‘Night Ride To Armagh’

Brian Finnegan [born 20 August 1969] is a celebrated and world-renowned Irish flute and tin whistle player from Armagh. Finnegan began playing whistle at age eight and flute at age ten as a student of the Armagh Pipers Club under the tuition of the Vallely family.

Finnegan began playing whistle at age eight and flute at age ten as a student of the Armagh Pipers Club under the tuition of the Vallely family. He first came to public attention with the Irish group ‘Upstairs In A Tent’, and then in 1993 he made a solo album When the Party’s Over, which was recorded at Redesdale Studios.

In 1995 he formed ‘Flook’. Originally a three-piece who toured as ‘Three Nations Flutes’ with Sarah Allen and Mike McGoldrick, they later added Ed Boyd on guitar forming ‘Flook’.

When Mike left the band in 1997, John Joe Kelly [a frequent guest musician] was added as a band member on bodhrán. Flook continue to tour all over the world with fans across the globe. In 2006 ‘Flook’ were awarded best band in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Brian is a frequent tutor for Folkworks and Burwell Bash where he has been a tutor since 1994. He tours regularly across the USA, Latin America and Ireland with guitarist William Coulter with whom he released the EP ‘Toward the Sun’ in 2015. He also plays with an influential Russian rock group Aquarium, both live and on their studio albums [since 2009].

He worked on cross genre project Parallelogram who toured across the UK in 2007 blending Jazz and Folk. Parallelogram featured fiddler Aidan O’Rourke, accordionist Martin Green, guitarist Kris Drever, saxophonist Pete Wareham, bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer John Blease.

Brian played with his own trio, with guitarist Ian Stephenson and drummer Jim Goodwin. They formed a four-piece, KAN, with those musicians and fiddler Aidan O’Rourke.

One of Kan’s most memorable musical tracks is ‘Night Ride To Armagh’. This Brian Finnegan composition is a wonderful tribute to his hometown – Armagh. It is a mesmerizing tune which captures the very essence of this rich cultural city.

Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon Council were delighted to commission a new recording of this inspiring piece of music for the launch of their new destination website and as the soundtrack for their new ‘Visit Armagh’ video.