De Dannan

De Dannan' is an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhran), Charlie Piggott (banjo), and Dolores K

De Dannan' is an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhran), Charlie Piggott (banjo), and Dolores Keane (vocals). They named themselves Dé Danann after the legendary Irish tribe, Tuatha Dé Danann.

The self-titled debut album Dé Danann appeared in 1975. Dolores left to marry John Faulkner in 1977. They were both multi-instrumentalists. The couple recorded 3 folk albums together. To replace Dolores, Dé Danann brought in Johnny Moynihan for the second album Selected Jigs Reels and Songs (this album has never been released on CD, reportedly because the master tapes were lost). Many consider that this line-up, and the next two albums, are the best of Dé Danann. The Mist Covered Mountain featured various older traditional singers, and on Star-Spangled Molly they were joined by Maura O'Connell. For reasons that have never been made clear, they changed the spelling of the group from "Dé Danann" to "De Dannan".