October 27, 2025
•Whether you ha
ve or you haven’t attended Fiddle Hell, this would be an important year for you to go to the festival, which takes place from November 13-16. It’s not just that Fiddle Hell has, as always, a stellar line-up – more on that in just a second – but its long-time venue, the Westford Regency Inn & Conference Center, will be torn down next year. Announcing the news last month, chief organizer Dave Reiner said he doesn’t know yet what will happen for the in-person version of the festival (the online Fiddle Hell takes place in April), but that the 2025 edition will “be something truly special.”
Fiddle Hell is, as the name implies, a spotlight event for the titular instrument and its presence in Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Quebecois, American, Scandinavian, Cajun, blues, and other folk music traditions. Attendees can take classes and workshops – not just for fiddle but mandolin, banjo, flute, harmonica, and guitar, among others – and participate in planned and spontaneous jam sessions. And if you’re not a musician, you can attend Fiddle Hell performances and, basically, stroll around and enjoy the atmosphere. This year’s Fiddle Hell faculty includes, among many others, Celtic performers like Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas, Ellery Klein, Flynn Cohen, Barbara McOwen, Jenna Moynihan, Laurel Martin, Liz Knowles, Lissa Schneckenburger, Katie McNally and Rose Clancy.
All details available at fiddlehell.org. And suggestions for a new venue will no doubt be welcome.
•A couple of bands with local, and regional, ties will be at Club Passim in Harvard Square this month. On November 5, it’s the Maine-based quartet Pine Tree Flyers, which plays New England traditional instrumental music, encompassing tunes found in the Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian as well as American traditions, along with others from more recent decades composed by New England musicians. Although they boast extensive individual experience in the contra dance circuit, PTF is first and foremost a performance band, with distinctive and robust arrangements that display the ample talents of its line-up: Greater Boston natives Katie McNally (fiddle) and Emily Troll (accordion) along with Neil Pearlman (piano) and Benjamin Foss (guitar) – who replaced original guitarist Owen Marshall last year. PTF has played far and wide, from BCMFest to Celtic Colours, and released an album in early 2024.
Another quartet, Cantrip, will be at Club Passim on November 17. With a history dating back to the 1990s, the band has consistently built on its traditional Scottish roots to encompass funk, metal, bluegrass, swing, even klezmer, with stellar musicianship, imagination and considerable wit.The current line-up is Boston native Eric McDonald (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, vocals); Dan Houghton (bagpipes, flute, whistle, guitar, bouzouki, vocals); Jon Bews (fiddle, vocals); and Alasdair White (fiddle).
Tickets, information available at passim.org
•The Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series in The Burren Backroom will start off the month with a rare Saturday mid-day concert beginning at noon on November 1, and a double-feature to boot with two bands that fall into what’s often described as the “Celtic-adjacent” category: Scandinavian duo Väsen and Quebec band Genticorum. Väsen’s Olov Johansson and Mikael Marin first acquired their taste for Swedish folk music through visits with older musicians in Sweden’s Uppland region. They later joined forces with innovative guitarist Roger Tallroth, adding components of rock, jazz, and classical, and over time the trio integrated its own tunes into the mix, while collaborating and performing with musicians from around the world. After Tallroth left in 2020 to pursue other musical projects, Johansson and Marin continued on, their performances featuring the nyckelharpa and a variety of other stringed instruments, including a blue electric viola. They’ve recorded two albums, “Vásen Duo” and “Mellikan,” and another with American trio Hawktail.
Genticorum – which this year hit the quarter-century mark – brings energy, dynamism, and a special conviviality, even gentleness to their treatment of the music. Nicholas Williams’s flute adds a soulfulness to their sound, and his accordion playing has a similar quality, which sits very well alongside the brilliance of Pascal Gemme’s fiddle, mandolin and foot percussion, along with Yann Falquet’s guitar and guimbarde (jaw harp). Their voices, whether solo or together, are robust yet infused with an affability and warmth. Genticorum has 11 albums and a 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award (Ensemble of the Year) to its credit.
A frequent guest of the series, RUNA, returns on November 16 with its fusion of Irish, Scottish and Americana/roots music, adding harmonies, rhythms and tints of jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues. Their most recent album, “When the Light Gets In,” includes a piece of Scottish mouth music as well as covers of Andy Irvine’s “Indiana” and Stan Rogers’ hallmark maritime song “Northwest Passage,” and even a Gaelic version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Well into its second decade, the quintet of Shannon Lambert-Ryan (vocals, bodhran, step-dancing), Fionán de Barra (guitar), Cheryl Prashker (percussion), Jake James (fiddle), and Tom Fitzgerald (fiddle, mandolin) has earned honors in the Irish Music Awards and Independent Music Awards.
