The Gloaming starts with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and his longtime collaborator, American guitarist Dennis Cahill. If you’ve seen them at the Freight, you know that they play elegant interpretations of traditional Irish tunes with exquisite sensitivity and deep feeling. The Gloaming take Irish music beyond traditional boundaries and connect it to other musical realms. NPR says of their self-titled debut: “There's no questioning the bona fides of The Gloaming, or the abundant virtuosity and sheer beauty the group brings to every track. But what's even more impressive is what these five collectively achieve. The entire album is full of deeply felt, wonderfully empathetic performances that are rooted in tradition but scoured of sentimentality. The traditional idioms of reels and jigs emerge here and there, but The Gloaming brings in harmonies, melodic ideas, and textures that expand far beyond ‘traditional Irish music.’ In short, this is the rare album that might well transform the syntax of a whole style.”

Martin has been an All-Ireland fiddle champion six times over, and has taken home a National Entertainment Award, the Irish equivalent of the Grammy, for Traditional Musician of the Year. Dennis grew up in Chicago under the musical influence of his parents, who hailed from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, and has recorded three albums with Martin, including their most recent, Welcome Here Again. Singer Iarla Ó Lionáird of County Cork has received two Grammy nominations for his work with Afro Celt Sound System and has collaborated with artists like Peter Gabriel, Gavin Bryars, and Donnacha Dennehey, as well as recording three outstanding solo albums. Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman, is a New York pianist who has worked with such artists as Glen Hansard, The National, and Martha Wainwright. Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is an accomplished Irish fiddler who plays a 10-stringed violin that he calls a hardanger d'amore, with its five playing strings and five drone-like sympathetic strings. The music of The Gloaming may not be “purely” Irish, but when the band played their first gig, the prime minister of Ireland did show up. “For us,” Martin says, “it’s just music and it’s something that’s deeply felt and meaningful and has the capacity to communicate and connect. At the end of the day, that’s all there is.”

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Listen to a track from The Gloaming: