òran mór

If you live in New England and enjoy Irish music, then at some point you’ve probably heard of Patsy Whelan. Hopefully, you’ve been lucky enough to see him perform…he’s a great singer, fine fiddler, a funny man and heck of a nice guy. We had quite a few laughs at a session he used to run in Boston with our friend Eamon Coyne.

Well, Patsy had a bit of an accident over the winter that’s generated some serious medical bills, so there’s going to be a fundraiser for him at Mr. Dooley’s in Boston this Sunday, May 8 starting at 4 pm. I’m encouraging as many people as possible to get down there. There’s going to be some fantastic music, and all the proceeds will go to help this legendary performer and his family.

I hope you’ll be able to join me at Mr. Dooley’s to help a man who has helped so many others.

Well… quite a party it was!   Reagh Greeneaf’s last appearance (for a while) with the Tom Lanigan Band at RiRa in Portsmouth raised the roof last night.

Many good friends stopped by to have a pint and a few laughs with Reagh and to give him the Wednesday night part of his Earth Walk sendoff. 

Some of us got pulled up on the stage for various songs and shenanigans

As you probably know, Reagh’s  Earth Walk across the US, to raise environmental awareness and promote ecological sustainability, will start this Sunday, May 1st at 9:30 at the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point, Rye.

Many of us will join him again there for the ‘real’ sendoff.    Learn more about Reagh’s trip at his website.

For now, the memory of last night’s fun will ring on for a good while….

Song list and back cover for our recording debut

That’s right kids … we have an early shipment of our upcoming CD in hand and we’ll have them available for the gig tomorrow at Ri Ra! We’re looking forward to making this a memorable day, and we rushed a shipment of a few just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. We’re waiting for a few things to line up before the official release (awaiting quotes on a larger duplication run, finalizing the legal mumbo-jumbo, artwork revisions,etc.), but we thought it’d be worth it to get a few to share with our friends on St. Pat’s 2011.

Actually, we’re supposed to get the CD sleeves delivered tomorrow…so we’ll be busy little beavers in the morning before we take the stage at noon. I’m planning to start the day with a traditional Irish breakfast at Rory O’Connors in Georgetown before picking up the shipping package…and then we’ll be stuffing like maniacs.

The tracks on the CD are a bunch of our favorites and ones we get requested frequently by our friends. You can clearly read the titles in the photo, but one you might not be familiar with is The King’s Highway. That was written by a friend of mine, Kevin Dolan of the fab band Acoustic Nuisance. I got his permission to do a new take on an old song of his. I’m very happy he let me play around with is creation.

If you couldn’t already guess, we recorded it at Mill Pond Music in Portsmouth with our friend Jim Prendergast, who many of you have seen play with us on occassion on Monday nights. He did a fantastic job engineering this thing and keeping Dave and I focused. We’ve posted a few samples on the website’s media player, so you can get a feel for the quality. We’re pretty proud of these recordings and think you’ll enjoy the tracks.

More on this when in a few weeks when the ‘official’ release happens…but in the meantime, HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

* fear an ti = Gaelic for “man of the house” or host

Well, the high holiday is quickly approaching…and we’re rearing to go. In addition to our usual Monday nights at Ri Ra in Portsmouth, we’ll be opening the musical festivities there on St. Patrick’s Day, playing from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. We’re planning a high-energy show that hopefully involves a few special guests joining us during the afternoon…should be a lot of fun.

They’ll be great music all month, of course, and we’ll be breathing it deep and building the excitement. So don’t be shy!  Get out there, enjoy the celebrations and get your Irish on!

Looking old school...except for the mikes.

Hey all,

Okay, we originally thought that we were playing our usual Monday gig at RiRa tomorrow night (2/28)…but it turns out they’ll be closed for a  staff appreciation night.

But it’s a great opportunity for us to say “thanks” to the staff at Ri Ra. We’ve been playing there every Monday for about a year and they ALWAYS take terrific care of us. They are a great and fun group of guys and gals…and we’re so grateful to be able to work with them on a weekly basis.

The RiRa Gang

So, thanks gang. You deserve a night off…especially as you charge up for the ‘high holiday’ that’s coming in two weeks.