John McIntyre

John McIntyre grew up in the Cooley Mountains of north County Louth where he took up guitar at eight years of age.  He began his career as electric guitarist with the successful indie band – The Revs – with whom he performed on many famous stages and festivals including Oxygen, and Slane in Ireland, Reading and Leeds in the UK, and toured extensively in USA, Australia and Europe.  He has worked alongside many world-renowned producers and is now also producing and recording in many genres.  John studied classical guitar and piano for many years, and from early childhood was immersed in the language, songs and traditional dance music of Southwest Donegal – his father’s homeplace. 

John tours regularly with his wife Zoë Conway on fiddle, and the duo has been described by the BBC as “simply one of the best folk duos on the planet.”   They have released two recordings to date – one is a superb collection of live European performances, Live in Concert, released in spring 2017.  The album showcases their mesmerizing musical interaction on-stage, and also reveals some of their more virtuosic repertoire outside of the Irish traditional genre.  Relaxed and atmospheric, the respect and understanding that they have of traditional Irish music and song also shines through.

Their debut duo album, entitled Go Mairir I Bhfad (Long Life To You), received a glorious 5 stars from national paper, The Irish Times.  For this unique album, they commissioned twelve leading Irish composers to each compose a piece specifically for Zoë and John, for fiddle and guitar, with the aim of collectively presenting a snapshot of traditional Irish music alive today.  The renowned composers who took part in the project were Liz Carroll, Steve Cooney, Frankie Gavin, Andy Irvine, Charlie Lennon, Donal Lunny, Máirtín O’Connor, Peadar Ó Riada, Mícheál Ó Súilleabhán, Tommy Peoples, Niall Vallely and Bill Whelan.

The release of these albums has brought international attention to the duo, and so they are increasingly in demand in Ireland and abroad for performances, talks and workshops.