NEW ‘Linen Songs’ Album Price £12.50
Maurice and Jane release ‘Linen Songs’ : an album featuring 17 songs from Maurice’s extensive collection of songs commemorating the lives of workers in the Ulster Linen industry. 9 of the songs are accompanied and 8 unaccompanied. Maurice and Jane are joined by Rod McVey on piano, keyboard & accordion, Frank Cassidy on bouzouki, Paddy Finney on guitar, Joe McHugh on pipes & whistle and Conor Caldwell on fiddle.
The album can be purchased via the Shop page on this website.
Maurice & Jane re-issue Mary Ann McCracken album!
Our albums can be purchased via the shop on this website, from Claddagh Records or downloaded via iTunes or Amazon Music.
‘The Tern and the Swallow’ Maurice Leyden
The songs on this CD are the heart and soul of the Ulster song tradition with 10 performed ‘raw bar’ by Maurice and 7 accompanied. Maurice is joined on the album by Andy Irvine, Arty McGlynn and Dermot Byrne. Trevor Stewart plays uilleann pipes, Conor Caldwell fiddle and Michael Clarkson flute and whistle. Additional vocals are provided by Paddy Finney, Jim McFarland and Liam McKervey. Maurice’s daughter Anna Leyden joins him on piano, harmonium and vocal.
Jane Cassidy
Born in Kilkeel, Co Down and now living in Belfast, Jane has been performing traditional and self-penned folk-songs since the late 1970s, appearing with her brother Frank on the seminal TV series ‘As I Roved Out’.
During the 1980s Jane toured extensively in Europe and released 3 albums, a single and 2 cassettes of children’s songs which she wrote for the UTV children’s series ‘Swings & Roundabouts’.
She collaborates with her husband Maurice in writing and performing shows combining folk-song and history. The best known of these tells the story of Belfast woman ‘Mary Ann McCracken.
Now with a successful career at BBC NI behind her, Jane is once more fully involved in the folk music scene.
During the 1980s Jane toured extensively in Europe and released 3 albums, a single and 2 cassettes of children’s songs which she wrote for the UTV children’s series ‘Swings & Roundabouts’.
She collaborates with her husband Maurice in writing and performing shows combining folk-song and history. The best known of these tells the story of Belfast woman ‘Mary Ann McCracken.
Now with a successful career at BBC NI behind her, Jane is once more fully involved in the folk music scene.
Maurice Leyden
A native of Cookstown, Co Tyrone, Maurice has lived in Belfast since the late 1960s. He is a passionate researcher and collector of traditional Ulster folk-songs and has published 2 books, ‘Belfast City of Song’ and ‘Boys and Girls Come Out To Play’ each accompanied by a tape of selected songs.
He is an accomplished singer of traditional songs and is much in demand for his ‘singing lectures’, one of which he gave in the Library of Congress in Washington.
He is a familiar voice on the NI airwaves, having presented the Downtown Radio series ‘Folkal Point’ for 14 years.
Now retired from his career in Social Housing, Maurice is free to dedicate his time fully to research, writing and performing.
He is an accomplished singer of traditional songs and is much in demand for his ‘singing lectures’, one of which he gave in the Library of Congress in Washington.
He is a familiar voice on the NI airwaves, having presented the Downtown Radio series ‘Folkal Point’ for 14 years.
Now retired from his career in Social Housing, Maurice is free to dedicate his time fully to research, writing and performing.
‘Silverbridge’ Jane Cassidy
This album marks Jane’s re-emergence into the folk-scene and features 3 self-penned songs and 9 traditional songs from her native Ulster and beyond. Produced and recorded with esteemed Belfast musician Rod McVey, Jane plays piano and guitar and is joined on backing vocals and piano by her daughter Anna Leyden and brother Frank Cassidy on bouzouki. Jane is delighted to have worked again with old friends Nollaig Casey, fiddle and Joe McHugh, uilleann pipes and whistle and collaborated for the very first time with hammer dulcimer player Barry Carroll.