òran mór

Congrats, all! You’ve gotten through the worst of the winter. In New England, we’ve weathered Nemo and are already seeing longer, brighter days. Spring can’t be too far off now.

Of course, the end of February brings us to the ‘high holiday’ of Irish music…the madness of March, St. Patrick’s Day, and the assault of the “Plastic Paddys”…but we love it! For us, it’s a month-long opportunity to share the music we already love to play year-round.

Some people just want an excuse for self-abuse.

Regardless of how you want to mark the holiday, if you’re looking for some fun music, we’ve got a couple of gigs during the St. Patrick’s Day Weekend to let you know about.

Saturday, March 16 we’ll be playing a fundraising event at Ri Ra’s Irish Pub in Market Square, Portsmouth, NH from 2 – 5 pm.

Sunday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day itself, we’ll be at Ri Ra again from noon to 4 pm for what promises to be a fantastic afternoon of mighty craic! We’re hoping to rope some of our friends on stage to join us as well, and we’d love to see you there.

And feel free to order whatever puts you in the mood…we’ll just be happy to see you.

Our new perch at Ri Ra

Just a reminder that our tenure at Ri Ra Irish Pub in Portsmouth continues every Monday night from 7 – 10 p.m. As always, we look to involve the audience, welcome guest musicians to play a few songs and tunes with us, and generally have a bit of craic to help start the week. So don’t let Mondays get you down…

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…

Not surprisingly, with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, Irish music gets particularly popular at this time of year. Thankfully, we get to play along and, as a result, we’ve got a busy few weeks coming up. If you haven’t seen us in a while, we’ve got a few shows where we’d love to see you…

But we all know the big day is Saturday, March 17 — St. Patrick’s Day itself! After having their delicious traditional Irish breakfast, we’ll be playing at Ri Ra in Portsmouth starting at 11 a.m. and partying on until 4 in the afternoon. It’s sure to be a fun time…and the staff at Ri Ra will be sure to look out for you dropping in.

Ri Ra's staff is waiting for you to drop in!

Afterward, we’ll be off to play for a members’ event at Wentworth By The Sea Country Club in Rye, NH. (If your membership has lapsed, you might want to give ‘em a call.)

We hope to see you, but if you’ve got other plans, we hope you have a great time during the holiday season!

Since Dave and I started playing together, we’ve had the chance to do a few really fun and interesting gigs. We’ve done some double-bills that have been wonderful, and each opportunity has been really memorable.

And our next one is gonna be right up among the best.

We’re proud to announce that we’ve been asked to open for a true legend of Irish music when Derek Warfield rolls into town next month with The Young Wolfe Tones. Derek, who was a founding member and long-time front man of The Wolfe Tones — a group whose music I heard a lot when growing up — has inspired many performers over the years and written countless songs that have become modern standards.

Our friend Tom Lanigan (L) with the legendary Derek Warfield (R). A couple of handsome Irish lads, eh.

We’re thrilled to get a chance to open for him and the group of stellar young Irish musicians that play with him. (Trust me, they all are superb performers in their own right.)

The show will be at Ri Ra in Portsmouth on Tuesday, March 6 at 6 p.m.

Our friends from The Tom Lanigan Band have opened for Derek and The Young Wolfe Tones a few times — and will be doing so again this year down in Rhode Island — and they’ve always spoken highly of the experience. The two bands have developed a nice rapport, and Young Wolfe Tones’ stellar banjo player, Damaris Woods, even played on Tom’s new CD Voice from the Tomb. Here’s hoping the circle of friendship continues.

Of course, we hope that you’ll all come out and see us open for this show. In the meantime, here’s a video of one of the classic songs Derek is known for: “Celtic Symphony!”