Mayo harpist Laoise Kelly and Clare fiddle player Michelle O’Brien will join forces this Saturday night, April 7 for a show in the city’s Crane Bar. It will feature tunes from their debut album, The Wishing Well, which was recorded in late 2010.

Laoise is a former member of Galway based band, the Bumblebees, which also featured Mary Shannon and Mirella Murray.

“I’ve always loved Michelle’s playing from back in the day when she toured with the Bumblebees, so when we were invited on the Christmas Irish Tour of Austria for December 2010 we decided it was time to get an album together,” she says.

“Our first gig of 2010 went well at the Fiddle Fair in Baltimore and so we decided to spend a day recording in the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, in Leitrim. Listening back to the tracks it sounded a bit ‘nice and clean’ and we knew a live recording would give the music the ‘spark’ it needed.”

So when the two were invited to perform in the Dock in Carrick on Shannon, they recorded the show and that became The Wishing Well. The name of the album is the title of a jig composition of renowned fiddle player Tommy Peoples, Michelle’s former music teacher.

“Their playing has the grace and charm of flight and all the solidity of masterly technique and deep grounding in tradition,” according to film producer and critic Nuala O’Connor, who wrote the sleeve notes for The Wishing Well.

Doors for their show in the Crane on Saturday are at 6.30pm.

Admission is €15 or €12.50 for members.