PRESS :: Reviews :: Interviews
Súgach Sámh / Happy Out
Niamh Ní Charra has released a startlingly mature collection...that further sculpts her musical identity with both grace and danger...A wonderful, unforced further step into the limelight.
Siobhan Long, The Irish Times - 4 Stars, 10/09/2010
Irish Times Full Review
Happy Out could well be one of the best albums of 2010, so don't miss it.
Alex Monaghan, Irish Music Magazine, November 2010
Irish Music Magazine Full Review
Súgach Sámh / Happy out is a refreshing sounding album that is steeped in tradition.
It gets a ten out of ten from us!
Alex Gallacher, Folk Radio UK, 25/12/2010
Folk Radio UK Full Review
This talented fiddler and concertinist, able singer, and budding composer displays her mettle once more.
Earle Hitchner's Top 30 of 2010 in The Irish Echo, Ceol column
...an impressive and thoroughly appealing Irish album release with its roots in the tradition.
David Kidman, Folk And Roots, 01/2011
Folk And Roots Full Review
...she's had our feet restless since we opened the CD. A lovely selection that deserves a listen and a read of the liner notes to truly appreciate the beauty of it all.
Jack Baker, Piping It In, IRISH AMERICAN NEWS, October 2010
Irish American News Full Review
Slow, whistful waltzes and airs, uptempo, uplifting jigs and reels give the album it's heart.
FATEA, 01/2011
FATEA Full Review
Une réussite totale (A Total Success)
Philippe Cousin, Le Peuple Breton, 12/2010
Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides
The aptly named "From Both Sides" reveals a wonderfully sensitive player of airs (on both instruments), a sprightly interpreter of itinerant harper Carolan's music, someone innately capable of rendering the jauntiness of hornpipes...and a marvellously dextrous player of her county's pet tunes, such as a set of slides kicked off by Johnny O'Leary's.
Froots Magazine, July 2007
Froots Magazine Full Review
Ni Charra's facility with everything from 19th-century Italian composer Giulio Regondi's Allegretto No 4 to a glorious set of Sliabh Luachra slides reflect a musician at home with music of any hue.
Siobhan Long, The Irish Times - 4 Stars, 02/03/2007
Irish Times Full Review
This is quite simply, ground breaking. This is masterclass musicianship, and legend in the making..."
Alex Gallacher, Folk Radio UK
Folk Radio UK Full Review
"From Both Sides" is a wonderful musical experiment, and the results are more explosive than you could imagine.
Shelley Marsden, The Irish World, 04/05/2007
Irish World Full Review
It's fine fresh playing, but mature and relaxed...This CD is a thoroughly professional offering that proves Niamh has nothing to prove on either instrument.
John Brophy, Irish Music Magazine, 07/2007
Irish Music Magazine Full Review
To put a word on this album, it's variety, from start to finish.
Noel Welch, Evening Echo, 08/03/2007
Evening Echo Full Review
Riverdance Quotes
"There is spectacular work from Niamh Ni Charra, a gorgeous blonde who does things on the fiddle and the concertina, that must be seen and heard to be believed."
Slidell Sentry, New Orleans 05/2005
"Charming fiddler Niamh Ni Charra, who seemed to dance a jig while playing one, easily could have been a one-woman show."
South Bend Tribune, South Bend 05/2005
"Of special note (was the ) beguiling fiddler / concertinist Niamh Ni Charra, who roamed and skipped the stage as she played."
Times - Picayune, New Orleans 05/2005
"Niamh Ni Charra, the sassy electric fiddle and concertina player, was a crowd pleaser."
Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston 06/2005
"Kudos were in order for Niamh Ni Charra for her fancy fiddle work."
Arkansas Times, Little Rock 01/2005
"Fiddler Niamh Ni Charra, a striking blonde plays while skipping backward."
Star-Telegram, Grand Prairie 06/2005
"Blond fiddler phenom!"
Charleston Gazette, Charleston 06/2005
"The company's indefatigable violinist, Niamh Ni Charra provides some fancy fiddling for the solo passages of this number, (American Wake) as well as for many other exciting moments in the show."
United Press International New York 03/05
"jaunty fiddle playing"
New York Times 03/05
"The jovial violinist snapped a few of her bow's strands as she rocked her space-age Stradivarius."
Erie Times 03/05
Previous Reviews
"In the orchestra, fiddler Niamh Ni Charra was a crowd favorite. The young musician walked and skipped all over the stage and up and down steps while her fingers flew over the strings. She was so comfortable on the instrument that it looked like she had been born with a fiddle on her shoulder. Throughout the performance, she smiled and looked the audience right in the eyes"
he Times, Greensboro, 04/1999
"The Fiddler on the Roof - and Everywhere Else Award goes to the nimblest non-dancer on the floor, fiddler Niamh Ni Charra, for her spirited solos, duets and accompaniments. Ni Charra deserves extra credit for staying out from under the flailing feet of the rest of the cast, and for not taking anyone's eye out with her bow."
Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Canada 08/1999
"Then there's the band. Fiddler Niamh Ni Charra solos and accompanies with amazing speed, and even possesses the ability to quickly leap backwards across the stage, kicking her heels, while her fingers move up and down the fingerboard of her blue violin faster than any dancer's feet."
The Daily Nebraskan, Lincoln, 04/2002
"Saturday's concert also featured the virtuosic fiddle and concertina work of Niamh Ni Charra. Her opening fiddle medley set the audience to clapping along in time, but then she picked up the concertina and really got the attention of musicians in the audience with an astounding display of flying finger-work. In the final set, with all the musicians on stage, she proved the equal of Mr. (Paddy) Keenan in pure musical speed, keeping pace with him on jigs and reels of blinding quickness."
Vineyard Gazette, Martha's Vineyard, 07/1996 (Charity concert with Paddy Keenan)
