Oct 15th 2020
Hi folks, if you’ve just arrived at my page you’ll see a post about St. Patrick’s Day – that is an old post unfortunately and I’ll have to sit down with a bit of time to see how to change it. Yes, it’s good old Covid-19 times so we’ll only be doing our Live Facebook streams on Thursday nights BUT do join us there (Aine Heslin Music) after you’ve had a sneak peek through the rest of this site!
Check out my Shop page for Christmas gift ideas or birthday gifts! Thank you all in advance for your interest and your support – you’re very special!
‘Live from Home’ series 2020 (during Covid-19)
From the beginning of the Pandemic Covid-19 in Ireland early 2020 – our music sessions/gigs in pubs and elsewhere were suddenly stopped and after the initial shock of it all we (my husband Matt and I) decided to start a live stream on my Facebook Page – it was well received and because of that, we haven’t stopped it just yet! Our next live stream is tonight, Thurs 6th August 8:30pm – we’d love you all to join us.
We have thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with viewers whilst sorely missing the actual meeting of other musicians and audience. We are glad to have made a little difference to some with our music and chat.
You can use the Facebook Like Page button in order to get notification of other videos etc. Or just follow this link to view past videos in full.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/AineHeslinMusic/1141357042901931/
Each uploaded video has about 30 minutes of music and song with a little chit-chat thrown in…please accept the relaxed nature of it with kindness!!
2020….!
Belated message to you followers of my website aineheslinmusic.com – on 13th Feb 2020, I lost my session-partner Jimmy Clancy to cancer and it was a very difficult time for me and for all who played regularly with him. My apologies for abandoning the website for some time now..
You can look through the photos in Gallery or the posts further back in the blog on my Homepage and you will see many lovely photos of Jimmy and all the sessions we hosted together in Cruises Bar in Ennis, Ireland. Jimmy – may you rest in peace and happiness with all the wonderful musicians who have gone before you and we wish your wife Nuala, sons James, John and Mark and all the family strength in times ahead.
Hi to all who used to check out this website. I’m afraid that I have abandoned it for the last couple of years – my sincere apologies – now, I have decided to rev up the website engines again as my recent ‘quarantine’ hobby has given me renewed motivation and energy!
I’m going to share a page full of pencil sketches I did back in the period 2005-2011 – at the time of making this website I had ‘hidden’ them in a back page because I learned that it wasn’t good to redirect my musical audience to other aspects of my life, such as art.
This year however, with the COVID-19 a crisis all over the world – it’s become the norm for creative people to diversify a little. There have been no gigs, no sessions and no meeting up for the past few months but musicians all over the world have been doing Live streams on Facebook (we have done this too!) and exploring other ways to use their creativity.
Below is an excerpt from the project I’ve been doing (#the100dayproject). I have always loved how soft toys are so valuable to children and we still had a lot of ours in storage – I have been attempting to capture something of the character of each toy in short, daily sketches! (Click on the page Áine’s Sketches for more)
Music!
I have not at all forgotten my music and indeed have composed a few tunes during this quarantine period of COVID – 19. But please read on..
Mini-sessions
For the past 11 weeks, my husband Matt and I have done a weekly Live stream on my Facebook music page https://www.facebook.com/AineHeslinMusic/
It’s a half hour of tunes and songs and we’ve been welcoming family, friends, followers and complete strangers to join with us in passing the time with a bit of music!
We are not sure how long more we will continue the Live streams but we’re very happy that people are enjoying them from different corners of the world as well as home here in Clare!
St. Patrick’s Day in Carrigaholt, Co. Clare!
Áine with Orla Coughlan and Mairéad Considine, Lisseycasey.
Great to be spending St. Patrick’s Day-evening at Keanes Bar Carrigaholt where we’ll (Áine and Matt Heslin, Orla Coughlan and Mairéad Considine)
meet with our friend Mags Keane (hostess) – the recent recipient of Clare Communities Volunteer of the Year award!!! Mags loves the music and is superb at encouraging and promoting local musicians as well as everything happening in the community.
See you all there and we’ll celebrate with music and song.
The Latest News!
Hi all, I’m delighted to announce that my latest recording The Tunes Foundry 2 is produced and ready for sale – see more details in my website here. Also I’ve produced the Tunebook of Newly Composed Irish Tunes and am thrilled with it! Details also here in the website (for sale separately from the cds). Here are a couple of photos…
Finally LAUNCHING these this weekend at The Sanctuary in Cruises Pub in Ennis on Sunday 25th Nov 2018 from 6:30pm – 7:30/8pm!
All welcome to come – please bring instruments and we’ll have a bit of a seisiún (old tunes!) to finish. I’ll have some guests too. I’m looking for a crowd this Sun eve as a thank you to Pat and Teresa who have been super supporters of myself and Jimmy Clancy at our Thursday sessions! 🙂
Book and both albums will be available for purchase at the launch but all can be bought @ Kilbaha Gallery & Crafts and @Custy’s Music Shop as well as here on the SHOP page Shop and through the Aine Heslin Music facebook page @ Aine Heslin Music )
Anyone for last minute pre-orders now…
https://fundit.ie/project/the-tunes-foundry–2-new-compositions
Yes, it’s that time – you can book your pre-order CD ‘The Tunes Foundry 2’ and/or Tune-book (to include the new tunes from both CDs)
today
Tues 21st Aug 2018 up until 16:00 (4pm local time) and I will only be delighted to sign it and post it out to you as soon as it’s completed (within a month all going well) – before the first Launch! You can get started learning/teaching etc.
Composed in honour of Jimmy Clancy, co-host of a weekly session in Cruises Bar, Ennis.
New compositions coming..
A Fund it campaign ( https://fundit.ie/project/the-tunes-foundry–2-new-compositions) started – if you support music projects/new compositions/new Irish music (traditional style) or if you have been following my story so far – please read on.
This new album in production is called The Tunes Foundry 2. When I’m composing I always use my tinwhistle to try out the new phrases.. so I’ve used the whistle entirely on this cd – no flute this time. Hopefully the whistle will give a nice clear version of each tune that I’ve recorded. It’s the only time really that I use my whistle as I continue to use my flute in sessions for all other tunes! Matt is accompanying me with guitar on a lot of the tracks. I once again asked Dave Keary of Red Door Studios in Limerick to record for me and thankfully he had time to do it this March/April – a great studio engineer and a lovely guy!
Each track on this album will have just one tune on it which should make it easy for you to decide which new tune(s) you like and therefore will make it easier to learn too. There will be between 25 and 30 tracks.
The other half of my new project this year is the production of a Tune-book containing most of the new tunes from The Tunes Foundry (click on Music page/Reviews/Shop for more info) and The Tunes Foundry 2 – so up to 50 new tunes. It’s been really exciting working with Laura Ugur in Corofin, Co Clare getting all the tunes in PDF format and she has been invaluable in working out the notes in abc format too so that the tunes can be played by midi player. (I’m not even sure I said all that correctly! lol ) Anyway, the book will be a useful tool for some, I’m certain.
If you would like to buy either the new album or the new Tune-book why not have a look at the Fund it page where you can pre-order them and that will help in the actual funding of the project! I intend to get it finished soon so as it will be useful for music teachers who might like new tunes for competitions/concerts etc. for the new school year. (Check out the rewards section for those who pre-order!)
Composed in honour of Jimmy Clancy, co-host of a weekly session in Cruises Bar, Ennis.
Thurs June 14th
This Thurs 13th at Cruises Bar, Sorcha Curtin (concertina-player from Miltown Malbay) is standing in for me – she’s a fine player. She will join Jimmy Clancy from 8:30pm and of course they welcome friends and visitors alike! I hope to be back by next Thurs. Will miss it!! See you soon and take it handy Jimmy! 
