“Edges of Light,” at the Irish Arts Center from June 1-3, features, from left, Tola Custy, David Power, Colin Dunne and Maeve Gilchrist.
By Daniel Neely
I spend a good deal of time in this column writing about news and releases that bear on the broader traditional music scene, but every now and then it’s important to stop and take account of some of the local events that are in the offing. Despite being just the beginning of the summer, there are a few really exciting things on the immediate horizon.
For example, from June 5-11, Keane’s Bar & Restaurant in Woodlawn (www.keanesbar.com) will host its first annual “Fleadh Cheoil.” And what a lineup they’ve got planned! Featured acts will include Eileen Ivers & Matthew Mancuso; Lúnasa’s Cillian Vallely with David Doocey; Ken Vesey, John Vesey and Frank McCormick from Celtic Cross; Dan Gurney & Dylan Foley of the Yanks; the Narrowbacks; Mickey Coleman; the Canny Brothers Band; the Druids; and the Erin Loughran School of Irish Music & Arts. The week’s house musicians will be Pamela Geraghty & Maeve Flanagan of the band Girsa.
It’s an impressive, well-curated lineup that should be great for the bar. Keane’s organizers seem inspired by the success of the “Trad Week” the Wolfhound bar (wolfhoundnyc.com) held in early February. There, organizers brought in an exciting group of out of town artists to their Astoria locale to anchor the week, and together with a few well-chosen local acts, the music helped attract strong bar traffic and generated significant, positive word-of-mouth publicity. By booking different high quality, and stylistically diverse local acts for each night – each of whom has a strong following – Keane’s is taking an analogous approach, one that should thrill patrons and ensure a similarly salubrious outcome.
Those looking for more of a sit-down type of musical experience can check out the new collaboration “Edges of Light” at the Irish Arts Center, June 1-3. “Edges of Light,” a piece commissioned by Ireland’s Music Network, features four acclaimed traditional artists in dancer Colin Dunne (the Chieftains and De Dannan), fiddler Tola Custy (Guidewires), harpist Maeve Gilchrist (Nic Gareiss; Darol Anger) and uilleann piper David Power (Masters of Traditions; Willie Kelly). A mix of traditional and newly-composed music, the piece uses music and dance to explore a hiccup of time and nature, that sunrise at Dublin’s Dunsink Observatory occurs just over 25 minutes later than Greenwich Mean Time, to evoke the sounds and textures of sunrise in Ireland. It promises to be an expressive and musically fulfilling event. As always with things Irish Arts Center, learn more at www.irishartscenter.org.
East Durham marks 40th
For folks interested in a family-oriented festival atmosphere, the annual East Durham Irish Festival will happen this Memorial Day weekend, May 27-8. It’s a special year for it as well, as 2017 marks the festival’s 40th anniversary.
An idea borne by a group of East Durham’s business owners, the Festival is an event that has contributed greatly to East Durham’s economy and cultural identity over the past four decades. The Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Center took stewardship of the festival in the late 1990s and gave it a refreshed life that has allowed it to endure in the form we know it today.
This year’s Festival promises to be a scorcher. Headlining acts will include Shilelagh Law, BibleCode Sundays, Get Up Jack, Nine Mile House, Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, the Narrowbacks, Celtic Cross, the Canny Brothers, Andy Cooney, and many, many others. Dylan Foley & Dan Gurney, and Cillian Vallely will each perform on the Trad stage, while Pride of Moyvane will play for céilí dancing both days. In addition, the Farrell School of Irish Dance will perform, the Middle Fort Pipe Band will play on the MJ Quill Center’s map of Ireland (which is the world’s largest map of Ireland), tea, scones & brown bread will be offered at the Center’s Donegal thatched cottage, and on Sunday Father Fragmenti will offer a Mass. Add to that a beer garden, rides and games for children, Irish dancing lessons, and you’ve got something for everybody!
If the sound of all this interests you, visit www.eastdurhamirishfestival.com to learn more about schedule and accommodation! It should be an amazing weekend and a great way to kick off the summer in the Irish Catskills! (Stay tuned to this column, by the way. I’ll be writing about Catskills Irish Arts Week in the not-too-distant future.)
Lots of things going on this summer in the world of Irish music – get out there and enjoy some it when you can.
