About the artist
Rachel S. Brennan
Rachel Scoazec Brennan is an Irish and Breton/French singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist based in Co. Kerry, Ireland.
"I play guitar, drums/percussion, bass and flute from the age of 5. Graduated from the Classical Muscic Academy at the age of 17.
Rachel Scoazec Brennan Sings in English, Breton and Irish
Welcome to the website of Rachel Scoazec Brennan, a professional musician, singer/songwriter and teacher, with many years of music performance and teaching experience. She has learned the classical guitar at age 5 and since then has added a wide variety of musical instruments to her repertoire of skills. Graduated at 17 from Classical Music Academy in Classical Guitar. Rachel has studied Harp under the direction of Irish Composer Harpist Anne Marie O Farrell.
From Swamp or Delta Blues to Classical to Jazz, Rock to Breton/Irish traditionnal, the music of these countries inspire Rachel’s eclectic and original style in her own songwriting and music.
Rachel Scoazec Brennan has recorded and performed with various acclaimed names in the music industry. Chieftains/Matt Molloy, Peter Molloy, Aslan Alan Downey, Jerry Banjo O’Connor, Jerry Fiddle OConnor, Dervish/Brian McDonagh, DeDannan/Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn, William Faulkner, Eilish OConnor, and many others.
Rachel is available to teach you, to perform for any occasion or event.
She has learned the drums /percussions, the bass, the flute, and the guitar at age 6. She picked up the piano from her pianist mother. At 12, she went to a music academy to learn classical guitar and completed the grades. At home she was experimenting with jazz, jazz rock, rock and blues on acoustic and electric guitar, from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to Earl Klug, Al di Meola, George Benson and Wes Montgomery. She also learned Breton and Irish traditional music and started singing in English, Breton and Irish.
Rachel has started writing and singing her own songs at 17 and has been performing as singer/electric guitarist ever since. At 25 she picked up her grandfather and great uncle’s classical violins and took classical violin lessons, she also taught herself Breton, Irish and American trad tunes on the fiddle, the banjos, both four and five string ones, flute, tinwhistle, mandolin, mandola and bouzouki. At 30, in Dublin she studied Irish and classical harp with Irish Composer Harpist Anne Marie O Farrell. In Ireland, the US, the UK, Spain, China and many other places, Rachel has performed and recorded widely with big names of the music industry.
"Recording and performing with Aslan drummer Alan Downey, Gerry -Banjo- O'Connor, Johnny Connolly and Matt Molloy (Chieftains)."
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UK
In the UK, Rachel has written music and songs for Channel 4 films, amongst which ‘A Journey Through Sound’.
USA
In the US she recorded electric guitar in professional studios with Michael Lockett in Louisiana, who worked with Rick James and Sheila E, and performed electric blues guitar gigs with Grammy award zydeco band Buckwheat Zydeco.
Ireland
In Ireland, Rachel S. Brennan has been involved in musical projects with Dervish Brian Mc Donagh, as electric guitarist with Aslan drummer Alan Downey, as banjo player with Gerry Banjo O Connor. She taught Breton traditional music in Galway with John Faulkner and Eilish O Connor. Rachel has played gigs in Connemara with famous trad box player Johnny Connolly, she has also played with Matt Molloy from Chieftains, and she toured China with his son Peter and Irish fashion designer /musician Frank Owens, with their own Breton Irish trad music band Oilean, etc.
Irish Fleadh
Also in Ireland they have filmed her at the Tullamore Irish Fleadh with her band Rip Roaring Marys by RTE s programme Geantrai. RTE radio still recorded a video of her in Dublin, introduced by Aengus Mac Grianna, singing her own material, in company of Paul Harrington.
Rachel’s own Brother Olivier Scoazec, alias Zeus Einstein, has himself a Grammy Award playing Blues with the same band, he formerly played with Henry Gray, pianist of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf, and his new band is called the Muddfoote, with bassist Reverend Rooster, a former drummer with Sly and the Family Stone.
France
Rachel has been invited as artist in Residence in France in October 2019 where she performed her own material with her band at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival.