Music like Davy Spillane

Davy Spillane (born 1959 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician, songwriter and a player of uilleann pipes and low whistle.

At the age of 12, Spillane started playing the uilleann pipes. His father encouraged him and inspired him with his love of all music genres. For the next three years he played at sessions and met many prominent Irish musicians. At the age of 16, he played in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe. In 1978, he began to write his own music. He starred as a gypsy in Joe Comerford's 1981 film Traveller.

He was a founder member of Moving Hearts, along with Christy Moore and Donal Lunny in 1981. Although each member had a strong pedigree of Irish folk music, the band played mostly original compositions, sometimes with a political edge and a folk-rock sound. Their final album The Storm (1985) was purely instrumental and had several slower pieces written by Spillane. He then made the surprise move of joining up with American musician Béla Fleck, the Englishman Albert Lee and others to record a Davy Spillane debut album of his new compositions and bluegrass and original blues, Atlantic Bridge. There was a promotional touring band which also recorded Out of the Air in 1988, essentially a live version of Atlantic Bridge. Spillane then gathered together a new set of musicians, including Rory Gallagher and Kevin Glackin to record Shadow Hunter, an album of various rock and folk styles. This was followed by Pipedreams in 1991.