Got
any newsy tidbits?
Let us know. E-mail them to: bernadette@celticcafe.comWe
started the "Buzz" section here at the Celtic Cafe as a means
of sharing some of the news and information posted to our associated mail lists,
which are devoted mostly to Irish dance and Celtic music. For more detailed information,
and to join in the discussion about "anything Celtic," please sign up
for our main list, large and very international. Click on the following:
Celtic Cafe Yahoo Group
• • • Please
note: To read our current Cafe Buzz items via our main page,
click here. •
• • May 10 LUNASA'S
NEW CD: REDWOOD The good folks at Green
Linnet give us quite a treat in that they allow website visitors to sometimes
"sample" full CDs via RealAudio. Well, such is the case again with Lúnasa's
long-awaited new CD "Redwood." They are even offering one of
the tracks as a full MP3, so take a listen and see why the lads, Seán
Smyth, Kevin Crawford, Donogh Hennessy, Trevor Hutchinson and Cillian Vallely,
are such favorites around the Celtic Cafe. Click
here for the Green Linnet page. The band also welcomes
special guest musician Jim Higgins, of Riverdance
fame, on bodhrán and snare drum. "Redwood
was conceived during a band break at Matt Greenhill’s ranch near Occidental,
California in October 2001. We wanted to capture the live impact of Lúnasa,
without losing the sonic quality that we always endeavor to achieve on our albums.
We checked out a few studios in the area and happened upon the renowned Prairie
Sun Studios in Cotati. We booked ourselves in for ten days in the middle of our
February 2002 U.S. tour. It was a wonderful and unique experience and we hope
you enjoy the result."
Lúnasa's Summer Tour
begins on July 6th, and includes the Montana
Irish Festival, mentioned in a recent Cafe Buzz item (see
below). Click
here for their tour schedule, and be sure to check out the great travel
snapshots and commentary (funny guys!) at Lúnasa's official website: Lunasa.ie •
• • May 9 IRISH
CULTURAL FESTIVAL - North Easton, MA - June 13, 14, 15 New
Englanders will welcome the summer this year with the Irish
Cultural Centre's 13th Annual Irish Festival
at Stonehill College, which runs from Friday, June 13 through Sunday,
June 15, 2003 in North Easton, about 20 miles from Boston. The festival is the
largest of its kind on the East Coast, featuring more than 500 singers, musicians,
and dancers performing continuously throughout the three-day festival on eight
stages. The event showcases the very best in local, national
and international talent, including Rubyhorse,
Gaelic Storm, The
Prodigals; Derek Warfield of the Wolfe
Tones; Seamus Connolly;
Tradition; Barra MacNeils; Bedlam;
McTaggarts; The Brian Boru Pipes and Drums; Celtic Spring; Ceol Tradsiunta na
hEireann, Sgt. Dan Clark, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri
Eireann; Andy Cooney Band; Joe Derrane; Danny Doyle; Cahal
Dunne; Erin's Melody; Frank Ryan & Celtic Clan; Christina Harrison; Andy
Healy Band; Noel Henry Irish Show Band; Highland Rover; ICC Seisun Group; The
Irish Beat; Liz McNicholl; Robert Mouland; David O'Docherty; Aideen O'Donnell,
Harpist; Norman Payne; Teada; 103rd Electricians Pipe Band, The Brendan Bowyer
Experience featuring D.J. Curtin. For more information, call
1 (781) 821-8291 or visit irishculture.org
Festival organizers, please note: We LOVE to
promote these kinds of events. Just send us the information! •
• • May 8 LIZ
CARROLL At age 18, Chicago fiddler Liz
Carroll beat Ireland's best by winning the All-Ireland Championship.
