Cran (Irish Folk) at King's Hall, Newcastle

Following me hearing an interesting talk and presentation on a guy's charity raising motorcycle ride across South Africa in the company of Princes William and Harry, I hurried into Newcastle to see Cran performing at the King's Hall.

Cran have secured a well deserved international reputation over the past 20 years with their brand of traditional mainly Irish folk songs and dance tunes. Made up of Sean Corcoran on vocals and bouzouki (not an instrument I normally associate with Irish folk music), Desi Wilkinson on flute and whistles and Ronan Browne on uilleann pipes and whistles, they entertained a large audience with a range of music that included jigs, airs, reels and downright bawdy songs. It was also nice that the programme notes included background information on all the pieces they performed. Sadly there was too much information for me to include here.

However for more information on the band members and their unique music, here is a link to a PDF file. http://www.ronanbrowne.com/cran/CRAN_MUSIC/CRAN_MUSIC/Tech_files/CRAN%20Biography.pdf

If you are into Irish traditional music then I suggest you check out their albums or better still try to catch them live. 

I'm now about to head off to Yorkshire to spend the weekend with my youngest son and during that time we will both be heading into Leeds to catch the Decemberists playing live. I have my copies of 'We All Raise Our Voices To The Air' and 'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World' ready for my journey. More of this in due course.