Off The Record
by Mike FarragherRSS 
Recent Posts
- An open letter to the Catholic League on rant against David Bowie video “The Next Day” - VIDEO
- All-star benefit for great Irish musician Mickey Finns’ Ray Kelly who died tragically
- Amen to Rend Collective Experiment - VIDEO
- Finally some new U2 music from Bono and the boys?
- The Jersey Shore is back after Hurricane Sandy - The Irish Festival kicks off
Archives
Now look at that face, it's so old.
And such a video!
Well, it's really laughable. Ha, ha, ha …
Those words come from the song “We Hate it When our Friends Become Successful,” and the pen of Stephen Patrick Morrissey, or Morrissey as he is more commonly called.
It kinda sums up the Irish condition I detect running in the background on the press coverage of the Broadway show Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark.
My Aunt Mary got her name “the cross woman” from my cousin Noreen’s small tykes.
To her, Mary was the old aunt from America who wouldn’t tolerate little boys horsing around the house. With one look and a curt “knock it off” spit through grit teeth, they were put in their place.
Orla Fallon has sung in front of popes and presidents in the five years since she joined Celtic Woman and launched a successful solo career. The singer/harpist from the village of Knockananna in Co. Wicklow makes another bold play for the national spotlight with her American public television holiday special Órla Fallon’s Celtic Christmas.
It made its debut last week, and Fallon is following that up with a series of dates this week.
When I took this job 13 years ago, my father assured me that I would run out of music to write about within six months. Here I am again, assuring you that the last 12 months were the best that this little scene of ours has produced in a long while. Does Off the Record sound like a broken record? Perhap. Yet each year, the sounds made by Irish and Irish American artists continues to inspire and tantalize music fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
I am blessed to have a front row seat to the show. My best to you and yours for a great holiday and if you are looking at spending some Itunes gift cards this holiday season, any one of the albums from my “best of” list below would delight you and keep this scene green!
“It will be exciting to hear the three voices live together again -- it is a unique sound which will undoubtedly recreate the magic that has made the Irish Tenors special from the very beginning,” says Wright.
For the Irish Tenors, this upcoming string of dates is not just an opportunity to visit their fans for the holidays. They consider this Christmas tour an escape from the doom and gloom that has hit both sides of the Atlantic.
“We have here in Ireland a desperate situation; it really does effect people,” laments tenor Anthony Kearns during an interview with the Irish Voice.
