Arts and Entertainment
By Sean Smith
Imagine if you had a one-time-only 30-minute lesson with one of the most eminent Irish fiddlers of the past two decades. Surely it would be like departing a banquet after eating a few hors d'oeuvres, or leaving an Oscar-winning movie once... Read more
By R. J. Donovan
Special to The BIR
The actor Kevin McMahon was born in Brighton, grew up in Framingham, and graduated from Marian Academy and Boston Conservatory. All of which makes his appearing in the national touring company of Broadway's "Wicked"... Read more
By Sean Smith
Luka Bloom, “Dreams In America” -- This is the kind of album that, frankly, inspires some ambivalence. On the one hand, this is a new release by Luka Bloom we’re talking about here -- easily one of Ireland’s most compelling singer-... Read more
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
“Grove Lane” is to Joe Derrane what “Abbey Road” was to The Beatles.
No, you won’t hear Boston’s legendary accordion player doing covers of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” or “Here Comes the Sun” on his new CD, which will be out... Read more
A column of news and updates of the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which celebrates the Boston area’s rich heritage of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton music and dance with a grassroots, musician-run winter music festival and other events during the year... Read more
When a theatrical production truly connects with an audience, the emotional experience can be indescribable. That was the case this past April when Boston's Tir Na Theatre Company presented Mark Doherty's poignant comedy "Trad" to great success at the... Read more
One of Greater Boston's most enduringly popular Irish music and cultural events will pass a significant milestone this month when the Irish Cultural Centre of New England (ICCNE) hosts the 20th annual Irish Festival at the ICCNE campus in Canton Sept. 17-... Read more
The September 2008 ICONS Festival was a memorable event in many ways - not least for the performances by Liam Clancy and Jerry Holland, among the last either would ever give - but particularly so for the Greater Boston-based "alt-trad" band Annalivia.
It... Read more
Irish traditional music will be the focus of the fall 2010 Gaelic Roots Music, Song, Dance, Workshop and Lecture Series at Boston College.
The series, sponsored by BC's Center for Irish Programs, has often featured music from Scotland, Cape Breton and... Read more
Just imagine if the band that inspired and influenced your youthful musical development invited you, years later, to join them. This fantasy - common to musician and non-musician alike - came true for Boston area native Eddie Dillon during the late 1990s... Read more
Ronan Tynan is a big man with a big heart. He's also one of Boston's newest residents. Having settled into his new home earlier this year, he'll be appearing locally at Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis on Aug. 6 and South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset... Read more
In the early 19th century, Ireland's musical traditions were in a state of flux. Older practitioners and their music-making were passing away, and with them, some feared at the time, would go that sign of Ireland's culture and heritage - the harp.
Boston... Read more
One of the many wonderful scenes in Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds has Jem Casey, "the Poet of the Pick and the Bard of Booterstown," kneeling to assist the injured King Sweeny, a man of words in his own right: "poet on poet, a bard unthorning a... Read more
Over her long and storied career, Judy Collins has recorded everything from ancient English ballads to the latest Broadway show tunes, but her main musical influence was an Irish tenor: her father, Charles "Chuck" Collins.
The son of an Irish immigrant... Read more
A particularly satisfying moment in James Joyce’s Ulysses occurs in the third episode of the novel, when Stephen Dedalus, unhappily sharing living quarters in a Martello tower in Sandycove with the irreverent Buck Mulligan and miserably holding down a... Read more
A column of news and updates of the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which celebrates the Boston area’s rich heritage of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton music and dance with a grassroots, musician-run winter music festival and other events during the year... Read more
Abbey, Druid Theatres Will Be Featured Along With World Premiere on Rose Kennedy
By R. J. Donovan
Special to The BIR
This fall, there’ll be a new cultural organization joining the Boston arts community. ArtsEmerson has been established by Emerson College... Read more
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
NOTE: Following is the first installment of an occasional series, “inSession,” which will profile regularly occurring Irish and Celtic music sessions in, or reasonably near, the Greater Boston area.
Tommy Doyle’s
Where: 96... Read more
Music & Dance Scene Not Like It Was, But It’s Still There if You Want It
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
It’s a cool, early spring Saturday night at Watertown’s Canadian-American Club, and the sounds of a fiddle and piano casually tearing through a... Read more
Over the past decade, Kelli O'Hara has earned critical acclaim as one of Broadway's most talented leading ladies. With a bell-like soprano, she most recently graced the stage at Lincoln Center playing the iconic role of Nellie Forbush in the Tony Award-... Read more
