Sharon Shannon Band

Sharon Shannon has been a musical icon for over 20 years. Traditional Irish music is her background but she has been fearless in her musical exploration having defied genres and woven her unique style through country, French-Canadian reggae, hip-hop, classical, and with her upcoming CD, “Sacred Earth” – African music. She is a former member of seminal Scots-Irish band The Waterboys, has achieved legendary status throughout the world, and has made the much maligned accordion ‘cool’ in her home country and abroad. At various times, Sharon has collaborated, toured and recorded with Bono and Adam from U2, Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Christy Moore. Several of her albums have been platinum selling and she has had Number 1 albums and singles including the Steve Earle-penned “The Galway Girl” performed with Mundy, which was featured in the Hillary Swank movie “PS I Love You.”

Purchase tickets online or call in your reservations for our March 24, 8 PM show with Lunasa to 401-725-9272.

Named for a Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is indeed a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. For 20 years, its members have formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade. Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys. Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland, played with Moving Cloud and piper Cillian Vallely comes from the same talented musical family as brother Niall, of Buille and the Karan Casey Band. Dynamic guitarist Ed Boyd is joined by fiddler Colin Farrell whose 2015 CD “Make A Note” was awarded Instrumental Album of the year by LiveIreland. Inspired by the legendary Irish group The Bothy Band, Lúnasa uses melodic interweaving of wind and string instruments pairing flutes, fiddle, whistle and pipes in breathtaking arrangements. They are universally acclaimed as one of the best Irish bands in the world.

*All ticket prices include a $1.00 per ticket restoration charge

 

Purchase tickets online or call in your reservations for our March 24, 4 PM show with Lunasa to 401-725-9272.

Named for a Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is indeed a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. For 20 years, its members have formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade. Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys. Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland, played with Moving Cloud and piper Cillian Vallely comes from the same talented musical family as brother Niall, of Buille and the Karan Casey Band. Dynamic guitarist Ed Boyd is joined by fiddler Colin Farrell whose 2015 CD “Make A Note” was awarded Instrumental Album of the year by LiveIreland. Inspired by the legendary Irish group The Bothy Band, Lúnasa uses melodic interweaving of wind and string instruments pairing flutes, fiddle, whistle and pipes in breathtaking arrangements. They are universally acclaimed as one of the best Irish bands in the world.

*All ticket prices include a $1.00 per ticket restoration charge

 

Mist Covered Mountains makes their Blackstone River Theatre debut with a concert of Celtic music with a French accent. Molly Hebert-Wilson sings in Irish and English and plays upright bass. Guitarist Max Cohen and fiddler Donna Hébert harmonize, with Alex Bell on bodhran and Molly on upright bass. Blurring lines between past and present, Mist Covered Mountains delivers ballads in English, Irish and French supported with dynamic instrumentals from traditional and original sources. Blackstone River Theatre audiences will be familiar with Donna Hébert from her appearances with Chanterelle. She is a Massachusetts Artists’ Fellow in the Folk Arts. A singer, writer and composer as well as a fiddler, Donna has two original songs on Smithsonian recordings and directs the house contradance band at Philly Folk Fest. She also directs youth performances at Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. Molly Hebert-Wilson’s nuanced vocals in English and Irish render emotions in either language. An NYU theater and Irish studies grad, she grew up with traditional music. On stage from age 9, it was obvious that Molly would stay there but it was a welcome surprise that mother and daughter wound up together. Molly’s recently added the upright and electric bass to her performances. Max Cohen’s sparkling guitar supports Molly’s nuance with his own, adding deft, humorous lyrics and his rich baritone. Max also tours with singer Priscilla Herdman and produces and engineers CDs for his colleagues. Alex Bell joined the band in 2014 on drums and bodhran.

Fiddler Laurel Martin, Mark Roberts on flute, banjo, and bouzouki, and Kieran Jordan, who performs percussive sean-nós (“old style”) step dance present traditional Irish music and dance with sweet melodies and the heartiest of grooves. As long-time friends through music, these three artists have collaborated previously in other groups, and they have toured and performed together as part of the fiddle ensemble, Childsplay. As a trio, they present tasteful musical selections, with dance woven in as rhythmic and visual accompaniment. Performing with lyricism and consummate skill, this group also sprinkles their concerts with heart-felt anecdotes promising an uplifting show of good tunes, good steps, and good spirits.

