Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill Irish Tour

Fresh from their US tour with The Gloaming, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill embark on their first Irish tour in a couple of years. Nearing the end of this current tour which has taken in venues throughout the country, Martin & Dennis will appear in the Hawks Well Theatre Sligo on Friday Nov 20th.

Martin Hayes is an Irish fiddle virtuoso. Dennis Cahill is an American master guitarist. Bring them together and discover just why they have garnered international renown for taking traditional music to the very edge of the genre, holding listeners spellbound with their slow-building, fiery performances. Martin Hayes is regarded as one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. His unique sound, his mastery of the fiddle and his acknowledgement of the past and his shaping of the future of the music, combine to create an astonishing and formidable artistic intelligence.  He has drawn musical inspiration from sources as diverse as the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, the Spanish viola da gamba master, Jordi Savall, and the jazz genius, John Coltrane, but remains grounded in the music he grew  up with in his own locality, in Feakle County Clare where the music which he learned from his late father, P. Joe Hayes, the legendary leader of the long-lived Tulla Ceili Band, profoundly influenced his musical accent and ideas forever after.  

His latest performing project is with The Gloaming, a band which has burst on the music scene with a rare combination of Irish tunes, ancient sean-nós song, brave explorations and exhilarating and explosive medleys with a distinctive new sound. ‘In years to come, we’ll surely talk of having seen this man in the way others talk of Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix’ (The Irish Times,  February 2015)Dennis Cahill is a master guitarist, a native of Chicago born to parents from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. He studied at the city’s prestigious Music College before becoming an active member of the local music scene.

Cahill’s spare, essential accompaniment to Martin Hayes’ fiddle is acknowledged as a major breakthrough for guitar in the Irish tradition. In addition to his work with Martin, Dennis has performed with such renowned fiddlers as Liz Carroll, Eileen Ivers and Kevin Burke, as well as many Irish musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a sought after producer for musical artists whom he records in his own Chicago studio and is also an accomplished photographer.  

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill met in Chicago in the 1980s. They formed the jazz/rock/fusion band, Midnight Court, which allowed them to experiment with a variety of new music styles. When Martin reclaimed his traditional roots, reinvigorated, and  after recording two solo albums, he began a new musical relationship with Cahill, beginning with  the lyrical music of East Clare. They played long, sometimes thirty-minute, multi-tune sets in their  concerts, starting from the simplest of melodies, building in intensity, but never abandoning musicality and ideas.“Sparsely accompanied fiddle music has rarely sounded so complete and so essential.” (Q Magazine)‘This is music that would gladden the heart, and to hear it played with such passion and delicacy is an experience not to be missed’ (The Australian).

Friday Nov 20th 8pm The Hawks Well Theatre Sligo Tickets: €20/€18 www.hawkswell.com/events/event/martin-hayes-and-dennis-cahill

Sat Nov 21st,  8pm Tullamore Rugby Club, Tullamore Co Offaly Tickets: €15 Phone: 086 8238764