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Paddy O'Brien, Button Accordion

Paddy O’Brien is regarded by serious aficionados of traditional Irish music as one of the tradition’s most important repositories. In a career that spans more than forty years, his repertoire has grown in excess of 3,000 tunes. This in itself is not unique among the best Irish musicians, but in Paddy’s case, his love for each note and the people behind them, draws the listener to a new level of insight.

Born in Co. Offaly in the midlands of Ireland, Paddy traveled the countryside as a young man to spend time with the older players, absorbing tunes and the stories that came with them. The legends of the old tradition such as Donegal fiddler John Doherty, Galway fiddler Paddy Fahy, and a host of others, many of whom are gone, live on in Paddy.

He first played music in public in 1966 with the Ballinamere Ceili Band. In 1968, he toured America for the first time with Sean and Kathleen Ryan. After moving to Dublin in 1969, he began an informal apprenticeship of sorts with fiddlers John Kelly and Joe Ryan. He began playing with the Castle Ceili Band and with Ceoltoiri Laighean, making critically acclaimed records with numerous appearances on radio, television, and in concert in Ireland and abroad. During this time, Paddy won the Oireachtas championship four times, and the All-Ireland senior accordion competition in 1975. His recognition as a primary source for tunes was demonstrated when his music was included in Brendan Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hEireann, the foremost scholarly work on the tradition.

Teaming up with fiddler James Kelly, and guitarist and singer Dáithí Sproule, under the name Bowhand, Paddy came to America in 1978 to record an album for Shanachie Records, entitled Is It Yourself? The trio continued beyond the recording, touring across the U.S., appearing several times on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, and recording a second LP for Shanachie in 1980 entitled Spring ln the Air. These two LPs have been re-released as a single CD and remain among the greatest Irish traditional albums ever made.

After settling in Minnesota in 1983, Paddy began touring with Cork banjo player Sean O’Driscoll and Saint Paul singer and guitarist Tom Dahill as Hill 16, recording an album of the same name for Shanachie’s Meadowlark label in 1984. Since then Paddy has toured with numerous artists including an appearance with singer Peter Yeates on NPR’s Mountain Stage. Paddy became one of the anchor artists at John D. McGurk’s in Saint Louis, the only pub in the nation boasting traditional Irish music seven nights a week. In 1988, he released his first solo album, Stranger at the Gate, on the Green Linnet label. Paddy and a few others represented the Twin Cities in a "Midwest Irish All-Stars" concert in Dayton, Ohio in 1989. In 1992, he was invited home to appear on The Pure Drop, a traditional music showcase on Irish national television. In 1995 Paddy toured Alaska with famed fiddler Martin Hayes and Aidan Brennan.

In the late 1990s, Paddy formed Chulrua, along with two Tipperary men, piper Michael Cooney and singer and guitarist Pat Egan. Tim Britton replaced Michael Cooney from 1997-2003, and Patrick Ourceau took his current place with the trio in 2004. In 2003, Paddy launched The Doon Ceili Band, an eight-piece ensemble that plays traditional dance music with a distinct West Clare accent.

Paddy has been a teacher of Irish music in many settings, including at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, the Celtic College in Goderich Ontario, The Saint Louis Tionól, the Swannanoa Gathering, and through the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. In 1994, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to record 500 tunes (a small portion of his repertoire), resulting in The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Jigs and Reels. In 2006, Paddy received a prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship to work on Volume Two of the Tune Collection, setting down another 500 tunes from his impressive repertoire. 

For many devotees of Irish music Paddy O’Brien is the embodiment of the living tradition, one who understands and expresses the essence of Gaelic culture. Sidestepping the hype surrounding the new wave of popularity in things Celtic, Paddy O'Brien captures the brilliant and unpretentious humanity underlying all great traditional music.

Patrick Ourceau, Fiddle

Fiddle player Patrick Ourceau has been playing Irish music since his early teens. Born and raised in France, Patrick moved to the U.S. in 1989, settled in New York City where he lived for seventeen years, and is now based in Toronto, Canada.

