Artists who have played in TD Garden: Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, U2, Rihanna, The Rolling Stones, Drake – and Scottish Fish?

A clarification is in order, obviously. 

On March 18, the Boston-area Celtic fiddle band performed at halftime of the Boston Celtics-Golden State Warriors game as part of the Celtics’ “Local Artist Series.” The quintet played tunes, among them an excerpt from “Shipping Up to Boston” but also “Hull’s Reel” by Cape Breton fiddler John Morris Rankin, at center court before a near-capacity crowd of just over 19,000 – which, to judge by social media videos, was quite appreciative (the Celtics won, too).

The Fish were grateful for the opportunity, of course, but in full context, the TD Garden gig was simply the band’s latest milestone over a stretch of months that has been full of highlights:

•Last July, the band released its third full-length album, “Currently,” which they formally celebrated with a sold-out show in Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom.

•That summer saw the Fish do their second European tour in as many years, taking them to Italy (including Rome), England (including London), Scotland, Belgium, France (including Paris), Switzerland, Germany, and Czechia.

•Late last year, the quintet was named the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Artist for the 2026 BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest), their 13th consecutive appearance at the festival.

•As the Legacy Artist, the Fish not only played their own set at BCMFest but they also performed with venerable Scottish band Old Blind Dogs and were a featured act at the festival’s Nightcap finale concert, collaborating with other artists.

•Within days of BCMFest, they headed out to Glasgow to perform two shows at Celtic Connections, one of the largest and most popular traditional, folk, roots, and world music festivals.

Good luck is the residue of hard work – so goes the theory – and the Fish (Giulia Haible, Ava Montesi, Caroline Dressler, Maggie MacPhail and Julia Homa; Haible plays cello and piano, MacPhail and Homa also double on piano) have certainly put in loads of effort to refine their music since they started playing together in their pre-/early teens, cultivating a sound that has become more multifaceted and elaborate yet remains true to the traditional Scottish, Cape Breton, and Irish music which originally inspired them. 

But along with that hard work has come some intensive soul searching, frank discussions, and sometimes tough choices about commitment to being a full-time band. It’s meant having to forego, at least for now, potential career opportunities that would cut into the intensive preparation necessary for booking time in a recording studio or going on weekslong tours. The Fish also have put resources into their social media, utilizing professional photography and videography, and did a major crowdsourcing campaign for “Currently.” 

Sound judgment

Most of all, they considered their musical identity.

“Having toured in Europe as well as more extensively in the US and meeting Celtic acts from other parts of the world situated our music in a bigger context, on a bigger stage,” sums up Homa. “So, we wanted to appeal to those audiences while keeping true to the sound we’ve built over time.”

Says Dressler: “The big thing about ‘Currently,’ and the way we approached it, was we wanted to address the question, ‘What is our sound? Who are we as a band?’ This was especially important in the context of all the international Celtic music we’d been introduced to in recent years. Part of the answer was that we wanted to include more of our original music, not just tunes that are from tradition or composed by other people.”

Four Fish compositions appear on “Currently”: The track “Mapnols” comprises the titular tune by Dressler and MacPhail – featuring some mind-bending tonicizations in the B part – and MacPhail’s turbo-charged jig “AFC.” Haible authored the jig “Zoe’s,” augmented here by piano and synthesizer bass from album producer Neil Pearlman, who wrote the set’s bravura closer “Three Times Is Good” (or “3x” for short). Haible also penned the gently rolling sweetheart of a waltz, “Butter Fly.”  

Early on, the Fish’s arrangements tended to draw on spontaneity inspired by fiddle camps and other such communal experiences. Over time, they’ve become more intentional and inventive, constructing layered, harmonic passages for some sets while retaining the straight-up multi-fiddle and cello/piano blasts, as demonstrated on “Zoe’s/3x” and “Mapnols.” A new wrinkle on “Currently” is their occasional use of a stomp box – a small flat box placed under the foot that is tapped rhythmically to produce a percussive rhythm resembling a bass drum – as well as guest appearances by guitarist Conor Hearn, percussionist Bodek Janke, bassist Noah Fishman, and Emma Stanley on flugelhorn and trumpet, as well as Pearlman who in addition to keyboards provides stepdance on “Jigs,” a track that might be labeled as “classic” Scottish Fish.

