A look at upcoming Celtic music-related events in the Greater Boston events

•She came through town in February, but you can never have too much of Karan Casey, who continues to flourish as one of Ireland’s most accomplished all-around artists – and not just in the music domain, either. She’ll be at Club Passim in Harvard Square on Aug. 13, along with her husband, concertina player Niall Vallely, and fiddler Niamh Dunne. Casey first came to the forefront as lead singer in the 1990s for Solas, then went her own way, going well beyond traditional material to contemporary fare and, ultimately, her own compositions. Her 2023 album “Nine Apples of Gold” is replete with songs – authored solely by her or in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Sean Óg Graham (he’s also toured with her in recent years) – that are passionate and fiery, or achingly beautiful and rooted in traditional song idioms. Casey also has been involved in theater recently, staging her shows “I Walked into My Head” – part song-poem, part music performance – and “The Women, We Will Rise,” a theatrical song cycle that puts an emphasis on the female narrative in the folk tradition.

Casey also will perform as part of the Cranberry Arts & Music Festival in Harwich on Aug. 15.   

 Progressive-acoustic string quartet High Horse will be at Club Passim on Aug. 20. A project of fiddler Carson McHaney – Aoife O’Donovan and fiddler Jeremy Kittel have been among his collaborators – the quartet also includes cellist Karl Henry, guitar/banjo player G Rockwell and bassist Noah Harrington, bringing together Irish and American roots music as well as classical and jazz backgrounds. The band’s works may be based in familiar traditional instrumental structures, but also have space for improvisational and experimental passages. They’ve been in the process of recording their debut album, which includes guest appearances by locals Kat Wallace and Jacqui Armbruster. 

•Laois-based brothers Hugh and Ciaran Finn, better known as The Finns, are on the bill at The Burren in Davis Square on Aug. 8. The pair, accompanying themselves variously on guitar, banjo, bouzouki, tenor guitar, percussion, and harmonica, have ties to traditional Irish music but opt for a more “alt-folk”/folk-rock sound that features their own work as well as that of others. Their originals include “Patrick Kavanagh,” an unromanticized portrait of the titular character and famed Dublin literary figure. “We’ve Got the Whole of Ireland” is a clever reworking of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” with shout-outs to numerous places and features of Eire and some amusing lyrical twists. A somewhat similarly kaleidoscopic approach, only with a more introspective tone, is “Passage,” a recounting of travels and adventures from youth. Their covers are wide-ranging, from Graham Moore’s uplifting “Tom Paine’s Bones” and Ed Pickford’s always relevant and timely “The Workers Song” to classic pub-song fare such as “Sally Brown.”

The Kings of Connaught are at The Burren on Aug. 18, the day after their appearance at the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston [see below].

The Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series at The Burren hosts Celtic guitar hero Tony McManus on Aug. 21. The Scottish-born McManus, who is a self-taught finger-style player, renders the complex ornamentations of traditional music associated with fiddle and pipes, and the effect is spellbinding and often emotionally powerful. In addition to Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton, McManus has explored Celtic music traditions such as those of Brittany, Asturia, Galicia, and Quebec. He has teamed with an array of celebrated performers like Dougie McLean, Phil Cunningham, Liam O’Flynn, Martin Simpson, Kevin Burke, Alison Brown, Natalie MacMaster, The Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Catriona Macdonald, and Andy Irvine. In recent years, he has teamed with Berlin guitarist Julia Toaspern, whose interests extend to baroque and jazz (she also plays fiddle and sings); they released a live album in 2019.

Rachel Davis and Darren McMullen – two-thirds of the much-admired Cape Breton band Còig that performed here last year – will come to the Legacy Series on Aug. 28, having just released their first album, “Home.” Davis is a past Canadian Folk Music Awards Traditional Singer of the Year who first learned to play fiddle from her grandfather and studied under respected Cape Breton teachers like Karen Beaton, Kyle MacNeil and Stan Chapman; McMullen (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, vocals) cut his teeth on Celtic music in the Halifax pub scene and was an accompanist for renowned multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier. Davis and McMullen have now turned more to their singing, as “Home” illustrates: They play songs by Archie Fisher and venerable Cape Breton songwriter Buddy MacDonald, and others composed with notables Dave Gunning and Terra Spencer. 

Davis and McMullen also will be featured at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport on Aug. 31.

•The Kings of Connaught will pay a return visit to the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston in Canton on Aug. 17, as part of their third American tour in the space of a year. The trio – Liam O'Grady (vocals, five-string banjo), Mark Costello (vocals, guitar), and Thomas Ryan (whistle, harmonica, guitar) – have fashioned a very winning sound in the ballad-band mode, with classic songs like "The Rocky Road to Dublin," “Rare Old Mountain Dew,” “Banks of Red Roses,” and "The Irish Rover" alongside instrumentals ("Planxty Irwin" and Finbar Furey's "Lonesome Boatman") and covers of contemporary numbers, from Richard Thompson's "Beeswing" to The Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling."