Album Notes

“Norah Rendell takes lead vocals with calm authority” Colin Randall, The Telegraph, UK

Rambles magazine describes Brian Miller as a guitarist “who really understands the music and doesn’t just play the chords”.

“Norah plays flute with a degree of style and sensitivity envied by many.” Tim Carroll, FolkWords

“sung and played superbly.” Maverick Magazine

In the Fall of 2005, Vancouver singer and flute player Norah Rendell and Twin Cities guitarist Brian Miller found themselves both living in Ireland in search of a deeper understanding of the traditional Irish music they had fallen in love with back home. They bravely played their first concerts as a duo for discerning Irish crowds in Limerick and Cork with great response and are now peforming extensively in the American Mid-West with plans to go north and west to Norah's native Canadian soil in 2008.

Norah Rendell began her professional music career as a successful Baroque recorder player but in 2000, she picked up the tin whistle seeking a new musical direction. Soon she was taking the whistle to every Irish session in Vancouver and getting up in the wee hours of the morning to learn jigs and reels before going to work as a waitress at a breakfast café.

Norah fell in love with the wooden concert flute during a trip to Ireland’s western countryside in 2003 and decided that it would become her main passion, other than singing, of course...

Norah is probably best known for her rich and soulful singing of traditional songs, and the odd foray into gospel and world music when she lived in Vancouver. She is a founding member of a cappella world music group The No Shit Shirleys, five-piece Canadian roots band Cleia, Celtic trio The Maenads, and the UK-based band The Outside Track with whom she has toured extensively throughout the UK and Ireland.

As the recipient of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and two time winner of the J.B.C. Watkins award, she completed a two-year Masters in Traditional Irish flute and singing at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick which is where she met Brian Miller.

Rambles magazine praises Brian Miller as a guitarist “who really understands the music and doesn’t just play the chords”. Also an accomplished flute player and singer, Miller began playing Irish music as a high-schooler up in Bemidji, Minnesota. He has been a highly visible character in the Twin Cities Irish music scene since 1998, while often sneaking away to his other adopted home of Cork, Ireland.

As a member of many bands including 5 Mile Chase, The Gaels, Gan Bua, The Tommie Cunniffe Trio, Laura and the Lads and The Doon Ceili Band he has performed throughout the US, Canada and Ireland. The Irish Times recently called his guitar accompaniment “superb”.