Socks in the Frying Pan

Making their only New England appearance on their March tour, we are thrilled to bring back Socks in the Frying Pan, a multi-award winning trio from County Clare on the West coast of Ireland, the universal hub of Irish traditional music. Their dynamic vocal harmonies, virtuosic musical ability and their onstage wit has captured and captivated audiences the world around making them one of the most sought after groups in Irish music today! Socks in the Frying Pan features Aodán Coyne on guitar and vocals and the accomplished Hayes brothers, Shane Hayes on accordion and Fiachra Hayes on fiddle & banjo. This youthful trio blend Irish traditional melodies with their own personal flair which has gained them critical acclaim and accolades including ‘New Band of the Year’ by the Irish Music Association. The group have been embraced in the United States, having been booked by every major Irish festival and praised for their modern traditional style and energetic approach to music.

Taking their name from the Gaelic word for “kinship” Daimh (pronounced Dive) have brought their contemporary take on Highland and Gaelic music to over 20 countries. Recent accolades include an award for the “Best Folk Band in Europe” at the prestigious Folkherbst competition in Germany and most recently winner of “Folk Band of the Year” at the Scottish Traditional Music Awards. With a reputation as giants of the bagpipes and fiddle, Angus Mackenzie and Gabe McVarish lead the melodic powerhouse with fellow founding member Ross Martin underpinning the groove on the guitar. The Band are joined by “new guy” Murdo Cameron on mandola and accordion to complete the instrumental line up. Daimh have always had the renown and notoriety of working with some of the finest Gaelic singers in Scotland and the current line up only serves to cement that distinction with the addition of one of Gaelic music’s most rapidly rising star, Ellen MacDonald on vocals. Don’t miss Daimh’s Blackstone River Theatre debut!

Legendary Irish folk singer Karan Casey has released 12 albums to date and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan singing songs charged with a sense of social responsibility in a career spanning more than 25 years. A founding member of traditional supergroup Solas, Casey draws inspiration from a wide range of sources from the personal to the historical and political, touching on themes of family, loss, love, the empowerment of women and Irish revolutionary struggle. Karan returns to Blackstone River Theatre to kick off the month of March and will be joined by Niamh Dunne on fiddle and vocals, and guitarist and accordionist Sean Óg Graham, both of the Irish folk band Beoga. This evocative trio has toured together for several years and tonight’s show premieres songs from her newest CD, “Nine Apples of Gold” as well as favorites from Karan’s back repertoire. Casey has long been recognized as one of the most innovative, provocative and imitated voices in Irish traditional and folk music. In 2017, Karan was Traditional Artist in Residence at University College Cork, toured the UK with the Transatlantic Sessions, performed at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, and toured in the U.S. both with her own band and with Lúnasa. In 2018 Karan helped found FairPlé, an organization aimed at achieving fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional and folk music.

Kevin Doyle’s Roscommon Soles – For a Winter’s Night celebrates art & heart-filled memories for the turning of winter towards spring in dance, music, song and story. Bring your favorite Valentine! Today’s show will feature Kevin Doyle, National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow; Mary Lee Partington, regional vocal award-winner/NCTE inaugural Teacher of Excellence; Sheila Falls, American & All-Ireland fiddle champion and director of Gaelic Roots at Boston College; Torrin Ryan, multiple All-Ireland medalist and first on uilleann pipes; John Coyne, noted vocalist and bouzouki player from the Boston area; Josh Kane, original cast member of Roscommon Soles on flute and whistle, plus dance appearances by The Dancing Doyles – Maureen Doyle and Shannon Doyle. With more than five decades of Irish step dance under his feet, Rhode Island born Kevin Doyle is a son of County Roscommon through his mother Margaret Taylor Doyle. In 2014, Kevin was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor conferred upon a traditional artist in the United States. In the thirty year history of the Award, Kevin is only the third Irish step dancer to be so honored.

Never underestimate the power of two. The duo Gunning & Cormier go back 23 years when Dave Gunning had a fiddle player drop out of a show at the last minute. “He hired me for a gig when I was just back from Nashville, nobody knew me here,” says J.P. Cormier. “We were totally blown away by J.P.’s playing,” recalls Gunning. “I remember him saying if you ever do a CD, I want to play on it.” That happened – they played and wrote together whenever they could, coming up with songs that graced both their projects, over the years showered with awards and nominations on the East Coast and nationally. As two of the busiest solo musicians in the country these past two decades, it’s been impossible to schedule time to make a full album and properly tour it. But that all changed three years ago when Cormier moved just down the road from Gunning in Nova Scotia, and the pair were able to meet often at Gunning’s home studio. First, they picked some great songs. Then they figured out their guitar parts, and when ready recorded the guitars ‘live-off-the-floor’ simultaneously. Then they recorded their vocals together. This recording technique gave them what they’d hoped for, something unlike their solo albums: The power of Two. Two is as real as it gets. Two songwriters, interpreters, guitar players, and singers at their peak. It’s the power of the song. It’s two friends, brothers, uncompromising performers, making the album of their lives. There couldn’t be a better time to discover Gunning & Cormier, and the power of Two.

Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly return with Cathy Clasper-Torch on fiddle, cello and vocals to present an engaging concert of traditional American and Celtic American folk songs, a cappella pieces, hymns, poetry, dance tunes, and original works. Elwood and Aubrey blend unusual harmonies and play guitar, Appalachian mountain dulcimer, Irish tin whistle, harmonica, old-time banjo, bones, limberjacks and other musical surprises. Their performance is appealing to all ages, and with humor, audience participation and a highly-relaxed stage presence, Aubrey and Elwood also explain song origins to give more relevance to the material. Atwater-Donnelly has performed widely in the Northeast and other parts of the United States and Great Britain for more than 30 years and their recordings receive international airplay. They have performed and researched folk music extensively in New England, Ireland, England, Prince Edward Island, the Ozarks, and Appalachia. Clasper-Torch performs and records with many R.I. artists and is also the long-time fiddle instructor at Blackstone River Theatre.

We are thrilled to bring back our friends Lúnasa with their “Irish Winter Solstice Celebration” concert featuring special guest vocalist Dave Curley! 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 more than 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 will be 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. Dave Curley, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and dancer from Corofin, Co. Galway, has been making big waves in the Irish music scene in the last number of years. After graduating from the University of Limerick’s groundbreaking Irish Music and Dance programme with 1st class honours, Dave became a creative member of award-winning bands SLIDE and RUNA.

Please come out and support future Blackstone River Theatre programming as well as area craft vendors and home-based businesses while you do your holiday shopping locally! We will have 25 vendors on site between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and the event will also feature continuous live music with Bob Drouin, Josh Kane, Ed Sweeney, Dean Robinson, Cathy Clasper-Torch, Atwater~Donnelly, The Vox Hunters, and The Broad Street Fiddlers, plus raffle prizes and a bake sale table including Welsh cakes! Door prizes will be raffled off from each vendor with the proceeds to benefit BRT’s future programming. Think out of the box (store!)

Dave Marsh, the award-winning American music critic and historian not so long ago stated that James Keelaghan is “Canada’s finest songwriter,” and those few but powerful words of praise say it all about an artist who continues to set the bar at a lofty height. As the calendar pages have turned, for almost 25 years now, this poet laureate of the folk and roots music world has gone about his work with a combination of passion, intent and intensity, and curiosity.

His recent album, “Second Hand” was named in the Top 10 Folk Charts of 2022. Admiration and respect for his work amongst his peers is best summed up by David Francey who recently stated that, “James Keelaghan is a voice in contemporary Canadian songwriting that has helped us define who we are as a people. He writes with great humanity and honesty, with an eye to the past and a vision of the future. He has chronicled his times with powerful and abiding songs, with heart and eyes wide open.”

Don’t miss this JUNO and CFMA award winning singer-songwriter returning to Blackstone River Theatre for the first time in more than 10 years!

In their early days as students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Damn Tall Buildings didn’t rehearse – they busked. Now, whether live or on record, the trio still radiates the energy of a crew of best friends playing bluegrass on the street. Anchoring that energy is their instrumental chops, their strong songwriting, and their varied influences that stretch beyond bluegrass, even beyond American roots music altogether. Whether sharing lead vocals and instrumental solos or blending their voices into high-spirited harmony, Damn Tall Buildings is a tight unit that contains more than the sum of its parts.

Primary vocalist and lyricist Max Capistran’s singing recalls old blues and The Band-style roots-rock, whereas Sasha Dubyk’s time studying musical theater is evident in her rich vocal tone and soulful flair. Avery Ballotta’s fiddle brings stratospheric dimension to the churning rhythm section of Capistran’s guitar and Dubyk’s bass. The band’s harmony singing is tight without being too slick – they sound like three individual voices joined together in celebration, not a perfectly polished machine. The band has  relocated to Brooklyn, NY and tour widely, appearing at festivals like Grey Fox, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Freshgrass, Blissfest and Merlefest.

“Bluegrass at heart, but pulling from a wide range of influences including swing, ragtime, jazz, and even a hint of contemporary perspective in the songwriting, they offer virtually unmatched energy and enthusiasm, underpinned by intelligent songs that don’t skimp on the infectiousness…” – Savingcountrymusic.com . Don’t miss their Blackstone River Theatre debut!