WGBH - Celtic RSS

A Celtic Sojourn 08/11/2012

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:39 AM +0000

This week hear Ivan's Waltz from Anna Falkenau and music by Colm Gannon, a Dorchester native with a new album called The Rights of Man. Also Runa's new album and the whistle player Mary Bergin.

A Celtic Sojourn 08/04/2012

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:22 PM +0000

This week music from the Brock McGuire Band off their album Green Grass Blue Grass, music by Archie Fisher from his album Windward Away, and new music from Chris Wood and Andy Cutting.

Brian O'Donovan Pays Tribute to John McGann

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:12 PM +0000

April 7, 2012

John McGann/Facebook

On April 6, musician John McGann passed away unexpectedly, leaving behind a wife and young daughter. He was known in the Irish, bluegrass and jazz worlds locally and abroad, and taught at the Berklee College of Music. The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge will host a special tribute to McGann on April 10.

Hear a tribute to McGann from this week's A Celtic Sojourn

What Brian O'Donovan had to say about John McGann....

I first met John at a party at Johnny Cunningham’s flat in Newton in the late '80s, and knew him subsequently as one of the best accompanists of trad. music in the area, and just a great guy to be around. But it wasn’t until my daughter Aoife enrolled as the New England Conservatory and immersed herself in the burgeoning young roots music scene here that I became aware of John’s almost absurd range of musical talents.

Since that time, what I often refer to as a "genius cluster" of young musicians has been drawn to Boston, initially by the masters of tradition who were here: Seamus Connolly, Matt Glaser, Hankus Netsky, Berklee itself, Ran Blake, Club Passim, broadening attitudes at the conservatories, to name just a small few. Often understated and in the background but omnipresent: John McGann.

His virtuosity on so many instruments, his encyclopedic knowledge of so many genres (and sub-genres), his ability to teach and draw young people in, and what I will remember most — his generosity of spirit — became a crucial part of what in the future will be written about as a truly special period and a special place, indeed, for music; Irish, Appalachian, Cape Breton, bluegrass, jazz and everything in between.

There is a hole in the heart of Boston music.

John's educational philosophy in action ...

And John on stage, playing a 10-string fanned-fret mandolin

A Celtic Sojourn 3/24/2012

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:06 PM +0000

The song Barbara Allen is one of the oldest in Anglo-Celtic Music. Brian O’Donovan examines two distinct versions with Maighjread and Triona ni Domhnaill, and Jefferson Hamer (Photo: jeffersonhamer.com)

WGBH Presents: The Chieftains and The Low Anthem

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:38 AM +0000

March 16, 2012

BOSTON — While on a world tour celebrating 50 years as one of the most celebrated traditional Irish bands in history, The Chieftains stopped by WGBH's Fraser Studio to share some tunes and meet with fans and members of the WGBH Celtic Club. The Low Anthem joined them.

Listen to the entire Chieftains and The Low Anthem performance:

The Chieftains and The Low Anthem: School Days Over

The Chieftains and Jeff White: Train Medley

The Chieftains Reunion featuring The Low Anthem (Round Robin)

You haven't missed your chance to hear live Irish music — both new and traditional. Tickets are still available for A St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn, appearing at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford on March 17 and at the Sanders Theaters in Cambridge on March 24. Performers include Susan McKeown, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel , Michael Brunnock and many more.

More from The Chieftains visit:

PHOTOS: Performance and Celebration: The Night is But a Pup!

The Night is But a Pup!

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:53 PM +0000

March 14, 2012

BOSTON — Following an evening of music by The Chieftains and The Low Anthem, guests and performers gathered to celebrate 50 years of great traditional Irish music and the new collaborations on The Chieftains latest album Voice of Ages.

While on a world tour celebrating 50 years as one of the most celebrated traditional Irish bands in history, The Chieftains stopped by WGBH's Fraser Studio to share some tunes and meet with fans and members of the WGBH Celtic Club.

Great local beer for the event came from Watch City Brewery in Waltham, who provided an E.S.B and an Irish Red Ale, while the Guinness came from The Burren in Somerville.

You haven't missed your chance to hear live Irish music — both new and traditional —in Boston this week. Tickets are still available for A St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn, appearing at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford and at the Sanders Theaters in Cambridge. Performers include Susan McKeown, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel , Michael Brunnock and many more.

You Don't Have to be Irish to Enjoy Celtic Music

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:48 PM +0000

March 14, 2012

89.7 FM WGBH radio host Brian O'Donovan

BOSTON — It’s a green week here at WGBH, where we’ve enjoyed a visit from The Chieftains and we're gearing up for performances from the likes of Susan McKeown, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel and more great musicians at this year’s A St. Patrick’s Day Sojourn. (Performances are on March 17 in New Bedford and March 24 in Cambridge. Get tickets and info.)

Despite a very busy schedule, Brian O’Donovan, host of the weekly radio show A Celtic Sojourn, took a minute to talk with us about his work.

Q: You’ve done live Celtic Sojourn events now for almost a decade. Who is your primary audience? Is it Boston's Irish community?

O’Donovan: We’ve been doing A Christmas Celtic Sojourn longer than we’ve done the St. Patrick’s Day events, downtown at the Cutler Majestic Theater, and that show has been called one of the biggest Jewish-Christmas events in town! Seriously, this music connects with all kinds of people. Of course the local Irish community values the Sojourn events highly, but we get notes and emails from all kinds of people telling us how much they love the broadcasts and the live performances. I even received a note once from an African-American living in Tokyo. He thanked me for the Celtic Sojourn podcast and told me, “The music reminds me of home.”

