De Dannan

De Danann has played an influential role in the development of modern Irish music. Although they're remained rooted in Ireland's musical tradition, the band's virtuosic instrumental skills and expressive vocalizing has enabled them to reach out to a worldwide audience. According to Earle Hitchner, music writer for The Wall Street Journal and The Irish Echo, "any serious discussion of the evolution of Irish traditional music over the past quarter century must include the enormous contribution of De Danann." The seeds that grew into De Danann were planted during informal, Sunday-morning jam sessions at Hughes Pub in Spiddal, a small town in County Galway. Two participants of these sessions, Frankie Gavin, a fiery fiddler, and Yorkshire-born Alec Finn, a bouzouki and guitar player who had previously played with Connemara, agreed to pool their resources. Joined by bohran and bones player Johnny "Ringo" McDonogh and banjo player Charlie Piggott, Gavin and Finn began to perform as De Danann, taking their name from the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of characters in Irish mythology. Prior to recording their self-titled debut album in 1975, the group added vocalist Delores Keane. Over the past two decades, De Danann has gone through numerous personnel changes with only Gavin and Finn remaining from the original group. Lead vocalists have included Mary Black, Maura O'Connell, Johnny Moynihan, Eleanor Shanley, and their current singer, Tomie Fleming. Past instrumentalists include accordion aces Jackie Daly and Aidan Coffey. The band's present lineup features Cork-born bodhran player Colm Murphy and accordionist Derek Hickey. De Danann has received "Best Celtic Album" awards from NAIRD (National Association of Independent Record Distributors) for their albums Star-Spangled Molly in 1981, Song for Ireland in 1983, and Ballroom in 1987. Their 1996 album Hibernian Rhapsody was inspired by the late Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) of Queen, with the title track based on Queen's hit "Bohemian Rhapsody."

from Wikipedia:

De Dannan (originally Dé Danann) was an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in An Spidéal, County Galway, subsequently inviting Dolores Keane (vocals) to join the band. They named themselves Dé Danann after the legendary Irish tribe, Tuatha Dé Danann. The late fiddler Mickey Finn is also acknowledged to have been a founder member of De Dannan.

The group released their eponymous debut album Dé Danann in 1975. Keane left to marry John Faulkner in 1977. (Multi-instrumentalist Faulkner recorded 3 folk albums together with singer Keane.) To fill the vacancy, Dé Danann brought in Johnny Moynihan for the second album Selected Jigs Reels and Songs, which featured a bodhrán solo by McDonagh (this album has never been released on CD, reportedly because the master tapes were lost). The Mist Covered Mountain featured various older traditional singers, and on Star-Spangled Molly they were joined by Maura O'Connell. For reasons that have never been made clear, they changed the spelling of the group from "Dé Danann" to "De Dannan".

After the departure of Maura, they brought in Mary Black for two albums. Like Maura and Dolores before her, she has gone on to explore country, blues and jazz, hopping backwards and forwards between Nashville and Dublin. After Mary Black, Dolores Keane returned to the fold for two albums. Other singers with the group have included Eleanor Shanley(1988-1992), Tommy Fleming (1994 - 1997) and Andrew Murray (1997 - 2000).

On the instrumental side, Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn were the only constant members of the group. Jackie Daly (accordion) is a star in his own right and later went on to join the group Patrick Street. He was replaced on accordion in 1983 by Martin O'Connor until 1987, Aidan Coffey until 1995, and Derek Hickey until 2001. The fiddle-accordion-bouzouki combination became synonymous with the inspirational De Dannan instrumental sound. In 1988 Colm Murphy replaced Johnny McDonagh playing the bodhrán. In 1980 De Dannan had a surprise hit single in Ireland with the Beatles song Hey Jude. As an indication of their diversity, they also recorded Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" (which they jokingly retitled "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (in Galway)"), Bohemian Rhapsody, and Jewish klezmer tunes, learned from bluegrass and Klezmer superstar, Andy Statman.

The band members went their separate ways in 2003 at which point, the name De Dannan was copyrighted by Alec Finn. This led to a high-profile dispute with Frankie Gavin in 2009 when the latter used the name for his pre-existing Hibernian Rapsody band.