Irish Music w/ Randal Bays, Susan Waters, & Paddy League

Randal Bays Randal Bays is an American fiddler who’s well known on both sides of the Atlantic for his fiery fiddling and his devotion to the traditional Irish style of playing. He grew up in Terre Haute, still has family there, and was recently made a member of the Wabash Valley Musicians Hall of Fame. He has a special love for the fiddle traditions of Counties Clare and Galway, where he’s spent many a night playing with the masters of that intricate music. Randal has recorded and toured in the US, Ireland and Europe with such musicians as Martin Hayes, James Kelly, Daithí Sproule, James Keane, and many more. He's performed and taught Irish fiddle at most of the major North American festivals and in 2021 he received the Irish Artist in America Achievement Award from O’Flaherty Irish Music in Texas. Randal lives in the Seattle area and is the Artistic Director of Cascadia Irish Music Week.

“Randal Bays is one of the finest Irish fiddlers one could ever hope to hear.” - Fiddler Magazine

Susan Waters is a native of Vermont, where she grew up in the midst of a musical family, immersed in the instrumental and song traditions of that part of the world. As a teen she traveled widely in Europe with various singing and dancing ensembles. She took up the fiddle in her 20s and soon developed a strong, rhythmic style perfectly suited to the fiddle music of western Ireland. Susan met Randal in the late 90s and they've been playing tunes together ever since, finding time along the way to get married and raise two sons, both fine musicians themselves.

Multi-instrumentalist Paddy League grew up in a family of Irish and Greek migrants, and by his teenage years in the Washington, DC area began performing the music of both traditions on a variety of percussion and string instruments. Paddy spent decades traveling and studying in Ireland, Greece and Brazil. As a guitarist, bouzouki player, percussionist, and singer, he has performed and recorded with John Doyle, Mick Moloney, Randal Bays, Martin Hayes, Grey Larsen, and many other artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Alongside playing and composing music, Paddy is assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Florida State University and director of the Center for Music of the America.

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYcK26WbUTE

Excerpt from a concert last weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p4EkMIFo7w