Information and tickets at burren.com/music.html
•Another venerable Quebecois outfit, the quintet Le Vent du Nord, is marking the release of its new album, “Voisinages,” at Somerville Theatre on November 1, sponsored by Global Arts Live. “Voisinages” is translated as “neighborhoods,” and the recording celebrates the music traditions that have enriched the Quebec repertoire – Irish, Scottish, Acadian and American. The album’s single, “Par-dessus le pont,” has thosee infectious Quebecois rhythms as well as call-and-response, and an interesting back story dating from the 18th century: Jean Berger, who was sent to jail on charges of brutality to a Montreal bourgeois, wrote a satirical song about it upon his release, and wound up being thrown back behind bars (some of the lyrics are in public domain, others were written by the band’s Nicolas Boulerice); appended to the song is a reel associated with Vermont fiddler Louis Beaudoin.
•After 17 years, Massachusetts-based Celtic ensemble Fellswater will give its farewell concert on November 23 at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. They’ve been known for their elaborately arranged sets of Scottish, Irish, Breton, and other Celtic-related music for instruments such as fiddle, viola, Celtic harp, cello, nyckelharpa, Scottish small pipes and border pipes, flute, acoustic bass, whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and percussion. Complementing instrumentalists Elizabeth Ketudat, Sarah MacConduibh, Dave Cabral, Kyle Forsthoff and Andrew McIntosh is spousal duo Chris and Diane Meyers, who provide the vocals. Their most recent album, “Making Waves,” released earlier this year, features original tunes by Ketudat and Forsthoff as well as by, among others, Hanneke Cassel, Katie McNally, Adam Sutherland, and Michael McGoldrick. The songs come from diverse sources, including Irish and Scottish traditions (“Siúl A Rún,” “Allison Cross”), Dougie MacLean (“Caledonia”) and even avant-garde harpist/vocalist Deborah Henson-Conant (“The Nightingale”).
Information and tickets at cultural-center.org
•The Boston College Gaelic Roots series closes out its fall schedule on November 13 with Scottish guitarist Tony McManus, at Connolly House (300 Hammond Street) on the university’s Chestnut Hill Campus. McManus renders the complex ornamentations of traditional music associated fiddle and pipes, and the effect is spellbinding and often emotionally powerful. His repertoire goes beyond Scotland and Ireland to include Cape Breton, and the Celtic music traditions of Brittany, Asturia, Galicia and Quebec. McManus’ lengthy list of collaborated include Andy Irvine, Dougie McLean, Phil Cunningham, Natalie MacMaster and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.
More on Gaelic Roots at events.bc.edu/group/gaelic_roots_series
Boston-area quartet Forsyth performs at McCarthy's Tavern on November 23.
•Boston-area vocal quartet Forsyth will appear at the Upstairs stage in McCarthy’s Tavern on November 23. The band of Erin Hogan, Kate Knudsvig, Helen Kuhar and Kate Wallace – all active in various aspects of the local folk/trad scene – represent wide-ranging musical talents, interests and experiences (ranging from Americana-styled songwriting to contra dance to classical to pure-drop traditional Irish) that join together to present songs from Celtic music traditions. Forsyth’s focus is on their voices, whether solo, in unison or harmony, with little or no instrumental accompaniment, putting words and melodies squarely in the spotlight; they point to groups like Ye Vagabonds and Lankum as inspiration.
Check the Forsyth website for show info www.forsythband.com/
•Self-described "upcycled Celtic folk" trio House of Hamill has two upcoming dates in Massachusetts, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport on November 13 and Stow’s New Revival Coffeehouse on November 15. Brian Buchanan (fiddle, guitar, mandolin, vocals) – a member of popular Canadian Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis – Rose Baldino (fiddle, vocals), formerly of Burning Bridget Cleary, and bassist/vocalist Caroline Browning present original as well as traditional material and covers of songs one might not necessarily expect – say, an all-violin version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” or “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Their versatility is in full flower on their third album “Folk Hero,” which like its predecessors was funded entirely by fans.
