Ye Vagabonds

We're delighted to welcome the amazing Ye Vagabonds for their first proper Fiddle Fair appearance. They did perform to a very select invited cardboard cutout audience of dignitaries in the magical surrounds of Baltimore Castle in 2021 but this time will be for real!

Brothers Brían and Diarmuid MacGloinn grew up playing music together around their hometown of Carlow, a small town in the southeast of Ireland. After moving to Dublin in 2012, they quickly became a staple of the live music and session scene in Ireland, playing their own original songs as well as folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, England and America. In 2014 they came to the attention of Arbutus Yarns’ music filmmaker Myles O’Reilly, whose videos gained international attention for the brothers for the first time. 

After a chance meeting at Electric Picnic in September 2015, the brothers performed onstage with Glen Hansard, who invited them to open for him on his European tour the following October. Their debut EP Rose & Briar was released on October 7th 2015. 

Since then, they have been busy touring Ireland, the UK and Europe, opening for acts such as Villagers, Roy Harper and Lisa Hannigan (whose band they played in for her Irish tour, June 2016). They have played sold out headline shows in Ireland, France, Switzerland and the UK. 

In 2017 they launched their debut, self-titled album to great acclaim. “Ye Vagabonds” comprises of harmony rich folk music, influenced by Irish traditional music, Appalachian singing, and the 1960's folk revival. It includes ten mellow tracks weaved with thoughtful lyrics, thickly layered with strings and droning harmonium. 

Their second album ‘The Hare’s Lament’ was released in 2019 to huge critical acclaim. In 2019 they won the BBC Radio Two Folk Award for Best Traditional Track, and they swept the boards at the RTÉ Radio One Folk Awards where they won Best Traditional Track, Best Group, and Best Album. 

A long-awaited EP came out on January 22nd 2020 featuring two tracks, again released on Rough Trade Records’ imprint River Lea, and in 2022 they released their third album 'Nine Waves' again to emormouse critical acclaim.