Damien O'Kane

Damien O'Kane is a singer, banjo player and guitarist, also an arranger, tunemaker, researcher, bandleader and accompanist. He grew up in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, with a deep respect for the folk tradition and an appetite to explore its borders and test its boundaries.

His career began at 13, when he first went on stage with his parents and siblings in the O'Kane Family Band, known locally as "the Von Trapps of Coleraine". They played dances and sang old favourites, and later played in Ireland and further afield in Austria and Iceland. He then joined the first intake of the Traditional Music Degree course in Newcastle, where he met accordion player Shona Kipling. Their partnership produced the albums 'Pure Chance' (2003) and 'Box On' (2007), the latter earning a nomination for the BBC Folk Horizon Award. He also worked with David Wood in Cross Current and toured with Flook, who won Best Group at the 2006 BBC Folk Awards while he was in the band.

Damien went on to play in Kate Rusby's band, a partnership that has led to albums and tours together, and to marriage and two daughters. That experience encouraged his solo work, beginning with 'Summer Hill' (Pure Records, 2010). His 2015 album 'Areas Of High Traffic' reinvents songs from the folk canon, including 'The Blacksmith' and 'The Banks Of The Bann'. "Not that I ever do anything for the sake of being different – everything is designed to suit the song. The words are always the most important thing," he says.