Yet another innovation to the Fish sound on “Currently” are voices – not singing as such, but vocalization of the tunes on three tracks, “St. Patrick’s,” “Kelso” and perhaps most meaningfully on the album finale, “Fleur,” where they are joined by a chorus of family and friends. 

“It’s a reflection of our community and how important they are to us,” says Dressler. “When we perform ‘Fleur’ live, we ask the audience to sing along with us, so the idea here was to recreate that with people who’ve been an important part of our lives. And I think it became one of our favorite tracks because these voices have been influential in shaping us as people and our sound as a band.” 

Stages through the ages

Their selection as Brian O’Donovan Legacy Artist by local music nonprofit Passim – which operates the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Fund – meant a lot to the Fish on many levels. O’Donovan was an avid backer of the band from the start, helping them to build an audience by playing their CD on his WGBH “Celtic Sojourn” show and booking the quintet for his “Backroom at the Burren” series. 

“It’s absolutely one of the biggest honors we could have as a band that’s grown up in Boston,” says Homa. “Brian was always at the forefront of supporting new artists, and we were so young when we joined the scene. To have him, and [his wife] Lindsay, supporting us for most of our existence meant so much.”

The kindness he and Lindsay showed was equally important, she adds. “The first time we met him was in 2014 or 2015 when we played on ‘A Celtic Sojourn,’ and sometime after that I remember going to his house to drop off a CD. He and Lindsay were there, and they invited me in for tea. I was in my early teens, I guess, and I was so nervous. But the two of them made me feel so welcome. I’m sure there are a lot of people who had similar experiences.”

Adds Dressler, “We’ve been incredibly lucky to have grown up in the vibrancy of the Boston Celtic music scene, and it’s because of people like Brian who support young artists that we were able to find the joy in this music that we continue to play today.” 

The fact that the Legacy Artist designation intersected with BCMFest made it all the more meaningful, says MacPhail.  “BCMFest gave us the chance to perform on a pretty big stage when we were still quite young, and we’ve returned literally every year since then — even the Covid years, when we put together some videos as a performance. Playing at BCMFest is the most consistent thing we’ve done as a group, and it shaped our development as a band: We’d say, ‘Okay, we know we’re going to have this big concert to do, so we have to put together something special for it.’”

They barely had time to savor BCMFest, since they had to pack up and go off to Celtic Connections, where they did two performances during the 18-day festival. One was opening for the band DLÚ, which fuses traditional Scottish music – including Gaelic-language songs – with indie, funk, rock, disco, and pop styles. They also were offered a 2:15 a.m. slot at the famed late-night Festival Club, considered a prime showcase opportunity. The Fish were hesitant about the latter: They were already nervous enough about the earlier concert, which was the same night; Dressler also had a 9 a.m. rehearsal for a collaboration with another festival act. But the Festival Club would be an opportunity to make an impression and enjoy the party atmosphere, so they accepted the invitation.

In the end, according to the Fish, the Club “was a thrilling experience and totally worth it.”

Not surprisingly, Celtic Connections had a ton of planned and spontaneous jam sessions and the Fish attended several during their stay, which was “a great opportunity to connect with many of the other bands and players at the festival in a more casual setting.”

While they were in the UK, the band also did gigs in Edinburgh, London, and Biggar, giving themselves some added exposure.

All told, the Fish got a great response from audience and performers alike, enjoyed meeting the other performers, and “left inspired and with a few more friends.” Summing it up, they describe their first Celtic Connections experience as “exhilarating, life-changing, scintillating, and cool.” 

As March turned into April, the Fish were hard at work preparing for a West Coast tour, with concerts in 9 cities over a 10-day period. That’s how it is when you’re a full-time band: There’s only so much time to savor those events and milestones, and then you get back to work. Then again, the Fish have been a band – even if on an occasional basis at some points – for roughly half their lives, through high school, college and now into adulthood. Having literally grown up as Scottish Fish, they know what it takes to stay together.

“It’s all about prioritizing this link between us over everything,” says Dressler. “It’s a choice we’re making. In this moment, the link is strong and that’s what we’re choosing.”

Adds MacPhail, “We’re just incredibly grateful to have Scottish Fish be a part of our lives. At the root of it is this: We’re all genuinely friends who like each other and enjoy hanging out. It’s exciting to be at this point in our relationship, to go on great adventures and share the joy.”

For more about Scottish Fish, see scottishfishfiddle.com