😉 Here are a couple of pics. (Ps I’ve been doing more writing/more recording and the new tunes cd and tune-book are making good progress – I’ll let you know more details soon)
Thurs April 19th – Music!
Our usual weekly session is on this Thurs 19th in Cruises Bar, Ennis (https://www.facebook.com/cruises.bar/) and we’ll just have to wait and see who visits this week! Last week we had a great variety of musicians and singers too and I’ll upload some fine photos taken by our friend and musician, Patrick Keating who divided his time between the accordion and his zoom lens! Sarah Croker, a singer-songwriter with a wonderfully sweet voice travelled up from Tipperary and had encouraged a touring band called Swampcandy to come to the session too. We invited them to play naturally and wow, they were amazing! (http://swampcandy.com/) I can see by their videos that we only saw the tip of the iceberg!! We had plenty of musicians who visit us quite regularly too – we love seeing them return.
Joey, member of Swampcandy on double bass. Photo by Patrick Keating
Ruben, member of Swampcandy and Sarah Croker. Photo by Patrick Keating
Gina, member of Swampcandy. Photo by Patrick Keating
Ruben, from Swampcandy, Sarah Croker and Andy Lambert. Photo by Patrick Keating
Ruben and Sarah. Photo by Patrick Keating
Jim Maher on accordion, Ruben on guitar. Photo by Patrick Keating
Sarah Croker on vocals/guitar. Singer-songwriter from Co.Tipperary. See https://www.facebook.com/sarahcrokersmusic/ Photo by Patrick Keating
Áine Heslin playing one of her own tunes on tinwhistle with John Clancy, banjo, in background. Photo by Patrick Keating
Hands of Brian Burke on flute, Bernie Kerwin on flute, Jim Maher on accordion Ruben on mandola and Joey on double bass. Photo by Patrick Keating
Catherine Mulhearne on flute. Photo by Patrick Keating
Ruben on mandola and Mary Caldwell on accordion. Photo by Patrick Keating
Andy Lambert on bouzouki/vocals. John Clancy on banjo. Photo by Patrick Keating
Thurs 22nd March at Cruises, Ennis!
We had a really great night last Thurs (see pictures below taken by Andrew Lambert)! Join us this Thurs 22nd March from 8:30pm and we’ll see what tunes we’ll play and who will play them with us! We love company!!
#loveirishmusic #lovethecraic #alwaysdifferent #coclare #wildatlanticway
Orla McGovern, Patricia Kerwin, Jim Maher, Lenka Hoffmanova, Bernie Kerwin, John Malone and Aoife. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Áine Heslin, Jimmy Clancy, Orla McGovern and Patricia Kerwin. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Orla McGovern, Jim Maher, Patricia Kerwin (dancing), Bernie Kerwin, John Malone and Aoife. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Orla McGovern, Patricia Kerwin, Jim Maher, Lenka Hoffmanova, Bernie Kerwin, John Malone and Aoife. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Lenka Hoffmanova, Brian Burke, Bernie Kerwin, John Malone, Aoife ? Yoshinori Fukuda, Misaki Fukuda and Mary Caldwell. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Áine Heslin, Misaki Fukuda, Yoshinori Fukuda,and Orla McGovern. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Lenka Hoffmanova, Brian Burke and Bernie Kerwin. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Thurs March 15th at Cruises Bar – Irish music!
Open session with Jimmy Clancy (accordion) and Áine Heslin (flute) from 8:30pm. Join us for a cosy pre-St Patrick’s Day session indoors and get geared up for the actual St. Patrick’s Day festivities!!
Feeling very sad though at Ireland having lost a master-piper today – Rest in Peace Liam Óg O’ Flynn, and to celebrate his contribution to Irish music we will play something in his honour – ‘Newfoundland’ from Shaun Davey’s suite The Brendan Voyage.
