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August 2010

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Barleyjuice will be having fun in Wildwood this weekend ... you can too!

Barleyjuice will be having fun in Wildwood this weekend ... you can too!

Big goings-on at the shore this weekend: The inaugural Irish Summer Fest in Wildwood kicks off on Friday night with the critically acclaimed Celtic Crossroads show at the Wildwoods Convention Center, repeated on Saturday night.

This whole weekend you can see a wide variety of Celtic artists, from the popular Barleyjuice and Raining Hearts (the enormously talented daughters of Barleyjuice’s Kyf Brewer), Roger Drawdry and the Firestarters, Nae Breeks, an ensemble pipe and drum band, and Philly and Dublin’s own John Byrne Band, who’ve been tapped to play for former British PM Tony Blair when he receives the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia in September. It’s also your chance to hear Boxty, a duo made up of Miltown Malbay’s Fintan Malone and Kevin Brennan, formerly with Van Morrison.

There are also workshops in everything from tin whistle to bodhran, vendors, food, Irish dancers and story telling for the kids by Terry Harris, author of “The Loneliest Leprechaun” and Sean McCabe.

Part of the proceeds from the event will go to Access to Art, a local nonprofit that brings music, dance, and art to residents of Cape May County; The Forgotten Irish Fund, which aids Irish immigrants to Britain; and the Irish Way, a study abroad program for American students interested in learning about Irish history and culture.

This is the last weekend for Bethlehem’s Musikfest, where Barleyjuice (wow, they’re busy!), Enter the Haggis, and Blackwater will be on stage on Saturday.

On Sunday, the tone is serious. The Mayo Association of Philadelphia is holding its annual Out Lady of Knock Mass at the Irish Center in Philadelphia. This year there will be a special dedication of an Our Lady of Knock stature sculptured in Knock, County Mayo, before the Mass begins. A dinner follows after the Mass.

A basilica stands on the ground in Knock where, in 1979, five people said they saw an apparition of Our Lady, St. Joseph, and St, John the Baptist at a small parish church. Behind them was a lamb, the symbol of Christ, on an altar.

On Wednesday, August 18, you’re in for a treat—The High Kings will be doing two shows at Brittingham’s. The first may be sold out (call and check) but they’ve added a second, 10 PM show. If you’ve seen them on PBS, here’s your chance to see them up close and personal.

On Friday, Villanova opens an exhibit called “The Quiet Men,” paintings by a group of Irish artists working in London whose works reflect the “outsider” nature of being an Irishman in England. The Irish Times newspaper called it “powerful work,” and it will be on display through October 6. On September 10, there will be an artists’ reception and artist Brian Whelan will discuss the paintings.

Next Saturday, the Second Annual Irish Picnic sponsored by the Irish Club of Delaware County will take place at the Knights of Columbus de LaSalle Pool in Springfield, Delaware County. The event, which was rained out earlier in the summer, features the band, Round Tower, a DJ, food, and vendors.

Check out the calendar for all the details.

August 13, 2010 by
Columns

Aon Sceal

Deborah Large Fox leaves no ancestor unturned.

Deborah Large Fox leaves no ancestor unturned.

Local lawyer-turned-genealogist Deborah Large Fox has launched a brand new organization for people looking for their Irish ancestors. The new Irish American Family History Society will meet once a month at the Voorhees branch of the Camden County Library System on the first Thursday of each month.

Fox, whom we profiled here, says she formed the group because most general genealogical organizations can’t address the special needs of researchers tracing their Irish roots—that is, to find family members whose records no longer exist thanks to fire, flood, or Ireland’s turbulent history.

“Irish family historians need to connect to each other to share research strategies,” says Fox. That means a lot of mutual aid—and craic.

“So many genealogists spend their days stuck in archives,” said Fox. “Irish family research is a vibrant, people-centered activity. Remember, the Irish tradition was an oral one. Discoveries, and friends, are made each time Irish researchers get together. Rarely does a meeting go by without a member making a major discovery with the help of others.”

Meetings are informal. Beginners and experienced researchers are welcome. For more information, email the IAFHS at deborahlargefox@gmail.com.

Off to Ireland

Mairead Conley with the first of her crowns.

Mairead Conley with the first of her crowns.

Mairead Conley, both the Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee, headed off this week to compete with Roses from around the world to bring home the crown in Ireland’s most popular pageant. Mairead is the deputy director of Community Programming at the Irish Immigration Center in Philadelphia. She holds a degree in sociology and spent a year living in poverty with Mercy Volunteer Corps.

She’s also a runner and a singer and harbors a secret desire to work for the FBI. And she’s only 25. (We were never that together at 25.)

If you’d like to see how she does, you can watch her on streaming video at www.rte.ie or join Mairead’s fellow Irish Network-Philly pals at Tir na Nog at 16th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia where manager Ken Merriman will be broadcasting the show live on August 23 and 24 from 3 to 6 PM.

August 12, 2010 by
People

Ireland’s Loss, Our Gain

Laurence Banville grew up in the tiny townland of Ballykerogue, a few miles from the Kennedy family homestead of New Ross in County Wexford. For the first few years of his life, Banville’s family owned a pig farm. “That’s before my dad became a builder,” he recalls, “until I was about 5 or 6. I do remember the smells and all that.”

We all have to start somewhere and, although the farm really played a minor role in Banville’s early life, that was his beginning.

Laurence Banville

Laurence Banville

Banville has come a long way from Ballykerogue, and not just in air miles. Today, this son of a rural Irish contractor is an attorney with the Center City Philadelphia firm of Willbraham Lawler & Buba, specializing in asbestos defense litigation. He has a bachelor of law degree from University College Dublin and was admitted to the New York state bar in 2009. Banville works on New York asbestos cases from Philadelphia. He is also the founding chairman of the nascent Irish Network-Philadelphia.

That he would wind up practicing law, and in the United States, is not much of a surprise to Banville. He wasn’t drawn to the law at first, but it wasn’t long before the cool logic and fact patterns of the law began to appeal to this analytical young man.

“When I went looking at all the various degrees that were available in the country, I found the program at University College Dublin, which was business and law combined,” he says. “I figured it was a safe option. I was curious about law, but obviously I’d never studied or practiced it before, so (if things didn’t work out) I decided I could always fall back on the business side of things. But after sitting in a few courses, I found the law more interesting than the business.”

Banville would go on to graduate from the program with honors in 2008. but early on in his academic career, it was clear that Banville wasn’t likely to return home to Ballykerogue for a small local practice dealing in wills and probate, traffic accidents and property transactions.

In 2006 he landed a spot in a prestigious exchange program at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium (classes were in French), and he stayed on for a summer associate posting at the huge international law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels. Next up, in 2007, a stint as summer associate at Ireland’s prestigious commerical law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice in Dublin.

Somewhere along the way, he found time to create a small company called Roasted Promotions, described as “an Irish partnership offering student-focused advertising in Dublin’s entertainment industry.”

Laurence Banville was one busy young fella. But it was his international experience that most opened his eyes to future possibilities. “”Ever since I went to Belgium,” he says, “I knew I wouldn’t stay in Ireland. I really like living in other countries with different cultures and different diversity.”

It was while at Cleary Gottlieb that someone told him he ought to investigate the practice of law in the United States. So, in 2008, he sought and earned another summer associate position, this time at the Westmont, N.J., firm of Brown & Connery. And shortly thereafter, the bar exam in New York.

It was love that brought him to Philadelphia. His girlfriend Brooke Holdsworth lived here, so he sought a position in the city … and that brought him to his current firm, and the asbestos work.

Believe it or not, even though various federal agencies started banning asbestos in the late 1970s, there’s still plenty of asbestos litigation. “There’s a 40-year latency period with asbestos, he says. [That’s the time between exposure and the onset of mesothelioma, a cancer attributed to asbestos exposure.] Currently we are seeing more secondary exposure cases, like wives who washed the clothes of their husbands who worked with asbestos.”

At this early stage of his career, asbestos law is the focal point, but Banville is open to whatever comes next. “I’m pretty flexible. I’ve practiced in a number of different areas of law–antitrust, mergers, corporate takeover work.”

it was probably only a matter of time before the Irish-born attorney made his way into the Philadelphia Brehon Law Society–an organization of lawyers and judges of Irish descent. “The only support group I had in Philadelphia was the Brehons,” he says. “If it weren’t for the law, I wouldn’t have known where to go for support.”