Her quicksilver playing caught critics' ears - "Nothing less than breathtaking!"
raved the Irish Echo. She went on
to help found Irish-American bands Cherish
the Ladies and Green Fields of America. In 1984 she won the National
Heritage Award, and Chicago Mayor Daley named September 18 "Liz Carroll
Day" in her honor. Today, Liz is revered as one of Irish America's premiere
musicians by fans, critics and, especially, by other musicians. Listen to music
samples at Green
Linnet and eFolkmusic.com
to see why! She was also recently named (for the second time!) as one of the Top
100 Irish Americans, a list published annually by Irish
America Magazine. Liz's appeal is broadening -- she's on the cover
of the current Sing Out! Magazine,
the prestigious Folk Quarterly! A great interview with Liz is included, including
publication of a couple of Liz's compositions, and a teaching column penned by
Liz herself. Click here for the magazine's
website. Liz is on tour more than ever, with a busy 2003 planned, often
with the brilliant guitarist John Doyle
as accompanist. Liz and John have just completed a brief tour of California, and
this "dynamic duo" have many concerts coming up, including a tour of
France in November. Go to LizCarroll.com
for all the details. • • • May
7 THE CELTIC RIDDLE On
Friday, May 9th, at 9 p.m., CBS will broadcast a special "Murder
She Wrote" television movie starring Angela
Lansbury. The telepic is based on Lyn
Hamilton's novel "The Celtic Riddle," fourth in the series
of archaeological mysteries featuring an antiques dealer/sleuth by the name of
Lara McClintoch. (The film adaptation features instead mystery writer Jessica
Fletcher -- Angela Lansbury). Lara travels the world in search of the rare
and beautiful for her store, finding more than a little murder and mayhem along
the way. In the "Celtic Riddle," she travels to Ireland with a friend
for the reading of Eamon Byrne's Will. As soon as the Will is read, the butler
dies under suspicious circumstances, and the family is off on the treasure hunt.
In order to protect her friend, Lara sets off to find the treasure too. The
'riddle' of the book, The Celtic Riddle,
is based on an ancient poem called Song of Amairgen. Amairgen is supposed
to be the first Celt to set foot on Irish soil, and these words would have been
a spell to protect them as they landed. In the book, each line of Amairgen's spell
is used as a clue in a treasure hunt of sorts. A wealthy Kerryman by the name
of Eamon Byrne has left these clues to his family and some friends in his Will
to try to get them all to work together to find something of great value. In doing
so, he hopes his warring family will be reunited.
The book
focuses on Irish/Celtic mythology. To solve the riddle, the reader must learn
a great deal about Irish myths, including the stories of the Tuatha de Danaan,
the magical people who became the fairies of Ireland when defeated finally by
the Celts. The Tuatha de Danaan had four great gifts from the gods, and these
four gifts all are used as part of the 'riddle'. For more about the book, and
the Celtic background, click
here for the direct link to the page at Ms. Hamilton's official site --
where you can also read the first chapter! • •
• May 6 A
MIGHTY WIND The latest film "mock-umentary" by
director Christopher
Guest is a loving send-up of Folk music. A
Mighty Wind focuses on three folk groups from the '60s who reunite
for a memorial concert in New York City following the death of a legendary folk
manager. The cast includes Bob Balaban, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins,
Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey,
Fred Willard and a Celtic Cafe "personal favorite," Harry
Shearer, as Mark Shubb of the "Kingsmen." We will soon be bringing
you an interview with the brilliant Mr. Shearer, whose "Celtic Blues"
in the classic, hilarious film "This
is Spinal Tap" is a must for any Celtic Cafe community member
to experience! Official site: spinaltap.com Meanwhile,
there is Mr. Shearer's website at HarryShearer.com
to peruse, as well as archived audio broadcast of his popular NPR radio program,
"Le Show."
The reviews for "A Mighty Wind" are of the "raving"
variety, so check your local theater listings and don't miss it! For more information,
see the Internet Movie Database.com page at
imdb.com/Title?0310281
Click
here for the official site for "A Mighty Wind" and watch
the funny, funny trailer! • • • May
5 CELTIC REIGN IN AUSTRALIA There
is a new dance show touring Australia called Celtic Reign. "This
show is a blend of popular Irish folk tunes, reels, jigs and songs with a variety
of new melodies and rhythms from Ireland's most popular music today. Celtic
Reign is non-stop entertainment and features a dynamic live Irish band and
a cast of Irish dance champions. Celtic Reign will rate as one of
the most popular Irish cultural dance and music shows and offers audiences a spectacular
evening of family entertainment. This spectacular presentation will feature a
young company of fourteen highly talented performers featuring ten of the very
best Irish dancers and an exciting group of musicians. The dancers' resumes
boast an impressive list of national and international dance titles -- many of
whom have performed for international dance companies round the world."
