Upcoming Traditional
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Highlights:
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Updated: December 18, 2009 |
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* This calendar focuses on select events in S.F., Berkeley, and Marin, with some coverage of the bigger events in Sonoma, Davis, the South Bay, and Monterey. For folks nearer Sacramento you should see the more events section below. Comments within quotation marks below reflect the opinions of the promoter of the event, not mine. I tned to include those when I am unfamiliar with the group (or lazy). If you have an event you want listed or have any comments, please send me an e-mail with the details at: jim@sfcelticmusic.com
Full Schedule: |
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Yuletide: A Celtic Christmas Celebration with Molly’s
Revenge, Moira Smiley & the Rosemary Turco Irish Dancers
The community is invited to come out & celebrate the holidays with a
special evening of Celtic music, song & dance in this benefit concert for
the |
December 11 |
in Pacific Grove at the First United Methodist Church, 915 Sunset Dr. at
7:30pm. Tickets are $18 in advance/$20 at the door. Advance tickets are on sale
at Bookmark, |
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December 19 |
in Felton at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall, 6275Highway 9 at 8pm. Tickets, on sale at the venue, are $15. For reservations, call the Don Quixote hotline at (831) 603-2294. For more info on this & all the amazing music that takes place at Don Quixote’s, visit www.donquixotesmusic.com |
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December 20 |
in Redwood Cityat The Little Fox, 2209 Broadwayat7pm.With special guest the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers Tickets are $15 in advance/$20 at the door. Tickets are available onlineat the venue’s website www.foxdream.com or box office, either in person or by phone at (650) 369-4119. |
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The first of two performances of A Gaelic Christmas with internationally renowned Irish singer Mary McLaughlin & Cor Aingli (Chorus of Angels) & featuring Steve Coulter on harp & Lars Johannesson on flute with special guests, the women’s vocal ensemble Zambra |
December 18 |
in Santa Cruz at HolyCross Church, 126 High St., just off Hwy. 1, at 8pm. Suggested
donation: $15 general/$12 under 16 & senior. For info, visit www.marymclaughlin.com.
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December 19 |
in Aptos at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, |
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Celtic Magic’ Concert by Irish singer Mary
McLaughlin, featuring songs & stories from the Irish Fairy &
Magical tradition, with special guests, More info is
at www.marymclaughlin.com. |
January 8 |
in Aptos at |
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Tempest, the Bay Area Celtic folk-rock band, |
January 16 |
in Felton at Don Quixote’s |
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Scots singer, songwriter, guitarist
& harmonica player Jim Malcolm Malcolm’s affinities with Robert Burns-- just as Scotland’s national poet drew much of his imagery from his
native Ayrshire, so too does Jim for his compelling original compositions from
his native Perthshire, with his concerts, as with his 8 solo albums, mixing
Burns with traditional & self-penned material. Hailed as ‘The new male
voice of Scotland’ on Radio Scotland,
as ‘One of the most outstanding talents to emerge from the Scottish folk scene
in years’ in The Independent & as
‘One of the finest singing voices in Scotland in any style’ by The Living Tradition, Jim received
immediate international recognition in 1999 when he joined as lead singer
Scotland’s popular traditional band Old Blind Dogs. The demands of family and
his skyrocketing solo career have caused Jim to since leave that group. In 2004
Jim was the winner of the prestigious Scots Trad Music Awards as ‘Songwriter of
the Year’ and from that organization Jim recently became the Meryl Streep of
the ‘Singer of the Year’ category, receiving the most nominations ever. In
concert, you don’t just get, in the words of Dirty Linen, ‘One of those pure, warm folk voices that one never
tires listening to’ & as The Scotsman
noted, ‘Many harmonica players have made a full career out of less talent,’
but also a huge helping of hearty humor in daft jokes, silly stories &
inane introductions. For the past couple years, a wee dancing man has been a
concert highlight & last year, in commemoration of the anniversary of
Burns’ 250th birthday, Jim devoted the second half of his concert to songs by
& stories about Burns, coming out on stage after the break in costume &
wig. So astonishing was this transformation that Jim mentioned when he had done