And then, back around St. Patrick’s Day, Banville helped form another welcoming organization when he joined with several other Irish and Irish-Americans to create Irish Network-Philadelphia (IN-Philly), a local chapter of an organization to which he had belonged in New York. “When I was in New York, it (the Irish Network) was one of the first events I went to,” he says. “I liked the diverse ‘boots to suits’ nature of the group and the laid-back attitude toward networking that the group in New York had. They were very welcoming, and that was really helpful. So when I was asked to look into seeing whether an Irish Network would be good for Philadelphia, I thought it would be a great idea.”

Obviously, Banville is far from alone in guiding IN-Philly through its formative stages. But with someone with such a strong creative spirit and drive at the helm, IN-Philly is bound to be just what Banville predicts: one great idea.

August 12, 2010 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

You have two chances to see the Celtic Crossroads show!

You have two chances to see the Celtic Crossroads show!

Musikfest starts this week in Bethlehem and while there are plenty of musical genres and major stars to hear (they have Norah Jones, Martina McBride, Richie Havens—he’s sold out already–Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doobie Brothers, Adam Lambert, and many more), we’re going to give you the Celtic lineup here because this is Irish Philadelphia. All the details are on our interactive calendar, which can send messages to your smart phone to remind you. So 21st century!

August 6, 9 PM: 2U, the U2 tribute band.
August 8, 3 PM: Burning Bridget Cleary
August 9, 7 PM: Scythian
August 10, 1:30 PM: Seamus Kennedy
August 10, 3 PM: Malinky
August 10, 5 PM: Seamus Kennedy
August 10, 9 PM: Scythian
August 11, 5:30 PM: Celtic Cross
August 11, 7:30 PM: Munnelly
August 11, 9:30 PM: The Hooligans
August 12, 7 PM: Cherish the Ladies
August 13, 12 PM: Irish Stars (dancers)
August 14, 5 PM: Blackwater
August 14, 7 PM: Barleyjuice
August 14, 9 PM: Enter the Haggis

If you haven’t gotten your fill of Celtic sounds, there’s much, much more coming up this week and next. It might be best if we give it to you straight out by date:

Sunday, August 8: The Irish Cultural Club of Delaware is holding its annual feis and festival at St. Mark’s High School in Wilmington. They’re expecting 900 dancers, plus there’s an afternoon ceili (party) for everyone, vendors, food, and more.

Tuesday, August 10: The Saw Doctors are coming to the Sellersville Theatre.

Wednesday, August 11: Celtic Crossroads, considered one of Ireland’s best stage shows, gives a free performance at TD Bank Ampitheatre in Bensalem.

Wednesday, August 11: Continuing in the “free concert” theme, Shannon Lambert-Ryan and RUNA will be performing at Walk a Crooked Mile Books in Mt. Airy.

Friday August 13-Saturday, August 14: Primo time to be in Wildwood for sun, sand, sea, and Celtic music (threw you off with that hard C, didn’t we?). Irish Summer Fest goes on all weekend at the Wildwoods Convention Center with Celtic Crossroads (see above), the John Byrne Band, Barleyjuice, Raining Hearts (they’re the multi-talented daughters of Barleyjuice’s Kyf Brewer), Boxty (Fintan Malone and Kevin Brennan—Kevin’s a former bandmate of Van Morrison), and many, many more. There will be food, a marketplace featuring Irish crafts, workshops and the usual fun and frivolity when two or more Irish folk are gathered together.

August 5, 2010 by
Edel Fox
Music, People

Trad Music’s Newest Shining Star

Edel Fox

Edel Fox

To describe the concertina playing of Edel Fox is really to describe the woman herself: joyful, masterful, brilliant, engaging and effortlessly seductive.

At 24, her accomplishments and accolades are beyond the pale…and completely justified. The release of her first solo CD, “Chords & Beryls” coincides with her sixth summer spent touring the States, an annual tradition since she began playing and teaching at The Catskills Irish Arts Week. This year, Fox and Connemara fiddlers Liz and Yvonne Kane embarked on a collaborative concert tour that found them in Philadelphia last week for a Philadelphia Ceili Group performance.

