Midland Celtic

The Goderich Celtic College now has their 2013 class schedule up.  It’s August 5 – 9.  Teachers of note include Archie Fisher, singer Sean Keane, Andre Brunet, and The Once.

Join Maeve and Nic for a studio showing of new works-in-progress for harp, voice, and percussive dance! 
May 15, 2013, 8 pm 
Off-Broadway Studio
118 S. Washington Street 
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
$15 suggested donation
For reservations, please email nic.gareiss@gmail.com

Michigan-born percussive dancer, Nic Gareiss and Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist met while both teaching at the Shasta Fiddle Camp in northern California. They continued their musical relationship with spontaneous collaborations at festivals and chance meetings and later toured together as part of Darol Anger’s band, The Furies. Sharing a deep respect for traditional music and culture while drawing on contemporary elements of music, dance, rhythm and improvisation, Nic and Maeve have emerged from the vibrant new acoustic scene as innovators in their fields. The percussion and drive of Nic’s footwork combined with Maeve’s melodic and improvisational sensibilities make for an explosive duet that delights both the ears and the eyes.  (Text borrowed from their Facebook announcement -colomon)

Equinox will be giving a concert at The White Crow Conservatory on Saturday, April 27 at 7:00. They will be joined by Todd and Mahlia Farley, the mimes extraordinaire featured in ‘The Great Lakes Bay’ magazine this month. Also Ariul, a talented dancer, will be dancing the Irish steps.

Kathy Morris also asked me to pass this on:

Michigan singer/songwriter Candace Corrigan, who now works in Nashville, Tennessee, has completed her latest project, “O’Carolan, Songwriter”. When O’Carolan composed in the late 17 century, he often wrote lyrics to his ‘tribute’ songs, or ‘planxties’, which were paid for by these patrons. His wonderful music survived as it was passed down through the ages, but much of the accompanying prose was lost. Candace uncovered what she could, and had the words translated from the original ‘Irish’ Gaelic, which still left the challenge of fitting these English lyrics into his well known melodies. She does an amazing job with her skillful beautiful voice backed up by Janne Henshaw from Indiana, and our own local Carol Levack. You can download the music, or order CDs at http://www.ocarolansongwriter.com/

Big news in the local Irish music scene: the session at the Stein Haus is now every Tuesday!  It will be anchored by Hoolie, and everyone who plays traditional Celtic music is welcome to join in. 7PM-10PM, starting tonight.

Now that curling season is over, with any luck Jen and I will make it there more regularly…

One of the best … errr … Celtic Jazz? Progressive Celtic? … groups out there, Millish, is coming to Bay City next weekend.  The group is kind of hard to describe, but Tyler Duncan, their piper and whistler, is has won multiple All-Ireland awards on pipes and convinced the University of Michigan to let him in to study jazz low whistle.  Brad Phillips is an award winning fiddler who also studied jazz at U of M.  Their album included everything from traditional Irish tunes to Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo ala Turk to some terrific original compositions.  It’s been a long time since then, so I don’t know really what sort of music to expect at the show, but I do expect it will showcase an immense amount of talent and virtuosic playing of pipes, whistle, and fiddle.  The show is 7:30 at the State Theater.

Next month on February 23rd, Liz Carroll will be at the White Crow in Saginaw.

Tonight (Friday September 21st) David Bowen and friends are playing at the Kaya Coffee House in Mt. Pleasant, 7PM. David’s a great singer and guitar player formerly from Midland, and he’s playing with Andy Rogers (fiddle) from Bay City and Bruce Gartner (mandolin, etc) from Mt. Pleasant.

Tomorrow night (Saturday September 22nd) Bua is playing at the White Crow Conservatory in Saginaw, 7PM. Bua is a fantastic young Irish (-American) band, I heard them play at the White Crow on New Year’s Eve and it was stunningly good.

Both these shows are highly recommended!

Jim is here in town, and performing at the Midland Center for the Arts Lecture Room (downstairs) at 7:30 tonight.  More Info.