so at an earlier concert, a woman came up to him, while still dressed as Burns,
after the concert and said how much she preferred him to the fellow that was on
in the first half of the concert. (Jim is still uncertain if this was a
compliment or not.) If you missed this, the good news is that Malcolm’s turn as
Robert Burns was filmed at a concert in |
January 27 |
in Felton at Don Quixote’s InternationalMusic Hall, 6275 Highway 9 at 7:30pm. Admission is $17 or $15 to
Celtic Society of the |
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January 28 |
in Berkeley at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, 1111 Addison Street. 8:00 pm, $26.50 adv$27.50 door. | |
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The Chieftains with Paddy Maloney The original traditional Irish folk band, as far as anyone who came of age in the 1970s or 1980s is concerned, is the Chieftains. Their sound, built largely on Paddy Moloney's pipes, is otherworldly, almost entirely instrumental, and seems as though it comes out of another age of man's history. |
February 19 |
in San Rafael at Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, at 8 pm Ticket: $50 / $40 / $25, Premium Seats - $75, Students 18 and under - $20 |
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The most acclaimed & accomplished traditional Irish fiddle & guitar duo of our time, Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill The power, panache & passion of the spellbinding partnership of County Clare’s charismatic six-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion Martin Hayes, hailed in Dublin’s Hot Press as ‘the most important individual musician in Ireland right now’ & the greatly gifted guitarist Dennis Cahill has led to their performances being proclaimed the stuff of legend on the traditional Irish music scene. Concerts by this terrifically talented tandem are epic events that lyrically take listeners on a joyous journey into the music’s emotional essence, with their fiery creativity & kinetic chemistry having you redefine your concept of excellence. As The Irish Echo noted, ‘There’s no more impressive partnership in Irish music today than Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill.’ To cast an oeillade at Hayes, it is continually astounding & astonishing what he can produce from the mix of the 4 strings, G, D, A & E, of his fiddle. The sound can be one of the warmth induced by AGED wine or as colorful as the palette of DEGAs, the result will always leave you thunderstruck, EGAD. Among numerous accolades, Hayes has taken home a National Entertainment Award (Irish equivalent of a Grammy), named Folk Instrumentalist of the Year by the BBC Radio Awards, cited by the Irish Sunday Tribune as one of 100 most influential Irish men & women in the fields of entertainment, politics & sports & has received the Gradam Ceoil, Ireland’s top award for traditional music. Hayes & Cahill’s utterly unique concerts feature extended uninterrupted sets of music which are really a display of the art of seduction with their love of the music meeting their audience’s love. In these lengthy ravishments, the music begins slowly evoking candlelight or moonbeams coming in on balmy breezes through open windows. Then the music’s tension mounts caressingly into increasing agitation until it reaches a climatic crescendo with Hayes’ long locks flying, perhaps with hAir on the G string, in Bacchanalian trance-like frenzy. |
February 20 |
in Berkeley at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, 1111 Addison Street. 8:00 pm, $26.50 adv$27.50 door. |
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February 21 |
in Santa Cruz at Kuumbwa, 320 Cedar St. at the early start time
of 7pm. Admission is $20 or $18 to Celtic Society members. On November 28th
tickets will go on sale at both More Music, |
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| Altan - The premiere Irish traditional band. |
March 19 |
in Berkeley at Zellerbach Auditorium, U.C. Berkeley at 8 p.m. Tickets $20/$28/$36 |
| Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas. The great and always entertaining Scottish fiddlre and the inspiring cellist, at a new venue |
April 9 |
in Point Reyes Station at The Dance Palace Community Center (415) 663-1075 |
| Freight Fiddle Summit with Alasdair Fraser and others |
August 26 |
iin Berkeley at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, 1111 Addison Street. 8:00 pm |
| Alasdair Fraser at others |
September 3 |
in Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz Civic Audibtorium |
| Pleasonton Scottish Games with Alasdair Fraser and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers +t others | September 3 | in Pleasanton. |
Reviews of recent concerts and a list of Celtic musicians recently in the Bay Area!
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