From The Hob

Published Friday, October 23, 2009, 8:51 AM

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia – The Big Fiddle stands guard over Sydney Harbor at the entrance to the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion signaling the importance of the violin to Cape Breton culture.

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 4:50 PM

Last month in Dublin at the annual Tionol Leo Rowsome at the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Culturlann, a marvelous weekend was held to celebrate the achievements of the cultural movement founded back in 1951 to preserve and promote the traditional way of life as manifested through Irish music, song, dance and the Irish language.

Published Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 3:08 PM

Back in 2008 a midtown pub garnered more than its share of notoriety for banning the singing of “Danny Boy,” the melancholy song penned to the Londonderry Air.

Published Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 11:53 AM

It was over a year and half ago when I first visited the Highline Ballroom in yet another of New York City’s recaptured neighborhoods that show the resilience of the Big Apple and the artistic community that is attracted to them.

Published Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 3:11 PM

Taking its cue from the verses written by William Butler Yeats, there is a very prestigious prize awarded to an Irish traditional fiddler who rises above stiff competition every year to garner the honor.

Published Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 3:11 PM

The Darrah Carr Dance Company completed another New York season with their weekend performances at the Irish Arts Center this past Sunday.

Published Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 2:22 PM

As the Christmas holidays roll around again, it is an especially great time to see and hear some wonderful music in the seasonal and Celtic or acoustic vein.

Published Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 4:18 PM

From time to time, if you are fortunate or astute, you will come across a musician in the Irish traditional music scene who typifies how much the native folk music means to those who are uprooted from its soil in the great Irish diaspora.

Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 6:22 PM

Every Irish American who has ever listened to a note of Irish music probably has their defining moment when they realized what a hold the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had on them, conscious or otherwise. Mine came decades after they first blazed a trail on the scene destroying all notions of what Irish folk music was and would be. Like the Beatles, they impacted a generation of us Irish boomers who moved from radio to TV in the 1960s and made us proud to be Irish when these four lads splashed across the screen on The Ed Sullivan Show and launched a highly successful career on their 15 minutes of fame on the popular show that was the American Idol of its day, giving rise to so many wonderful performers.

Published Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 2:30 PM

The weather was gray and damp, but only a little liquid sunshine fell on the day that a prince of folk music was being laid to rest on the first Monday of December.

As the assembled family and friends sang “The Parting Glass” and “Wild Mountain Thyme” --staples of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in happier times when closing out so many wonderful concerts -- the remains of Liam Clancy were being hoisted into his grave in An Rinn, the Waterford Gaeltacht where he made his home until his passing last Friday, December , the age of 74 from pulmonary fibrosis.