Arts and Entertainment
Colum Sands, “Song Bridge” • It’s understandable to experience a twinge of sympathy for someone whose sibling is in the same profession as he or she is but far more well-known – and, simultaneously, render comparative judgment on their bodies of work.... Read more
When the coronavirus took hold last spring and intensified the transition of live music from physical venues to the Internet, the inherent message was of a hopefully temporary inconvenience: We’re sorry we can’t be together in person, but perhaps in... Read more
Boston-area resident Maggie Holtzberg’s job involves looking after one of Massachusetts’s most prized attributes: its folk traditions.
As manager of the Folk Arts & Heritage Program for the state’s Mass Cultural Council agency, Holtzberg researches... Read more
“Into the mouth of the wolf,
you’re never gonna take me down
there’s still a beating heart beneath the ground.”
Hestia is the title track and second single from The Rumjacks the new album, relesed on March 12th.It is a song of vengeance delivered with... Read more
BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) will mark its 18th year this month by bringing some of Boston’s favorite Celtic music and dance performers to homes throughout the world – virtually speaking, that is.
The festival, which will take place January 14-18,... Read more
Nicolas Brown, “Good Enough Music for Them Who Love It” • Talk about devotion to historical authenticity: When Brown, a Detroit-based uilleann piper of considerable talent and accomplishment (he and his wife, the fiddler Alison Perkins, released the... Read more
Boston-area singer Barbara Cassidy takes the big-picture view when it comes to winter: Sure, darkness comes early, the days are short, the weather outside is frightful, etc., etc., but the season has its virtues.
“You’re inside more, and you tend to slow... Read more
With live music – as we know it, anyway – in stasis these past several months, many venues, organizations, and artists have turned to virtual formats for presenting performances, whether through livestreaming or pre-recorded concerts. That includes Irish/... Read more
Need some help finding joy and comfort this holiday season? If so, we’ve got a great way to bring some light into your home. Due to popular demand we’ve added an encore virtual performance of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn on Wednesday, December 23 at 7:... Read more
It's our pleasure to share with you a very special Irish Christmas Carol commissioned by Boston City Singers and performed by our Tour Choir in collaboration with Keene State's Concert Choir (NH) and St. Peter's University Schola (NJ). The magic of... Read more
Not an album, but certainly a musical endeavor worth noting: A few months ago, I wrote about the concert Irish singer Cara Dillon and her husband Sam Lakeman livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook. Evidently, the reaction was so positive that the couple... Read more
The SíFiddlers, “SíFiddlers” • If you like lots of Irish fiddle – and fiddle only, with no other melody instrument and nary a guitar, bouzouki, piano, or any such accompaniment about – then put this album on your must-listen list. And if you like Donegal... Read more
Right from the beginning, the idea behind Christmas Celtic Sojourn was to make audiences feel as if they were enjoying the Celtic-flavored celebration of the holiday season in the comfort of their own home - even if they were sitting inside a theater,... Read more
Matt and Shannon Heaton, Hanneke Cassel, Natalie Haas, and Katie McNally, long-time performers in the Boston-area Irish/Celtic music scene, will be among the artists at the inaugural Wintery Weekend Festival, which will be held in virtual format Dec. 4-6... Read more
Record retailer Golden Discs was established in 1962 by Jack Fitzgerald and Tom Rogers under the name the Trans-Atlantic Record Agency (TARA) in Dublin, Ireland. Today Golden Discs caters to a global customer base across more than 40 countries. It is ... Read more
Pat Broaders, “Pat Broaders” • Until this year, Broaders would surely have been at or near the top of any “It’s Really Time He/She Made a Solo Album” list. The Dublin native and now ensconced Chicagoan has long been acclaimed as a first-rate singer of... Read more
Michael Maloney likes to describe his Irish/Celtic band the Boston Harbor Bhoys as “a Venn diagram.” As Maloney explains, he and his band mates – Eddie Biggins and son Ryan – each tend to favor a specific subset of Irish music: For Maloney, it’s the brand... Read more
The New England traditional folk music duo Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy managed a nice bit of symmetry earlier this year: They released their new album, “Golden,” right around their silver wedding anniversary.
Of course, Tracy acknowledges, that’s not how... Read more
While the area folk/traditional music scene (like pretty much all other music scenes) remains under quarantine, there are two special “virtual” events this month of interest to Irish/Celtic fans.
The popular Massachusetts Fiddle Hell, an annual gathering... Read more
Molly Pinto Madigan can’t tell you exactly when or how she first came across the centuries-old Scottish folk ballad “Tam Lin.” All she knows is, it has occupied a pretty large part of her life since then.
Madigan, a singer-songwriter from Salem, has... Read more
