Off The Record
by Mike FarragherRSS 
Recent Posts
- A thrilling good time with The Alarm in Asbury Park
- Paul McCartney back and better than ever at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center - VIDEO
- Moya Brennan and Cormac De Barra has a great “Affinity”
- No more room for the Irish mother’s wooden spoon - parenting has changed since our day
- Sound the alarm - Big Country is back with “The Journey” - VIDEO
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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.
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.
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.
