Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland will collaborate with accordion player Dermot Byrne from Altan, whistle player Brian Finnegan from Kan and Flook and guitarist and fiddler Mike Vass in an 11-date tour of Ireland this September.

The tour is the indirect result of a music session in Finnegan’s house nine years ago.

the place was getting very full, and people who were arriving at the front door ended up having to go round through the back door into the kitchen. There were tunes of course, loads of reels… and the next thing Kathleen MacInnes was standing in my kitchen. She sang, and I honestly have never seen anything like it… the whole place fell silent…

The four have not played together before, but have been brought together by Music Network for a tour that will take in Dublin, Drogheda, Ennis, Bray, Tipperary, Castlebar, Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Clifden, Letterkenny and Culdaff.

Commenting on the upcoming tour, Byrne said,

… you never know til you sit down and play with someone what’s going to come out. I’m really looking forward to this challenge. I love getting involved in new stuff, you can throw everything into a big pot…

Glasgow-based MacInnes’s singing reached audiences worldwide after being featured in Ridley Scott’s film Robin Hood (2010).

Guitarist, fiddle-player and composer Mike Vass, who joins the trio, is also from Scotland and is a well-known tune-smith, his compositions having appeared on a range of recordings. He was the inaugural winner of the Neil Gow International Composition Award and has toured extensively with the Scottish band Malinky. 

The tour is the first of four Music Network autumn tours that also includes jazz piano trio GoGo Penguin (25 October–1 November), Zaïde string quartet (8–17 October), and German baritone Benjamin Appl (15–23 November).    

MacInnes, Byrne, Finnegan and Vass commence their tour in The Sugar Club, Dublin, tomorrow (8 September) at 8pm.

For more, visit www.musicnetwork.ie