Even if Andy Irvine, one of the most well-loved, successful performers in Irish music, wasn’t coming to town (at The Burren for two shows on October 1, and the Boston College Gaelic Roots series on October 2), October would still be a corker of a month for Irish/Celtic music. You can read more about Irvine here; let’s get onto the other upcoming events.

•Club Passim in Harvard Square will host an album launch on October 2 by homegrown Irish/Celtic musician Elias Cardoso, who is a familiar figure at local sessions playing fiddle, accordion and guitar, and has a fine singing voice to match. He’s toured with the likes of Old Blind Dogs, Mari Black, Dave Cory and Celtic Rhythms, and appeared at BCMFest, among other events. [Look for a profile of Cardoso later this fall on BostonIrish.com.]

On October 6, the Hanneke Cassel Band will come to Passim. Cassel takes the elegant, sometimes flamboyant grace associated with classic Scottish fiddle and invests it with rhythmic briskness and bluegrass, even jazz-inspired improvisational runs, whether playing traditional tunes or the many she has composed – all with a joie de vivre spirituality. Mainly, Cassel has a lot of fun: A year ago, she spearheaded a “Texas Fiddle Meltdown” show at Passim, recalling the path she started out on before turning to Celtic music. She will be joined by fiddler Jenna Moynihan and guitarist Keith Murphy, who both appear on her 2023 album "Infinite Brightness."

Performing on October 20 is Iona Fyfe, who has not only emerged as one of Scotland’s most talented and accomplished young singers, but as a dedicated advocate for Scots language (thanks to her, Spotify added it to its list of languages, no small triumph). Fyfe has decried the longstanding lack of official respect for Scots – she noted in an interview that as children, her parents “got the belt” for speaking it at school – and five years ago launched a campaign to recognize Scots as a legal language. Having originally concentrated on traditional ballads and songs found in both Appalachia and her native Aberdeenshire), in recent years, she’s taken to translating contemporary songs into Doric Scots, including Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” and Richard Thompson’s “Poor Ditching Boy.”  

Louise Bichan and friends will celebrate All Hallow's Eve with an evening of seasonally-appropriate spooky Scottish tunes, songs and tales on October 29 in Club Passim.

If you’ve had your fill of modern-day, over-commercialized Halloween, think about coming to Passim on October 29 for “All Hallows' Eve: Spooky Tunes, Songs and Tales from Scotland.” Organized by fiddler Louise Bichan, a Berklee College of Music grad now living in Maine who grew up in the Orkney Islands, the evening will focus on Samhain traditions, folk tales and songs. She’ll be accompanied by mandolinist Ethan Setiawan – with whom she regularly collaborates as the duo Hildaland – and local musicians Conor Hearn (guitar) and Brendan Hearn (cello), as well as some special guests. 

Bichan spoke with us recently about the upcoming show.

What are some Halloween-related traditions from home you plan to share or talk about at Passim?

Bichan: In Scotland we make “neepy” lanterns – carving a turnip/swede is a lot harder than a pumpkin! If my bandmates and I can get ahold of some nice big neeps, we'll have a carving session before the shows and bring them along. We're encouraging the audience to do the same (pumpkins or turnips, with fake candles) and to join us in dressing up for the occasion as well. Carving spooky faces and leaving them lit up in the window was said to have warded off the evil spirits. 

Any special Halloween memories you have from growing up?

When I was younger we would go out "guising," a very old tradition in Scotland dating back to around the 16th century where you would disguise yourself to fool the evil spirits and children would perform a song or dance in exchange for a gift of fruit or nuts –  nowadays sweets. We also used to “dook” for apples: Try to get an apple out of a basin of water, without using your hands, which was sometimes followed by getting a sweetie out of a bowl of flour in the same fashion.

In Orkney, Halloween is also known as Devilment Night: It's long been a tradition to wake up on the first of November to find signposts moved around – the sign for my parents’ farm is now cemented into the ground – and bales of straw, boats, farm gates and such like transported to strange places! 

It sounds like this event is going to be a departure from what we’ve come to associate with Halloween nowadays, where the focus seems to be on shock and horror (and candy, of course).

Bichan: I grew up with stories of trowies (trolls) and sea serpents and fairies, which I have always loved and I'm delighted to be able to share. The show will lean away from more of the blood, guts and gore side of things – other than a few murder ballads – and focus more on these types of folk tales, and supernatural stories from back home. Going into fall and winter can be such a dark time of year, especially way up in the north of Scotland, so I think celebrations like Halloween, the Harvest Homes and Guy Fawkes Night are important in bringing people together, bringing light into the dark months, celebrating the changing seasons, the summer's harvest, playing music and dancing and eating together. 

Information on all Club Passim shows at passim.org

•In addition to the aforementioned Andy Irvine, The Burren’s Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series will feature some other accomplished Celtic performers. One is The Tannahill Weavers (October 8), who have been a key part of the modern Scottish folk music revival for almost six decades now. The “Tannies” – the first professional Scots group to incorporate full-sized Highland bagpipes in performance – are led by co-founders Roy Gullane (vocals, guitar) and Phil Smillie (flute, whistles, bodhran, vocals) with more recent additions Iain MacGillivray (Highland bagpipes, fiddle, whistles) and Malcolm Bushby (fiddle, bouzouki, harmony vocals). Their most recent album, 2024’s “Solstice,” is 12 tracks of what they describe as “Celtified” festive music that is predominantly instrumental, with mouth music on a couple of tracks by guest singer Annia McGillivray.

