the olllam
It begins with a tale of master and protégé …
… a tale of how then 13 year old Tyler Duncan from Ann Arbor, Michigan went to Ireland a long, long time ago and tracked down his hero, uilleann piper and whistle player John McSherry (founder of Lunasa, Tamalin, At First Light, Ulaid, and a member of Donal Lunny’s supergroup Coolfin: the most innovative Irish piper of his generation and co-author of Wheels of the World: 300 Years of Irish Uilleann Pipers) and became his student, friend, and eventually his melodic partner in the olllam, a Transatlantic musical partnership enabled and maintained through early adoption of online collaboration and composition, resulting in the 2012 release of an eponymous album that has become a cult classic. The name derives from the old Irish word ollam, meaning a master of the highest rank in a particular skill.
Alongside mastering
piping and whistle-playing, Duncan had established himself as a multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-nominated producer (with Carly Rae Jepsen, Vulfpeck, Theo Katzman and others), and he recruited drummer Michael Shimmin (May Erlewine, Millish) and renowned Vulfpeck bassist Joe Dart, respected as one of the finest, funkiest players of these times, to form the olllam. With this core line up the band unleashed a new Transatlantic post-rock groove, lush with intricate trance-like melodies, stunning instrumental virtuosity and a magical marriage of tradition and technology, finding the listener somewhere between Radiohead and Planxty, or Tortoise and the ambient emotionalism of the Gloaming.
The inventive, genre-defying
compositions of the first album built a strong grassroots following, and the band convened in real life for their debut gig at Sligo Jazz Festival in 2013, the start of a short tour of Ireland taking in Soma Festival and venue shows in Cork, Dublin and Belfast, and some shows in the States. The olllam were then invited to Celtic Connections in 2014, linking this with concerts in Liverpool, Manchester, London and returns to Belfast and Dublin, and followed this with a series of US shows and a more extensive Irish tour that summer as well as an appearance at the Lorient Festival in Brittany. Various guest musicians accompanied on guitar and keyboards, including other members drawn from the Vulfpeck family, Theo Katzman and Woody Goss.
It was four years
until the olllam returned to live gigs, which earned them sold-out shows and appearances at rock, jazz, and folk festivals and venues across Ireland, and an audience base who were now singing the melodies back to the band, with hardcore devotees following them from show to show. Detroit producer/keyboard player Joe Hettinga and Limerick guitarist Seán O’Meara joined the band as permanent members.
Then came the pandemic … which gave the olllam the opportunity to return to collaborating digitally, as they had done a decade earlier, on a new album. The result, “elllegy,” was released in May 2022, ten years after their debut. It led to a triumphant Irish festivals and venues tour that summer including Dublin’s National Concert Hall, to the olllam winning Best Folk Group at the 2022 RTE Radio One Folk Awards, and to the band committing to being available for wider touring. And so in summer 2023, thirteen hours after coming off stage at a sold-out Vicar Street in Dublin, the band stepped on stage at WOMAD, their first ever English festival, and their first time in the country for nine and a half years. It was a triumphant show, a special moment when the packed crowd at the D&B audio stage completely “got” the band …
WOMAD
was followed by a week that saw two sold out nights in London, other core city gigs, before ending with Wickham, Valley, and Underneath the Stars festivals which created a buzz about the band as one of the “discoveries” of the summer, with both Cerys Mathews and Mark Radcliffe airing tracks on their national BBC radio shows. Strong interest was emerging in the band returning for more live shows in UK and Ireland in 2024, prompted by an invitation to Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow – sell-outs including a double bill with Rura at 1900 capacity Barrowlands and London’s Jazz Cafe; but Tyler realized he was massively committed to studio work for the foreseeable future, unable to commit to extensive tours, although he has been part of the band's collaboration with Zedd on his 2024 album Telos. Thoughts turned to whether there was anyone else with the aptitude and attitude to take on his role in the band: there was immediate consensus that there was only one ideal person: Scottish whistle-player and bagpiper Ross Ainslie; Ross agreed. He made his debut with the band in Leeds in January 2024 on a ten-date tour of UK and Ireland, and is now an established part of the line-up for the olllam’s future live and studio, work.
2025 ...
the olllam return to the UK and Ireland in January and February for a 14 date tour.
Available for festivals June & July
Available in Europe October