We
hope to be able to bring you more information soon, including a tour schedule.
Sounds intriguing! • • • May
4 HIGHLAND GAMES SYCHROV
- August 30, 2003 The Traditional Scottish Highland
Games in Eastern Europe will celebrate its 3rd year, thanks to the increasing
interest in folks there reclaiming their Celtic heritage. Last year the Games
were attended by almost 7,000 visitors. This festival of Scottish
culture will include performers such as The
1st Bohemian Highland Pipers (click here for website) from Prague,
The Kinlochard Ceilidh Band (Scotland), Finnlay McDonald (Scotland), Bran (Brittany,
Czech Republic), Alistair Edwards (Scotland), Czeltic (Czech Republic), and the
Highland Corbies (Slovak Republic). For more information about
the festival, check out their website at skotskehry.com.
The location, Sychrov, is about 80 km north of Prague. Click
here for more information about the castle. •
• • May 3 JIM
PAGE COLLATERAL DAMAGE TOUR '03 Jim
Page is about to kick off a tour of Ireland on May 6th. Although a Yank
himself, Jim has Irish connections going back to the Ballisodare Festival and
Carnsore Point in 1979. Irish audiences really got to soak up the wonders of this
“true original” in ’79 when Jim opened for Planxty on a
national tour and the Hot Press warned
Irish fans to “ignore him at your peril!” Christy
Moore says: "Every now and again I encounter a singer who gives me
a glimmer of hope. Jim Page carries the light." For more about Jim and the
tour, click here.
•
• • May 2 FIRST-EVER
GERMAN OPEN FEIS This weekend, May 3 and 4, dancers from
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, the U.S. and,
of course, Germany, will converge upon Oberschleißheim, just north of Munich,
for the first-ever German Open Féis. Almost half of the competitors
are adult dancers (over 19), and the event demonstrates the strong interest in
learning Irish dance in countries not usually associated with Irish culture. For
details about the Munich Feis 2003, hosted by Mary Sweeney's Rince
Tir na nOg Irish Dance School, go to: MunichFeis.de
and oberschleissheim.de We
have an upcoming feature about Irish dance teacher Terri
Heckmann, who says, in part: "Europeans were introduced to Irish
Dancing by the 1994 Eurovision intermission performance that later became Riverdance.
The great interest in Irish Dance in Europe was initiated and fueled by Riverdance,
Lord of the Dance, and other Irish Dance shows. Of course, this had Europeans
looking for Irish Dance teachers. This presented a bit of a problem. Irish people
usually emigrate to English speaking countries, so there were very few registered
Irish Dance teachers to be had in Europe at that time. There were and still are
many unqualified people trying to teach Irish Dance in Europe. That isn’t
to say that there aren’t any capable, qualified teachers in Europe now. There
are a good few at this point in time who are doing a fabulous job, but not enough
to be able to cover all of Europe. Like the United States, Canada, Australia,
and other strong Irish Dance countries, Europe will eventually follow suit and
have 'a registered teacher on every corner,' so to speak." The
Munich Feis 2003 is a terrific step in that direction, and the Celtic Cafe
sends our best wishes to all the participants. • •
• May 1 Our
very first entry here at Cafe Buzz was about the new Irish dance show,
Dance of Desire, opening on May 8th at the Ambassador Theater in Dublin.
(Scroll to bottom of page to read it.) It features some of our favorite performers
from shows such as Lord of the Dance, Gaelforce Dance, To Dance on the Moon, etc.
One of those is violinist Ella Haluk,
pictured on the right in one of the publicity photos for her upcoming CD, "Ellavation."
Click here to see the feature
we did a few months ago on her and Alan
Whelan of Solitaire Studio,
who is working with Dance of Desire as Head of Sound and is managing the Dublin
run. The vocalist for the show is Susan McFadden, who
has many fans already as a result of her appearances on "You're a Star."
Click here for
the RTE bio on her, and here
for a videoclip. We'll soon add more names to this very impressive musical
line-up, but in the meantime, check out some biographies we have on others involved
with Dance of Desire. Click here. •
• •
April 30 THE
NINE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE EUROVISION April 30, 1994.
