Folk Gig of the Week: Emma Sweeney, Band on the Wall, Manchester

Sweeney is launching her debut solo album, Pangea, with a hometown gig and will be joined on stage by her mentor Mike McGoldrick

Launching her debut solo album, Pangea, with a hometown gig, the acclaimed young Irish-Mancunian fiddler was mentored by the great pipe and whistle player Mike McGoldrick, and has performed on stage with the likes of Dick Gaughan and Cara Dillon.

McGoldrick produced Pangea and is among its list of guest players – alongside brilliant, up-and-coming Scottish multi-instrumentalist Matheu Watson, Capercaillie's Donald Shaw, and John Joe Kelly of Flook – one of the greatest bodhran players alive.

The album's songs range from a cover of Nick Drake's "A Place to Be", the album's one vocal track, to a plethora of great traditional tunes – the likes of "A Rose in the Heather".

McGoldrick, Watson, percussionist Cormac Byrne, double bassist Duncan Lyall and cellist Ben Cashell will be joining Sweeney on stage in Manchester (and in Glasgow on 19 January at Celtic Connections). It promises to be a proper party.

(0161 830 3884; bandonthewall.org) Thur