Nicola Hayes
Australian fiddle player Nicola Hayes started out at the age of 11, playing for dancers with the Emu Creek Bush Band, led by music collector Peter Ellis. A meeting with some of Melbourne’s expatriate Irish musicians, Billy Moran and Louis McManus Sr., while still a teenager, led to her enduring passion for this music. She later was a founding member of Headbelly Buzzard, Australia’s premier old-timey band, and played with the Le Blanc Brothers’ Cajun Aces.
Her interest in Irish music led her to live in the west of Ireland, playing gigs and session, influenced by players such as Tommy Peoples, Kevin Griffin, Terry Bingham…
She moved to Brittany in 2000, and has since continued to both refine her personal style and widen her musical scope. Since her arrival she has played Breton music with fest-noz band Diwall and as a trio with Hélène Brunet and Yann-Fanch Perroches. She has also been heard with Gilles Servat, Gérard Delahaye, Nicolas Quemener and Ronan Le Bars…
She currently plays with Hélène Brunet, acoustic-folk-traditional duo, Breton-speaking singer-songwriter Dom Duff, Hayes-Leon-Quemener, fabulous new Irish music group on the Breton scene, centre-breton bluegrassers the Jack Danielle’s String Band, and Cajun band Hushbaby.
DISCOGRAPHY
Headbelly Buzzard: «Live at The Rose» 1994
«Little Rabbit» 1995
«Live at the Railway» 1996
Le Blanc Brothers' Cajun Aces: «The Cajun Aces» 1995
Badgers Trio: «Badgers Trio» 2002
Gérard Delahaye: «Vive L'Amour» 2005
Dom Duff: «Lagan» 2006 «Roc'h» 2010
«Babel Pow Wow» 2013
Nicola Hayes/Hélène Brunet : "The Inner Indian" 2016
«Travelling» 2011
Jack Danielle’s String Band : What is Bluegrass?» 2011
Hélène Brunet
Inspired by the effervescent Breton traditional music scene, she began her career in the late 1990s, with flutist Emily Hawkes and traditional singers Les Guernettes, playing at home in Brittany as well as abroad.
The laúd, a 12 stringed lute she found in Spain whilst studying flamenco, brought her a different sound from that of her acoustic guitar. She has adapted the instrument and her playing style, warm, incisive, is recognised and appreciated today. Her wide-ranging musical tastes have led her to play Swedish music with the band Glögg, American and Irish tunes with fiddler Nicola Hayes, (numerous cabarets, Australian tour 2013,2016), Breton with David Pasquet (Ar Re Yaouank) and Yann-Faňch Perroches (Skolvan)…She played in “Les Orientales” with accordionist Christian Maës and Irish music group Broken Pledge….
Passionate about sound, she is also an accomplished electric guitarist, forging her own style, inspired by jazz fusion and rock music.
She can be heard today with the breton singer Nolwenn Korbell, with also the guitar player Yann Le Gall in a breton dancing duet, pop-rock quartet Faustine, and Nicola Hayes (duet folk-traditional-acoustic).
DISCOGRAPHY
Faustine 2015
H.Chevrollier/D.Le Bot : "An Div Stêr" 2015
Nicola Hayes/Hélène Brunet : "The Inner Indian" 2016
"Travelling" 2011
Izhpenn12 : "kreiz breiz akademi" 2010
Jo Freya : "the female smuggler" 2009
Sylbàt : "Mara" 2008
