This unique double bill links the traditional music of Ireland with southern Appalachian old-time. Button accordion player Máirtín O’Connor has been performing Irish traditional music since the 1970s as a member of De Dannan and The Boys of the Lough, and he was a major force in the music behind Riverdance.  A native of Galway, O’Connor has also crossed over into popular music as a session player for projects by Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Townes Van Zandt, the Waterboys and many others. In their SMF debut, the Máirtín O’Connor Trio consists of O’Connor on accordion, Cathel Hayden on fiddle and banjo and Seamie O’Dowd on guitar and vocals. The Irish Times writes: “Genius is an overused word, but it sits lightly on the shoulders of Galwegian accordionist and tune composer Máirtín O’Connor...His impish, quizzical style is as distinctive as a fingerprint.”

 

Fiddle, banjo, guitar player and singer Bruce Molsky has performed on multiple occasions at SMF, including a duo with Tony Trischka, with the Old-Time Kozmik Trio including Rushad Eggleston and Darol Anger and as a solo artist. This year he brings his newest project, Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, which includes clawhammer banjo player Allison de Groot and guitarist/singer Stash Wyslouch, who first performed at SMF in 2013 as a member of The Deadly Gentlemen. “It is no exaggeration to say that Bruce Molsky is one of the greatest American fiddlers of all time. His playing is mesmerizing and transporting, and best experienced live” (WBUR).