“The name of the CD came from my grandmother and my aunt, who represent an older generation of the music,” Fox explained. “A beryl is a variation in the melody, a twist in the tune. “The Reel with the Beryl” is a tune by Mrs. Crotty–she was a very prominent exponent of the concertina. Herself and Aggie White and Mrs. Harrington all helped to put women on the map in terms of trad music in the 1950s and 60s. They were among the first to play in public. It really was a starting point for Irish women in music, allowing them to gain prominence on an instrument.”

By the age of seven, Fox was already gaining prominence on her concertina in her hometown of Miltown Malbay, County Clare, where her teachers included Noel Hill, Dymphna O’Sullivan, Tim Collins and Tony O’Connell. In 2004, Fox was named the TG4 Young Musician of the Year, and in 2006 she and fiddle player Ronan O’Flaherty recorded a CD together, aptly titled “Edel Fox & Ronan O’Flaherty.”

“We got so much enjoyment from doing that CD,” Fox said. “We were both very naïve to the whole process, but we loved being able to create something that people enjoyed.”

“I never felt ready to go into the studio to record my own CD, it really felt quite daunting. But last summer in the car ride up from Elkins, West Virginia to The Catskills, I was traveling with Liz and Yvonne, and they said, ‘You should do a solo album and have it ready for next summer so we can tour.’”

“Around Christmas I got on the ball,” Fox laughed. “I recorded in a studio in Miltown Malbay from January to April. I just needed a little push. I’m slow to do something, but once I put my head down it comes easy enough. I just need a little encouragement, that’s all.”

“I’d been learning a lot of tunes, some of them came from Bobby Casey, and there’s a few newer tunes as well. It’s quite a mix of stuff.”

Quite a lovely mix of stuff, and quite a lovely mix of musicians as well. Joining Edel on her cd are Jack Talty, Padraic O’Reilly, Mick Connelly, Brian Mooney, Johnny Ringo McDonagh and Una McLaughlin.

[And because I’m the writer, and I get to have favorites, this is where I mention that “The Joyous Waltz” which Edel plays with Jackie Daly on her album, is the track most listened to on my copy of the CD. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m also partial to the reels “The Honeymoon/Lough Mountain/Love at the Endngs.” But the tune that wins best title award is definitely “Kitty Got a Clinking Coming From the Fair.” On her CD notes, Edel writes that she has yet to find out what a “clinking” is.]

“It was a funny time of year. I’d been working for two years on getting my Masters degree in music therapy, and my final semester was this past January to May. But that’s a typical me thing to do, I work better under pressure instead of spreading it out,” Fox explained.

“I’m qualified to practice the psychotherapy and psychology of music. I really love it, using music to help people with social and emotional difficulties. My work experiences include counseling adults in a psychiatric unit and adolescents in a care home. Every client, every patient, has different needs…but they have problems expressing emotions or communicating verbally. Music can help with that, whether through listening, songwriting, instrument-playing. Sometimes it’s through improvisation—musical or percussive. It’s about bringing two people in one place together to create communication.”

In addition to her studies and album recording, this past spring Fox also continued the teaching that she’s been doing since she herself was 16.

“I teach concertina five evenings a week, from 4 or 5 until 9 at night. It’s so different from the work I do as a therapist. Teaching is about how to do ornamentation, it’s directive while the therapy is collaborative. It’s challenging, but I absolutely love it.”

“I started teaching at The Catskills my first summer there. My first time coming to The States was when I was 17, with the Comhaltas tour. I met so many people out of that, and got asked back to do gigs, and to do The Irish Arts Week the next year. It’s been great.”

Playing the 1896 Jeffries concertina that she bought from a dealer in England eight years ago (“I love the tone of an older instrument, nothing is better than the tone of a mature concertina”), Fox will soon return to Ireland to begin her Irish tour with The Kane Sisters, promoting their CDs at home. With September and the start of the teaching year right around the corner, Edel is poised to return to the busy schedule she knows and thrives on.

“I’ll be job hunting,” Fox laughed. “But I’ll have plenty to keep me busy. I love it.”

