The Haar

Buy our debut album The Haar HERE.
Pre-order our second album Where Old Ghosts Meet (Out 29th April 2022) HERE 

Contact Katie Whitehouse with all media and booking enquiries.

Matching the fresh talent of traditional Irish singer Molly Donnery with three of the most exciting instrumentalists on the folk and traditional music circuit: Cormac Byrne (Uiscedwr, Seth Lakeman), Adam Summerhayes and Murray Grainger (The Ciderhouse Rebellion, Words of a Fiddler’s Daughter), the band’s music is characterised by ‘live reactive composition’ – an improvised space from which Molly’s pure and unadulterated vocals can emerge.

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As ever with The Haar, tracks originate in one creative burst, and are recorded in a single take – spontaneous and never to be repeated in exactly the same way. Their eponymous debut was heralded as “a splendid balance of swirling instrumental magic and beautifully sung narratives” by Folk Radio UK, and Where Old Ghosts Meet promises more magic across eight tracks that grew from a desire to explore old favourites, to dig into traditional Irish gems for new inspiration and insights and intuitively follow the spark of new ideas.

WHERE OLD GHOSTS MEET (the album – out 29 April) 

WILD ROVER (single release  – out 17th March)

Adam Summerhayes – fiddle

Murray Grainger – accordion and vibrandoneon 

Cormac Byrne – bodhrán

Molly Donnery – vocal 

Traditional Irish songs tackling love, poverty and oppression – common subjects that link the peoples of these islands.

This is music that is not afraid to transcend borders. Born of the traditional musics that all members have grown up with and absorbed, it is unapologetic in pushing at the edges in order to create the band’s own unique and compelling sound. 

Anachie Gordon – one that got away from the album – video made in lock down

‘The Haar’ – debut album (release date 5 June 2020)

Molly Donnery – vocals

Cormac Byrne – bodhrán and percussion

Murray Grainger – accordion

Adam Summerhayes – fiddle

BUY THE ALBUM HERE

Two musicians stand in a crowded pub on the Irish island of Inis Oírr; a flame-haired girl silences the room with a quiet unaccompanied song – Molly’s voice was worth the silence. An impulsive decision follows, and at sunset the next day, Molly, Adam and Cormac meet at a timeless shipwreck on the wild Atlantic shoreline. They sit on a rock and a simple traditional song emerges – just voice, fiddle and bodhrán. No rehearsal, no arrangement – the song performed intuitively … the seed of an idea that grows into The Haar, the lineup completed when Molly and Murray (accordion) meet for the first time in the studio to record Irish traditional songs tackling love, poverty and oppression –subjects that link the peoples of these islands. In the studio, the music flows from the bands first notes together – reminiscent of the haar, a sea mist that rolls in from the Irish and North Seas: fleeting, intangible, headily thick, suddenly overwhelming and then unexpectedly clearing for a glimpse of precious sunlight. The band make no plans, just letting the music create itself; the tracks on the album are the first and only versions, as unpredictable and ephemeral as the haar itself. 

“We need more music like this; spontaneous, alive and affecting, The Haar will take you on a journey and have you appreciating the purest of life’s pleasures. Wonderful stuff.” Folk Radio UK.

“Very rarely does an album appear unheralded and threaten to make a major impact. The Haar is one of those rarities”  folking.com