Rate US cities for Irish Music

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:32 am

In a recent thread, Jim Stone asked where he could get whistles in Boston. I was amazed at the results. I would have thought Boston would be a cornicopia of Irish music delights.

Thus I'd like to get ideas on what are the top cities for Irish Trad in the US.
Rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 on these three catagories: Sessions, Top Players, Instrument sellers. And anything else you can come up with.

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:16 am

I don't really have enough experience to rate a bunch of US cities. But I can tell you that great places for buying whistles and great Irish music scenes don't necessarily go together.

Case in point: Lansing Michigan. Elderly Instruments has a nice selection of good whistles they will let you try at the store. (And in general, it is one of the premier spots for buying traditional instruments in the US.) On the other hand, the city would be very lucky to be in the top 100 in the US when it came to Irish sessions.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:33 am

Minneapolis, St. Paul Minnesota. I rate it a 5 for all catagories.

slowair · Post by **slowair** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:27 am

This kind of topic comes up often enough, can there be a page on C&F listing cities where there are sessions, whistlemakers and shops?

New York's capital region has some of each. Plently of sessions, we have Paul Busman and Celtic Treasures in Saratoga. Did have Andy's Front Hall, but they are going out of business in order to focus on concert promotion.

Dale, if you're reading this, is it possible?

Mike

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:41 am

How about Chicago?

Jeff Stallard · Post by **Jeff Stallard** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:47 am

I think Columbus (or central Ohio in general) is very session-friendly (maybe a 4 on the scale?). I don't have much experience, but I've heard other locals say that.

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:11 am

Flyingcursor wrote:How about Chicago?

I don't know specifically about Chicago, but if you're willing to drive 2 or 3 hours south on I-55 to Bloomington, there is always the Whistle Shop. It's like a toy store for big kids. I love it. On certain Saturday mornings they also have their slow sessions.

Will O'Ban

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:37 am

Washington, D.C.- Has a bit of everythings, sessions, music store(s), teachers, step dancing, ceili and set dancing groups, etc.

All the Best, Tom

LeeMarsh · Post by **LeeMarsh** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:30 pm

The Washington D.C - Baltimore, MD area would rate a 5 for sessions, 5 for Top Players and probably a 4.5 for instrument sellers.

Sessions: There are one or more open sessions every night within an hours drive, (except Friday's and Saturdays when folks are commited to gigs).
Top players with multiple albums published attend many of the sessions.
There are multiple venues for concerts and Ceili's. I can think of more than 6 pubs off the top of my head that have live IRTrad every weekend. Most nationally known groups and performers stop in the area on their tours.
There are a number of good acoustic music shops such as:
- Appalachian Blue Grass,
- The House of Music Traditions,
- Celtic Groves Imports is located in DC, which specializes in IRTrad CD's
Educationally, We are 2-3 hours from the Elkins/Augusta Heritage music camp, in the summer. Group and private lessons are readily available from a number of sources in the area in Northern Va, DC, and Baltimore.

The DC-Baltimore area strongly supports Irish Traditional Music, I don't know how it rates against other cities such New York, Boston, Chicago, or Minneapolis; but the support here is great.[/url]

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:36 pm

Rochester, New York has a pretty strong IRtrad scene. At least two monthly music sessions and one singing session (two of the sessions are in a nonsmoking pub), weekly set dance workshops, a couple of ceilis per year, an Irish radio programme one morning per week, a yearly festival, etc etc. There are lots of immigrant musicians at the sessions, including concertina player Marty O'Keefe who was a guest performer at the 2003 Willie Clancy festival. The Dady brothers give lessons in several different instruments.

The Rochester Irish community also has a website: http://www.irishrochester.org/

I don't know of any instrument shops per se, but I am sure there are whistles and bodhrans hanging out in shop corners somewhere.

Edit - oh yeah. The East Rochester High School has a Celtic Music society. It's pretty good, and it seems to have made friends with Lunasa, as they come to play a concert whenever they're touring the region.

SirNick · Post by **SirNick** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:31 pm

I officially rate Charlotte NC as a -5. Yes, that is a negative 5. They don't even play Irish music in the Irish pubs! I am alone.........................

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:27 pm

SirNick wrote:I officially rate Charlotte NC as a -5. Yes, that is a negative 5. They don't even play Irish music in the Irish pubs! I am alone.........................

So, you can be the first. You can be the person responsible for bringing the music and culture to the area. Go for it!

All the Best, Tom

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:41 pm

Flyingcursor wrote:How about Chicago?

Your question caused me do a search for sessions in Chicago. I don't know how old the info is, but I found this:

http://www.mcconville.org/main/chicago/chicagoFrm.html

http://www.paddygoez.com/sessions.html

Like I said, I don't know how old the info is. It might be a good idea to call the establishments to learn if anything on the page has changed.

Will O'Ban

picardy third · Post by **picardy third** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:41 pm

Fort Lauderdale is a Celtic wasteland. Not many Celtic stores, sessions, pubs, or musicians. This probably explains why do more recording sessions for pennywhistle these days. There aren't that many whistle players to choose from. Most of the time, I'm hired for guitar tracks and bring the whistles along just to see if anyone is interest. Most of the time, they are.

Anyway, Fort Lauderdale/Miami would be close to the bottom of the list!

P3

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:46 pm

Here is another link for Irish music sessions around the globe:

http://www.ceolas.org/pub/session.list

This link looks like it is from 1996. Some of the info is probably outdated.

Will O'Ban