August 5, 2010 by
Music

Celtic Woman: A Review

Fiery fiddler Mairead Nesbitt takes center stage. Photo by Brian Mengini

Fiery fiddler Mairead Nesbitt takes center stage. Photo by Brian Mengini

By Brian Mengini

A jam-packed crowd filled the Mann Center to see and hear the angelic voices of Celtic Woman last weekend as the group, founded by Riverdance’s David Downes and Sharon Browne. They brought a nice mix of songs from their new CD, “Songs from the Heart,” and favorites from past recordings.

With voices that are classically trained, Celtic Woman can send you into a drift with their soft ballads then bring you back in with a fiery fiddle solo by the irrepressible Mairead Nesbitt. Nesbitt is sexy, energetic and passionate with her bow. Watching her play is an almost spiritual experience; she can take you to church! Celtic Woman is backed by a group of male singers who add a nice undertone, two percussionists and a full band.

The backdrops and sets were magnificent. The lighting, the ethereal gowns, the heavenly voices create a sense of magic, while the pipes and fiddle carry you back to ancient Ireland. From the time you sit down till the concert ends, you will sway, dance, sing, toe tap and leave feeling full!

August 5, 2010 by
Columns

Aon Sceal?

[cincopa 10736225]We learned this week that local Irish folk sensation, The John Byrne Band, has been booked to play the presidential reception at the National Constitution Center for this year’s Liberty Medal ceremony. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is receiving the award, which is given annually to “men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe.” Previous winners have included former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, U2’s Bono, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, James Watson and Francis Crick (they discovered DNA), Sandra Day O’Connor and Colin Powell. Blair was chosen for the award for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process, so it seems fitting that he’s serenaded by an Irish band. President Bill Clinton will be presenting the medal to Blair on September 13. If you haven’t been invited to the president’s reception for Blair (our invite must have been lost in the mail), you can catch John Byrne at Slainte on Market Street on Monday nights and at the Wildwood first annual Irish Summer Fest next weekend.

All That Glitters

Philadelphia’s 2010 Mary from Dungloe, Keira McDonagh, arrived back in town from the week-long pageant in Ireland with something shiny. No, alas, not the crown. That went to the Edinburgh Mary, Jemma Ferry. But Keira came back with a more lasting memento: an engagement ring! No whirlwind romance story to tell. She’ll be marrying her longtime beau, Center City attorney Justin Gdula, sometime next year.

Immigration Center to Honor Immigration Activist

Anne O’Callaghan, executive director of the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians and a tireless advocate for immigrants, will be the recipient of the first annual Mathew Carey Hibernian Award at a gala on Saturday, October 30, at the Hyatt on Penns Landing, sponsored by the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia. Born in Ireland, O’Callaghan was trained in Ireland (University of Dublin School of Medicine, Oswestry and North Staffordshire School of Physiotherapy) as a physical therapist and practiced and taught for 20 years after coming to the US in 1970. She founded a software development company that serves the home health care industry. Since 2003, the Welcoming Center has focused on helping new immigrants find both services and employment in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia in particular. Mathew Carey, whose name the award bears, was an Irish immigrant from Dublin who came to Philadelphia where he became the Revolution’s biggest ally in the press. He started his own bookselling and printing in 1775 in Ireland, moved to Paris to escape the authorities (he was a fiery polemicist) and it was there he met Ben Franklin, then ambassador to France, who also knew a thing or two about publishing and rabble-rousing. He started many publications in Philadelphia but is probably best known as the publisher of the Douay-Rheims Bible, the first Roman Catholic version of the Bible to be printed in the US. Carey is buried in St. Mary’s Church graveyard on Fourth Street in Philadelphia—not far from John Barry, father of the American Navy–and his portrait hangs in the church.

New Consul General in New York

Noel Kilkenny will succeed Niall Burgess as the Irish Consul General in New York. Kilkenny is the former Irish ambassador to Estonia. We’re fairly sure he’s not the banjo player from Mayo you can see in this video, but that would certainly make some stuffy official events very entertaining if he were. Prime Minister Brian Cowen introduced Kilkenny (the consul, not the banjo player) during Cowen’s recent visit to New York.

