Joanna Hyde and Tadgh Ó Meachair

One for the Foxes – Review by Rodger Hara

Joanna Hyde left Denver in September 2011 to study trad music at the University of Limerick and returned in 2016 with a Master’s Degree and an award from Live Ireland for her and her brother Iain as Best New Group of the year.  To follow on for that, she returned in 2017 with a partnership with All-Ireland Piano Champion Tadgh Ó Meachair and a new trad album, One for the Foxes, that overflows with rich vitality and energy and captures the best of all that is traditional Irish music.

One for the Foxes is a self-produced 11 track album that opens and closes with two fine tunes that feature the words of W.B. Yeats set to music by Roisin Ni Ghallóglaigh and arranged by him, Joanna and Tadgh.  Sandwiched between them are original songs and trad jigs and reels arranged by Joanna and Tadgh.  Of particular interest to Celtic Connection readers is an Ó Meachair original, “Snowy Eldora”, inspired by a winter trip for the Dubliner to the slopes of Eldora for a ski trip.  It paints a musical picture of the snow, mountains and sliding down the hills.

Accompanied by some of the finest young trad artists in Ireland including Dave Curley of Slide and Runa, seven-time All-Ireland bodhrán champion Dermot Sheedy, multi-instrumentalist Sean Og Graham, Celtic Thunder’s Conor McCreanor and Ni Ghallóglaigh’s vocals, the album showcases Joanna’s maturing vocals, brilliant fiddle playing and Tadgh’s piano and accordion skills.

The album was recorded in County Antrim, is available on iTunes, cdbaby and Amazon and is only the beginning of what will, without a doubt, be a long and bright future for this talented duo.

See Joanna and Ian Hyde with Tadgh teach and perform at the Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival September 21-24.  www.CelticMusicFest.com