Leahy

Leahy is the Canadian powerhouse of eight musical brothers and sisters who mystify audiences when ever they play. The band is a whirlwind triple-threat of fiddle-driven music, dance, and vocals augmented by keyboards and percussion. Their music combines the influence of their Irish and Scottish roots with their inherent desire to widely travel the musical map. The Los Angeles Times raved -“[Leahy’s] approach seems so gloriously free of the commercial pollution of so much American pop that it felt like a tonic for the spirit.”The raven-haired Leahy Clan grew up in Lakefield, Ontario. Ancestor Michael Leahy settled there in 1825 from Ireland and brought with him a deep family musical tradition. Each of the Leahy children learned to play fiddle from their father, while their mother, a champion step-dancer born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, taught them to sing, dance and play piano. However, a desire for new sounds drew them to a variety of musical genres and instruments. This resulted in a long period of touring success during which the family performed throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. The period was notably captured in a student documentary about the family entitled “The Leahys: Music Most of All.” The film won an Academy Award in 1985 for Best Student Foreign Film.The group temporarily disbanded during the early 1990s. By 1997, the pull of music had reunited them but with a new sense of purpose. They reemerged with Leahy - a CD that went Platinum in Canada and reached number four on the Billboard World Music Charts. The CD garnered two Junos in 1997 (Best Instrumental Group and Best New Group) and a third in 1998 (Best Country Group or Duo). It was at this time that Shania Twain invited them to join her first world tour and appear in two of her television specials. Leahy played 175 tour dates with Twain and received standing ovations each and every night.Confidence and a wealth of lyrical ideas waiting for expression pushed Leahy to evolve again in their second CD Lakefield. The group took on greater writing, recording, and producing responsibilities with this project and the effort resulted in a CD that helped them become Virgin Canada’s largest selling domestic group worldwide; a testament to the band’s success in finding a loyal audience as musically adventurous as they are.Their most recent recording, In All Things, is marked more than ever by Leahy’s willingness to range freely over musical boundaries and shed conventions when necessary. This approach earned them yet another Juno nomination in 2005, this time for Best Roots and Traditional Album by a Group.Leahy will always feel the power of its musical roots, but they continue to be driven to forge new paths with their category-defying brand of music; a sound and style known to many fans as simply “Leahy.”Leahy is embarking on a yet another cross-county US tour from January - March 2008.