more Irish fun
Mar. 17th, 2008 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonThe Boys of the Lough and Dervish concert Saturday night at the Opera House was purely brilliant. Dervish did the first half of the show and, as always, burned up the stage. Cathy Jordan's voice was at its usual expressive best, and she always amps up the juice and gets everyone completely engaged (which can be a challenge in New England -- we still tend to warm up slow this time of year ;>). I got to chat a bit with her at intermission, and talked about Tubbercurry (town near Sligo where they do a yearly music school, and where I got to sing with her for a couple of days about 9 years back)
If Dervish is the top of the heap, Boys of the Lough are the tried and true -- formed in 1967, and still captained by founder Cathal McConnell, the oldest Irish whistle and flute player still playing. One of the other band members, Dave Richardson, was celebrating his 35th year playing with the band the night of the concert. Kevin Henderson, their fiddler, comes from the Shetlands, and he is superb, and one and all, they are consummate musicians. Their stage patter is good as well, often at the expense of Richardson, an Englishman, but they all get their licks in.
The members of Dervish all perform standing, Cathy was wearing a gorgeous silk patterned dress that almost seemed alive, can't sit still while playing and singing, and does dance moves with her head and arms even while sitting down. The members of Boys of the Lough all play sitting on chairs, wear jackets, and hardly a part of them moves that isn't actively involved in playing. And when they move...pure magic, lifetimes spent immersed in traditional music all coming together. Harmonium/button accordion player Brendan Begley's voice was a special treat -- a native speaker from Dingle in Kerry, his Gaelic singing is full of depth and nuance and drop-dead beautiful.
After the Boys played the second half of the show, and, as with Dervish, received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the entire audience and played a spirited encore, Dervish came out again and both groups played together for a tune or two. It was spectacular, and I don't know that I've heard better playing. Yum.
If Dervish is the top of the heap, Boys of the Lough are the tried and true -- formed in 1967, and still captained by founder Cathal McConnell, the oldest Irish whistle and flute player still playing. One of the other band members, Dave Richardson, was celebrating his 35th year playing with the band the night of the concert. Kevin Henderson, their fiddler, comes from the Shetlands, and he is superb, and one and all, they are consummate musicians. Their stage patter is good as well, often at the expense of Richardson, an Englishman, but they all get their licks in.
The members of Dervish all perform standing, Cathy was wearing a gorgeous silk patterned dress that almost seemed alive, can't sit still while playing and singing, and does dance moves with her head and arms even while sitting down. The members of Boys of the Lough all play sitting on chairs, wear jackets, and hardly a part of them moves that isn't actively involved in playing. And when they move...pure magic, lifetimes spent immersed in traditional music all coming together. Harmonium/button accordion player Brendan Begley's voice was a special treat -- a native speaker from Dingle in Kerry, his Gaelic singing is full of depth and nuance and drop-dead beautiful.
After the Boys played the second half of the show, and, as with Dervish, received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the entire audience and played a spirited encore, Dervish came out again and both groups played together for a tune or two. It was spectacular, and I don't know that I've heard better playing. Yum.
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