and abroad.

The birth of North Cregg came about as a result of the thriving informal pub session scene in Cork, Ireland’s second city. In 1995, two locals - young accordion player Christy Leahy and veteran guitarist John Neville - were regulars in the session scene. When Armagh fiddler Caoimhin Vallely arrived in Cork to study music at the local university, an instant friendship struck up and the bones of North Cregg were taking shape.

Frequent sessions together in local bars such as The Lobby and The Gables, along with piano player Ciaran Coughlan, revealed a fresh new sound prompting an offer for the quartet to perform a support slot at The Cork Folk Festival, September 1996. More gigs followed and the offer of a tour in Germany in March 1998 resulted in the enlisting of Christy’s younger brother Martin Leahy on snare drum for the trip. Martin later joined the Band on a permanent basis.

Singer Fiona Kelleher from Macroom, County Cork, replaced John Neville to form the current lineup. This album combines the exciting sets of jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas and slides, for which North Cregg are famed, with sympathetic and well arranged backing to the fine singing of Fiona Kelleher. There are seven instrumental sets and five songs on the album, which was produced by Donald Shaw.

The band have two previous albums on Magnetic Music - And They Danced All Night and Mi Da:Za.