•A few large-scale events to note: One is the inaugural Tunes on the Charles festival in Cambridge and Somerville from April 30 to May 3, which you can read about here.

The annual New England Folk Festival Association, better known as NEFFA, takes place April 24-26 in Marlborough. All manner of folk and ethnic music and dance traditions are represented, and that includes those in the Celtic domain. Among other offerings are a jam session devoted to Liz Carroll tunes, a performance of Turlough O’Carolan compositions, a concert of Cape Breton tunes and Gaelic songs, and an open singing session focused on Irish songs that feature mountains, rivers, cities, villages and shores. 

Fiddle Hell has been a hugely popular Massachusetts-based festival devoted to the titular instrument but with plenty of space for guitars, flutes, accordions, banjos, and so on. In-person Fiddle Hell is currently in the hunt for a new home, but the online version its organizers launched during the pandemic has developed a following of its own, and will be online April 9-12 with live workshops, concerts and artist-led jam sessions. 

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Matt Molloy and John Carty

• [UPDATE: This event, and the concert at Boston College, have been cancelled due to illness.] The Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series at The Burren hosts two quite distinguished fellows this month in Matt Molloy and John Carty on April 15. Roscommon native Molloy played no small part in bringing the flute – the Sligo/Roscommon style tradition in particular – to the attention of the wider world during the late-20th century Irish music revival, as a member of foundational groups like the Bothy Band, Planxty and eventually The Chieftains. His pub in Westport, Co. Mayo, has become a must-visit destination for musicians and music-lovers alike. Carty, a former TG4 “Traditional Musician of the Year,” excels on fiddle, banjo, tenor guitar and mandolin and, in addition to Molloy (not to mention The Chieftains), has played with Arty McGlynn, Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke, Alec Finn, and De Dannan, among others. His recording portfolio includes solo releases as well as an assortment of collaborations (such as the irresistible At the Racket) of varied sounds and settings, among them “The Wavy Bow,” with his son and brother. 

Molly and Carty also will appear at Boston College’s Gaelic Roots series, on April 16 at 4 p.m. in the Theology and Ministry Library on BC’s Brighton Campus. See events.bc.edu/group/gaelic_roots_series.

A frequent visitor to Greater Boston in the last several years, Scottish quintet Breabach will play in the Legacy Series on April 22 – its first time back here since a serious motor vehicle accident at the end of its 2024 US tour. Now into its third decade, the group (Megan Henderson, fiddle, vocals, step dance; James Lindsay, double bass, vocals; Calum MacCrimmon, Highland pipes, whistle, bouzouki, vocals; Conal McDonagh, Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, whistle, vocals; Ewan Robertson, guitar, cajon, vocals) draws on Scots tradition – including Gaelic language songs – as well as contemporary sources and their own material. They’ve undertaken some fascinating collaborations, such as with Quebecois band Le Vent Du Nord, Cape Breton quartet Beòlach and indigenous Australasian artists Moana & The Tribe. Their most recent album, 2022’s “Fàs,” is an expression of concern, care, and respect for the environment – their own native Highlands as well as the wider world. 

Nova Scotian sisters Cassie and Maggie MacDonald (usually just known as “Cassie and Maggie”) will be at the Legacy Series on April 26 for a 4 p.m. matinee show. Originally more of an instrumental act in presenting their home island’s distinctive fiddle and stepdance tradition, the pair went in a new direction for their 2016 album “The Willow Collection,” exploring various archives for both Celtic and American folk songs built around themes and symbolism of the willow. Last year, they released their fifth recording, “Gold and Coal,” referencing the two sides of their music: “coal” representing the family connection to the tradition in which they came of age, and “gold” the desire to forge a new path. 

An intriguing combo closes out this month’s O’Donovan Legacy Series on April 29: iconic Northern Irish singer-songwriter Tommy Sands and harp-guitar duo Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman. Sands, from County Down, has composed some of the most memorable anthems to peace, fellowship and human rights like “There Were Roses,” “Daughters and Sons” and “Carry On.” Ní Chathasaigh and Newman perform a distinctive and innovative take on Celtic music that includes swing jazz, bluegrass, baroque, and other influences. Ní Chathasaigh, from a celebrated Irish music family, is widely hailed as an innovator of the Irish harp technique; Newman has performed throughout the UK and beyond both as a soloist, as a member of The Boys of the Lough, and with a lengthy list of collaborators. 

