Steppin' and Hoppin': Altan and "The Tin Key/Sam Kelly's Jig/The Gravediggers"

A few jigs to get give you a spring in the step make up our random tune for today. The jigs are performed by Altan, which was originally formed in County Donegal by vocalist and fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987 after the pair initially released a pair of albums as a duo. They named the band after a lake in County Donegal. County Donegal has a rich tradition of Irish music and styles, and Altan made this music available to the world and in the process became known worldwide with a popularity to match The Chieftains. Kennedy died of Ewing's sarcoma in 1994, leaving Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh to keep the band going. Besides The Chieftains, they have worked with musicians such as Enya, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt and Alison Krauss. This set of jigs, called The Tin Key/Sam Kelly's Jig/The Gravediggers, can be found on their 2015 album The Widening Gyre.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altan_%28band%29; http://altan.ie/

Getting Jiggy with It: Beth Patterson and "Mary Patterson's/All in the Family/The Rathfarnham Lilters"

Beth Patterson brings us today's random tune, called Jigs: Mary Patterson's/All in the Family/The Rathfarnham Lilters. From Lafayette, Louisiana, Beth Patterson is a singer-songwriter who starts from a base of Irish and Celtic music and adds a few drops of Cajun, worldbeat and progressive rock. She began her career playing Cajun bass and as a classical oboist, and studied traditional Irish music and ethnomusicology at University College Cork in Ireland. She finished a bachelor's degree in music therapy at Loyola University in New Orleans, and she took up the Irish bouzouki which is now her preferred instrument. She was a founding member of the Poor Clares, an Irish ensemble that opened to rave reviews in New Orleans, and she has also released four solo albums and two with the Poor Clares. You can find Jigs: Mary Patterson's/All in the Family/The Rathfarnham Lilters on her 1999 album Hybrid Vigor.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Patterson