Music at the Hub - Asleep at the Reel

Asleep at the Reel evoke the sound of the lively Irish pub, of flying fiddles and rich voices in harmony around an open fire. Their songs are stories – some of them hundreds of years old – wrapped up in music. Their rollicking jigs and reels will keep your feet tapping. The Irish call it the craic. It’s a word that means music and fun and, typically, quite a lot of the demon drink all bound up together.

This band of fine musicians taps into a tradition that dates back centuries and runs through Christy Moore, The Pogues, Van Morrison and The Corrs among many others. Yet Asleep at the Reel are not Irish – nor do they pretend to be. They are Australian yet, like so many Australians, Celtic music is in their DNA.

This is not a musical tradition which is fixed in time or place. It shifts and evolves as it travels around the globe. Asleep at the Reel join the dots between Celtic music and contemporary Australian song writing, much as Weddings Parties Anything, Goanna, Redgum and Paul Kelly have all done previously. They pay homage to their musical lineage by including songs by those artists (and many more) in their set lists.

Asleep at the Reel take this Celtic blend from its roots in the peat-smoked pubs of Ireland and Scotland, from the kitchen, the hearth, the veranda and the shearing shed all the way to the stage. There they throw in a little backbeat just for the fun of it.

Asleep at the Reel are:

Mark Cryle: guitar & vocals

Mick Nolan: bass & vocals

Suzanne Hibbs: drums & percussion

Hugh Curtis: Fiddle, Mandolin & vocals