CEILÍ MOSS is an acoustic folk-rock band from Belgium founded in 1996. We describe ourselves as « acoustic folk-rock with guts and melodies, with a Northern European edge (from Ireland to Romania via Flanders, Sweden, Brittany and Poland), not afraid of colouring a bit outside of the lines ». Perhaps it is Genevieve Williams from Widdershins who described us best : « They are not as punk as The Pogues, but they have a bit of that attitude and it gives them an edge many Celtic groups lack ». Other frequently heard comparisons are Ambrozijn, Tri Yann, Jaune Toujours, Gaelic Storm, the old Clannad, The Glengarry Bhoys…

In case you wonder what the name of the band means, Ceilí is an Irish word for a party with traditional music, and Moss was the nickname of Alain Mossiat, boss of the pub “L’Eblouissant”, in Namur, where we first learned to deal with stage fright.

Like many, we started with (and still enjoy playing) the “Drunken Danny rover of the county Down in the jar” songbook, but we did not dwell on it as we have constantly expanded our musical spectrum with Flemish, Scandinavian, klezmer, medieval, Eastern European, ska, singer-songwriter or bluesy sounds. We play an approximately even mix of our own tunes sung in English, French or Dutch, and of traditionals, sometimes played the orthodox way, sometimes totally reengineered.