Biography

Kieran Wade is a Dublin-born singer/ songwriter and musician who has spent most of his life immersed in the world of Irish traditional music.

He first started playing Irish music in a group while at college in Manchester and played mainly in folk clubs around the Lancashire area.

His musical development continued in Canada, at the beginning playing the banjo in traditional sessions and moving on to play at many of the folk festivals that are a big feature of summer life in Canada and the U.S. He was a founder member of the Inishowen céilí band and the band’s many appearances over the years at céilís, clubs, sessions and festivals helped hone his skills on the tenor banjo.
Inishowen released their one and only album in 1990, the imaginatively titled “Inishowen”.

In the mid ‘80’s Kieran joined Tip Splinter, at the time one of Canada’s foremost Irish/ Canadian traditional bands. Tip started out as an off-shoot of the Toronto Irish Players theatre group, and played a mix of both Irish and Canadian folk material, along with some original stuff from members of the band.

It was after joining Tip Splinter that Kieran’s singing and song writing started to come to prominence and over the course of 4 albums recorded with Tip, his songs started to become an established part of the band’s repertoire.

This led to the release of a solo album, “Across the Western Ocean”, which featured 10 original songs, and since its release, some of the songs have been recorded by various artists in Canada and Ireland.

Since returning to Ireland in the early 90’s, family commitments have kept gigging to a minimum but he still plays at traditional music sessions in Dublin and has had musical trips to China and the Czech Republic with Brú Ború.

He has been encouraged by people to keep writing new material and has plans to record a new album in the near future.

In the meantime, the age of the internet has afforded people the opportunity to access material not available before, and hence the chance to hear Kieran Wade’s songs, perhaps for the first time.

Hope you enjoy them.