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CARTHAGE – New England Celtic Arts will host the highly acclaimed Irish duo Brendan Begley & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in South Carthage, Maine on Sunday October 24th at 7:00 pm. There will be a pre-show jam session starting at 6:00. Audience members are encouraged to bring instruments and jam for a few minutes with the performers.
Brendan Begley is bursting with the wild and beautiful music of West Kerry. As a singer he is a gentle giant. On the accordion, he is a force of nature. His is music that could not exist were it not for the mountains, seas and storms of his native Dingle Peninsula. Born into a famous musical family, the youngest of nine children, Brendan soaked up the music and song of West Kerry from an early age. Slides, polkas, songs and slow airs all run through his veins.
He has three acclaimed solo albums to his name, as well as numerous recordings with the groups Boys of the Lough and Beginish. He is featured on two albums by the Chieftains (The Long Black Veil and The Bells of Dublin). With the Boys of the Lough, he has toured the Estonia, Finland, Sweden, France and the United States, and has been featured repeatedly on the Garrison Keilor Show. First touring with the band as a guest in th e 1980’s in the USA, and full-time member since 1997. The Dublin-born fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is rapidly becoming known as one of the most interesting and creative musicians in traditional music. Since the widespread success of his 2003 ‘Kitty Lie Over’ album with Mick O’Brien, he has performed in the United States, Canada, Alaska, Asia and all over Europe. Irish performances in 2006 included Farmleigh House, West Cork Music in Bantry, the National Concert Hall, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Liberty Hall, and a tour for the Improvised Music Company. His concerts have been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and LyricFM, including a performance at the Masters of Tradition 2004 festival for West Cork Music. Recent television appearances include ‘The Highland Sessions’, ‘The Raw Bar’, ‘Ceird an Cheoil’, ‘Se Mo Laoch’ and ‘Other Voices’, and musicians he has recently worked with include The Waterboys, Iarla O Lionaird, and Peadar O Riada.
Born in 1979, Caoimhín grew up listening to old vinyls of The Chieftains, Planxty and The Bothy Band. He started playing fiddle at the age of 10, also learning the uilleann pipes, flute and whistle. He worked at the Irish Traditional Music Archives for a number of years, immersing himself in old recordings of Willie Clancy, Denis Murphy, Paddy Cronin and Seamus Ennis.
In 2003 he released Kitty Lie Over to great acclaim with uilleann piper Mick O’Brien. Chosen as #1 Traditional Album of 2003 by Earle Hitchner in the Irish Echo, and described in The Irish Times as “a niftier mood enhancer than any drug therapy” by Siobhán Long, this has become one of the all-time best-loved traditional music albums.
Caoimhín has been the subject of numerous television documentaries, including Faoi Lán Cheoil, where he had the Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons as his fiddle student over the space of a year. Swerving from infectious slides to slow airs, sean-nós songs to wild, passionate polkas, Begley and Ó Raghallaigh unleash the raw power and beauty of their Kerry music.
Skye Theater is located 3 miles West of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Drive off Winter Hill Rd and US RT. 2 in South Carthage. Ticket price is $10.00 at the door. Call New England Celtic Arts at (207) 562-4445 for reservations and directions.
More information is available at: http://www.necelticarts.com
