Current Favorites

• Brendan Begley & Caoimhìn Ò Raghallaigh – A Moment of Madness
• Mary MacNamara – Note for Note. I picked this up on a trip to Ireland. Really nice solo concertina work from Clare.
• Mairi Rankin – First Hand

New England/Contra Repertoire

• Montville Project – 2 CDs chock full of classic New England tunes. A great repertoire source.
• Nightingale – From Vermont, these folks don’t play together any more, but they made some lovely albums. They play a mix of tunes, including lots of Irish and Quebecois.
• Popcorn Behavior/Assembly – These guys recorded a couple of great CDs, some when they were just children. I liked the old name better. It looks like Journeywork and Strangest Dream are only available used online. January EP is available on CD Baby.
• Wild Asparagus – I’m amazed my copies of these CDs haven’t worn out. Irish-influenced contra music, some of the first fiddle recordings I owned.

Irish

• Across the Waters: Irish Traditional Music From England (Compilation) – Excellent tunes from a variety of players. Part of the same project as Fiddle Sticks.
• Caoimhìn Ò Raghallaigh – Definitely on the more innovative end of Irish music, he also plays a Norwegian hardanger fiddle. Sweet, sweet sounds. Also check out this series of videos of him playing solo on YouTube.
• Fiddle Sticks: Irish Traditional Music from Donegal (Compilation) – Excellent tunes from a variety of players. Part of the same project as Across the Waters.
• Liz Carroll – Great Irish Trad player from Chicago. She uses less bow than anyone I’ve ever seen, but gets a mighty amount of sound out somehow.
• Lunasa – Nice tunes, high-power playing. These guys tour the states sometimes.
• Niall & Cillian Vallely – One brother plays uilleann pipes and whistle, the other concertina. They are playing with all sorts, and doing it well.
• Press Gang – These local boys have put a couple really nice CDs together and play a good show to boot.
• Brendan Begley & Caoimhìn Ò Raghallaigh – A Moment of Madness
• Mary MacNamara – Note for Note. I picked this up on a trip to Ireland. Really nice solo concertina work from Clare.

Scottish and Cape Breton

• Battlefield Band – These guys have been playing for ages, with different line-ups of great musicians. I particularly enjoy their CD Happy Daze.
• Beolach – Great Cape Breton playing, fantastic arrangements, excellent tunes. I also highly recommend the individual band members’ CDs which can be found at their band site.
• Mairi Rankin – First Hand
• John McCusker – A magnificent Scottish fiddler. He also writes a lot of wonderful tunes.
• Natalie MacMaster
• Will Woodson & Eric McDonald

Quebecois

• Genticorum
• Nicolas Boulerice & Olivier Demers – Le Vent du Nord est Toujours Fret
• Les Têtes des Violons
• Vent du Nord

Old-Time

• Bruce Molsky – Fantastic fiddle and banjo player and singer.
• Dirk Powell
• Rhys Jones & Christina Wheeler – Starry Crown. Double old-time fiddle and some great singing to boot.

Scandinavian

• Ian Carr & Karen Tweed. They play in Swåp and have recorded a couple of great CDs as a duo.
• Swåp
• Väsen