We don’t just deliver the traditional Irish tunes. We make a point of bringing up new, unheard-of artists, and our audience gets that. They trust us when we tell them, “Here’s someone you’ll really love.” You don’t have to have a Celtic heritage to enjoy really good music.

Q: During the Chieftain’s performance this week in WGBH’s Fraser Studio, you told them you were listening to rock-n-roll in the 60s, but when you heard the tune “Trip to Sligo” on their third album, you were convinced you had been introduced to your own music. How is it different from rock?

Listen to Trip to Sligo

It’s not so different, really. The Chieftains are in part responsible for making traditional Irish music appealing to young people 50 years ago. They took a very structured form of folk music and refreshed it with a young perspective. For those of us looking to England and America for our music, the new stuff the Chieftains were doing introduced us back to the rich music all around us in Ireland. They do the same thing today, introducing new generations to Irish music by blending their style with collaborators like The Low Anthem and Bon Iver.

Q: You complimented Don Cuddy for a recent article on the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn by saying, “He really gets what we are trying to achieve at WGBH.” What do you mean?

Of course we want our Celtic Sojourn broadcasts and events to entertain, but our audience is smart and educated. They want more from us. As I said before, they trust us to give them more. They want to learn about musicians I’ve discovered, but they’ve never heard of. They want to know the context of the music—like what it means that a tune is Celtic, but not necessarily Irish. They even appreciate it when we explain the language and the meaning behind some of the lyrics. There was a tune the Chieftains played—School Days Over—and when I introduced it with Paddy Moloney, the way we explained that the song is about child labor, when children had to leave school and enter the mines to make a living, well, I know the audience really values context like that. They appreciate that kind of richness.

Listen to School Days Over

As Chieftain’s leader Paddy Moloney would shout at the end of a good session: “Mighty!”

SEE ALSO: The Chieftains and Jeff White's train medley (VIDEO)

A Celtic Sojourn 3/10/2012

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:55 PM +0000

On this edition of the program: Cathy Jordan's new album All the Way Home (Photo by Peter Cra) as well as Hannah Reid, Sara McQuaid, Ryan McGiver and many others.

Celebrating the Sounds of St. Patrick's Day

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:05 PM +0000

March 12, 2012

Listen to the entire Chieftains and The Low Anthem performance:

BOSTON — During a world tour celebrating 50 years as one of the most celebrated traditional Irish bands in history, The Chieftains stopped by WGBH's Fraser Studio to share some tunes and have a few beers with fans and members of the WGBH Celtic Club.

Accompanying the legendary group were several other talents, including bluegrass icons Jeff White and Deanie Richardson, celebrated Scottish vocalist Alyth McCormack and the Rhode Island-based band Low Anthem, who also collaborated with The Chieftains on their new album Voice of Ages.

During the performance, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftans shared a recorded phone call he had with Irish-American astronaut Cady Coleman, currently serving on the International Space Station. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Coleman played a tune for Paddy on a pennywhistle he had loaned her to take along some Irish tradition into space.

Before the last number for the evening, Moloney called out for anyone to join in, saying "If you have a mouth organ or you just want to stand on your head, this is your big moment." Each musician took a solo moment in which to express their own version of the melody, and Tommy McCarthy, co-owner of Somerville pub The Burren, joined in to show he can turn a phrase on his fiddle.

You haven't missed your chance to hear live Irish music — both new and traditional — in Boston this week. Tickets are still available for A St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn, appearing at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford on March 17 and at the Sanders Theaters in Cambridge on March 24. Performers include Susan McKeown, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel , Michael Brunnock and many more.

Yanni Live at El Morro

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:06 PM +0000

Join Yanni for an inspiring concert performed at the historic 16th-century Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Airs this month on WGBH

A Celtic Sojourn 2/18/2012

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:35 PM +0000

Join host Brian O'Donovan for another Celtic Sojourn, with tunes from Altan, Solas, Dervish, The Chieftains with Low Anthem, Susan McKeown, Jeremy Kittel and more.

A Celtic Sojourn 1/14/2012

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:45 PM +0000

Join host Brian O'Donovan for another Celtic Sojourn, featuring a sneak preview of the new Chieftans album, Voice of Ages, with collaborations from Bon Iver (photo by DLAnderson), Carolina Chocolate Drops, Secret Sisters and many others.

A Celtic Sojourn 2/11/2012

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:13 PM +0000

Join host Brian O'Donovan for another Celtic Sojourn, with tunes from Alyth McCormack (photo http://alyth.net), La Lugh, Anna Massie, Jen Butterworth, Mairead Green, Danu, Michael Cooney and many more.

A Celtic Sojourn 12/17/2011

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:44 PM +0000

Join host Brian O'Donovan for another Celtic Sojourn, this week featuring Brendan Larrissey (photo in Greenes Pub, Kinvara), Marla Fibbish, Jimmy Crowley, Kyle Carey and many more.

A Celtic Sojourn 1/7/2012

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:18 PM +0000

Join host Brian O'Donovan for another Celtic Sojourn, this week featuring the Alan Kelly Gang (photo by Con Kelleher), Denis Liddy, Elvie Miller, Paul McKenna Band, Dan Gurney and many more.

A Celtic Sojourn 12/3/2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:17 PM +0000