The Eurovision Song Contest interval piece was "Riverdance"
-- seven minutes that changed the world of Irish dance. See the portion of the
Michael Flatley biography at our MIKEroCosm
that deals with that night by clicking
here. The definitive book about the Riverdance phenomenon happens to be
entitled "Riverdance
the Phenomenon" by Barra Ó Cinnéide. Blackhall
Publishing. The roots of Riverdance can be traced back
to the Seville Suite, composed by Bill
Whelan for the World Fair held in Seville in 1992, and the "Mayo
5000" event in 1993, which again featured a Bill Whelan composition and
in which both Michael Flatley and Jean Butler danced, although not
together on that occasion. It was there that Moya
Doherty and John McColgan connected
with other principals, including Anúna,
and they would revolutionize Irish dance a few months later. The
book is fascinating, a must-read for anyone seriously interested in Irish dance
shows, whether from the standpoint of a fan or those involved in the creative
or business side of putting shows. Click
here for more detailed information about the book from Professor Ó
Cinnéide himself. "There's no business like
show business."
• • • April
29 MONTANA IRISH FESTIVAL: AUGUST 8, 9, 10
Ah, as summer approaches, so do the opportunities for attending all
those wonderful Celtic festivals! Lúnasa,
The Makems, Ken O'Malley and Kathleen Keane, The
Trinity Irish Dance Company and the Michael Collins Pipe Band all will
appear at the expanded An Rí Rá Montana Irish Festival, August
8-9-10 in Butte, Montana. The Montana Gaelic
Cultural Society festival organizers announced this internationally and
nationally recognized list of performances in a preview of the activities scheduled
for this three-day celebration. Montana's own outstanding Irish music groups will
perform as well, including Dublin Gulch, Lark Ascending, Finnegan Ridge, Swallowtail
and Wilson and McKee. Perennial favorites at the Celtic Cafe, Lúnasa
have become one of the most sought-after bands on the international music scene.
We've just heard a sneak preview of their upcoming CD, Redwood,
and folks, you're in for a treat! They alone would be worth the trip to Butte,
but wait, there's more! The Trinity
Irish Dance Company will delight with their champion footwork. We have
several features about Trinity at the Celtic Cafe, but click
here for the debut of the latest, an account of a pre-show rehearsal. Because
of the limited space here at the Buzz, we've created a special web page at the
Celtic Cafe for the Montana Irish Festival, and will start adding to the
content as time goes on. The festival website will be online soon, but in the
meantime, click here for
the press release. For more information, call 1 (800) 735-6814. Festival
organizers, please note: We LOVE to promote these kinds of events. Just
send us the information! • • • April
28 SINÉAD O'CONNOR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
FROM MUSIC BUSINESS In a message posted to her official
site on April 25th, Sinéad
O'Connor announced that she retiring from the music business in order
to pursue a different career. This is very disappointing, as some of us became
fans only fairly recently, and we were hoping for many more albums in a similar
vein to her latest, Sean-Nós
Nua. Check out the Vanguard
Records web page, where you can listen to audioclip samples of this brilliant
CD, by clicking
here. The following is a copy-and-paste of Ms. O'Connor's message
at www.sineadoconnor.com
"From
Sinead on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 11:19 pm: Hello Lovelies, This
is a message from sinead. This being a very special anniversary for me, I have
chosen it to announce that as of July 2003 I shall be retiring from the music
business. In order to pursue a different career.
The last recordings I will
make will be (believe it or not) a track for Dolly Parton's upcoming tribute album
and a track for sharon Shannon's forthcoming album. These will be recorded in
May.
In July I will be releasing a DVD of a live show and documentary featuring
tracks from way back along with tracks fom Sean Nos Nua. The DVD will be entitled
"Goodnight, thankyou. You've been a lovely audience."
And so ye
have.
I wish here to thank everyone who has been a fan and or supporter of
mine over the last twenty two years in the music business (first record at 14,
deal at 17. Half o first album wrote when 15). As well as all the people whom
I have had the honour of working with. Not least the great Dolly Parton herself!
Thanks to all of ye for a great time and a great education.
