Súnas

Sunas: Pulsing guitars, drifting flutes and whistles; canny bouzouki and wily mandolin; a fiddle canted sly and true, and the silver velvet voice of an ARIA-nominated singer. Their passionate and lyrical stage presence is rich with original songs and tunesets that side effortlessly with reimagined contemporary and traditional work. Their most recent album, ‘Celtic Road’, was released with the ABC and spent over 10 weeks in the ARIA charts, climbing to number 4, and made the ABC’s top 10 best-selling albums of the year. Songs are on rotation on radio stations nationally. The accompanying Live in Concert DVD receives regular airplay on pay TV and is part of the QANTAS and Lufthansa inflight entertainment. Singer Sarah Calderwood released a solo ABC album that also reached the top 10 and is receiving worldwide airplay, was nominated for Best World Music Album in the ARIA awards. Sunas have collaborated with the likes of Mike Scott (the Waterboys), Shane Nicholson, accordion champion Alan Kelly (Ire) and Kevin Crawford (Lunasa), and tracks from the albums are on numerous compilation and ‘best of’ CDs. Their debut recording, ‘A Breath Away from Shadow’ was awarded four out of five stars by the Courier-Mail, and five stars by iTunes. A new Súnas album is currently underway. The band has been in existence for more than a decade and has established a strong presence on the Australian folk festival circuit where they have headlined the Cygnet, Tamar Valley, Jamberoo and Fleadh Ceol Festivals and were chosen to perform their own music at the Woodford Festival opening ceremony. They have also appeared numerous times at the National, Blue Mountains, Port Fairy, Snowy Mountains and Wintermoon Festivals, Fête de la Musique (which was broadcast live to France) and even played in Russia for St Patrick’s Day. Súnas have toured folk clubs all over the UK, and were the first Australian band to perform at the Lowender Peran Festival in Cornwall and Dougie MacLean’s Perthshire Amber Festival, alongside the likes of Frances Black, Beoga, Julie Fowlis and Eddi Reader. They were one of four acts chosen to play the prestigious Caledonia Concert, which was broadcast by the BBC as part of the Homecoming Scotland celebrations.

Brisbane, QLD