Arts and Entertainment
With 2023 over, ahead of us lies a new set of 12 months during which we can anticipate many fine Irish/Celtic music events in the Greater Boston area. Here’s a look at January:
•The 21st Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which takes place Jan. 11-14, is... Read more
Boston-area fiddler, banjo player and vocalist Maura Shawn Scanlin says there is a very basic unifying theme to her recently released debut solo album: gratitude.
“My biggest inspiration for the recording,” she explains, “was that I have a whole bunch of... Read more
A performance by the award-winning, highly acclaimed Quebecois band Le Vent du Nord highlights the 21st annual Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which takes place January 11 to14 with events at Harvard Square’s Club Passim as well as the Crystal... Read more
With the smell of fresh evergreen in the air, holiday entertainment abounds throughout the city. The choices below offer something for everyone.
A Very Darren Christmas
Dec. 7, Emerson Colonial
It’s beginning to look a lot like CHRISSMAS. Emmy and... Read more
Not surprisingly, holiday-themed events are plentiful this month in the local Irish/Celtic music scene. But here’s one non-conforming concert that deserves notice: Natick-based fiddler Leland Martin will celebrate the official release of his album “... Read more
It wasn’t actually planned that way, but last month in the space of a week, Boston College’s Gaelic Roots series hosted two of the most celebrated Irish fiddle players of the past five decades. On Nov. 2, Frankie Gavin and accompanist Catherine McHugh... Read more
It has been several years since Dubliner Paul Byrom performed in the US during the holiday season; he’s usually appearing in popular Christmas “pantos” (a form of comedic musical takes on popular children’s stories) at the prestigious Helix Theatre in... Read more
The Kane Sisters, “In Memory of Paddy Fahey” • Perhaps writers should be subject to some kind of formal reprimand for using the phrase “words fail me” – if they do, then why are we here anyway? – but it’s awfully tempting to do so regarding the newest... Read more
We’ve all heard of William Shakespeare, playwright, poet and actor. The Bard of Avon. But have you heard of Henry Condell and John Heminges? Probably not. Yet history tells us that without the last two, we might never have heard of the first.
When... Read more
•The high-quality, well-loved and equally well-attended slate of concerts that Brian O’Donovan organized, nourished, and emceed for so many years at the Burren Backroom will now live on there in his name. And the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series will get off... Read more
The tributes have been constant and numerous since Brian O’Donovan died earlier this month, as well they should be. He did so much to make Boston a fertile environment for folk and acoustic music, Irish/Celtic in particular, through his WGBH “Celtic... Read more
“Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her mother 40 whacksAnd when she saw what she had done,She gave her father 41.”
So goes the macabre children’s ditty referencing the horrific Fall River family murders possibly carried out by Lizzie Borden in 1892.... Read more
The phrase “relentlessly creative” seems an apt one for Dundalk native vocalist and flute/whistle player Kennedy, one of the more active and prolific figures in Irish music for the past decade or so. In addition to her solo work – “Shorelines” is her... Read more
When he set out to make his recently released recording “Refractions,” New England Celtic musician Neil Pearlman discovered the full significance of the phrase “solo album.”
“There’s really nowhere to hide,” says Pearlman, a Portland resident who’s been... Read more
A look at Irish/Celtic music events in Greater Boston over the next few weeks:
•Donegal fiddler Oisín McAuley, a member of Danú who’s also performed with bands like Cran and Stockton’s Wing – and happens to be director of summer programs at the Berklee... Read more
Organizers hope to establish the festival among other major cultural events that now take place during the year in the Mill City, including the Lowell Folk Festival, Southeast Asian Water Festival, and Winterfest. It’s a mid-day to late-night affair,... Read more
The Rockport Celtic Festival at the Shalin-Liu Performance Center (Sept. 14-17) is geared toward exploring the similarities as well as the differences between music traditions, Irish and otherwise, that have become associated with The festival, now in... Read more
Clannad, the Donegal family band that improbably became a worldwide pop music sensation, is calling it quits after more than 50 years, and will bid adieu to Boston on Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. at the Wilbur Theatre [thewilbur.com].
Sadly, Clannad’s “In a... Read more
All well and good when you have an artistic inspiration that seems fascinating in concept and explanation. But can you make it come alive in a way that actually is fascinating?
If you’re Jackie O’Riley and Rebecca McGowan, two Boston-area Irish dance... Read more
It’s a brilliant summer Sunday afternoon, and inside The Cottage Bar in Weymouth a singular moment of anticipation is taking place. Around a large rectangular table in a corner of the restaurant, there are 15 fiddles tucked under youthful chins; 15 bows,... Read more
