Martin Hayes

Born in Ireland and now based in Seattle, Martin Hayes commands the measured, melodic Clare approach to fiddle playing. As the son of P.J. Hayes, longtime leader of the Tulla Ceili Band, he has carried forward and extended that family heritage.

Hayes belongs to one of Ireland’s most prominent musical lineages. Along with his father’s guidance, he drew technique from a concertina-playing grandmother and from his uncle by marriage, national fiddle champion Paddy Canny. A six-time All-Ireland fiddle titleholder, he received his first instrument as a Christmas gift at age seven and spent much of his youth performing alongside his father’s band. After completing college, Hayes moved to Chicago and joined the rock group Midnight Court.

Following his relocation to Seattle, he issued his debut solo recording of traditional Irish music, The Shores of Lough Graney, initially available only on cassette through Ice Nine. Subsequent releases such as Martin Hayes and Under the Moon appeared on Green Linnet. The latter album, captured in County Clare, included contributions from P.J. Hayes, guitarist Steve Cooney, and Hayes’s American ensemble the Randal Boys.

In June 1997, Hayes recorded The Lonesome Touch with Irish accordionist Dennis Cahill; the two later collaborated on Live in Seattle in 1999 and Welcome Here Again in 2008.

In 2011, Hayes joined Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Dennis Cahill, and New York pianist-producer Thomas Bartlett to create the Irish folk supergroup the Gloaming, whose self-titled debut arrived on Real World in 2014, followed two years later by the album 2. Hayes next released The Blue Room in 2017, a project shared with Cahill, American jazz clarinetist Doug Wieselman, and American classical violinist-violinist Liz Knowles. In 2019 he partnered with New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider for the album Butterfly.