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Since their formation in 1990, The Irish Descendants have garnered a loyal fan base in their native Canada, and captured the attention of an ever-growing international audience. The band’s award winning recordings range from lilting ballads to toe-tapping reels, and their high energy, humorous live performances have made them a popular attraction at home and abroad.
Saskatchewan-born, Brooklyn-based folk troubadour Ana Egge isn’t your run-of-the-mill alternative-country singer. Using unique production and rock-based chord progressions, Egge has made a name for herself as a Gillian Welch figure with a rocker attitude, which once prompted Lucinda Williams to call her “the Nina Simone of folk.”
When the great Bluesman B.B. King first heard Alexis P. Suter sing a few years ago, he was visibly impressed – and said so after her opening set. Shaking his head in wonder in his characteristic way, he remarked: “It’s a rare thing to share the stage with great talent like that young lady.”
When the great Bluesman B.B. King first heard Alexis P. Suter sing a few years ago, he was visibly impressed – and said so after her opening set. Shaking his head in wonder in his characteristic way, he remarked: “It’s a rare thing to share the stage with great talent like that young lady.”
Irish born artists, Aoife Clancy, Robbie O’Connell, and virtuoso accordion player Jimmy Keane present Celtic Christmas for its first tour in Maine. This celebration of mid Winter season has a distinctly Celtic flavor and extends from the little known Kilmore carols of Wexford to the Irish-American vaudeville stage. Robbie and Aoife, accompanied by Jimmy, will explore the Christian and Pagan traditions surrounding the Winter Solstice in a mixture of songs, poetry and instrumental pieces.
Singing in English, Scottish Gaelic and Irish, Lewis MacKinnon has performed in coffee shops, pubs, convention centres, theatres and concert halls throughout Eastern Canada since 1994. Born in Cape Breton and raised in Antigonish County Nova Scotia, MacKinnon has played in every Atlantic Canadian Province, Ontario and in both Scotland and Ireland. In the fall of 2007 he was a featured performer at the Féile Ámhranaíochta (The Irish Song Festival in Belfast) and also in the internationally acclaimed Celtic Colours Festival, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
2010 JUNO Award nominees and “Canada’s ambassadors of musical diversity” Sultans of String thrill their audiences with their global sonic tapestry of Spanish Flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban rhythms, and French Manouche Gypsy-jazz, celebrating musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity. Fiery violin dances with rumba-flamenco guitar while a funk bass lays down unstoppable grooves. Acoustic strings meet with electronic wizardry to create layers and depth of sound, while world rhythms excite audiences to their feet with the irresistible need to dance.
Musically speaking, the Heatons play the heck out of their instruments (Irish wood flute/accordion, guitar/bouzouki). After years of study in Chicago, and many nights of music in Clare, Galway, and their adopted home of Boston, Irish Music Magazine’s John O’Regan wrote, “their duet playing is tight, sweet, and tasteful, lacking nothing on either technical expertise or instrumental virtuosity.” As for their singing, when Matt and Shannon perform centuries-old songs, it feels current, conversational. They make traditional music relevant to American audiences. O’Regan wrote “songwise [there are] hints an older domestic sound, the familiar down home harmonies of The Carter Family and Tim and Mollie O’Brien.”
Widely regarded as a composer – the classic Cape Breton jig, Spin-N-Glo, is one of his compositions. Frank Ferrel is considered to be one of the leading North American fiddlers performing today. In a recent Boston Globe article, music critic Scott Alarik referred to Mr. Ferrel as “One of the finest living masters,” of that genre.Frank began his fiddling at age 8, influenced first by his grandfather, a traditional musician and native of Ohio and West Virginia. His father’s family originally came from the Longford area of Ireland via Maritime Canada. Frank rekindled his interest in traditional fiddling under the influence of local Irish, French-Acadian, and Canadian Maritimes fiddlers while stationed at the old Charlestown Navel Shipyard in Boston in the 1960′s.
The Toughcats Saturday October 15 at 7:30 pm Pop quiz: What could cause a band to play a Devo-esque robotic klesmer melody in the middle of a poppy, bluegrass dance [...]
Two great bands, Greater Purpose and Backyard Bluegrass Band, have teamed up to give an uplifting performance to benefit local hunger relief efforts in Waldo County on Friday, October 14th at 7:30 p.m. at the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts in Unity. This concert is held in conjunction with the 5th Annual “Arts for Hunger” a local effort to raise funding and awareness for those who are less fortunate in our communities through the sale of artwork, handcrafts and a benefit concert.
BRIGHTON ROCK Friday, Sept. 30 thru Thursday, Oct. 6 Daily at 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10 Except NO 12:10 on Sat. & Sun.! Also late shows Friday & Saturday at 9:20 [...]
Emily Smith is one of the leading singers of the contemporary Scottish folk scene. Her powerful, clear vocals have gained her award winning, worldwide recognition. As a songwriter Emily has been likened to ‘a Scottish Joni Mitchell’, but as a passionate collector she is equally adept at presenting fresh and evocative interpretations of traditional songs. Emily’s childhood was spent dancing to music, rather than performing it, in her mother’s dance school. She grew up assuming everyone knew how to do a highland fling and weekends were spent dancing at ceilidhs rather than nightclubs.
The ingredients of Kyle Carey’s music include the songs of the American Folk Anthology, the Appalachian poetry of Louise McNeill, and weekends spent working at Caffe Lena (in Saratoga Springs, NY) and listening to the best musicians in contemporary folk. The results are well described by Bill Fox of Skidmore College: “Kyle’s songs are ‘classic’ in the best sense of the word. None of the immature ‘reading from a diary’ silliness of so many singer-songwriters, but rather perspective—subtle expressions of human experience from a variety of perspectives.” In the winter of 2011 Kyle traveled to Western Ireland to record her debut album, ‘Monongah’.
REMINDER: "Trouble Is my Business" on Stage at Portland Stage Company January 24th to February 19th
Jazz Pianist Robert Glasper to Perform at Bates College on February 9, 2012
Weekly Message from Governor Paul LePage for February 4th, 2012
Local Love Muscle Valentines Day Film Festival At Geno’s 2/14/12
The Bill Thibodeau Band at Next Generation Theatre Feb. 11, 2012
George Lopez, Classical Pianist to Perform at Jewett Hall Auditorium, Sunday, February 12, 2012.
February 2012 Deals, Events, News and all things Gritty!
Stop Dirty Tar Sands Oil from Coming Through Maine: Public Meeting Feb. 9, 2012