Fleecey Folk: Rowan Leslie Trio - Sun 1 March 2026, 8pm, £17
- TheFleeceInn

- Nov 29, 2024
- 2 min read
Rowan Leslie is an Irish fiddle player and composer from rural County Antrim, currently based in Glasgow.
His trio of fiddle, accordion (Paddy Callaghan), and guitar (Graeme Armstrong) play tunes from across Ireland blended with self-penned material, producing music that is driving, innovative and evocative.
" The beauty that is music is right here and it's going nowhere " - Grainne McCool, Irish Music Magazine
Rowan Leslie began playing the fiddle at the age of seven with a traditional fiddle group in his home village of Broughshane, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He then studied with Johnny Murphy, a fiddler and fiddle maker from Ballymena in County Antrim, himself a pupil of the legendary Belfast fiddler Sean Maguire. Rowan went on to study at Newcastle University, graduating with a BMus in Folk and Traditional Music in 2014. He also benefited from time spent at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. In 2013 he was awarded the ALCM diploma in Irish Traditional Music from the London College of Music.
While splitting his time between Glasgow where he currently resides and his native County Antrim, Rowan has released two albums, two EPs and a tune book entitled “Contemporary Fiddle Tunes from the North East of Ireland”.
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Paddy Callaghan is a multi-instrumentalist from Glasgow, Scotland. In common with many from the West of Scotland, Paddy has family origins in Ireland- the Tyrone/Derry & Donegal regions in particular. Graduating from his musical education with St. Roch's Ceili Band and the Irish Minstrels Branch of Comhaltas under the legendary Frank McArdle, Paddy has gone on to take his unique musical style worldwide.
With his energetic style and effortless delivery of complex melodies Paddy has amassed a fanbase across the globe and is in extremely high demand as a touring musician.
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Graeme Armstrong hails from the Scottish Borders and grew up playing the guitar and singing amongst the vibrant music scene of the area. Graeme attended Newcastle University in 2011, studying on the Folk and Traditional Music, where he flourished under the teaching of the esteemed Chris Newman, amongst others. Graeme joined the band TALISK, who went on to win Folk Band of the Year at the 2017 MG Alba Scots Trad Awards, as well as having their second album shortlisted for Album of the Year in 2019. He toured with the band for six years, playing at some of the world’s biggest folk festivals including Cambridge Folk Fesitval, Denmark’s Tønder, WOMAD UK, Chile and Las Palmas, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Celtic Colours, Milwaukee Irish Festival and 4 successive outings at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections.
In 2022 Graeme also released his debut solo album You Are Free; an album made up of traditional folk songs and original writing.






