Martin Hayes - the "Miles Davis" of the Irish Fiddle

I receive dozens of new music submissions and requests for radio interview every week. I do my best to respond to or sample them all.  It doesn’t take long to get way behind in the exercise. One such request for a phone interview came to me on behalf of the renown fiddler in the Irish tradition, Martin Hayes. I had not heard of Martin (shame on me) and my direct contact with Irish traditional music was rather limited even though I had a basic understanding that most of so-called Americana and Folk Music was rooted in Irish and Celtic music forms. I’ve been to the massive Irish Fest and the Irish Center here in Kansas City… my local pub Conroy’s even has live traditional Irish music from time to time. These touchpoints do not begin to honor what awaited me when I went down the Martin Hayes’ rabbit hole …diving into the stories, catalogues and career of Martin and some of his colleagues past and present. I am so very glad I did not scroll past the initial request and instead took the opportunity to spend some one on one time with a musician that, in his sphere of influence, should come to be compared to the likes of Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. Enjoy my conversation with the virtuoso player and stellar human being, Ireland’s Martin Hayes.