Despite my plans to be somewhere at 4:00 on Friday (yes, that's 4:00 in the morning), T and I went to the Echoes of Erin concert at The Sheldon on Thursday night.
I'm still not 100% sure, but what I gather from the banter was that Echoes is an annual (or almost annual) tour of mostly younger Irish musicians, singers, and dancers. They work with local Irish music and culture organizations to arrange the concerts, and often the musicians will stay in the homes of people involved in the local organizations.
They were a quintessentially Irish little bunch: thick, lilting accents; chubby cheeks; names like "O'Connor" and "Moriarty." And they played truly Irish music - not pub music like "Irish Rover" and "Molly Malone" (not that there's anything wrong with those - I love pub music!), but very traditional jigs, reels, and those beautifully mournful laments.
There's something about Irish music that is so evocative of the place from whence it comes. The longing of the accordion or the concertina or the pipes, the soft harp, the melodic fiddle. It really just seems to be of somewhere, in a way that a lot of music lacks. David Gray could really be from anywhere.
In a nutshell, good show. Low key and relaxed. I wish the audience had gotten a little more into it, but what are you gonna do?
Sadly you can't see the bottom of this dress. It has these fun long flowy bits of fabric that hang down asymmetrically, longer on one side. Or at least they're fun until you step on them. Maybe I'll have to do a "Week 25, Part Deux" just so you can see.
Nothing so grand as the craic at a brilliant trad session!
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