danninagh

A well-known name on the Manx, Scottish and Estonian traditional music scenes, Daniel was born and raised in the Isle of Man, where he was introduced to Manx traditional music. Throughout much of his childhood, he studied composition, accompaniment and performance skills under the guidance of some of the genre’s most well-respected musicians. This led to him performing from a fairly young age, playing with many of the island’s top traditional musicians.

Upon moving to Edinburgh, Scotland in 2015, Daniel became involved in the local traditional music scene, where he quickly became one of the city’s most sought after accompanists, which gave him the opportunity to learn tunes from many different backgrounds, and to diversify his guitar, piano and bouzouki skills.

In 2017, Daniel was invited to join a new band, Imbolc, who were to appear at that year’s Cwlwm Celtaidd festival in South Wales. His first professional festival performance, Cwlwm Celtaidd introduced him to the joy of performing to audiences from outside his usual circles, and he has since performed all over the world, with a growing fanbase in both Europe and North America.

In 2018, he formed Kishmul, playing tenor banjo and bouzouki alongside Ciaran McGhee, Gaetan Brajus and César Joughin, which brought together all of the influences so far in his life, with ideas from the Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Estonia and many other places being put together to create a new sound. They released a limited-edition EP for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019.

Since 2020, he has been performing with Boston born fiddle player Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe. During 2021, they travelled to France and Estonia, performing at countless venues and festivals including Viljandi Folk Music Festival, Mooste Elohelü, Võro-Seto Noortefest, and Philly Joe’s Jazz Club to name but a few. Their debut single, Daybreak, was released in November 2021, and their second, Tasmania, is due for release in December.