duggup

While wandering around in archive.org I stumbled across a killer version of the Kesh Jig coupled with Leitrim Fancy . The band playing it was called Slainte. Now for the bad news is that the band is now defunct and it’s players have started other bands. But the good news is that archive.org has at least two full CD’s of music by them and it’s a bloody high standard.

Here is what I could find on the net as a bio….

Slainte, an Irish band based out of Tacoma, WA, began performing in the summer of 1995. Participants in a bluegrass and Irish jam session at the University of Puget Sound brought it together, which explains the band’s original name, Puget Sounds. Subsequently, the band changed its name to Slainte to emphasize its focus on traditional Irish music. The word Slainte is Gaelic for “cheers” or “good health” and was chosen to reflect the band’s desire to play “enjoyable, danceable, and spirited music for people of all ages.” The multi-generational band has players whose ages span 30 years. Members include Jeff Bremer (concertina/bass), Lawson Dumbeck (guitar), Kent Hooper (whistles), Jean Huskamp (mandolin), Anthea Lawrence (lead vocals/fiddle), Bob McCaffery-Lent (guitars/cittern/vocals), and Brynn Starr (fiddle/vocals). Their debut album was Cup of Tea, and they followed it with Slainte: the Songs, Slainte: the Tunes, and Best of Slainte.

Slainte’s performances carry a strong focus on the dance music of Ireland from reels, jigs, and polkas to slides, airs, and waltzes. The band’s vocalists also perform traditional and contemporary songs in the Irish/Celtic idiom.

After Sláinte dissolved, three core members (Starr, McCaffery-Lent, and Hooper) appeared as bobryken celtic until 2007 when that band morphed into Mooncoyne, adding Greg Youtz, Katie Youtz, Roderick Campbell and Martin Nyberg.  Two other core members (Lawrence and Dumbeck) began appearing as Fiddlehead and another core member (Bremer) played with The Burren Boys. The other core member of Sláinte, Huskamp, has continued to play in a number of bands.

Here are the addresses for both albums

Slainte 1997 Stream here www.archive.org/download/Slainte/Slainte_64kb.m3u
CupofTea 1999 Stream here www.archive.org/download/CupofTea/CupofTea_vbr.m3u

These performances are around 10 years old and it still sounds pretty good to me, there are a lot of the “standard repertoire” tunes and songs (a nice take on Lakes of Pontchartrain )  and sometimes it gets a little cute in some of the songs but the tunes are just deadly.

All in all, a great snapshot of what sounds like a really good band. Highly Recommended