Since the mid nineties, Patrick has performed  with many Irish and Irish American musicians and bands, most notably in duets with Ennis, Co. Clare concertina player Gearoid O’hAllmhurain with whom he recorded Tracin‘ in 1999; with Tulla, Co. Clare accordion player Andrew McNamara; and with the legendary Tulla Ceili band, on the band’s last American tour .

Patrick is featured on flute player Cathal McConnell’s last solo release Long Expectant Comes at Last, on  Compass Records; on accordion player John Whelan’s Celtic Roots, on Narada Records, and more recently on the TG4’CD and DVD release Geantrai, a compilation celebrating the  first ten years of the popular  traditional Irish music television program.

In the last fifteen years, Patrick has been in great demand as a teacher and regularly teaches both privately and at various festivals and summer schools across North America and Ireland.  He has been part, since 1999, of the teaching staff at Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York and at Celtic College in Goderich, Canada. He has  been teaching for the past several years at  Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp in San Juan Island, Washington and at the Chris Langan Weekend in Toronto. Patrick taught several years at Augusta’s Irish Week in Elkins, West Virginia. He has also taught at the Alaska Fiddle Camp in Chugiak, Alaska; at the St. Louis Tionol in St. Louis, Missouri; at the East Coast Tionol in East Durham, New York; at the O’Flaherty’s Retreat in Dallas, Texas; at the Armagh Piper’s Club in County Armagh, Northern Ireland; and at the Fleadh Nua in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland.

Pat Egan, Guitar & Vocals

Originally from County Tipperary, Pat now resides in Baltimore, Maryland. While growing up in his native County Tipperary, Patrick loved the music so much that he used to take his guitar on the back of a horse and cart to school every week to get lessons from his school teacher, Phil Kelly. He would also trudge across fields and farmland with his guitar just to get a song from local singer John Norton. Luckily, there were lots of singers and guitarists in his home parish and one of the first musicians he ever heard playing traditional Irish music was his neighbor – uilleann piper Michael Cooney with whom, along with Paddy O’Brien, he would later go on to form the band Chulrua.

Pat began playing professionally when he moved to Westport, County Mayo in the 1980’s. He quickly became established in the music scene in Westport, performing with musicians such as banjo player Francis Lynn, accordion player Tommy Doherty, Donegal resident Kevin Hyde (of the group Malin Head) and Swedish uilleann piper/whistle player Jorgen Fisher. While there, he also formed a long partnership with penny whistle player Olcan Masterson, with whom he toured Europe and the U.S., and recorded Westport Town. Patrick recorded with many different musicians while living in Westport – most reputably on the internationally acclaimed Music at Matt Molloy’s.

In the early 1990’s, Pat visited the U.S. to play at the famed McGurk’s in St. Louis, Missouri with piper Michael Cooney and County Clare accordion player Nuala Hehir. Shortly after, he was invited back to the U.S. by the great accordion player Paddy O’Brien to form the band Chulrua.

For a while, Pat split his time between St. Louis and Westport. On a few visits home, he recorded Live at Lenahan’s with accordion player/singer Joe Carey and the late fiddle player Paddy Mills. Patrick also played on Fonnchaoi with fiddler Julie Langan and accordion player Verina Commins.

Pat developed an interest in Old Time music while living in St. Louis – playing with fiddle player Barbara Weathers and national steel and old time banjo player, Tom Hall. He also recorded with Old Time banjo player Dave Landreth on his CD, Chairs.

After St. Louis, Pat lived for a few years in Fairfield, Iowa, where he played frequently with uilleann piper and former bandmate Tim Britton before moving to Baltimore, Maryland in the fall of 2003. Pat still tours regularly with Paddy O’Brien and new Chulrua member, fiddle player Patrick Ourceau.

Pat has taught at numerous workshops at festivals throughout the U.S. including Alaska. He has taught at the Tionól in St. Louis and has been teaching for the past two years at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, NY. He has made extensive tours of the United States, and has also performed in Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, Scotland, Spain and France. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs in Ireland and abroad.

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