Pub Guide
Off The Record
by Mike FarragherRSS 
Recent Posts
- Reading the tea leaves - “only lovely fortunes in my teacups”
- Saxy sideman “GI” Blythe steps into the spotlight - VIDEO
- Finbar Furey’s burst of “Colours” - VIDEOS
- Colm O’Brien mixes old and new with “Back to Work?”
- Enchanting Julie Feeney commands the stage in New York
Archives
Reading the tea leaves - “only lovely fortunes in my teacups”
Licks of purple and brunt orange from the sunset licked the peaceful shoreline on this chilly night in Santa Monica. The mood on the shopping promenade was festive as tourists emptied their pockets of spare change to the jugglers and folk musicians that lined the sidewalks.
I found Patricia McCarthy Donnelly sitting demurely at a table, swaddled in an Aran sweater with a thin, gauzy scarf around her neck. The sign on the card table read “Irish Tea Leaf Readings: Only Lovely Fortunes in My Teacups!”
I heard the phrase “read the tea leaves” but had never pinpointed it to an Irish origin. According to the LearnAboutTea.com website, the ancient art of reading tea leaf patterns within a cup is called tasseography. Though the art of reading tea and wine sediments originated in ancient Greece, the Celtic nations perfected the art of reading tea leaves.
After release of excellent album overwhelmed Sinead O’Connor nixes US tour
Sinead O’Connor has cancelled her entire 2012 tour due to health problems. This includes a 12-date North American trek in support of her newest CD, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?.
This is a shame because the new disc is excellent and it went Top 10 in Ireland and Top 40 in the
U.K. Since there is limited places to promote an album in this uncategorized category on tight radio format, live concerts are one of the best ways to assure that the music can be heard.
Our house of God needs Home & Garden Television
New York City going gaga over Irish songstress Julie Feeney - VIDEO
Julie Feeney, the dramatic, flamboyant Irish star and prodigious singer, conductor, and performer, is set to touch down in New York to perform for 10 nights off-Broadway in a music and theatrical show to be co-directed by Performance Space 122’s Vallejo Gantner. The show debuts at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan on April 25.
Feeney, winner of the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year, takes an avant-garde approach to her innovative, one-of-a-kind sound, which, while rooted in classical music, straddles both the pop and theatrical worlds.
It pays to ride the Donegal X-Press
One of our favorite bands is back with a vengeance! Baltimore’s Donegal X-Press has just released their new album Paid Off the Boom.
Featuring 12 new tracks, including covers of Steve Earle’s “Johnny Come Lately” and Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” Paid Off the Boom is Donegal X-Press’ sixth studio album and an audibly artistic detour from their previously recorded material.
A cell for Irish theater - “Blood” and “Dancing at Lunacy”
The Cell Theatre (338 West 23rd Street; 646-861-2253) combines the one-act plays of Black 47’s Larry Kirwan and Seamus Scanlon, writer of Irish short stories, into an evening of provocative, inimitably Irish theater.
Kirwan’s Blood is based on the actual disappearance of James Connolly, trade union organizer and leader of the Irish Citizen Army on January 19, 1916. He returned four days later, his only comment, “I have been through hell.”
'Race to Nowhere' highlights hyped-up culture of achievement in our schools - VIDEO
I just watched a riveting documentary called "Race to Nowhere," which features the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink in this hyped-up culture of achievement in our schools.
Our public school sponsored a free viewing to ring the alarm bells in parents and educators who pack their kids’ schedules with mountains of homework, activities and, worst of all, the expectation of perfection.
Romantic tunes for St. Valentine's Day - review of Paul McCartney Live Itunes concert
If you're not watching what I'm watching right now, I feel sorry for you.
Sir Paul McCartney is giving a live concert at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and it is streaming through Itunes. He is surrounded by a gaggle of fluid jazz musicians led by Diana Krall. A supple standup bass thumps next to him as he sits on a stool and sings in measured tones through a shopworn vintage microphone. He is running through standards from the Great American Songbook that grace his newly released standards album, Kisses on the Bottom.
“I took some flack for that title and people told me I couldn’t do that,” McCartney said on his press tour. “They’re kisses on the bottom----of a love letter.” What a love letter it is!
Off the Record - Girly Man O’ the Gridiron
It's a typical Sunday in a typical living room on a typical winter day. The dinner plates are being cleared and it’s not a moment too soon for the men around the table.
Their eyes dart nervously between the wall clock and the black expanse of my big television screen.
With a nod from one of the wives, they rush to the living room and fumble with the remote in time for the big football game to begin.
Saw Doctors on call in the US - VIDEOS
Their Northeast stops include Pittsburgh on March 5, Providence on the 6th, Worcester on the 8th, Boston on the 9th, New York’s Irving Plaza on March 10, and Philadelphia TLA on March 13. On St. Patrick's Day, bet on the black that they will play the Music Box at the Borgata in Atlantic City.
In other band news, their young drummer Eimhin passes the sticks to an even younger drummer, Rickie O’Neill.
“Rickie is 21 and an incredibly talented drummer, and Eimhin has worked with him over the last few months in order to make the switchover as smooth as possible -- and it couldn’t have been any smoother,” reports guitarist Leo Moran.
Warming up with Ashley Davis - VIDEO
A real Celtic Woman! Just as the arctic winds blow through Manhattan this week, Celtic chanteuse Ashley Davis serves up a chilled collection of songs called Songs of the Celtic Winter.
For this collection, Davis partners with Welsh musician Gawain Matthews (who co-produced with Davis) and Irish harpist Cormac De Barra (from Moya Brennan’s touring and recording bands), and Joanie Madden of Cherish the Ladies to create a winter wonderland for your ears.
The gentle harp melody that gently wafts through songs like “Faucht” and “Wild Mountainside” conjure up images of heavy snow licking the bare tree branches as Davis weaves her poetry about making tracks in the white powder. It’s an intoxicating blast of ethereal Celtic mysticism evoking vivid imagery of the natural world and our ever-shifting place.
Top Irish music makers of 2011 - Lisa Hannigan, Gavin Friday, The Script and more
This past year further stretched the boundaries of Irish music. The artists on this list run the gamut from chart-topping pop to folk to the diddly-diddly you know and love.
I’m publishing this best of 2011 list early in the hopes that some of these worthy artworks will make their way into stockings hung by the chimneys with care by that special Irish music fan in your life. My very best to you and yours for a Happy Christmas!
Reliving the high school dance
One of those moments happened to me over the weekend.
Lisa Hannigan is ready for lift-off with ‘Passenger’ - VIDEO
Lisa Hannigan’s new album, 'Passenger,' is building steam among influential radio stations (what’s left of them), and for good reason. 'Passenger' is full of gorgeous, precious alt-folk gems set in atmospheric sonic arrangements that reveal something on each listen.
Susan Boyle’s ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ Boyle-ing with dullness - VIDEO
But what fun is that?
Most Popular Blog Posts
Most Popular Entertainment Stories
