This month's events include album launches by Pine Tree Flyers (May 5, Club Passim). and Louise Bichan (May 8, Brian O'Donovan Legacy Series), which you can read about separately. Here's what else is going on:

•Two fiddlers in the Scottish and Cape Breton modes, both with local ties, are featured at Club Passim in the coming weeks. On May 9, it will be Hanneke Cassel, whose unique style and sound blends the elegant, sometimes flamboyant grace that is the mark of classic Scottish fiddle with rhythmic briskness and bluegrass or even jazz-inspired improvisational runs, whether playing traditional tunes or the many she has composed. Besides performing across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, she has been a teacher and mentor to scores of aspiring Celtic fiddlers at various music camps as well as at her alma mater Berklee College of Music, where she has served as a guest instructor in the American Roots department. She will be joined by fiddler Jenna Moynihan and guitarist Keith Murphy, who both appear on her 2023 album "Infinite Brightness."

Doug Lamey returns to town for a 1 p.m. matinee concert on May 18, about a year after officially launching his second album, "True North," in The Burren Backroom. Lamey grew up in the area and with strong roots in Boston's Cape Breton community – notably his grandfather Bill, a pioneering figure in the Cape Breton fiddle tradition. "True North" includes a tribute from Lamey to his grandfather, “Bill’s 78 Records,” a medley of selections from Bill’s catalog of tunes. Lamey will be accompanied by Janine Randall, one of the foremost Cape Breton-style pianists around.

[passim.org]

•Although visa-related problems twice forced him to postpone his 2023 US tour, master fiddler Frankie Gavin made a memorable stop in Boston last November – and now he'll be back again, on May 15 at the Brian O'Donovan Legacy Series in the Burren Backroom. Gavin co-founded the renowned band De Dannan and he has played and recorded with Stéphane Grappelli, Andy Irvine, Yehudi Menuhin, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Costello, among others. He's also known for his great respect for, and interest in, the Irish/Irish-American styles of James Morrison and Michael Coleman, as well as the different routes Irish traditional music has taken down through time, notably in 1920s America (hence his founding of the Roaring Twenties Irish Orchestra). More recently, Gavin and pianist Carl Hession composed a symphonic suite in honor of Grace Kelly, the Irish American movie star who became Princess of Monaco and a worldwide activist for children’s rights. Accompanying Gavin is pianist Catherine McHugh, a multiple All-Ireland champion who has drawn on some of the foundational Irish pianists like Hession and Charlie Lennon to develop an approach that goes well beyond simply playing rhythm.

Massachusetts-based Celtic ensemble Fellswater performs in the series on May 29. Now in its 16th year, the septet is known for its scrupulously arranged sets of Scottish, Irish, Breton, and other Celtic-related music for instruments such as fiddle, viola, Celtic harp, cello, nyckelharpa, Scottish small pipes and border pipes, flute, acoustic bass, whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and percussion. In addition to its instrumental core of Elizabeth Ketudat, Sarah MacConduibh, Dave Cabral, Kyle Forsthoff, and Andrew McIntosh, the band has a vocal component in husband-wife duo Chris and Diane Meyers. Its past performances include appearances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the New Hampshire Highland Games & Festival, and the JFK Presidential Library with the Metropolitan Chorale. Fellswater also has recorded three albums.

 [burren.com/music.html]

•Two artists who have put their solid traditional music backgrounds into fascinating ventures, multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan and harpist-pianist Maeve Gilchrist, perform at the Groton Hill Music Center on May 3. Egan, a co-founder of seminal Irish American group Solas, also is known for his talents as an arranger and composer, as shown through his Seamus Egan Project involving collaborations with friends and musical guests; some of this work has been recorded on his solo albums "Early Bright" and "Good Winter." Gilchrist is one of the more innovative Celtic harpists around, demonstrating a skillful technique as well as a genius in merging traditional harp with world music, jazz, and other contemporary styles and sounds. Egan and Gilchrist worked together for several years as, respectively, music director and assistant music director, for "A Christmas Celtic Sojourn," the annual holiday show created by the late Brian O'Donovan.

[grotonhill.org/concerts/egan-gilchrist]

•Self-described "upcycled Celtic folk" trio House of Hamill comes to the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport on May 19. Brian Buchanan (fiddle, guitar, mandolin, vocals) – a member of popular Canadian Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis – Rose Baldino (fiddle, vocals), formerly of Burning Bridget Cleary, and bassist/vocalist Caroline Browning present original as well as traditional material and covers of songs one might not necessarily expect – say, an all-violin version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” or “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Their versatility is in full flower on their third album “Folk Hero,” which like its predecessors was funded entirely by fans.
[rockportmusic.org/house-of-hamill]

•Tipperary-born harpist/vocalist Aine Minogue will present her musical program "Welcome in the Spring" at the Peabody Institute Library on May 13 and the Westwood Public Library on May 19. Minogue’s work is marked by a serene, meditative sound, with elements of new age and world music blended with those of Irish and other Celtic traditions, and an abiding interest in the spirituality and mythology found in the ancient Celtic world and its traditions and rituals – as demonstrated in albums such as the holiday-themed “To Warm the Winter’s Night” and “The Spirit of Christmas,” and “Circle of the Sun,” a collection of songs and tunes that mark the passage of seasons. She’s also recorded “Eve,” an album of all-original music that explores the “many definitions and varied manifestations” of Eve, from the Bible to pop culture.

[aineminogue.com/events]