NoCrows, the Sligo based folk and world music quartet, will take a break from recording their next CD, to perform a concert upstairs at Tobergal Lane Café, on Friday 4th December (11pm) the first of TLC’s Christmas party series.

NoCrows have had quite a year, with three trips to Belgium and hugely successful dates in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK as well as their appearances at two of Europe’s biggest festivals, Glastonbury (UK) and Dranouter (Belgium), where the band has found a large and willing audience, having performed live to one million listeners on Belgian national Radio 2 in October. The group have already confirmed two visits to Belgium in 2010 including an appearance at Labadoux festival in May.

The group that formed out of a regular Wednesday night session in Shoot the Crows pub is becoming one of the most travelled acts from the region, but are now settling in back home for a busy festive season of preproduction and recording their third CD in Urs Lanz’s Doolittle Studios in Doocastle. The Swiss engineer/producer, renowned for his excellent acoustic sound production, which can be heard on NoCrows’ most recent recording Magpie, will be at the helm again as NoCrows record many of the tunes they have written over the past year and a half. The great variety of influences from Irish traditional to Greek, Chinese and Japanese music, will be prevalent in the band’s writing once again. “On Magpie we had some great guest spots, and I’m happy to say we will have our share of special guest appearances on this CD”, says violinist Steve Wickham. “Our friend Sharon Shannon is coming up in a couple of weeks time to play on one of my own tunes. My friend, French singer-songwriter Cali, is lined up for a guest vocal and our regular collaborator, Russian violin virtuoso, Oleg Ponomarev, of the Irish multicultural group Yurodny, has written a great Russian Hora especially for us, Oleg will guest on some tracks too. Each member of the band has written some original material, all in all we are very excited about the material – the only problem we have is a healthy one:  some tunes might not make it onto the album, such is the wealth of material we have”.

NoCrows, comprising Steve of Waterboys fame on violin and vocals, Anna Houston on cello, mandolin, and vocals, Felip Carbonell on guitar and vocals and Eddie Lee on double bass, have played two concerts in the Sligo region since returning from their November travels in Switzerland, making lots of new fans in the process: for 700 very enthusiastic Ursuline College students and then as special guests at the recent Sligo International Choral Festival.

NoCrows take their special mix of folk, trad, gypsy, and swing to Tobergal Lane Café on Friday 4th December at 11pm. Christmas party diners will get free admission to the after-dinner concert upstairs, otherwise the admission for non-diners is €10.