Armand Aromin and Benedict Gagliardiare musically bound by a shared love of traditional Irish music, which originally brought them together, as well as an eclectic and ever-growing amalgam of songs both inside and far outside the realm of folk music. Combining Armand’s multifaceted fiddle playing, Ben’s self-developed concertina style, and a pair of complementary voices, The Vox Hunterspresent an exciting repertoire of driving dance tunes blended with an unorthodox collection of interesting songs. Aromin is a violin maker and musician based in Providence. He has studied at Berklee College of Music and the University of Limerick, and is a graduate of the North Bennet Street School in Boston, Mass. where he earned his diploma in Violin Making and Repair. Gagliardi is from Connecticut and has played throughout the Northeast at festivals, house concerts, and coffeehouses. He placed first in the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Senior Duets competition with Jon Warner as well as Senior Melodeon and Harmonica.

This show postponed due to snow storm.

Innovation combined with tradition: that’s a hallmark of Clancy family musicians, and it’s one that guitarist Dónal Clancy is carrying forward into the twenty first century. The acoustic guitar adds many colors and textures to Irish music, but there’s no long history of it in Celtic tradition, as there is with the fiddle and the accordion. Dónal Clancy is one who’s bringing the guitar forward to its rightful place as a strong part of Irish tradition. He’s been involved with the best bands in Irish music, starting out in Clancy, O’Connell, and Clancy with his father Liam and his cousin Robbie O’Connell, helping to found the band Danu and then moving on to become part of Eileen Ivers Band before taking a pivotal spot playing guitar with one of the hottest Irish and Irish American bands around, Solas. When it was time to make a change, he found his old band Danu in need of a guitar player again, and that’s still one of his main gigs. In 2014, to much critical acclaim, he released an album dedicated to The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem entitled “Songs of a Roving Blade.” The Irish Post called it “folk singing at its best” and “a smashing album that should help to ensure these songs will never be lost.” Dónal’s latest album “On the Lonesome Plain” features a mix of seven vocal tracks and six guitar instrumentals, including two of his own compositions A Strike for Victory commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising and an instrumental piece entitled Máirseáil na Conrach,inspired by the dramatic beauty of West Kerry. Don’t miss the Blackstone River Theatre debut of an incredible guitarist and powerful singer!

Special guest Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered ambassadors for America’s old-time mountain music. For decades, he’s been a globetrotting performer, ethnomusicologist and educator, a recording artist with seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy nominations. He’s also the classic “musician’s musician” – a man who’s received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, and dobro master Jerry Douglas.

Since its inception in 2006, the Matt Flinner Triohas been performing its own brand of acoustic music around the country to rave reviews. Mandolinist Matt Flinner, guitarist Ross Martin and bassist Eric Thorin cover a wide variety of musical styles – all with the common ground of originality. Bluegrass, jazz and old-time music are all present here in their ways, along with a dose of classical chamber music composition and arrangement, as the members all draw from their wide array of musical loves, experiences and influences. Call it Americana Music, or New Acoustic, or Chamber Grass, or just call it Great Music … whatever label you put on it, it is guaranteed to be fresh and original, and definitely something you’ve never quite heard before. All master composers and improvisers, the trio has become legendary for their ability to almost simultaneous compose and perform new music. Their past two albums have developed this “music du jour” concept-drawing on whatever inspires them that day to compose a new tune and then performing it that evening. Their collective ability to conjure great melodies out of the ether and deliver them in front of a live audience has earned the group a reputation as one of the most imaginative and fearless in the contemporary instrumental space. Starting out as a banjo prodigy who was playing bluegrass festivals before he entered his teens, Flinner later took up the mandolin, won the National Banjo Competition in Winfield, KS in 1990, and won the mandolin award there the following year. He was featured on Steve Martin’s CD “The Crow,” which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. The trio’s newest CD, “Traveling Roots,” was released in 2016 on Compass Records to rave reviews.

When four young jazz virtuosos decided to join forces, The Rhythm Future Quartet was born. Named after a Django Reinhardt tune, The Rhythm Future Quartet performs dynamic and fiery arrangements of Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw from rhythms heard around the world. Jason Anick and Olli Soikkeli, the front-men and lead soloists of the group, have been receiving critical acclaim this past year and are considered ‘rising stars’ in the world of jazz and Gypsy jazz. Soikkeli, who recently made the move from his home country of Finland to New York City, has rapidly become a top call guitarist in the bustling Brooklyn jazz scene and has been aptly coined “the Finnish boy wonder.” Anick, who is also an award-winning composer, is one of the youngest professors at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston. With Max O’Rourke on second guitar and Greg Loughman on bass, Rhythm Future is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of a vital musical genre. Where the band’s self-titled debut album re-visited classic jazz and Gypsy jazz favorites, “Travels,” the quartet’s current release, concentrates on group originals that make captivating use of musical sources from outside the conventional Gypsy jazz terrain. “Travels” reflects both the accumulated knowledge garnered from the groups world wide touring as well as the international influences that inspired new rhythmic and harmonic possibilities within their compositions and arrangements. Garnering critical acclaim, “Travels” was picked as one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2016 by All About Jazz and the Huffington Post.