òran mór

On Thursday, May 10th,  I’ll be helping Chris Vaughan in an interview and live performance hour on local cable access channel 23 (7:00 – 8:00 PM).   Live streaming should be available through this link.

We’ll be in the studio in Manchester, telling the story of the development of Chris’s songwriting and performing from the beginning, in my home studio where we incubated and evolved his unique work.  If you have some time to check it out, please tune in.  You may well be able to call in as well.   The broadcast should be archived and available online soon.

I’m looking forward to it.

Go Chris!

For just about as long as he’s lived in Vermont, my twin brother Rob has been involved in the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival, which is now in its 17th year. He’s been a volunteer, vice chair, chair and has been a co-chair for what seems like forever.

Well, this morning he did part of his annual media junket , appearing on WCAX-TV to promote the festival (click here to view).

I thought he did a fine job. He was handsome, witty, and well-spoken…

…not at all the brother I knew growing up. 

(Oh, relax. Giving him a hard time is part of the job. I mentioned we’re twins, didn’t I?)

Love ya, Rob, and proud of ya.

Double trouble: Rob and I at the old McMenemy's Pub in Portsmouth.

So if you find yourself in Vermont on Saturday, and you can’t drive to our gig in Portsmouth, head to Burlington for the festival! They’ll have fine music, kids activities and even a Hale that looks just like me to make you feel welcome.

Well it was one of those perfect nights…. beginning with good friends and the honor of opening for Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones…moving to the joy of hearing them perform.  It was my first chance to meet Derek and see the live performance and I really enjoyed the ‘musicality’ of the band, and the stories and history that Derek weaves in and around every song and tune.  They did a number of things from the new CD “Washington’s Irish…Songs, Music, and Story of the Irish fight for American Liberty”…rich indeed with nuggets of history and Irish-American valor.  By the end of the night they had the ‘whole bar’ up there swaying and dancing and they left us all with some great melodies and great memories still swirling. 

Again… one of those perfect nights…

For the last several years, we’ve had a great relationship with our friend Terry Weir, who plays music down around the Boston area. On occasion he’ll sit in with us, and he sometimes has one or both of us play with his band, Sligo Road. We joke that it’s the exchange program between County Portsmouth and County Wakefield (where he’s based in Massachusetts).

Is it Sligo Mor, or Oran Road?

Next weekend, on Saturday, March 10,  I’ll be joining Terry and Sligo Road at a show at St. Brigid’s Church in Lexington, MA (located at 2001 Massachusetts Ave) for a bit of pre-St. Patrick’s Day fun…so if any of my MetroWest friends want to see me perform, now’s your chance…but you might want to call and see if there are any tickets left. The seating is limited and they are expecting a full house…

…but if I didn’t alert my family and friends that I’d be playing so close to home, I’d never hear the end of it.

The show will start between 6:30 and 7 p.m. – on the dot.

On Friday 3/16 at 11 a.m., we’ll be playing the Link House Benefit in Newburyport, MA. This day-before-St.-Patrick’s-Day event is a roast of local dignitaries featuring Irish music, humor and a genuine boiled dinner – like the one in South Boston that was started by Billy Bulger ‘back in the day.’

This highly anticipated community event is also the most important fundraiser for the John Ashford Link House, an organization that works with men and women of the North Shore who struggle with addiction. Since it’s founding, they’ve helped more than 5,000 people through their program.

We’re honored to be involved with such a worthy community event and ask that anyone looking to contribute to a charity consider this organization.