Arts and Entertainment
Kevin Burke, “Sligo Made” • The title is a pun – a riff on the reel “Sligo Maid” – but you don’t have to get the joke to appreciate this latest release from Burke, a master of the Sligo fiddle style and, lest we forget, a seminal figure in the Irish folk/... Read more
Not surprisingly, what would normally have been a robust calendar of Irish/Celtic/traditional music-related events in Greater Boston last month was decimated by the coronavirus crisis. Here’s what is scheduled for April, with the obligatory “check the... Read more
And you thought an Irish music session was a bunch of people playing tunes in a pub.
Well, it is, of course.
But a session also is a veritable wellspring of social mores and interpersonal dynamics that offers insights into how a given community defines,... Read more
March was shaping up as a typically busy month for area musicians like Declan Houton, Kate McDermott, Stuart Peak, and Colm O’Brien, denizens of the Greater Boston Irish/Celtic scene – which, as everyone knows, is at high operating capacity during what is... Read more
Moving as easily between color and black and white as he moved from analog to digital when that technology shift came, Dublin photographer Fionán O’Connell has snapped literally tens of thousands of photos over a career, amateur and professional, now... Read more
The organizers reached out in an email on Sunday, March 22:
On what would have been the closing day of this year's festival, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for all of the kind messages we have received since we announced the postponement... Read more
For 15 years Celtic Woman has been celebrating Ireland's rich musical and cultural heritage while continuing its remarkable legacy of introducing some of Ireland's most talented singers and musicians onto the world stage. To commemorate this... Read more
Yesterday, I broadcast A Celtic Sojourn Live from our studios in Brighton as I intend to continue doing every Saturday. Under normal circumstances, we would have been performing at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge at the same time, but alas, that was not to... Read more
The Irish Film Festival Boston will make its return to the Somerville Theatre for its 20th annual celebration of Irish film in Massachusetts. This year’s festival, which runs over four days from March 19-22, will showcase a selection of the new talents,... Read more
Gatehouse, “Heather Down the Moor” • This quartet’s second album carries the same appeal as its first: masterful technical proficiency among the musicians, but also those indefinable yet invaluable qualities – spirit and temperament – with which they... Read more
A welcome fixture in the annual March festivities, “A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” returns this month for its 13th year of featuring performers with ties to Boston and New England as well as others from further afield. The show will stop at Rockport’... Read more
Last year at this time, the award-winning Irish folk quartet Lankum had recently finished its first-ever tour of the US, which included a stop in Cambridge where the band played to a full house in Harvard Square’s Club Passim.
The tour was a foundational... Read more
Seamus Egan, who has lived in Mayo as well as metropolitan Philadelphia and its suburbs – is in the midst of his third winter as a resident of Vermont, at the western edge of the Green Mountains, and all things considered, it has been going pretty well. “... Read more
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Sweat” is currently stirring the emotional pot at the Huntington Theatre. Set in Reading, PA, and based on interviews Nottage conducted with residents there, the play chronicles what happens in the working-class... Read more
Two of the most accomplished and revered Irish singers of the past half-century (give or take a few years have added to their discographies in recent months:
Andy Irvine, “Old Dog, Long Road Vol. 1” • If you haven’t already been thoroughly impressed,... Read more
Two-time #1 Billboard Charting artist Tim Janis and Grammy/Emmy nominated artistMáiréad Nesbitt (founding member of the global phenomenon Celtic Woman) return to Public Television in 2020 for the brand new musical special Celtic Heart.
Celtic Heart... Read more
Despite cold temperatures throughout and a snowstorm on its closing night, BCMFest (the Boston Celtic Music Fest) enjoyed a highly successful 17th year when it took place January 16-19. The Harvard Square-based festival, which celebrates the rich trove of... Read more
Westwood native Ashley Smith-Wallace can cite time-honored reasons for her success as a youthful Irish step dancer, and then as a multi-style dancer/choreographer and rising actress and singer – things like hard work, patience, support from family and... Read more
by R. J. Donovan
Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted that ”music and wine are one.” Kristen Lee Sergeant is living that conviction to the fullest.
A native of Manchester-by-the-Sea, she’s a jazz vocalist and composer who has blended her passion for music and... Read more
Bob Bradshaw, “Queen of the West” • With every album he makes, Bradshaw, a Cork-born singer/songwriter who has been living in Boston for some years now, has shown himself willing and very able to take bold steps forward and try out new things.
This time... Read more