I would request
that as of July, since I seek no longer to be a "famous" person, and
instead I wish to live a "normal" life, could people please afford me
my privacy. By which I mean I would like not to have exploition of my self or
my name or anyone connected with me by newspapers.
I also mean that (with
love) I want to be like any other person in the street and not have people say
there is Sinead O'Connor. As I am a very shy person, believe it or not. So I ask
with love, that I be left in peace and privacy by people who love my records too.
And I hope it doesnt sound rude. It aint meant rude. I am glad that ye are helped
by my songs. So help me too, by giving me what is best for me, a private life.
My advise to anyone who ever admires a so called "celebrity" if
u see them in the street, dont even look at them. If u love them, then the lovingest
thing u can do to show them so is leave them alone and don't stare at them! Or
bang on restauraunt windows when they in there. Or make them get their picture
taken, or write their names on bits of paper. That's pieces of them.
And one
day they wake up with nothing left of themselves to give.
Love, peace, and
don't 4get to pray y'all.
Sinead
P.S This web site will exist until September.
Then bye bye."
• • • April
27 RIVERDANCE AND THE SPECIAL OLYMPIC GAMES
- June 21 Opening Ceremony Riverdance
and Tyrone Productions join
with the Honourable Nelson Mandela, Ireland's President Mary McAleese, Bono,
U2, the Corrs, Samantha Mumba, and more, at a spectacular Opening Ceremony
to herald the beginning of the largest sporting event in the world. The Special
Olympics celebrate the abilities of folks with disabilities, bringing
together 7,000 athletes from 160 countries who will participate in the nine-day
event. The closing ceremony on June 29th will honor the 30,000 volunteers who
made it all possible. Tyrone Productions will produce the spectacular
three-hour long Opening Ceremony on June 21, and the Riverdance contribution to
this night will be a performance featuring the longest troupe line ever seen in
an Irish dance show, over 100 dancers. The Choir and Drum Corps have also been
increased to match the occasion. Leading the Riverdance troupe will be Joanne
Doyle and Breándan de
Gallaí. Read the 2002 interview that our Celtic Cafe "TourMaster"
Alex Szabo did with the stunning Ms. Doyle by clicking
here. Riverdance producers undertook a search for a young Irish
female solo singer to perform Bill Whelan's
haunting Cloudsong. The search began in January of this year, and after
auditions in March, the numbers were whittled down to six. Bill Whelan attended
the final auditions, and the panel was unanimous in its choice: Lynn Hilary
-- see photo on right with John McColgan. Lynn, 20 years old, is a Dubliner
currently studying for her Bachelor of Music degree at the Dublin Institute
of Technology. A member of Anúna,
she has performed with them in New York, Amsterdam, Morocco and elsewhere, and
won the R&R Cup (Solo Singing) at the Feis Ceoil 2002. You can
hear her beautiful vocals on three of Anúna's CDs, including the 2003 version
of "Behind the
Closed Eye," now available in the U.S. See the Anúna.ie
website for more. Keep up with news of Riverdance's involvement
in this amazing event via their Exclusives
section
at Riverdance.com over the coming weeks!
• • • April 26 STEPHEN
SCARIFF and RONAN MORGAN lead an IRISH DANCE INVASION! This
is only the third day since the debut of Cafe Buzz, and already we hear
about yet another new Irish dance show! Top dancers Stephen Scariff and
Ronan Morgan cut their performance
teeth in Lord of the Dance,
and in the late and lamented Dancing
on Dangerous Ground with Jean Butler
and Colin Dunne, and Ronan spent time
with the Chieftains. Stephen and Ronan's choreography talent and world stage experience
is augmented by none other than the lovely ex-LOTD fiddler Máiréad
Nesbitt, who is working on a "modern and daring" score for the
show with Hungarian Composer of the Year Tibor Kasza! Produced
by Stronan, Ltd., and directed by leading Hungarian theater artist Robert Alfoldi,
Irish Dance Invasion is described as the Renaissance of Irish Dance. Mr.
