Paahto & The Bull is the guitar-duo project of Patrick "Paahto" Cummins and John Francis Flynn. 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 would remain long-term sparring partners and an integral cog in Dublin's traditional and folk music communities.
As with any collaboration between these two players, Paahto & The Bull is beyond 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 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 fifteen years and, although one might have expected
their initial release to be a banjo/guitar product, the lateral thinking that went into choosing a guitar duet
is also very in line with the particular flavour of progressive that these lads strive for.
Their debut 10 track album, The 123 gets its name from the old Dublin bus route
that connected the two musicians' areas - passing by Paddy's home place on Errigal Road in Drimnagh
at one end and terminating near St. Declan's Road, Marino on the other, where John grew up."