AN Anglo/Irish folk band who provide a radically fresh, boundary-pushing take on traditional songs play The Barrel House Ballroom in Totnes next week.

Featuring not one but two FATEA Instrumentalists of the Year Award winners, The Haar take a familiar tune and turn it into something fresh that mysteriously feels as if you have known it forever.

The band brings the formidable singing talent of All-Ireland Scór na nÓg winner Molly Donnery combined with three of the most exciting instrumentalists on the folk and traditional music scene in Cormàc Byrne (Show of Hands/Seth Lakeman), Adam Summerhayes, and Murray Grainger (both of the FATEA award-winning The Ciderhouse Rebellion).

Known for taking a familiar tune and turning it into something breathtakingly fresh and ambitious, this band of high level improvisers produce ever-changing musical soundscapes, while Molly lets her sublime vocals flow to stunning effect.

Their latest album ‘Where Old Ghosts Meet’ received multiple rave reviews and has paved the way for outstanding festival appearances at Shrewsbury, Beardy Folk, and at other prestigious stages during their successful UK tours.

The band has its origins in a chance meeting between Adam, Cormac and Molly at a trad session at Craiceann Bodhrán Festival, Inis Oírr, resulting in an improvised live performance recorded by the shipwreck of the Plassey on the wild Atlantic seafront.

It was to become typical of the unique ‘live reactive composition’ that characterises their music. With the addition of master accordionist Grainger, they entered the studio at the end of 2019 to record their debut album ’The Haar’ with no plans or arrangements, guided only by the live musical landscapes they created – the music was recorded as it flowed, often in the first and only take.

Tickets for the gig on Thursday, May 8, can be booked at https://barrelhousetotnes.co.uk.