Derek Warfield and The Young Wolfe Tones are known throughout the world for Irish patriotic songs and traditional music. Lead singer, songwriter and storyteller and original Wolfe Tone Derek Warfield is often described as “Ireland’s greatest ballad singer.”
A special group of Irish men and women have been responsible for preservation of the tradition of Irish ballad singing over the past 50 years. Derek Warfield is a distinguished name among them. Derek Warfield and They Young Wolfe Tones are bringing that musical tradition forward with a reverence for Ireland’s past and the energy and optimism of a new generation of Irish musicians.
2016 Was a pinnacle for Derek and The Young Wolfetones was when they were chosen to perform on the 24th April at the 1916 centenary commemorations at the General Post Office in O’Connell Street Dublin at 12.o’clock noon. This was the exact same time the Irish proclamation was read by Padraig Pearse one hundred years ago to the minute. As Derek is quoted as saying “of all the honors bestowed on the Wolfetones old and young this privilege was the most significant. It was honour to perform the music and songs of remembrance and the patriotic ballads that were sung by the volunteers inside the building during the struggle for our freedom, and we performed them with the same passion and emotion. “The Foggy Dew”, “Wrap the Green Flag Round me” “The Soldiers Song” were some of the chorus’s that rang out along the main thoroughfare to the 30,000 people assembled.
Derek Warfield & The Young Wolfe Tones produced a powerful 20 track CD commemorative 1916 CD titled “The Call of Erin” that embraces the heritage of popular ballads that remember our hero’s and patriots in poem, song and music.
After spending nearly 40 years as founder, leader and front man of the legendary Wolfe Tones (named after the 18th century Irish Revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone), Derek Warfield is revered as a singer, songwriter, historian and entertainer in all parts of the world where Irish roots have been put down. The Wolfe Tones enjoyed phenomenal success with 13 best-selling albums, 3 number one hits, many television appearances and shows in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and The Royal Albert Hall in London.
Derek has been proudly presented with the keys to San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles for his contributions to Irish Song & Music over the years and was honored as “Dublin Gael of The Year 2013” by the New York Dublin Society.
Since breaking away from the Wolfe Tones in 2001, Derek’s solo career has yielded 11 albums to date, the most successful of them being “A Nation once again” “On the One Road”, “God save Ireland” “Sons of Erin” ‘The Bonnie Blue Flag” “Washington’s Irish” “Let Ye All be Irish Tonight” and “Call Of Erin”. With the formation and ongoing success of The Young Wolfe Tones, the legend of Derek Warfield continues.
