And with that, we come to the end of 2025! Over the past year, I’ve had the chance to spend time with a wide range of albums and books about traditional music, and now’s a good moment to pause, take stock and look back on the music that helped shape the year – and what a year in music it was!
We were privileged to hear some utterly superb albums. A few I enjoyed the most were Cormac Begley and Liam O’Connor’s “Into the Loam,” Enda Scahill and Joel Andersson’s “The Dark Well”, and Nathan Gourley, Joey Abarta and Owen Marshall’s “Copley Street 2.” All three brought exceptional playing together with stellar vision and are albums I not only enjoyed but kept hearing about over and over again from others.
Another exemplary release was Danú’s massive 30-track retrospective “The Pearl.” Comprised of live tracks recorded between 2016 and 2024, I called it “a testament to the band’s incredible chemistry and musical prowess, offering listeners a thrilling way to experience the best of their electric on-stage presence.” Maggie Carty’s “Ebb and Flow,” which wove Americana, Australian folk and modern roots musics into the Irish tradition, was another of the year’s best. Just outstanding stuff.
Those that like their music more fiddle forward will remember how much I liked Brian Conway’s “Wallace Avenue,” an admirable tribute to the musical environment in which Conway grew up. His musical lineage resonates in fiddle player Andrew Caden (a Conway protegé) and flute player Conor McDonagh’s dynamic album “Across the Atlantic.” It’s a noteworthy album of flute and fiddle music that makes a brilliant companion to Mick Mulvey and Shane Meehan’s amazing album “The Missing Guest,” which offers a very different but no less gorgeous take on that same instrumental pairing.
Fans of the accordion had a lot to enjoy as well. The great Diarmuid Ó Meachair released “Beo i gConamara,” a remarkable album that celebrated the music of the single-row melodeon in Connemara, Ireland and Québéc. Hardcore traditional box playing was also a feature of Colm Gannon and flute player Séan Gavin’s duet album “The Boys of 25,” which was out of this world. And if a progressive approach to box playing is more your taste, Damien Mullane’s “Evoke” is the album you’ll want to hear. Mullane’s a brilliant musician with an avant-garde vision that gives traditional music a modern touch.
A couple of well-done reissue albums caught my ear as well. “Vol. 1: Catchin’ the Tune” by The Irish Tradition was one. The trio, which included Billy McComiskey (button accordion and concertina), Brendan Mulvihill (fiddle) and Andy O’Brien (vocals and guitar), was legendary in the 1970s and set an important tone in America that still resonates. This, the group’s 1976 debut, sounds remarkably fresh. Another top shelf reissue was “50 Odd Years Revisited,” the album Jimmy Power and Josephine Keegan released together in 1985. It was a loving tribute that made some spectacular music from back in the day more broadly accessible.
If you’re the readerly sort, you’ll love being reminded of the several truly outstanding books about Irish music that came out in 2025. I loved Fintan Vallely’s “Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhrán,” which tells a comprehensive, beautifully detailed history about that instrument’s development, Méabh Ní Fhuartháin’s “Heading to the Fleadh: Festival cultural revival and Irish traditional music, 1951-1969,” about the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann’s early years, and Rebecca Miller’s “Are You Dancing: Showbands, Popular Music, and Memory in Modern Ireland” were brilliant as well and I consider all three must-haves.
There were also three important books that came out about Dublin-based musicians. Mick O’Connor’s “In Safe Hands: An Illustrated History of Irish Music in Dublin (1893-1970)” was an absolute milestone. Covering an enormous array of musicians in sublime detail, it’s a powerful work written by a person whose unique position in the musical community allowed him to do extraordinary research. In addition, there were “Tommie Potts: The Sorrowful and the Great,” Seán Potts’s comprehensive biography of great fiddler Tommie Potts and “The Unbroken Music of Heaven: The Music of Tommie Potts,” Aoife Ní Bhriain’s annotated transcriptions of Potts’s music. Both are crucial works documenting one of the twentieth century’s most defining musicians.
Unfortunately, 2025 saw the loss of some important folks. I think of Michael “Jesse” Owens, who blazed a musical trail for pub singers that seems second nature today; of John Roberts, whose work with Tony Barrand set a very high standard; of the influential Bridget Flynn, who ran the important Flynn Irish Dance school in Yonkers; and of the great Clare fiddler James Cullinan, whose album “Here It Is,” released shortly before his passing, was a revelation. All are fondly remembered.
I also just got the heartbreaking news that on Christmas Day we lost the great dancer and historian Leni Sloan. Sloan, a close collaborator of Mick Moloney’s for nearly 50 years, was a very close friend of the Irish music community. His research into the cultural connections between the Irish and African-American communities (captured in Susan Wittenberg’s fine documentary “Two Roads”) was groundbreaking and his passing leaves us with an enormous gap.
2025 was a notably busy year. I encourage readers to explore not only the books and albums discussed here, but also those I covered by artists such as Conal Ó Gráda, Evelyn O’Connell, Tim Collins, Liz Hanley, Sheila Garry & Elaine Hogan, and others. All of those columns can be found by searching the keyword “Neely” on the Echo’s website. These pieces are also posted to the “Trad Music in the Echo” Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/IrishEchoTrad) for those who wish to follow along as they appear. Looking ahead, there is already a strong slate of releases and stories taking shape for 2026. For anyone with a lasting love of traditional music, the year to come promises much to listen for.