Alfoldi is currently in New York directing Shakespeare's Hamlet. Of
course we will have a full feature on the show later on, but in the meantime,
want to get in touch with the folks at Irish Dance Invasion? E-mail them
by clicking here. Yes, they
are looking for dancers interested in auditioning. •
• • April 25 MICHAEL LONDRA
, the Celtic Cafe's Featured Artist of the Month for April, goes Haute
Couture! The man with the golden voice (check out especially the MP3
"Crown of Gold" at his site, www.MichaelLondra.com,
to hear for yourself!) is still jet-setting about even after his Riverdance
days! This week he flew into New York City for a gala event at Cipriani, where
he was in the gift bag for the fashion world celebrity attendees. Well, not literally...
his self-titled CD was, and he was the only recording artist chosen for that purpose
-- no doubt a welcome relief to the likes of Martha Stewart and Calvin Klein,
used to more prosaic gift bag items such as vouchers to Bergdorf Goodman, etc.
The event was the annual New York Horticultural Society Gala which is run by House
and Garden magazine. Patrons paid $25,000 for some of the tables -- and
our Featured Artist of the Month did wear his tux! Today he's in
California where he headed for some studio work after New York City, and is about
to leave from Chicago for his native Ireland for several weeks... but you can
stay in touch with him via his website, through which you can get his absolutely
wonderful CD. For more about the music and the musicians on it, including Des
Moore, Brian Masterson, Robbie Harris, Steve Skinner, Ciaran O'Hare, Chieli Minucci,
Sherry Steele and Ivan Goff, check out our Celtic Cafe feature on this very
special Irish tenor, by clicking here! •
• • April 24 We are so
pleased to inaugurate "Cafe Buzz" with news of the new show DANCE
of DESIRE! Celtic Cafe community members are well-acquainted with the
nicest "bad guy" ever, former Lord of the Dance Dark Lord DAIRE
NOLAN. After leaving LOTD, we could hardly wait for him to resurface, and
he didn't disappoint us, thanks to
Ceol Chiarrai in Kerry. First with To Dance on the Moon,
and now Dance of Desire, set to premiere in Dublin on May 8th at the Ambassador
Theatre (bookings available soon through Ticketmaster
Ireland). The show will run from Sunday to Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at
the Ambassador, from May 11th until the end of September. Click
here for performance dates. There will also be two very special performances
of Dance of Desire outside of Dublin -- one in Paris on May 17th at Beauvais,
and one on May 30th at Ireland's National Events Centre in Killarney. Daire
and his brother CIAN NOLAN (another of our favorite ex-Lords) have created
the entire choreography and the music is by ERIC CUNNINGHAM. The show is
all original, and comes out of the Ceol Chiarrai stables, but is a Dream Maker
Entertainment production. Dance of Desire will soon have its
own major feature at the Celtic Cafe, but in the meantime, here is the story synopsis:
Dance
of Desire is a story based on the power and passion of the Celtic Legends of Erin. In
a land before time began, a land of ancient gods, of high kings and warrior queens,
a king’s love for his children brought down a terrible curse on them which
held them in bondage for nine hundred years. When the wife of the De Dannan
king, Lir, died he married her sister Aoife. Because of his great love for his
four children their stepmother became insanely jealous and plotted a terrible
revenge. Lir protected his children from evil with the magic Sword of Light.
The bearer of the sword bestowed absolute power. But the evil Aoife watched
and waited and in time stole the magic Sword from the king. With its magical powers
she changed the children to swans and condemned them to an eternity of suffering
in ocean waters for nine hundred years. The king powerless to help could to nothing
to save his children from the turbulent seas as without the sword his magical
powers lay dormant. At this time the De Dannan were the rulers of Ireland.
They were a magical people but were to lose their kingdom to new invaders called
the Milesians who were in search of their Island of Destiny and were about to
challenge the domination of the Tuatha De Dannan and become the founding fathers
of the mighty Celtic kingdom of Erin. Having witnessed the misfortunes of Lir
the invaders sought to return his children to the Island of youth and help banish
Aoife forever. This could only be possible with the help of the Sword of Light,
which they first had to win back. When a Milesian princess fell in love
with one Aoife’s servants the story was to change dramatically forever. Little
did she realise the astonishing secret the servant held deep inside. This
is a story of power and glory, magic and mystery, love and hatred -- and above
all -- Desire. Dance of Desire is a love story that has defied time.
• • •
Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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