Their first release was an album called ‘Prosperous’ by a young Irish folk Singer Christy Moore, at that stage a lowly cult figure. Then in the early eighties there were two albums from Irish traditional music stars Planxty and two further solo albums from Christy. These were followed two albums from traditional Irish groups Clannad ‘ and the first of numerous albums from a promising new Irish group called Stockton’s Wing. All four acts above are now legendary names in Irish music.
In the late seventies, Tara recorded Shaun Davey’s ‘The Brendan Voyage’ a ground-breaking album which featured Liam O’Flynn on uilleann (Irish) pipes and a full orchestra. The Brendan Voyage launched Shaun Davey as a contemporary Irish orchestral composer of international standard and led to several further albums on the Tara Music label. Most of Shaun’s works feature the truly exceptional vocalist Rita Connolly and the Irish piping ledgend Liam O’Flynn – both of whom have also recorded numerous solo albums for the Tara label under Shaun’s supervision as producer.
Although the Riverdance show and its music appeared to be an overnight success, elements of the music had been developing over many years prior to the Riverdance event. Andy Irvine together with Davy Spillane introduced Eastern European music and time signatures to Irish traditional for the first time on the EastWind album which was produced by Riverdance composer Bill Whelan this album is now widely regarded as first seeds of what later became Riverdance. While albums such as Davy Spillane’s ‘Out of the Air’ and ‘Pipedreams’ as well as ‘The Storm’ by Moving Hearts feature some of the musical elements and instruments that are easily recognisable in their influence on the Riverdance music.
In recent years Tara Music’s releases have included the cream of Irish traditional music artists including, The Voice Squad, Zoe Conway, Alan Kelly, Emma Kate Tobia, Mairtin O’Connor, Frankie Gavin, Beal Tuinne and Michelle Lally.
You will find a wealth of information on these artists and albums through this site.
We recently came across the website Irishrock.org which has the most definitive list of Tara releases we have seen. Click here to see it.