Thursday, February 24, 2011

Circle of Friends presents Celtic Band RUNA

"The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse will celebrate St. Patrick's Day early with Celtic Band RUNA, performing traditional and contemporary music, on Saturday, Feb. 26, 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20.

Members of RUNA include vocalist Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist Fionan de Barra, and Cheryl Prashkler of Canada, percussion. The band also performed with world-renowned guest musicians, Isaac Alderson on the uilleann pipes, flutes, and whistles, and Tomoko Omura on the fiddle.

The band has just completed a new album, “Stretched On Your Grave,” that will be available for the first time during this tour. They have played with Solas, Slide, and Riverdance.

The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is located at 262 Chestnut St., Franklin, and is affiliated with Franklin's First Universalist Society. Concerts are presented in a smoke free and alcohol free environment at the Society's handicapped accessible meetinghouse. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., beverages and gourmet desserts available."

Monday, February 14, 2011

Womaddicts to sample ancestral electronica

"An epiphany in Senegal led to the formation of one of the world's more unusual bands.

IN SENEGAL in the 1990s, English musician and record producer Simon Emmerson had an epiphany that led him to form the Afro Celt Sound System.

He was producing albums for singer Baaba Maal. ''I was wide-eyed and innocent, trying to find my way into this music that I know nothing about, '' he recalls, ahead of the band's forthcoming performance at the Womadelaide Festival. ''The music of ancestral West Africa seemed to resonate [with] a very deep strata of the British Isles.

''Hearing and recording this music, I heard melodies and rhythms that were familiar.''

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He tested his feeling by taking recordings back to England and playing them to Irish uilleann piper Davy Spillane."