The Irish Times calls SLIDE “traditional musicians with attitude" and credits the group with “bringing drawing room grandeur and high spirits together” with it’s diverse songs, which range from soulful and sorrowful to contagiously energetic. Folk Roots Magazine proclaims, ”There’s plenty of action and flamboyance in Slides’s music,” which merges “swagger with traditional expertise.”

This rollicking band’s origins date back to Ireland in 1999, when Slide performed in various pubs for a local music festival in Bandon, Co. Cork. The group’s intoxicating music easily won over the crowd, which demanded more of the unique and colourful sound. The positive reaction inspired Slide to release The Flying Pig, which Irish Music Magaize hailed as “beautifully recorded, to preserve the brilliance and clarity of solo and ensemble playing that is positively mind-blowing.” The publication awarded Slide its Best Newcomer distinction in 2001, leading to gigs for the band throughout Europe.

In its insightful second album Harmonic Motion, Slide celebrates self-exploration and collective innovation in a series of self-penned songs that drew critical appraise. The record showcases a variety of clever arrangements – from sensitive whistle harmonies to driving, high-powered strings – and captivating lyrics that Irish Music Magazine calls “inventive and provocative.” The publication adds,

“The melodies and musicianship are first-rate. …[Slide] can sing, they can write, they can dance across fingerboards and piano keys, buttons, and bows, and by crikey they can play.”

The album attracted the attention of renowned Irish talents including Grammy-winning composer Bill Whelan, singers and songwriters Liam Clancy, Damien Dempsey and John Spillane, Danú and the Progressive group Stocktons Wing - who eventually recruited Slide for their own music projects.

In 2005, Slide – which consists of concertina virtuoso Aogán Lynch, fiddler-guitarist Daire Bracken, bouzouki and mandolin player Mick Broderick, pianist-flautist Éamonn de Barra – won the Young Musicwide Award. Developed in 2001 by the Arts Council of Ireland, Young Musicwide encourages young people to pursue professional careers in traditional Irish Music, Chamber Music and Jazz and gives promoters access to the best Irish talents. “Slide successfully combined the qualities of traditional Irish music with contemporary musical ideas. They are exceptionally talented and their music has both grace and power”, said celebrated Irish musician-producer Donal Lunny, who helped judge the competition. Overneath is their third studio album and saw the band hone their creative abilities. It is an exciting addition to Slide’s previous two recordings with receiving great critical acclaim.

Slide have recently been joined by the greatly talented Galwegian, Dave Curley who joined the group for their hugely successful 2008 US Tours. An expanded line up has provided for an even larger live sound with great new additions in songs and dance. For their fourth CD venture Slide bypassed the studio and recorded where their fans are always most excited, live from the stage.

To trace the origins of Slide we must go back to 1999, to southwest Ireland, to a town called Bandon. It was here that the organizers of a local festival invited three Dublin based musicians to play sessions in various pubs over the weekend. Such was the inherent connection of musical approach, style and mindset that the idea of forming some kind of group was borne.

A month later, and after much thought and consideration the three-piece became four as the cosy confines of a basement in Monkstown was turned from sitting room to rehearsal room. Following months of forging of individual minds into one collective unit Aogán, Daire, Éamonn and Mick felt the time was right to try out their new sound. On a cold December night ‘The Cobblestone’, on the outer edge of Dublin’s inner City was shaken from rock to rafter; a gig that has since become known as ‘The Wobble in The Cobble’.

Soon afterwards Slide made their first release with ‘The Flying Pig’ which brought them to many of the main stages & festivals at home and abroad; from the National Concert Hall to the Cambridge Festival, England and from the headline act of the German Folk Festival Tour to the Inerceltic Festival of L’Orient, France. Thus lending a sense of the inevitable to their winning of ‘The Best Newcomers’ award by Irish Music Magazine in 2001.

In the years that followed Slide continued to grow and develop. Unable to rid themselves of a feeling that the tradition was beginning to repeat itself, together with a keen desire for self exploration and collective innovation, a second album ‘Harmonic Motion’ was recorded. This encapsulated not only a continuation of self penned words and music but a heightened maturity in their content and delivery. So much so, that names such as Bill Whelan, Damian Dempsey, Hazel O’Connor, John Spillane, Stockton’s Wing, Danú, Niamh Parsons & The Black Family called the artists in on some musical projects of their own.

No strangers to picking up awards for individual musicianship, Slide have continued in a similar vein as a band with the recent winning of the ‘Young Musicwide Award 2006’, selected from all competing young bands by a panel of judges including Donal Lunny. This, coupled with the addition of new lead vocalist Andrew Murray, Slide are looking forward to revealing the latest chapter of one of the most interesting Irish traditional bands of modern times.