Award winning Donegal band do an exclusive UK launch of their new Album at Festival

One of Ireland’s hottest new traditional Irish acts ‘The Henry Girls’, from Inishowen in County Donegal, will perform an exclusive UK launch of their new CD ‘Dawn’, at this years Manchester Irish Festival.

The band who have just been nominated for a IFTA (Irish Film and Television Award) for their original soundtrack on the Aidan Quinn film “A Shine of Rainbows”.

Their television appearances include RTE’s The Late Late Show, and Nationwide, First Stop on BBC2, Féilte on TG4, and SRL on BBC2. They came under the national spotlight in 2005, when they finished third out of 5,000 acts in RTE’s “You’re A Star,” the national televised competition to select an Irish Eurovision entry.

The special concert takes place on Friday 12 March 2010 in the upstairs acoustic room of m19 bar in Levenshulme and is one of the highlights of the area’s two week tradfest and kick starts its St Patrick’s weekend celebrations.

The special event will also feature Manchester’s ‘Shake the Barley’ who are hoping to launch their own debut CD, plus performances from the award winning accordion duo ‘The Scally brothers’ and American banjo player – ‘Zoe Mulford’.

Tickets for the event are just £5 in advance, £7 on the door, with all the profits being donated to the South Manchester Youth Lourdes Pilgrimage.

The Henry Girls are Joleen(harp, vocals, piano, mandolin) Lorna (vocals, accordion, tin whistle, piano, thunder drum, chimes) and Karen McLaughlin(fiddle, vocals, piano) who are all sister, the band’s name comes from the local family nickname, Henry.

Band member, Joleen McLaughlin said "We are absolutely thrilled to be playing at the Manchester Irish Festival this year as not only is it our first gig in Manchester, its our first ever UK gig!

Manchester is a vibrant city, rich in heritage and culture and with a strong Irish connection, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to play. We are really looking forward to coming over."

The band who are described in the media as ‘an eclectic mix of folk, blues, Traditional Irish and world, with spine-tingling three part harmonies’ . They first came together in 2002 when they released their first album, Between Us that same year and was well received by critics.

Their second album, Morning Rush, was released in 2007 to even greater acclaim, with Irish Music Magazine describing it as “ very well crafted indeed, reflecting the diverse mix of musical traditions that have shaped and influenced their unique blend of country, traditional, jazz and roots - each of which they perform with considerable ease and enjoyment.”

It was 2009 that the girls were really capitulated into stardom when the producer of the now highly acclaimed film ‘A shine of Rainbows’ discovered them and commissioned them to write the soundtrack for his film. The soundtrack has gained them an international reputation with gigs all over the globe.

For more information log onto www.thehenrygirls.com