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Chulrua: Irish Traditional Music

Presented by Crossroads Music at Crossroads Music

April 3, 2010

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Chulrua (pronounced cool-ROO-ah) is Irish for “red back,” the name and distinguishing feature of the ancient Irish hero Fionn MacCumhaill’s favorite wolfhound. It is also the name of an internationally acclaimed trio of some of the most respected and unique exponents of Irish traditional music. County Offaly native Paddy O’Brien has collected more than 3,000 tunes, including many rare and unusual ones over the last 40 years and is regarded as one of the tradition’s most important repositories. A master of the two-row button accordion, he has been named Oireachtas champion four times, and was first named All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975. In Ireland, he played and recorded with the famed Castle Ceili Band and Ceoltoiri Laighean and since moving to the United states in 1978, he has been featured on many recordings on Shanachie and Green Linnet label. Paddy has taught at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School held in Milltown Malbay, County Clare, and three times served as a master artist in the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. The 500 pieces in the “Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection,” the product of a 1994 National Endowment for the Arts, have received accolades from players of Irish music around the world.