A day in the life of a working musician.. the behind-the- scenes drama of presenting Irish fiddle shows, running a band, dealing with the endless characters in the music industry, and keeping the dream alive.

Friday, March 03, 2006

St. Patrick's Month

Before I started playing Irish music, I thought of St. Patrick's Day as one day. Now I know better. It's a whole month of festivities and parades and events. In New York, they stagger the parades, so each city might have theirs on a different day.

It's exciting to be a part of all these things, and at the same time part of me is thinking, Irish music is here to stay, it's here to be listened to all year, not just this month. March seems to be the month the mainstream media pays attention to Irish music, so I guess we just have to go with that!

I saw the film The Emerald Diamond, about the Irish National Baseball team. They used music from my Harp and Shamrock CD, as well as several other Irish bands, so I was looking forward to seeing how they used the music. The film is very funny and inspiring and I highly recommend it. Visit www.irishbaseballmovie.com for a full schedule of screenings across the country.

Upcoming projects include a new show I'm doing with Welsh singer Jodee James called Celtic Sisters. We are featuring spirited music from Seven Celtic Nations - Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Isle of Man and Galicia. That is a research project in and of itself! But seriously, there's something for everyone in this show, and we're looking forward to sharing it with the world.