Tamalin is a family-based band from west Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 who originally began playing Irish traditional music

Music of Ireland

Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...

 in the early 1980s under the name The McSherrys. Toward the end of the 1980s they were joined by long term friend Kevin Dorris on bouzouki

Bouzouki

The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...

 and subsequently changed the name of the group to Tamalin.

In the early 1990s the band became close friends with legendary drummer and percussionist Dave Early

Dave Early

Dave Early was an English drummer and percussionist. Early worked with Sade, Chris Rea, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Mary Black, and others. Later he moved to Belfast, where he played with traditional Irish artists. He frequently worked with drummer-percussionist Martin Ditcham...

 who had settled in Belfast and was playing with Mary Black

Mary Black

Mary Black is an Irish singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both folk and contemporary material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland, and in many other parts of the world....

. When not touring with Mary, Dave worked closely with Tamalin playing concerts and experimenting in the studio. An album was shaping and in July 1997 Rhythm and Rhyme was released on the Grapevine label.

In October 1996 Dave Early died in a car accident outside Dublin and never saw the release of the band's debut album. John McSherry had a parallel career for many years, being a member of Donal Lunny

Dónal Lunny

Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...

's Coolfin as well as co-founding the band Lúnasa

Lúnasa (band)

-History:Named after Lughnasadh, an ancient Irish harvest festival, Lúnasa was started when Seán Smyth, Trevor Hutchinson, and Donogh Hennessy briefly toured through Scandinavia in 1996. Upon their return to Ireland, they teamed up with Michael McGoldrick and John McSherry to record a few tracks...

 along with Michael McGoldrick

Michael McGoldrick

Michael McGoldrick is a flute and tin whistle player. He also plays the Uilleann pipes and low whistle. He is well known for his ability to skate switch and regular with the same level of ability.-Bands:...

.

Members

• Tina McSherry: flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
  , vocals
• John McSherry
  John McSherry (musician)
  John McSherry is an Irish musician who plays the Uilleann pipes and tin whistle. He is known for being a founding member of Lunasa and Coolfin and has performed on recordings by a number of well-known artists in Irish traditional music.-Biography:...
  
  : Uilleann pipes
  Uilleann pipes
  The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
  
  , whistles
  Tin whistle
  The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
  
  
• Joanne McSherry: fiddle
• Paul McSherry
  Paul McSherry
  Paul McSherry, hailing from west Belfast, began playing guitar in 1982 at the age of 14. Inspired by two other great guitarists from west Belfast, Maurice McHugh and Mark Kane, he was self-taught on DADGAD tuning....
  
  : guitar
• Kevin Dorris: bouzouki
  Bouzouki
  The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
  
  

Compilations

• Now and in time to be (1997)
• The meeting of the waters: W. B. Yeats
  William Butler Yeats
  William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
  
  (1997)
• Intuition (1997)
• Forever Celtic (1997)
• Celtic Hearbeat (1999)
• Celtic Waves (2002)