Here are photos from last week’s session and most of them lovely shots from Patrick Keating who also played accordion with us! Note Ronan Burrenn from ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’.
Geraldine on whistle and Lisa on fiddle. Photo by Patrick Keating.
Patrick, Jim, Geraldine and Lisa.
I think this was Lisa? on fiddle. Photo by Patrick Keating.
Matt on guitar and song.. Photo by Patrick Keating.
Howard on tinwhistle. Photo by Patrick Keating.
James on low whistle. Photo by Patrick Keating.
Colm on flute and Ronan. Photo by Patrick Keating.
Open session on International Women’s Day! Cruises Bar, Ennis – 8:30pm.
Join us for some music, song and whatever else comes up on Thurs 8th March at 8:30pm! Jimmy Clancy on accordion and Áine Heslin on flute/whistle and all of you taking part in the fun.
No photos from last week other than snow photos and you’ve probably enjoyed enough of them so I’ll post a video soon with sunshine (maybe) in the background..
We’ll play some lovely tunes with reference to ladies/girls and if you want to offer some ideas please do comment below! (See some archive photos!)
Áine, Jimmy Clancy and Tony Illanes, fiddle. (Brian Burke on flute behind and Gerry Eustace on mandolin) Fleadh Nua May 2017 Cruises. Photo by Andrew Lambert.
Áine Heslin on flute with Paula O’ Regan on fiddle. Photo by Betty Connor.
Áine Heslin and Jimmy Clancy. Photo by Betty Connor.
Storm Emma dances her jig tonight!
Tonight’s weekly Open Session with Jimmy Clancy and Áine Heslin is cancelled due to the Red Alert put on the nation – no point in driving through blizzard conditions to play tunes if everyone else is at home by the fire listening to the radio!! Hope you all stay warm and safe tonight and this weekend wherever you are. #stormemma #beastfromtheeast #sessions #coclare
We had a lovely session last week with some friends and visitors – photos below for you to look at. See you next Thurs – International Women’s Day! March 8th for music @CruisesBarEnnis
Jimmy Clancy on accordion.
John Curtin on guitar and Michael McGrath on accordion.
Jim Maher on accordion.
Jean-Baptiste Samzun on fiddle (after getting off the plane at Shannon en-route to Doolin for the Russell weekend!)
Andy Lambert on bouzouki and vocals.
John Clancy on banjo and Jim Maher on accordion.
Michael McGrath on accordion, Jean-Baptiste Samzun on fiddle.
John Curtin on guitar, mandolin and voice.
John Clancy on banjo
Thurs Feb 22nd – Open session at Cruises Bar, Ennis
Lots of photos from last week – we were extra busy as we had a large contingent from the US of Old Time musicians warming up for their Old Time Festival in Lisdoonvarna last weekend!! How exciting our night was!! Come join us tonight at 8:30pm for our regular (??) Open Session of Irish trad music with Jimmy Clancy, Áine Heslin and friends.
This session means a lot to Jimmy and myself – we love and encourage the new friendships made every week – it is as important to us as the music. Even though I have written over 100 tunes I don’t consider a session to be the place to demonstrate them (I usually play one or two popular sets though) and that was why I did my mini-summer concerts last year. People come to play, with others, tunes they have in common and we all appreciate the tunes that new instrumentalists bring that we might not have heard for years!
Having said that I love it when one or two of my tunes touch a chord with musicians and they take the time and effort to learn them – TUNES have a life of their own I’m convinced!!
#sessions #irishtraditionalmusic #oldtime #coclare #wildatlanticway #shannonairport #cruisesbar
Emmy Truckenmiller, Dan Levenson, Howard Winrow, Jim on accordion, Paula and Patsy on concertinas!
Jim, Paula, Patsy, Greg Smith and Bob Denton.
Old Time Flatfoot dance meets old Irish Sean-nós dance!! Thanks Dan and Patricia.
