De Dannan's creative epicentre, Frankie Gavin, has been reshaping contemporary traditional music for nigh on 25 years. While the twin platinum disks he got on Wednesday morning at Hot Press's cheesy new Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame emporium came as a timely fillip, he certainly wasn't getting carried away. The disks came on the back of 20,000-plus sales of the epoch-defining current album, How the West was Won. Frankie proved far more ebullient about the group's forthcoming July tour - featuring Harlem gospel singers Marielle Epps and Ivan le Parr and accordion wiz Mairtin O'Connor - and the prospect of working with acclaimed US clarinet player Andy Statman in the US later this year.
De Dannan manager Terry Connaughton was very upbeat, as was Arts Council traditional music officer Dermot McLaughlin who reminisced about smokey fiddle seisiun with Frankie and De Dannan partner Alec Finn.
Hummingbird Productions, sister company to De Dannan's label, Hummingbird Records, was represented by film producer Philip King who would have loved to stay and chat but simply had to dash - he was needed in Santa Fe for talks with some US movie industry players.