The Olllam

The Olllam is an instrumental group formed in 2012 as a transatlantic collaboration between Belfast uilleann piper John McSherry, Michigan multi-instrumentalist and producer Tyler Duncan, drummer Michael Shimmin and bassist Joe Dart. It has since moved past the trio format it was first described with: Duncan shifted to production work in 2024 and the Scottish piper and whistle player Ross Ainslie took his place, and the working band now also includes Limerick guitarist Sean O'Meara and Michigan keyboardist Joe Hettinga. McSherry is a founding member of Lunasa and also plays in At First Light and Ulaid, and worked with Donal Lunny's Coolfin in the 1990s; Dart is known from Vulfpeck and the Fearless Flyers; Duncan and Shimmin previously played together in the Irish-jazz crossover group Millish. The band extends Irish traditional playing with rock, jazz and electronic textures, describing the result as neo-acoustic Celtic post-rock. Rather than sets of jigs and reels, the pieces are built as songs, with verses, pre-choruses and bridges under cyclical, trance-like pipe melodies; the label that issued the first record placed the sound between Radiohead and Planxty. The self-titled debut came out on Compass Records in September 2012 and won that year's Indie Acoustic Music Award for best instrumental album. A second album, elllegy, followed in May 2022 on digital and double vinyl, produced by Duncan with guests including Michael Gould on glockenspiel and crotales, and won Best Group at the RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards that year. The band has sold out the Barrowlands in Glasgow and the Jazz Cafe in London, contributed to Zedd's 2024 album Telos, and has a European tour scheduled for 2026.

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