My Music with Rhiannon Giddens

Róisín Elsafty is a native Irish speaker and singer in the sean-nós (“old time”) tradition who comes from a musical family: her mother and sisters are also respected vocalists. But the family’s influences also included Umm Kulthum and the music of Róisín’s father’s Egyptian homeland. Rhiannon visits with Róisín in the Gothic Church at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara.

Loah (Sallay Garnett) is Irish and Sierra Leonean. She is an actor, singer-songwriter, and instrumentalist--as well as a licensed pharmacist! Host Rhiannon visits with Loah at Connolly's of Leap, a legendary 500-year-old pub in West Cork.

Enda Scahill is a banjo master from Corofin, County Galway. He is a four-time All-Ireland Champion who has performed with The Fureys, Frankie Gavin, and The Chieftains. Rhiannon and Enda are joined by young guitarist Simon Crehan and prize-winning Irish step dancer Stephanie Keane at Studio Cuan in Spiddal on Galway Bay.

Emer Mayock is a devoted daughter of County Mayo who played tin whistle as a child and now performs on flute and uilleann pipes. She has composed music for the theatre and documentaries. She visits with Rhiannon at one of her favorite performance venues, the Bridge Street pub in Castlebar, County Mayo.

Niwel Tsumbu is a guitarist and singer who grew up in Kinshasa with the traditional Soukous music of the Congo. He studied classical guitar at a prestigious music school in Central Africa before moving to Ireland, where he married and is raising his family. Rhiannon visits Niwel at his and his wife’s family farm near Kinsale in County Cork.

Karan Casey is an Irish folk singer and a former member of the American-based Irish trad supergroup Solas. She now lives in Cork and performs with her husband, concertina master Niall Vallely. Rhiannon joins them at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork City.