Colm O'Brien was born, bred & buttered in Dublin. As a child he was surrounded by music. His father, grandfather, grand uncles and great granddad were all members of the famed Fintan Lalor Pipe Band. His grandmother, May Keogh "Mayday" O'Brien was a legendary fiddler in Irish music circles and played at the All-Ireland dancing championships for 50 consecutive years and at most of the world dancing championships in that period. Colm cut his teeth playing with numerous Dublin bands and at sessions from Dublin to Achill and everywhere in between.
He first moved to the US in 1999 as a member of "Fatal Flower". After the group disbanded he played with the ballad group "Uncle Arthur" and then with "Hiring Fair". Colm was recruited by the famed celtic rockers "The Prodigals" and spent a year and a half as their front-man touring the states, playing at some of the country's largest festivals and recording the group's fourth album produced by Howie Beno of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame.
"It Is What It Is" is Colm's first solo album and gave him the opportunity to perform some of his favorite songs alongside his own works. Only a year after it's release the record has become a critical and popular success with reviewers declaring it "A modern classic" and rating it one of the ten best Irish records of 2005.
Currently Colm is recording tracks for the band "Rud Eile's" first album, set to be released in March or April of this year. Again working with "It Is What It Is" producer Holbrook Gracia, the highly anticipated Rud Eile record will feature Colm along with Martin Butler the 2002 USA bodhran champion, renowned flute/whistle artist Jerry Murphy, former Prodigals bass wizard Andrew Harkin, the legendary Aoife Clancy, Declan Houton, Kevin Doherty, Johnny Towey, and Matt Glover, The Grasshoppers fiddle master Amy Basse as well as the members of Sin e and Norchannel among still others.
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