Ireland's hottest new traditional band, Lúnasa, have been taking the United States by storm these days, completing seven tours of North America in the past two years, including appearances at the Edmonton Folk Festival, the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, and the Hollywood Bowl. Their 1999 recording, Otherworld (Green Linnet), was named best traditional Irish album by both the Irish Voice and Irish Echo newspapers, and their most recent, last year's The Merry Sisters of Fate, was named Celtic Album of the Year by San Francisco's Association for Independent Music. The members of Lúnasa have been the backbone of many of the great Irish groups of our time, but in their new combination Trevor Hutchinson (formerly of The Waterboys) on bass, Donogh Hennessy (formerly of The Sharon Shannon Band) on guitar, Kevin Crawford (formerly of Moving Cloud) on flute, Sean Smyth (formerly of Donal Lunny's Coolfin) on fiddle, and Cillian Vallely on pipes get the chance to push their own considerable talents to the fore. Lúnasa takes its name from Lugh, the ancient Irish god of light and genius, who was able to move the company at Tara either to tears, or to great joy, with his music­they will surely do no less for the company at the Freight!