We’re onto St. Patrick’s Day, folks, and you know what that means? Now is a great time to check out your favorite band (or your soon to be favorite band) because they’re all out on U.S. tours!
“The spirit of Ireland brought to life” is how Cherish the Ladies’s PR reads, and having seen them perform, it’s a statement that’s right on the mark. As always, Cherish is spending the Patrick’s Day season on tour, this time for their 40th anniversary. (40 years? Can you imagine?) Led by the indefatigable Joanie Madden, the current iteration of Cherish features a group of top shelf familiar faces, including Mary Coogan, Mirella Murray, Nollaig Casey, Kate Purcell, Emily Flack with dancers James Greenan, Noel Spillane and Joe Harrison, and wow what a show they’ll put on!
Cherish performances are, indeed, always dynamic, powerful occasions and I’m sure Madden will be pulling out all the stops for this anniversary show run. They’ll be out from March 1st through the 23rd, with stops in Dallas, Texas, Canton, Mass., Portsmouth, N.H., Beacon, Queens/Flushing, Peekskill, Rochester & Mineola N.Y., South Orange, West Long Branch & Collinswood NJ, Wilmington DE, Fairfax VA, and Pittsburgh PA. Visit https://cherishtheladies.com/ for specifics.
And while you’re at their site, be sure to check out her Ireland tours and cruises (Danube & Caribbean) Madden has on offer for 2025 and 2026. I only ever hear good things about these events, and so if tours and cruises are your thing, be sure to book your spot sooner rather than later because they fill up fast.
Another string of concerts to look forward to this season are those from the great Karan Casey. Together with fiddler/singer Niamh Dunne and guitarist/accordionist Sean Óg Graham (both from the band Beoga), she’s celebrating both Patrick’s Day and International Women's Day and will perform songs from her 2023 album “Nine Apples of Gold."
Casey, who as we all know has long been a powerful advocate for gender balance in Irish music and who recently premiered a new stage show in Ireland about women in the Irish revolutionary period called “The Women We Will Rise,” will be out on the road March 1-16, with stops in Albany and Syracuse N.Y., West Stockbridge & Somerville Mass., Maumee Ohio, Ann Arbor and Fremont, Mich., Chicago, Ill., Milwaukee, Wis., and St. Paul Minn. For more details, visit https://karancasey.com/.
Karan Casey.
It wasn’t so long ago that Casey was on tour with Lúnasa, who it just so happens are also out on their own tour. Lúnasa is one of the music’s great bands and this time around they’ll have the great Daoiri Farrell and Cathal Hayden as distinguished guests. They’ll be out and about from March 1st through to the 25th and will perform in Berryville, Reston and Vashon Va., Homer, Saugerties and Plattsburgh N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Old Saybrook, Conn., Somerville, Mass., Yellow Springs, Ohio, Ann Arbor and Madison, Mich., Chicago, Ill., Henderson, Nev., Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M., Kenta, Wash., Portland, Ore.
Lúnasa is a superb live act and all one needs to do to know this is check out “Live at Kyoto," the spectacular live album they released last year, which has since become one of my favorites. When they’re onstage, you get outstanding energy and top shelf virtuosity. For exact schedule and venue location, see https://www.lunasamusic.com/tour.
Another of traditional music’s great “supergroups” out on a U.S. tour at the moment is Danú. Danú not only has a new album, the follow up to their 2018 “Ten Thousand Miles” (and more about that in next week’s issue), but over Christmas they got a lot of well-deserved attention after their piper/flute player Ivan Goff performed with Hozier on Saturday Night Live. The band’s U.S. tour runs March 6 through the 20s and will hit Utica and Troy N.Y., Rockport, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Menomonie and Madison Wis., Decorah, Iowa, Logan, Utah, and Irvine, Calif.. For dates and more, visit https://www.danu.net/.
Finally, Téada is on a big U.S. tour. One of the most important bands of today, they’ll visit the west coast, midwest, and some select east coast spots as they celebrate 24 years as one of the genre’s top bands. The tour starts March 2 and will continue on through the 17th with stops scheduled in Pacific Grove, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sebastopol and Livermore, Calif., Colorado Springs, Colo., Nashville, Tenn., Newburyport, Mass., Richmond County and Utica N.Y., Lancaster, Pa., Charlottesville, Va., Henderson, Nev., and Yuma, Ariz. If you love traditional Irish music, they’re one of the bands to see! For a complete list of dates and venues, visit https://teada.com/.
