Congratulations to The Fretless, a well-deserved recognition of their immense talent!

We are very excited to work with the unique duo that is Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage.

“As was amply demonstrated by their live show, Hannah and Ben are ideally suited to play together, with Hannah’s breathtakingly beautiful voice [like a young Joni Mitchell] and Ben’s superb musicianship [on guitar and dobro].” – FATEA Magazine

See for yourself as they sing “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key”, one of the found Woody Guthrie lyrics put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco:

Into the Light

Thanks to Aengus and all the staff and volunteers in Kansas City last weekend for doing an excellent job.

There was a tremendous amount of talent this year and it was great to see so many friendly faces. It was run impeccably in all facets and the organizers deserve a big pat on the back (and probably a week off!) The only suggestion I could make is to have more dancing. A self proclaimed dancing fool, I had the opportunity to get out of my seat at a few unofficial showcases and thoroughly enjoyed it. Melisande from Montreal had many of us cutting the rug for their whole set!!

I only got to see a fraction of all the talent, but a few that stuck out for me were:

Low Lily

Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage

William Prince

Tom Freund

Paul McKenna

Jake Morley

Doolin’

Phoebe Hunt & The Gatherers

Melisande

Dave Gunning

Clementine

Special shout out to Neil Pearson in the UK room and Shelly Nordstrom in the ECMA room for once again curating amazing talent. Their rooms are always a big magnet for me.

So much music and so much love, I am already looking forward to next year.

Sean

Matt is great singer and interpreter of traditional songs from Newfoundland.

As Brian ODonovan of WBGH Boston said, “It’s increasingly rare to find male traditional singers who are not just good, but GREAT! Matthew is certainly in that truly great category.”

INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2017

The 30 Most Intriguing Musicians of 2017