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MP3 Munnelly - Tight Squeeze
13 MP3 Songs in this album (56:26) !
Related styles: Folk: Contemporary Celtic, Folk: Traditional Folk, Mood: Intellectual
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2010 is an important year in the life of Munnelly (formerly The David Munnelly Band). Why? Because it’s the band’s 10th anniversary - no mean feat given the amount of start up traditional Irish bands which have come and gone in the last decade.
The year is 2000, and on the back of stints with two of Irish music s best known ambassadors, The Chieftains and De Danann, David Munnelly, a youthful, energetic and dexterous button box player from the sticks of
West Mayo, decides the time is right to branch out and start his own ensemble. Whether David had
garnered enough experience batting with the big boys to tackle the daunting prospect of running his own band is hard to say, but ten years of sustained and successful touring and recording speaks for itself.
Fast-forward to the present and Munnelly are on a roll, having just released their fourth CD, Tight
Squeeze, a recording that in Davids opinion has surpassed anything that has gone before. Recorded in
Cuan Studios in Spiddal, Co.
Galway, Tight Squeeze is a snapshot of a band at the peak of its powers; a product of just four consecutive
days recording, but fuelled with an energy and understanding that only steady touring and a musical
intimacy can generate. The protagonists in this adventure are a disparate but paradoxically cohesive crew
of tuneful troubadours, who all bring something special to the Munnelly table of musical delights.
David’s brother Kieran is a naturally gifted flute, bodhrán and percussion player, whose sweet vocal
harmonies blend seamlessly with the band''s main singer, Shauna Mullin. Shauna, from Ballyshannon, Co.
Donegal, has traditional singing literally running through her veins, coming as she does from a musical
family which includes one of Ireland''s foremost singers, the great Paddy Tunney. Paul
Kelly, playing fiddle, mandolin and occasionally tenor banjo, hails from Tallaght, in the foothills of the
Dublin Mountains, and has had a musically varied career at the highest level which stretches back to the
early 80s. Pianist Ryan Molloy duly occupies the left-field section of the band, from where he seeks to push
the harmonic boundaries of Irish music while marrying it to the more audacious
contemporary approach for which he is highly regarded.
On tour, Munnelly supplements this line-up with one of a number of choice guitarists; this position in the
band requires all the sensibilities of a top-notch traditional accompanist while being able to swing the
rhythm as Munnelly kicks into overdrive and leaves the standard arrangements behind in a blaze of
energetic exuberance.
Munnelly’s influences stem from the great musicians of the early age of cylinder recordings, such as
Michael Coleman and The Flanagan Brothers, to the jazz and klezmer traditions to which those great
players were exposed in the melting pot of culture that was New York in the 1920s. Augment this with a
present day approach to repertoire, a desire to entertain, and the charisma to weave
infectious fun in the process, and a forceful, musical identikit emerges.
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