JOSEPHINE MARSH Band Saturday 23rd March Venue: Avenue Bar    9:00 pm

" Over the last two years Josephine Marsh and her band have established themselves as one of the most exciting traditional ensembles around. As a performing unit they play Irish traditional music with great passion, purity of style and stunning virtuosity. As far as I'm concerned this is truly a band with a future and it's only a matter of time before their praises will be sung wherever good traditional, world or acoustic music is played and appreciated" PJ Curtis, record producer/author and RTE 1, Lyric FM radio presenter - Click on image for Josephine's Website

To be regarded as 'a truly great traditional accordion player of individual style, grace and spirit', in a country which boasts of an excess of truly great and highly rated traditional musicians, is an accolade not to be taken lightly. Josephine Marsh is one such musician.

In the wake of her eponymously titled debut album in '96, which received excellent reviews in such music magazines and national papers as 'Hot Press', 'The Irish Times', 'The Irish Echo'(N.York),'Folk Roots' (U.K.), 'Rock 'n' Reel' (Scotland), 'The Irish Music Magazine', 'The Irish Voice' (N.York), 'Dirty Linen' (U.S.A.), etc. Josephine's reputation as an accordion player has carried her, and her band to perform at gigs and festivals in Europe, Australia, and the USA: where they played at the San Francisco Celtic Music Festival.

On St. Patrick's Day 1999 she, along with her brother Pat and singer Niamh Parsons, played for President Bill Clinton, Bertie Ahearn and many other dignitaries at Capitol Hill.

In 1997 her music was featured in a National Geographic film on the Famine. Josephine was also voted 'Best Rookie of the Year' and also was one of the runners up for 'Best Female Traditional Performer' by the Irish Music Magazine.

With her four-piece band, which includes the virtuoso mandolin/bouzouki player Declan Corey, Paul O Driscoll on double bass, and the latest addition to the group, guitarist/singer Tommy Carew, Josephine has successfully integrated her individual style and sound to an equally individual group sound and style.

Josephine's solo album has also been re-released world-wide in March 2000 and appears under the Tara Music Label. This label is also responsible for such artists as Davy Spillane, Christy Moore, Clannad, Stockton's Wing and Liam O Flynn, etc.

This is both group and individual traditional music delivered at its' very best; spirited, melodic, dynamic. A group to watch and listen to!