Arts and Entertainment
The concert film that Irish singer Cara Dillon and her husband and musical partner Sam Lakeman debuted online on Aug. 13 represented more than the culmination of a project. It was catharsis.
Like many, Dillon and Lakeman have endured frustrations and... Read more
Like any number of Celtic musicians – and practically just about everyone else, for that matter – Boston-area native Katie McNally has had to significantly scale back the plans she made for this year.
For McNally, who grew up in Westford and lived in... Read more
Kern, “The Left and the Leaving” • An inherently strong sense of place, combined with a blended musical purposefulness, helped County Louth trio Kern’s 2016 debut album, “False Deceiver,” garner acclaim. That’s how it is when you have Barry Kieran (fiddle... Read more
Call it the first few steps on the long road back. On July 10 and 11, the Irish Cultural Centre of New England in Canton featured live music in its outdoor dining area, the first time the ICC had had flesh-and-blood musicians – as opposed to those... Read more
Tuesday, July 14, ICCNE will present Irish singer Mary Culloty O'Sullivan, live on their Facebook Page. Starting at 7pm EST, go to http://www.irishculture.org/ to enjoy this wonderful performance.
by Sean SmithSpecial to BostonIrish.com
It has been a tough spring for many Irish/Celtic musicians, their performance and teaching schedules decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic — and the summer doesn’t look to be much better.
But a recently launched online... Read more
Nestled in the northeast corner of Jamaica Plain, right near the Angell Animal Medical Center, the Brendan Behan Pub prides itself as a “cozy gathering place.” Its website prominently displays a quote from the namesake Irish author and legendary raconteur... Read more
Marla Fibish, “The Bright Hollow Fog” • Fibish is highly regarded for her playing of Irish traditional music on mandolin, emphasizing the instrument’s qualities of tone and sustain over speed, with a superb ability to tease out ornaments and triplets. She... Read more
In 1938, the year before he died, preeminent Irish poet William Butler Yeats spelled out in his valedictory poem “Under Ben Bulben” explicit instructions for the epitaph he wished to have cut into the slab of local limestone that would mark his grave:
... Read more
Nestled in the northeast corner of Jamaica Plain, right near the Angell Animal Medical Center, the Brendan Behan Pub prides itself as a “cozy gathering place.” Its website prominently displays a quote from the namesake Irish author and legendary raconteur... Read more
Summer BCMFest – the warm-weather counterpart to the annual winter BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) – will take place in a virtual format on July 5 beginning at 7 p.m., featuring Cape Breton music by the Leland Martin Trio; Boston-area Irish musicians... Read more
Órla Fallon, has entertained audiences for years as a renowned singer, harpist and founding member of the Grammy nominated Irish music ensemble, Celtic Woman. On July 24th Órla Fallon will release a new album of her favorite Traditonal Celtic songs, '... Read more
Jarlath Henderson, “Raw” • Glasgow-based Henderson – Armagh-born and raised in Tyrone – is one of those rare performers who seems able to do it all: a gifted singer who’s a superb instrumentalist in both the melody and rhythm domains. You don’t have to... Read more
Summer BCMFest – the warm-weather counterpart to the annual winter BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) – will take place in a virtual format on July 5, featuring performances by fiddler Katie McNally; fiddle-harp duo Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul; and... Read more
John Doyle, “The Path of Stones” • The burden of being so good at your craft is that you’re in such demand, you don’t always have time to do something just for you. Which may help explain why John Doyle, a consummate talent in Irish/Celtic music for the... Read more
There’s definitely a kind of hush all over the world lately – certainly in the Boston area, as far as local Irish musicians are concerned. The coronavirus crisis has shuttered pubs, restaurants, and other public venues, depriving musicians of places to... Read more
They are easily among the most accomplished Irish/Celtic guitarists in Greater Boston, New England, and beyond – and also have been among the busiest. Flynn Cohen, a one-time Boston-area resident now living in Brattleboro, co-founded the band Low Lily (... Read more
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