Another is Boston’s own David Coffin, who on October 15 will captain another in a series of Revels Pub Sing sessions in the Backroom. Coffin is widely hailed as among the foremost maritime singers, well known for his frequent appearances through Revels – where he is an artist-in-residence and a presenter in its School Enrichment Program – and his contributions to  Boston Harbor tours, not to mention his forays into social media. In addition to singing, Coffin plays concertina, recorders, whistles and a whole range of other wind instruments. 

Rounding out the series’ month will be Solas, with two shows on October 21. The 

 groundbreaking Irish-American band ended an eight-year hiatus at the beginning of 2025, going back on tour with original members Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan and John Williams joined by new recruits Nuala Kennedy and Alan Murray; vocalist Moira Smiley, who was part of the band in the mid-2010s, also has appeared on selected dates. Emerging in the mid-1990s, Solas caught the ear of Irish music aficionados and casual listeners alike, struck by the group’s power and drive, its ambitious, forward-thinking arrangements, as well as an increasingly diverse repertoire that included elements of American folk, contemporary singer-songwriters, along with their own compositions. 

For more about shows at The Burren, see burren.com/music.html

•Singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy, the mastermind behind the global Irish music festival Misneach (Gaelic for “courage”) that launched in Boston and Sydney back in March – also featuring The Swell Season, Ye Vagabonds, and Nell Mesca as well as Kennedy – returns to the city on October 25 for a rather more intimate event at the Orpheum Theatre. Dublin-born Kennedy, who once spent three months busking around Boston, has been on an upward trajectory that’s seen him gather opportunities and accolades alike on the strength of his engagement with audiences as well as compositions that have been praised for emotional bravery and unblinking self-reflection. Kennedy’s songs have been streamed more than four billion times (and counting) on platforms like Spotify and Pandora and his achievements include RTÉ Choice Music Prize Song of the Year and NPR Slingshot Best New Artist.

Tickets are available at www.orpheumtheatremaboston.com/events/dermot-kennedy-25-october-2025/

•In addition to hosting Andy Irvine on October 2, on October 30 the Boston College Gaelic Roots series will present two gifted fiddlers representing different, but hardly divergent, music traditions from their respective birthplaces: Kimberley Fraser and Oisín McAuley. Fraser is among the elite Cape Breton musicians of her generation, performing and teaching in many different parts of the world. An alumna of Berklee College of Music, Fraser – also proficient as a pianist and step dancer – has released two albums, “Behind the Bow” and “Falling on New Ground” – the latter of which won the East Coast Music Award for Roots/Traditional Album of the Year. McAuley was born in County Donegal, home to a revered fiddle tradition, and in addition to his long-time stint with the acclaimed band Danú – which has released 10 albums – has drawn praise for his solo efforts, notably his album “Far from the Hills of Donegal,” on which he demonstrates a command of other Irish fiddle styles. A member of the Berklee College faculty, McAuley and some of his Berklee colleagues took part in the project “Emerald Jazz,”

televised on WGBH, which introduced jazz elements to traditional Irish music. 

For more about Gaelic Roots events, see events.bc.edu/group/gaelic_roots_series

•Two very high-octane acts will join together on October 4 at the Berklee Performance Center: Scottish trio Talisk and dancing duo The Gardiner Brothers. Known for its propulsive, raucous, and tightly-knit blend of Scottish and Irish music elements, Talisk is led by the ever-effusive Mohsen Amini, whose fleet-fingered, vibrant concertina playing has to be seen to be believed and is built around his chemistry with fiddler Benedict Morris and Charlie Galloway on guitar. The Colorado-born sons of Irish parents, Michael and Matthew Gardiner have between them amassed more than 40 major international Irish dance titles including five world championships. The Gardiners also are self-proclaimed (deservedly so) “content creators” who put the dance tradition in thoroughly modern milieus.

The show, postponed from earlier this year, is part of the Global Arts Live series.

•A pair of eminent, highly respected American Irish musicians, Laurel Martin and Mark Roberts, appear at the Gore Place Carriage House Series in Waltham on October 15. A former student of master fiddler Seamus Connolly, Martin plays a lyrical, almost meditative style, influenced by the Clare, Galway and Sligo traditions. She has also been an invaluable teacher and mentor to young fiddle players, and has received three Massachusetts Cultural Council Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grants, which supports intergenerational learning. Roberts, who besides flute and whistle counts banjo and bouzouki among his musical luggage, has been prominent in American and Celtic-oriented music for the past few decades, including as part of bands like Touchstone and The Sevens. He and Martin also were part of the Boston-based fiddle ensemble Childsplay, and have often performed at Gore Place with guitarist Jim Prendergast and dancer Kieran Jordan.

Fiddler Laurel Martin and multi-instrumentalist Mark Roberts come to the Gore Place Carriage House Series in Waltham on October 15.

The New England Irish Harp Orchestra comes to the Carriage House on October 29. NEIHO is a multi-generational group of harpists who play Irish traditional tunes, slow airs, and songs in various combinations as well as a full ensemble – including with fiddlers, flutists, and singers. The orchestra made a memorable trip to Ireland in 2023, including one concert in Port Laoise that saw them collaborate with another ensemble, adding up to some five dozen harpists. NEIHO’s members note that their performance will follow closely on the heels of Lá na Cruite – Harp Day – in Ireland, which takes place this year on October 18. 

For more about Gore Place events, see goreplace.org/whats-on