•That foundational fiddle-cello duo of Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas – who, as previously mentioned, are on the faculty at this year’s Fiddle Hell – will give a couple of performances elsewhere in Eastern Massachusetts this month: November 14 at the Groton Hill Music Center and November 21 at the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead. Fraser is one of the leading Scottish fiddlers of the past few decades, and Haas has been a foundational figure in the use of cello in various forms of traditional music. Their exchange of riffs, trade-offs of melody versus rhythm, and musical conversations in various tones of emotion and intensity draw on Scottish and other Celtic traditions, as well as elements of Scandinavian, Breton, American, classical, jazz, and other music forms. In 2020, they marked their 20th anniversary with the release of their sixth album, “Syzygy,” consisting of original compositions.
•Cambridge’s Druid Pub is, of course, one of the most popular destinations for Irish sessions, and now has started up a “Live at The Druid” concert series next door at The Lilypad. On November 2, the series will present "The Music of the Flanagan Brothers," a tribute to the hugely popular 1920s/1930s Irish music band. Boston-area native Dan Neely, a musicologist and a columnist for New York City’s Irish Echo, will give a presentation on the Flanagans and their collaborators, and the recordings they made, then pick up a banjo and join accordionist/melodeonist Diarmuid Ó Meachair (the series’ chief organizer) and pianist Matt Mulqueen in playing some of the Flanagan repertoire. It’s a great opportunity to gain some insight into that era’s sounds and spirit – and there were few better representatives of it than the Flanagan Brothers.
•Boston’s distinguished Royal Scottish Country Dance Society will hold a concert and ceilidh, “Celebrating Our Celtic Connections,” on November 23 at Somerville’s Arts at the Armory. The event is a nod to the Scottish-Canadian musical bonds, with performances by fiddler Katie McNally and guitarist-vocalist Keith Murphy, piper Stephen Thomforde, Highland Dance Boston and the Boston Scottish Country Dancers. There’ll be participatory dancing as well.
•Not exactly a concert, but those interested in Massachusetts history should consider going to the Gore Place Carriage House on November 5 for “Factory Maids: The Lives of New England Millworkers,” with Diane Taraz. A historian as well as singer and musician, Taraz will talk about how the invention of the power loom, and the advent of textile mills in places like Waltham and Lowell, changed the lives of Bay State residents – especially women, who went to work in the mills in search of better pay and independence. Taraz also will sing songs published in The Lowell Offering, a magazine that the mill workers produced, even as they toiled long hours six days a week.
Boston-area singer-guitarist Adam Hendey comes to the Carriage House on November 19. The California native has become a ubiquitous figure in the local Celtic territory – whether anchoring sessions or performing – known in particular for his mastery of the DADGAD guitar style and as a singer of songs from traditional and contemporary sources, all delivered in a warm, intimate fashion. He’s got a solo album in the works, too.
Go to the Gore Place website for more.
•The Canadian American Club in Watertown, a cherished hub for Cape Breton and other Canadian Maritimes music, holds its annual fundraising gala on November 9, with several hours of live musical entertainment and social/traditional dancing. Among the performers will be fiddler Sarah Ann Hajjar, who’s releasing her first album, recorded with pianist Allan Chiasson, which you can read about here. Details on the gala at canadianamericanclub.com.
•Gaelic Storm brings its irrepressible brand of Celtic folk-rock to the Cabot Theatre in Beverly on November 13 and Plymouth Memorial Hall on November 16. Hard as it may be to imagine, almost 30 years have passed since the band had a cameo during the “Titanic” ceili-in-steerage scene which helped bring them to the attention of a wider audience. But Gaelic Storm put the work in, touring far, wide and often, appearing at scads of concert halls and festivals, and releasing seven albums and a DVD. They’ve done so with gradual roster changes, to the point where lead vocalist Patrick Murphy is the only original member now; recent arrivals include Boston-area native Natalya Kay on fiddle (2022) and guitarist-vocalist Parker Hastings (2024).
Local nonprofit Tutti Music Collective (TMC) will present “A Celtic Celebration” on November 8 in Boston’s St. Cecilia Church, with performances by Irish band Ishna and the TMC orchestra and choir, under the direction of conductor Elijah Langille. Organizers describe the concert as an exploration of Celtic festivals over the centuries, from pagan roots and their evolution into Christian traditions, with choral and orchestral music as well as that of the Irish tradition. Ishna is led by spouses Ciaran Nagle and Tara Novak—both of whom have worked with “Riverdance” and The Three Irish Tenors—and the band’s members bring a wealth of influences, including classical, pop and world music, to their arrangements of Irish traditional music.