Greg Smith, Orla McGovern behind on keyboards and Bob Denton.
Lorene Smith on double bass.
Can’t decide which I love more – Bob’s bright banjo or his fab smile!!
Andy Lambert (organiser of the Irish Old Time Festival last weekend in Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare) and Lorena Smith.
Open session in Ennis tonight.
February 15th – (Thursday) from 8:30pm at Cruises Bar with Jimmy Clancy, Áine Heslin and friends. Had a great session of visiting musicians last Thurs – see photos below (missed some people, our apologies.) We also had some lovely sean-nós dancing from Patricia and a little from Mary – but no photos I’m afraid. Next time! Come join us tonight.
Aoife from Kilmaley on concertina.
Michael on fiddle and Jim on accordion.
Aoife on concertina and Andy on bouzouki.
Mary and Patricia discussing sean-nós steps and Patricia and Aoife playing concertinas.
Sorcha on concertina, Mike on flute and Howard on whistle.
Thurs night open session, Co. Clare.
Jimmy Clancy and Áine Heslin invite you to join the session from 8:30pm Thurs nights at Cruises Bar, Ennis – a great group of musicians come in whenever they can make it so there are nearly always old friends to meet – new people come in for tunes/songs too – so friends to make!
(A good time to make arrangements to come to Ennis and experience a 3 day Irish Traditional Music festival called Fleadh Nua which is held in May! See link: http://www.fleadhnua.com/)
See some photos from last week:
Damien on banjo, Jim on accordion and Howard on whistle.
Orla on keyboards and Ronán recording the music for his Facebook group ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’.
Seamus on flute, James on whistle and low whistle and Damien on banjo.
James on whistle, Damien on banjo and Jim on accordion.
February 1st 2018 – a session in Cruises.
Well, last week’s session must have been our last in Jan because this one coming…..is
Join us at 8:30pm in Cruises Bar Thurs night… 1st Feb!
Last week there was Jimmy Clancy on accordion and myself, Áine Heslin on flute. As always we had lovely guest instrumentalists and we had tunes all evening even though for the previous two weeks we had four singers at least each night! But then, a young singer who had made her way up from Tipperary just to give us a couple of songs…..arrived as we were finishing and gave us a couple of beautifully-sung songs, accompanying herself on guitar. Ronán from Ireland’s Inner Beauty recorded some videos.
#enniscoclare #sessions #irishtraditionalmusic #accordion #flute #tinwhistle #irelandsinnerbeauty
Some photos below of last week.
25th Jan in Cruises, Ennis.
Join us for tunes tonight from 8:30pm in Cruises Bar, Ennis. Jimmy Clancy and friends! I’m playing a few NEW tunes if there is time and we can relish this wonderful winter weather…or we can dream of sunny days……!!
Last week we had our friend Gerry for the last time before he headed back to Spain again – but he wants to return – often! 🙂 Gerry gave us a fine rendition of the song ‘She moved through the fair’ while accompanying himself on accordion!! Beautiful!
See photos below of our session last week and pop in to us tonight!
Gerry playing his most recent instrument!
Joe Curtin playing harmonica and singing.
Brian, Siobhán and Matt.
Joe, Jim and Brian.
Gerry on fiddle.
Siobhán and Matt – sister and brother! Both lovely singers.
Matt singing.
Jimmy Clancy.
Thurs night-life! ;)
Cruises Bar open session from 8:30pm with Jimmy Clancy and myself – Jimmy says he has new visitors! Jimmy nearly always has visiting musicians – he is like a magnet and it’s brilliant as it’s lovely to meet people who have been lots of times and then new people who are curious about the session! Our regular musician friends are very welcoming too so there is great interaction and craic going on for all.
Gerry and Peggy – both lovely singers!
Paula on fiddle.
Jim on accordion.
Gerry singing but also plays fiddle.
Gerry singing.
Orla taking a quick break from piano acc to do a favourite tune on whistle.
Matt singing.
