For Balkan type gypsy punk, look no further than the excellent Gogol Bordello.

aye, i like gogol bordello alright, pretty nuts dudes. I found these dudes too though, "Bratsch." Grooving on that at the minute, just straight up knees out folk. those dudes are some musicians i said dudes a lot there!

Nearer to home, there's the North Strand Klezmer Band. I've seen them a couple of times, and they're a riot. www.myspace.com/thenorthstrandklezmerband

aye i know all about them, f**king quality! we're ya at the dun laoghire gig, madness. twas cos of them that i started listening to this stuff.

yeah that was the same day! they went busking, and that was the detour to burger king. The garda had to move them off the street because so many people were dancing they were holding up traffic. fun times. its on you tube but i cant remember the adress at the minute, its linked on their myspace page though. My favourite band to go see in dublin, definitely.

As for bluegrass, Steve Earle recorded a brilliant bluegrass album called The Mountain with the legendary Del McCoury band a few years back. Well worth listening to. Especially the wonderful closing track that he performs with Emmylou Harris called Pilgrim.