Tempest—Celtic with a Norwegian twist, in Phoenixville this week.
With any luck, the Irish will be bringing luck to the Phillies on Friday night as they face the Marlins and a bunch of Irish dancers and singers on the field for Irish Heritage Night. One thing is for sure—the Phanatic will be wearing green.
The rest of the week is no slouch. The California Celtic band with the Norwegian flavor, Tempest, is playing at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville on Saturday night, with Burning Bridget Cleary and Coyote Run opening. Sounds like quite an Irish evening with Norwegian undertones.
On Sunday, head over to the Shanachie in Ambler for Family Day with Timlin and Kane, an event so popular they’re doing it twice this year.
Also on Sunday, Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean is playing at World Café Live (this would be one for How to Be Scottish in Philly, except that a Celt’s a Celt as far as we’re concerned). And at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Gaelic Storm whips up a storm.
A little change of pace on Tuesday: The Irish Studies program at Villanova University is hosting a special evening with Irish poets Peter Fallon and Seamus Heaney to celebrate 10 years of the Charles A. Heimbold Jr. chair of Irish Studies. Heaney is a Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright from Northern Ireland. Fallon was the inaugural Heimbold Professor of Irish studies at Villanova.
On Thursday, the inaugural meeting of Irish Network-Philadelphia, part of a larger nonprofit organization that aims to bring Irish and Irish-American professionals together, takes place at Tir na NoG on Arch Street in Philadelphia.
Also on Thursday night, you can hear the strong roots that Irish music has set down in the American Appalachian and bluegrass tradition at the Annenberg Center with “Music from the Crooked Road,” featuring Appalachian guitar master Wayne Henderson and banjo virtuoso Sammy Shelor in addition The White Top Mountain Band, hot, young Bluegrass band Amber Collins & No Speed Limit and other extraordinary musicians.
On Friday, Blackthorn will be playing yet another benefit, this one for the Lions Club in Thornton, PA.
All next week you can see Inis Nua Theatre Company’s production of Enda Walsh’s powerful play, “Bedbound,” at the Adrienne in Philadelphia, and Theatre Exile’s “Shining City,” the critically acclaimed play by Conor McPherson, at Plays and Players.
Coming up in the next few weeks: Danny Quinn returns to the Irish Times in Philly; the Broken Shillelaghs play at the Bristol Borough AOH club; Jamison rocks out in a benefit at the Firefighter’s Union Hall in Philadelphia; the McDade School’s Four Provinces Feis (pronounced fesh, it’s a dance competition) is scheduled in Broomall, and the Derry Society Spring Social is on tap at the Irish Center. There’s even more on our calendar, so check it out.