Fine music happening….!
Who would think it – in January?!:)
In Cruises Bar last Thurs at our open session there were at least ten musicians besides ourselves – isn’t that just a statement about Irish traditional music? We love to get together in a relaxed atmosphere and just play tunes here in Co Clare – and of course the bit of chat and fun helps but mostly, it’s the music. (Thurs 11th Jan 8:30pm Cruises Bar, Ennis)
Ronan did a bit of recording for his Facegroup Group, Ireland’s Inner Beauty and Andy Lambert took some great photos in between playing lots of bouzouki and singing too! Here are some, and a couple I took myself. (Colm Nestor was gone before the photos began but played lovely flute for the first half)
Photo by Andy Lambert.
Monochrome by Ronan Burrenn
Fiona Kerwin. Photo by Andy Lambert.
My friend Rosaleen came in to listen! 🙂
Gerry Denis with Andy Lambert.
We’ve made it to 2018!! Yaay!
After all that has happened in the past few years – we’re lucky to be here and looking forward to meeting our friends tonight at Cruises Bar, Ennis for tunes and a bit of craic! Join myself and Jimmy Clancy from 8:30pm JANUARY 4th! 😉
Last week I captured a few hurried snaps – we had returning musician Jerry with us on fiddle and he played a couple of lovely ‘old timey’ tunes..we had lots of other friends playing/singing as well – it was lovely. Thanks guys for making our Thursdays so enjoyable. #friends #newyear2018 #cruisesbar #enniscoclare #irishtraditionalmusic #sessions
Thurs 28th Dec in Cruises, Ennis.
In between Christmas and New Year….tunes with Jimmy Clancy in Cruises Bar from 8:30pm! It’ll be an open session as usual and we welcome in/welcome back whoever wants to join our last Cruises session of 2017! Here are a few photos from last week – see you tonight maybe – and hopefully lots of you in 2018!
Jimmy, Matt, Jim (hidden), John and Paula.
John, Paula, Howard and Martha.
Paula, Brian, Howard, Michael (hidden) and Martha.
Matt, John, Paula, Brian and Howard.
Colm and Patsy.
A New Year’s gift?
‘The Tunes Foundry’ CD. https://aineheslinmusic.com/shop/ for more info. Also for sale in digital download format at cdbaby https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/aineheslin where you can hear short clips from each track!
Celebration time!! Christmas IS celebration. Music…..:)
Thurs 21st Dec at Cruises Bar, Ennis – Jimmy Clancy and I and of course Pat and Teresa (bar management!) will be hosting an OPEN session again – room for all at the inn! We had some lovely friends last week and very
Great tunes with Pat, Jim, John, Patsy and Howard.
good tunes too! This week Jimmy and I would like to wish all the people who are away from home for Christmas the very best for the season – to look after yourself, maybe make contact even if it’s with just one person, to have a little moment for yourself even if you’re surrounded by lots of people and to remember that we’re thinking of you. We will play our traditional Irish music JUST FOR YOU this Thurs! Happy Christmas/ Happy holidays – just …some happy times!
#irishmusic #christmas #sessions #coclare #wildatlanticway #ennis #mentalhealth
Howard on whistle, (Ronan getting ready to take some live video) and Colm on flute.
Jimmy, Pat and Jim on accordions and John on banjo.
Colm on flute and Andy on bouzouki.
Now, those photos above were taken by me with my phone but I’m going to upload some taken by Pat Keating (when he wasn’t playing the accordion!!) – they’re lovely I’m sure you’ll agree. Of course – he’s not in them.
John, Howard and Ronan. Taken by Pat Keating.
Colm Andy and Áine – taken by Pat Keating.
Andy, Áine and Jimmy – taken by Pat Keating.
Jim, (Ronan filming), John, Howard, and Patricia dancing. Taken by Pat Keating.
Jim, Patricia enjoying the fun and John. Taken by Pat Keating.
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