Biography
Hailing from County Clare, the five-piece group Moving Cloud renders Ireland’s traditional dance repertoire with passion and verve. What began as a unit assembled strictly to back set dancers later matured into a polished concert ensemble. Its first recording, the self-titled Moving Cloud issued in 1994, earned the Irish Echo’s designation as Best Traditional Album. The follow-up, Foxglove, arrived in 1998 and confirmed the band’s standing among Ireland’s foremost instrumental outfits. Taking its name from a well-known Irish reel, Moving Cloud made its initial public appearance at the Old Cloud Hotel in Ennis, County Clare on May 18, 1989. The occasion united five players already seasoned through prior band work and individual releases. Accordionist Paul Brock had cut an album alongside De Danaan fiddler Frankie Gavin in 1986; his own solo effort, Mo Chairdin, followed in 1992. Galway-born composer, arranger and keyboard player Carl Hession had previously appeared with Gavin, Joe Derrane, Matt Molloy and Joe Burke and had belonged to the Shaskeen Ceili Band; he has issued four solo collections—The Galway Suite (1984), Echoes of Ireland (1987), Ceol Inne/Ceol Innui (1995) and Tra (1997). Birmingham native Kevin Crawford, whose parents come from West Clare, has resided in Ireland since 1988; on flute and percussion he has recorded with Joe Derrane, performed with the septet Grianan and the trio Raise the Rafters, and released his own first album, D'Flute Album, in 1995. Twin fiddling by Sligo-born Manus McGuire and Galway-born Maeve Donnelly remains a defining element of the group’s texture. McGuire had toured and made three albums with the quartet Buttons and Bows, whose members also included his brother Seamus, Jackie Daly and Garry O’Briain. Donnelly, holder of multiple All-Ireland fiddle titles, commands the East Galway fiddle style.
Albums
