Beginish Folk Club: November 21st; from 8.30 p.m. Beer notwithstanding, there's always a good ould feel to these folk club sessions. Don't miss the steamed-up accordion-driven kitchen arrangements of mad Dingleman, Brendan Begley, given flutter by bright fiddler Paul O'Shaughnessy and fluter Paul McGrattan; dance sets intercut with Begley's randy old love-laments, which bring tears to the eyes.
Liam O Flynn: Whitla Hall, November 27th, 7:30 p.m. Nearly the national piper down south, O Flynn's feeling, taking-it-handy style on the pipes produces great moodscapes and descriptive tunes. Supported here by the chilly, angelic harmonies of Skara Brae, the goosebumpy Donegal outfit of the O Domhnaill's (Micheal, Triona and Mairead) and Daithi Sproule who, weirdly enough, recently re-released their one and only album of 1972.
Patrick Street Arts Theatre: November 14th, 8 p.m. Taking time out from individual careers, you can't get better than these great elder lemons of trad, nursed along by Ged Foley's guitars: Kevin Burke's fiddle and Jackie Daly's bosca ceoil, while the theatre setting will give Andy Irvine the bit of whisht he needs to put out those complex, politically anguished songs.
Alan Kelly and Cathal Hayden Folk Club: No- vember 19th from 8:30 p.m. Seek out this impromptu get-together: Kelly, the heady and recklessly musical piano young accordionist from Roscommon direction, while Hayden's betwitched uplifting fiddle and banjo you might remember from Four Men and a Dog from Abbeyfeale.
De Danann & Dolores Keane: Whitla Hall, No- vember 28th, 7.30 p.m.
Dolores arrives back where she started, fronting this great western trad outfit, led by Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn, who, if you prevail upon them, might just trot out their crazy novelty note-for-note cover of Queen and Freddie Mercury, Hibernian Rhapsody.
Sean Keane Folk Club: November 27th, 9.30 p.m.
Dolores's brother has one of the most extraordinary male voice-boxes in Christendom, but sadly he's trying to sell it to Nashville. However, the setting is informal enough to allow requests for some of the old, sad songs of the tradition, like The May Morning Dew from his latest album. I swear, he'll break your heart.
Tommy Sands and Vedran Smailovic: Elmwood Hall, November 29th, 3 p.m. A bizarre collision of musics: Sands's open-heart ballads pitched against the classy evening dress of Smailovic, who famously refused to stop playing his cello on the streets of Sarajevo after the city's Opera House was strafed by mortar fire.
