Boston Irish Entertainment Calendar, November 2024

A glance at some upcoming Irish/Celtic-related events in Greater Boston

•This is the month that we can all go to Hell – Fiddle Hell, that is. The immensely popular traditional/folk music festival will take place from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10 at the Westford Regency in Westford, a little northeast of the Route 2/495 intersection.

Massachusetts Fiddle Hell, which has been going in one form or another since 2005, encompasses performances, workshops, and both planned and spontaneous jam sessions, and attracts musicians of all levels interested in Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Quebecois, American, Scandinavian, Cajun, blues, and other traditions or styles. Guitars, banjos, cellos, accordions, mandolins, flutes, string basses, and other instruments also are in abundance.

You can always count on a massive, marvelous line-up of musicians, many local to Boston and New England, who teach and perform at the festival. Among the Celtic-oriented faculty at Fiddle Hell this year are: Gerry O’Connor and Kevin McElroy (who’ll also be at the Burren – see below); Andrea Beaton; Seán Heely; Pascal Gemme and Yann Falquet of Genticorum; Barbara and Robert McOwen; Becky Miller; Laurel Martin; Hanneke Cassel; Eamon Sefton; Ellery Klein; Pine Tree Flyers Katie McNally, Emily Troll and Owen Marshall; Jenna Moynihan; Liz Knowles; Paul Harty; Lissa Schneckenburger; and Mariel Vandersteel.

•Irish harpist and singer Áine Minogue typically imbues her performances with insights into Celtic lore, spirituality, and history, such as her annual Christmas/New Year season concerts. On November 1, she’ll be at the Music at First Church series in Belmont to explore the Celtic roots of Halloween, featuring music and stories from ancient Samhain traditions. Minogue also will play at the Peabody Institute Library on Nov. 18. 

•The aforementioned tandem of Gerry O’Connor and Kevin McElroy perform at the Burren on Nov. 20 as part of the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series. O’Connor comes from a family with a strong musical legacy, having been taught by his mother, Rose, a descendant of three generations of fiddle players. He co-founded the well-regarded bands Skylark, Lá Lugh, and Oirialla, and has made 14 recordings; he has also collaborated with other leading Irish music performers including members of The Chieftains, Planxty, The Bothy Band, and other groups. In addition to “The Rose in the Gap,” O’Connor compiled and published “I Have Travelled This Country,” a collection of songs by Cathal McConnell, a much-loved traditional singer from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.  For the past three decades (and more), Portland guitarist and singer McElroy – a native of Rowley, Mass. – has performed regularly with such luminaries as Seamus Connolly, Brendan Tonra, and Joe Burke. McElroy, who also excels on fiddle and mandolin, recorded an album “Better Late Than Never,” with pure-drop traditional songs like “Farewell Lovely Nancy,” “Reynardine,” “Banks of the Roses” and “Rambling Boys of Pleasure.” He and O’Connor were brought together by their mutual love of fiddles and fiddle-making; they share a wealth of mutual inspirations and musical influences.

As you may have heard, the New York City area has a pretty good Irish music scene going, and an impressive coterie from Gotham will be at the O’Donovan Legacy Series on Nov. 17. For starters, there are two representatives from Cherish the Ladies, Joanie Madden (flute, whistle) and Mary Coogan (guitar); then there is Brian Conway, the well-respected fount of Sligo fiddle hailed not only as a performer but as a teacher/mentor to many aspiring fiddlers; pianist Brendan Dolan, who has teamed frequently with Conway – the pair also recorded the album, “Pride of New York,” with Madden and accordionist Billy McComiskey; and Bruce Foley (vocals, uilleann pipes) a one-time Eastern Massachusetts resident who has performed with Cherish the Ladies, Tommy Sands, Paddy Keenan and Paddy Reilly, among others. 

Native Boston-area Cape Breton fiddler Doug Lamey returns once more to the old stomping grounds via the Legacy Series with a 4 p.m. matinee on Nov. 24. Lamey had strong roots in Boston’s Cape Breton community – notably his grandfather Bill, a pioneering figure in the Cape Breton fiddle tradition. His second album, “True North,” includes a tribute from Lamey to his grandfather, “Bill’s 78 Records,” a medley of selections from Bill’s catalog of tunes.

•Speaking of Cape Breton, the Canadian American Club in Watertown – long a gathering place for Boston’s Canadian Maritimes community – will hold its annual  fundraising gala on Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. There will be a concert by fiddler Troy MacGillivray – part of the vanguard of the new generation of talented Cape Breton musicians – and Janine Randall, Massachusetts’s own Cape Breton-style piano virtuoso, and step dance performances as well as social dancing (West Mabou squares, anyone?), and family-friendly activities. There’s a $20 suggested donation.

•The Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston in Canton will host celebrated young accordionist Diarmuid Ó Meachair on Nov. 15. The Cork native – who’s also an accomplished sean-nos singer – won TG4 Gradam Ceoil “Young Musician of the Year Award” honors in 2022 and earned RTÉ Folk Award nominations as “Best Folk Instrumentalist” and “Best Emerging Artist” in 2024. Ó Meachair has released two albums, “Siúl Na Slí” and last year’s “Melodeon Medleys” – he has another solo album due in the works – and is part of the new Frankie Gavin and De Dannan line-up. His playing on accordion and melodeon – notably his rhythmic flow, ornamentation, and creative variations – has prompted comparisons to such box luminaries as P.J. Conlon, Finbarr Dwyer, Jackie Daly, and Johnny Connolly. Another treat: Ó Meachair will be accompanied at this event by guitarist Nathan Gourley, who also happens to be a first-rate fiddler, as those who have heard him play with piper Joey Abarta (who’s playing at Boston College this month – see below) and fiddler Laura Feddersen can attest. 

Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones will be at the ICC on Nov. 17 for a 4 p.m. matinee.  Warfield was co-founder of the original Wolfe Tones, who over the course of four decades went on to earn acclaim for their fiery Irish patriotic and traditional songs. That sound lives on, drawing a new generation of listeners as well as older fans, through Warfield – who continues to sing, compose, tell stories, and record – and his bandmates including Damaris Woods (tenor banjo), Andreas Durkin (keyboards, vocals), Brent Hopper (bass guitar, vocals), Dan Foster (fiddle), and Eddie Kane (guitar, vocals). Warfield – author of “The Irish Songster of the American Civil War” – and the Young Wolfe Tones also frequently provide a historical aspect to their performances, presenting lectures and songs that reflect the Irish experience in the American Revolution and Civil War.

•Boston-area uilleann piper Joey Abarta performs as part of the Boston College Gaelic Roots series on Nov. 7 at Connolly House (300 Hammond Street). Abarta – who in 2014 became the first American-born piper in four decades to win the distinguished An tOireachtas competition – has honed his skills through continuing relationships with master pipers, and is dedicated to passing along his knowledge to the next generation. His most recent solo album, “King of the Blind,” celebrates the power, beauty, and even quirks of the uilleann pipes. Abarta is chief organizer of the Patrick J. Touhey Memorial Weekend, an annual festival focusing on historical presentations and workshops based around early American piping styles and pipers. 

•A pair of dynamic duos will give a pair of area concerts that are sure to be, well, dynamic: Hanneke Cassel and Dave Wiesler and Keith Murphy and Yann Falquet play at the Shalin-Liu Performance Center in Rockport on Nov. 15 and the Groton Hill Music Center on Nov. 17 .

Cassel has blazed a path by dint of her unique style and sound, blending the elegant, sometimes flamboyant grace that is the mark of classic Scottish fiddle with rhythmic briskness and bluegrass or even jazz-inspired improvisational runs, whether playing traditional tunes or the many she has composed. Wiesler has brought his rhythmic, innovative piano playing to dance music, notably of the Scottish, English, and contra variety, and he and Cassel recorded the album “Many Happy Returns,” a recording of medleys for Scottish country dancing; he has also appeared on many of Cassel’s releases. 

Between them, guitarists/vocalists Murphy and Falquet are conversant in folk music traditions of New England, Eastern Canada, Quebec, France, Ireland, and elsewhere. In addition to being a solid solo performer, Murphy has collaborated with numerous musicians (including Cassel, as has Falquet) and was the music director for the “St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” production. Falquet is a member of the trio Genticorum, one of the most prominent Quebecois bands of the past couple of decades. 

(Cassell and Falquet also will be at Fiddle Hell – see above)

•And speaking of dual duos, on Nov. 24, Club Passim will feature a pair of New England pairs, each with intriguingly cosmopolitan takes on Celtic music: Hildaland and Liz Simmons and Casey Murray. Hildaland is Louise Bichan, who plays the distinctive fiddle style found in her native Orkney Islands, and Ethan Setiawan, a virtuoso on mandolin, octave mandolin, and tenor guitar. Their music, as evidenced on their 2023 debut album “Sule Skerry,” brings together Scottish and old-time traditions, with a dash of Scandinavia and their own original inspirations. 

Simmons – who previously worked with Irish vocalist Karan Casey – is familiar to many Boston-area audiences through bands like Courting in the Kitchen, Annalivia, and Low Lily (the latter two bands she founded with husband Flynn Cohen), all with varying degrees of Celtic influence and inspiration. Murray is a cellist – and an excellent guitar and banjo player to boot – who performs as part of a duo with fiddler Molly Tucker, and moves gracefully and easily among Celtic, New England, and old-time styles and influences.

•Arlington’s Park Avenue Congregational Church Concert Series hosts the harp-fiddle duo of Shelley Otis and Karen Burciaga on Nov. 3 for “Harvest Home” – celebrating the autumnal season with music from Irish, Breton, Scottish, and Manx traditions. Otis has studied various harp traditions including classical, Celtic, jazz, Jewish, and Paraguayan repertoires with teachers such as Julia Jamieson, Maeve Gilchrist, Grainne Hambly, Sunita Staneslow, and Nicholas Carter; Burciaga started out on classical violin, but her introduction to baroque music wound up pointing her toward Scottish, Irish, and old-time fiddle styles. The two are members of Boston-based Ulster Landing.

• Celtic Thunder will stop at Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Nov. 9 as part of its “Odyssey” tour, on the heels of the group’s newest recording. The band, whose current members are Damian McGinty, Emmet Cahill, Neil Byrne, and Ronan Scolard, has been an international dynamo for more than a decade-and-a-half, performing songs from Celtic traditions alongside more contemporary fare with a pop music sensibility and arena-sized showpieces of choreography, lighting, and orchestration. “Odyssey” – released last year as a studio album and debuting this month in live format – includes classic fare such as “The Parting Glass,” “Fields of Athenry,” and “Will You Go, Lassie, Go” as well as Eric Bogle’s “Green Fields of France” and Luka Bloom’s “City of Chicago” – even “The Wellerman,” which has arguably become the world’s No. 1 maritime song.