Canniffe Family, The

The Canniffe Family from Cork, Ireland, have been playing together for over ten years. What started as a singing session to amuse each other on long car journeys grew to the point where they were the centre of entertainment for family functions and friends gatherings. The band have performed in public since 1992, attending festivals in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland and regularly doing concerts all over Ireland. They have also performed in France, Spain, California and East Coast of the U.S.

The group plays a variety of instruments. Mary, the mammy, plays the uilean pipes, whistle and bodhran, Tony, the daddy, plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and concertina. Eldest son, Tim, plays guitar, keyboard and mandolin, and Dermot is the fiddle player who also plays whistle and sometimes saxophone. All of them sing, sometimes unaccompanied and in harmony.

You guessed it – it’s a noisy but happy household!

They play a variety of traditional music, folk and ballads, and often specialise on themes. Scottish music features a lot in their programme as the family lived in Scotland for a time. They also have a special “Songs of the Sea” concert, which they performed to great acclaim at the Cork Folk Festival, Courtmacsharry Storytelling Festival, Castletownbere Festival of the Sea, and The Cobh Maritime Festival of Song sharing the stage with Liam Clancy, Cyril Tawney, John Connelly, Mick Maloney, Dan Milner, Bob Conroy, Colum Sands and Johnny Moynihan.

They have been regular guests at festivals in Scotland including Killin, Girvan, The Granite Festival and have played in a large selection of clubs around the country.

They have regularly played as support group for their friend and neighbour, Jimmy Crowley at various concerts, and can be heard as backing vocalists on his albums, UnCorked and The Coast of Malabar.

They have also played as support for Johnny Moynihan and Ronnie Drew. Some of their sea songs are broadcasted regularly on Tom MacSweeny’s “Seascapes” program on RTE. The family have also featured on TV and Radio in Northern Ireland and Scotland and on RTE.

The Canniffe Family sing and play songs and tunes from the Irish music tradition. This has not stopped them from also playing Scottish, Cajun or Bluegrass music however. People have been trying to put a label on them for years – “Fun” seems to be the most appropriate word.

Their CD, “Rise Again”, which received high critical acclaim, is a fine mixture of ballads and songs from all over. Some are firm favourites while others will be new to many listeners. They represent a cross section of the family’s concert repertoire built up over the last five years. All 14 songs have strong links with musical friends all over the world and give the band great opportunity to shine instrumentally and vocally.

(Last.fm)

Note: Unfortunately, at time of writing we were unable to locate a website or Facebook page for this group, nor photographs, videos or information on the current status of the group.