Tickets, information via burren.com/music.html

•The Patrick J. Touhey Memorial Weekend returns for its third iteration on April 17-19 at the Canadian American Club in Watertown, organized by Boston’s own Joey Abarta. Although an uilleann pipes-focused event – its namesake, who lived in Boston during his youth, was a key figure in the development of Irish music in America during the 19th and 20th centuries – there is certainly more than enough to please those who favor other instruments, or simply are interested in the music. There will be workshops and presentations, appearances by acclaimed musicians and scholarly experts, as well as a concert/session and other happenings. Details are at www.patsytouheyweekend.com.

•Speaking of uilleann pipers, there’ll be two mighty fine ones, Séan Gavin and Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, appearing at the “Live at The Druid” series in Inman Square – at The Lilypad, right next to the titular pub. Gavin, also an accomplished flutist, has collaborated with local accordionist Colm Gannon on the 2025 album “Boys of 25,” played in the bands Téada and Bua, and as part of a trio with his father Mick and brother Michael, and was musical director for the PBS show “I Am Ireland” and the “Atlantic Steps” stage show (whose performers included local dancer Kieran Jordan). Ó Fearghail – whose talents extend to flute, whistle, bouzouki and guitar, not to mention singing – has received such honors as the TG4 Young Musician of the Year award and RTÉ Radio 1 Best Folk Instrumentalist, made numerous recordings, and toured with such bands as Caladh Nua and Danú.

Tickets available through https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-at-the-druid-presents-sean-gavin-caoimhin-o-fearghail-tickets-1981464338175

•Club Passim in Harvard Square will host the bi-continental queer-folk duo of Irish singer-songwriter Gráinne Hunt and San Diego drummer and vocalist Jules Stewart on April 7. Hunt has been lauded for her unflinchingly honest, up-front persona and a voice that has drawn comparisons with the likes of Mary Black, Tracy Chapman, and Natalie Merchant. Her songwriting draws on many and diverse inspirations, from her collaborative project with Jim Murphy in adapting each of the 15 stories in James Joyce’s “Dubliners” to her 2024 single, “Magnets,” with metaphorical lyrics about attraction and human dynamics.  Stewart, who grew up in a family that cherished its Scottish heritage, originally learned to play drums by participating in a children’s Scottish pipe band. She has been praised for her sheer technical ability and power as well as her versatility to suit different sounds and genres. 

Prototypical Scottish fiddle-cello duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas perform on April 28, having recently released their seventh album, “Meridians,” marking 25 years as a duo. Fraser and Haas’s 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. Fraser is widely acknowledged as among the most influential Scottish fiddlers of his time, last year capping a nearly 40-year term as director of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers. Haas has been a foundational figure in the use of cello in various forms of traditional music, and in addition to Fraser has teamed and recorded with Mark O’Connor and his Appalachia Waltz Trio and Cape Breton fiddle legend Natalie MacMaster. 

Tickets and information for Club Passim events available via passim.org

•If you're looking for something of a participatory nature, the Allen Center in West Newton will present "Highland Fire: A Scottish Cèilidh Experience" on April 4, with caller Summer McCall and a band of local musicians: Elizabeth Anderson (fiddle), Adam Hendey (guitar), Stephen Thomsforde (pipes), and Simon Lace (drums). Those who have tried Irish ceili, New England contra or other related social dancing will have little or no difficulty with Scottish cèilidh, but organizers emphasize that this event is inclusive and open to all levels of experience. Tickets and further details at newtonculturalalliance.ticketspice.com/a-scottish-ceilidh-with-summer-mccall. 

•Singer and multi-instrumentalist Moira Smiley is well known for her stints with Solas and the Seamus Egan Project, but she’s had quite the diversity of collaborations (notably a cappella vocal and body percussion ensemble VOCO), and she’ll be bringing to the area one of her more recent creations, The Rhizome Project, along with Boston’s Rasa String Quartet. They’ll be at the Groton Hill Music Center  on April 10 and the Shalin-Liu Performance Center in Rockport on April 14. As Smiley has explained, this 2024 recording project is a metaphor for the supportive stem growing underground that lays out roots or sends new growth upwards. The album’s 11 tracks meld roots and traditional music with chamber folk and a contemporary/urban soundscape, on songs like “My Son David,” “Go Dig My Grave” and “Now Is the Cool of the Day.”