A Bucketload of Beckett

If there were a Guinness Book of World Records’ entry for “actor playing the most Samuel Beckett roles” the honor would probably go to Conor Lovett of the Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland, who, his PR release says, has racked up 17 roles in 23 different Beckett productions. Figuring out that math made our brains hurt (math always makes our brains hurt), but we’re looking forward to seeing Lovett in his next Beckett incarnation. He’ll be bringing a one-man performance of Beckett’s “First Love” to the Philly Fringe Festival September 3-5 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Broad Street. Info on tickets is on our interactive calendar.

Kildare’s Pub’s Global Strategy: One College Town at a Time

We like to think of Kildare’s Pubs as a local phenomenon. And since chiropractor and former restaurant dishwasher Dave Magrogan built his first one in West Chester in 2003, they’ve pretty much been a fun place to pretend you’re in Ireland while never leaving the Philly area. But over the past few years, Kildare’s has been quietly importing itself to other parts of the world. Like Scranton. Can’t you just see the guys and gals from “The Office” playing Quizzo one night at Kildare’s Scranton? (Hint, hint to Dave: Catch Carell before he leaves the show.) Today, there are Kildare’s Pubs in Newark, DE, Chapel Hill, NC, and, pretty soon, you’ll be able to go to a Kildare’s after seeing Penn State crush some opponent or another in State College, PA, or after seeing Notre Dame crush some opponent or another in South Bend, IN . This college town strategy seems to be working. Magrogan has a few other irons in the fire, including Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House and Harvest Seasonal Grill, a brand new restaurant in Glen Mills, PA.

Aon Sceal, roughly translated from the Gaelic, means “What’s new?” So, what’s new with you? Let us know and we’ll tell everyone. Email us at denise.foley@comcast.net.

August 5, 2010 by
Music

The Plinkety Plink Diaries Part 2

The harpers have all headed home from the 10th annual Somerset Folk Harp Festival. Here’s a wrap-up of our intrepid Chief Harp Correspondent’s final days at the festival.

Sunday, August 1

First off, I apologize for the less-than-anticipated number of posts. I had originally envisioned cranking one out every day, but quickly realized that I wasn’t going to have time for much of anything other than eating, sleeping and harping.

And actually, looking back on it, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

My last post covered the workshops and concerts, but I now realize I neglected to mention the vendor mall, which was pretty interesting in its own right. I’m not looking to buy another instrument right now, but that didn’t stop me wandering from harp maker to harp maker, sitting down to play with anything that struck my fancy.

The coolest thing I saw there was undoubtedly the new light-weight carbon-fiber models made by Heartland Harps. They’re sleek, shiny, vaguely futuristic looking—and they’re 10 pounds where my harp (a Camac Hermine) is closer to 30, even though they’re the same size. So picking one up makes you feel kind of like Superman. Or maybe that’s just me.

Friday afternoon was a trip through centuries of Irish harp history squashed into three hours with two workshops taught by Grainne Hambly, one on the Bunting Collection and the other on the music of Turlough O’Carolan.

The Bunting Collection is a group of tunes that Edward Bunting, a classically trained organist, gathered from the playing of the harpers at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792.

Good thing: in doing so, he preserved a lot of music that might otherwise have been lost.

Bad thing: he couldn’t leave well enough alone and “corrected” some of the tunes as he transcribed them—some are in keys that the harpers couldn’t possibly have played in.

Really cool thing: many of his manuscripts are now available online as part of Queen’s University Library’s digital collection. And no, I haven’t forgotten about O’Carolan…

On Saturday night after another amazing concert series, a big group of us gathered for the Carolan Marathon. Turlough O’Carolan was a blind Irish harper born in 1670 who is famous for his skills as a composer—he wrote over two hundred pieces of music influenced by the older Irish harp tradition as well as classical baroque pieces. Our goal? To play as many of his tunes as we could over the course of the next few hours.

Somehow we all managed to fit ourselves and our harps into a fairly small conference room, as well as those who showed up just to listen, and a sprinkling of other musicians (mostly fiddlers and a couple of flutes) who came to join in. We didn’t even come close to 200 (thirty would be nearer the mark), but we had a lot of fun. And really, isn’t that the point of it all?

August 4, 2010 by