Guitar-duo project for Lee’s Bar

Paahto & The Bull, the guitar-duo project of Patrick "Paahto" Cummins and John Francis Flynn, is to perform at John Lee’s Bar & Venue on Sunday next, September 20, at 8pm.

Having met and played together since 2011 and having cut their teeth at The Maple Hotel on Dublin's Gardiner Street, Paahto and John helped form the Irish traditional group Skipper's Alley in 2013 and remain long-term sparring partners and an integral cog in Dublin's traditional and folk music communities.

As with any collaboration, Paahto & The Bull is not just a meeting of two musical minds and encompasses a very personal element. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the pair experimented with music on two guitars inspired by Paahto's interest in bluegrass flat-picking and John's very original approach to accompaniment.

Beginning with just an Instagram page to post some amateur material, Paahto & The Bull decided to take the project more seriously and gradually worked towards recording an album with the help of Brendan Jenkinson and Ben Rawlins. The ethos for the duo has always been to focus on simplicity and only features the musicians playing their guitars despite them both being multi-instrumentalists and singers.

The music of Paahto & The Bull is a very honest reflection of the unique kind of sound that Cummins and Flynn have consistently created with each other over the past 15 years.

Having signed with Claddagh Records in late 2025, Paahto & The Bull have just released their debut album The 123 to critical acclaim. Support from Dublin-based doom folk Answerer. This event is part funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.