Liz and Dan Faiella bring to life the traditional music of their roots, with crisp vocals, mesmerizing fingerstyle guitar, lyrical fiddling, and exhilarating rhythmic drive. Their music calls to mind the convivial grange hall contradances of their youth in New Hampshire, while conveying a wistfulness for their ancestral Ireland.
Liz and Dan have taken the stage at premier folk venues throughout New England, including Club Passim, the Acadia Trad Festival, Maine Celtic Celebration, Little Sea Folk Festival, and the Boston Celtic Music Festival. They are sought-after teachers, and have shared their craft with students at camps, festivals, and community music schools.
Their album, At Long Last (2018), explores heartache, wonder, and joy, expressed through the traditional music they love.
Liz Faiella’s study of Irish fiddling, training in classical violin, and love of social dancing have shaped her musical approach. Liz is chair of the Folk Department at the Concord Community Music School in Concord, NH, where she teaches fiddle students and organizes the Music School’s Fall Fiddle Festival. She also is active as a YouTube creator, sharing fiddle tunes, tutorials, and techniques far and wide.
Dan Faiella is a guitarist specializing in traditional Celtic music. Trained as an accompanist through years of playing for New England contradances and for Irish fiddlers, he has performed at venues and festivals around the country with numerous traditional music groups. In his solo playing, Dan’s fingerstyle arrangements of traditional songs and tunes draw extensively on techniques and ornamentation from traditional idioms beyond those directly related to the guitar, such as Celtic harp-playing, sean-nós singing, and uilleann piping. Over many years of playing solo and collaboratively, he has developed an ability to adapt and synthesize these sounds into the context of the unique arrangement capabilities of the guitar.
“a chill Irish vibe and a ‘going-places’ groove”
New Hampshire Magazine
Header photo by Allegra Boverman