Nollaig Casey has an international reputation as one of Ireland's finest fiddle players. By the time she was eleven years old she could play violin, piano, tin whistle, and uilleann pipes. During her teenage years she learned to play in both the classical and traditional musical traditions. She won several All-Ireland titles for fiddle and traditional singing culminating in the award to her in 1972 for the best all-round performer.
She graduated from University College Cork with a B.Mus. degree at the age of nineteen, and started her career with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra where she remained for five years. She began performing live with the band Planxty in 1980, touring with them throughout Europe and appearing on their final album, 1983's Words & Music. Casey has also recorded and toured with Moving Hearts, Liam O'Flynn, Frances Black, The Clancy Brothers and Elvis Costello.
Nollaig's television appearances include the BBC TV series Bringing It All Back Home and A River of Sound. She has also performed as a featured artist in Dónal Lunny's Coolfin band with whom she has recorded and toured extensively. More recently she has performed as a soloist with the phenomenally successful Riverdance as well as featuring in Shaun Davey's Granuaile and May We Never Have To Say Goodbye which was the theme song of the Special Olympic World Games 2003 which was hosted by Ireland.
She also performs frequently with her husband guitarist Arty McGlynn, her sister harpist Máire Ní Chathasaigh and guitarist Chris Newman.
Arty McGlynn is without question one of the finest guitar player in Ireland with a unique understanding of music he performs. Born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, his family was steeped in traditional music and when he was eleven his mother bought him his first guitar. Despite his traditional music background his first influences were Wes Montgomery, Thelonius Monk and other giants of the jazz scene. By the time he was fifteen he was playing professionally and touring throughout Ireland.
The late sixties saw him working further afield, in the UK and USA, moving from band to band and adding the pedal steel guitar to his musical arsenal along the way. However, by the mid seventies the endless run of one nighters had begun to lose their appeal and Arty was beginning to look for something that would excite him again.Towards the end of the decade Arty revived his interest in Irish traditional music and recorded his first solo album, McGlynn's Fancy. This was the first recording where the guitar is played in an authentic traditional style, and as such has been hailed as a classic in the traditional music world.
He subsequently became one of the most sought after musicians in the country, playing and recording with Christy Moore, Paul Brady, Donal Lunny, Liam O'Flynn and the Chieftains. He also played as a member of Planxty, Patrick Street, De Danann and the Van Morrison Band
Arty is equally in demand as a live performer, recording artist and producer. The album Barking Mad by Four Men & A Dog, which Arty produced, was voted Folk Album of the Year by Folk Rootsmagazine. Other production credits include Christy Hennessy's The Rehearsal, an album that remained in the Irish charts continuously for eighteen months. He collaborated with Frances Black on her first two albums, Talk to Me and The Sky Road, both of which topped the charts in Ireland.
