23rd Annual Summer Solstice
Folk Music, Dance and Storytelling Festival |
PRESS RELEASE
SCBA NO. 120303-634 CI |
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IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC GROUP
bohola
IS COMING TO LOS ANGELES
The California Traditional Music Society is
proud to present bohola in concert on September 30, at 8 pm at the CTMS Center
for Folk Music, 16953 Ventura Blvd in Encino. Tickets are $20 at the door,
$15 in Advance.
Irish music's accordion virtuoso Jimmy
Keane along with fiddler
extraordinaire Sean Cleland and remarkable vocalist/Dordan (Bass Bouzouki)
player Pat Broaders comprise bohola, Irish music’s newest “supergroup” as
penned by The Irish Herald. bohola play a driving, muscular, and yet
very emotive style of Irish music with deep roots in the ‘pure drop’ tradition,
which has been forged with the raw and gritty urbanized musical vernacular
of the Irish-American experience.
bohola’s debut album on Shanachie Records is championed
by the Irish Voice as “one of the most impressive debut recordings ever
by an Irish traditional music group.” The Courier News added, “Though
most of the tunes bohola plays are well over 150 years old, the music comes
across more vibrant than the moribund sounds of much of today's alternative
rock. Their sound comes from the Irish version of jam sessions, but bohola puts
the noodling of many current jam bands (Dave Matthews, among others) to shame.”
The Irish Echo captured the essence of bohola when
it reviewed their self-titled release on Shanachie Records. “The sum
here is greater than the parts, and egos are subordinate to both execution
and effect. With essentially just box, fiddle, bouzouki, and voice, bohola have
crafted an album of intricate, nearly invisible latticework, relying not
on gimmickry but on imagination and vision. What a welcome concept: muse-imbuing
music.”
Born in London of Irish-speaking parents, Jimmy
Keane’s accomplishments are far reaching. The son of a sean nos
(old style) singer, he is All Ireland accordion champion for five consecutive
years. He is a composer and arranger of Irish music and has produced and
recorded numerous albums. Many regard Keane as the premier exponent of Irish
music on the piano accordion. Noted University of Limerick Professor, composer,
and musician Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
praised Keane as the “savior of the piano accordion.” Emusic
described him as “one of the true giants of Irish traditional
music of the past fifty years.”
Keane has performed and recorded with
some of the best musicians in Irish music over the years including Liz Carroll,
Michael Flatley, Mick Moloney, Eileen Ivers, and Seamus Egan. However, it
was not until he started playing with Pat Broaders and Sean Cleland that
the style of Irish music that Keane plays “really
started to jell and this big huge raw and powerful sound came out of
nowhere,” reflected
Keane. “We were like a three-handed glove – instinctively
darting in and out of the music as if we were “as-one” playing
the same big instrument.”
Pat Broader arrived in Chicago
from Ireland in the 1990’s. “Pat
is a real veteran of the Irish music scene both here and abroad,
playing, recording, and performing with many artists and bands over the years,” said
Keane. “Pat
has this acute sense of music and rhythm that enables him to “lock
in” his
bouzar (bass bouzouki & guitar hybrid) playing to whatever I
might do musically and rhythmically. The synergy that results spurs
on bohola and draws in the audience. And his singing is brilliant – if
I could sing, I’d love
to sing like Pat.”
Sean Cleland began playing Irish
music in Chicago during the 1970’s.
Over the years, he has won numerous Midwest and North American
Fleadh Cheoil (Irish music competitions) titles on the fiddle. In the 1980’s,
he ventured out from playing straight traditional music and founded
the alternative Irish/Celtic rock group The Drovers. While with
The Drovers, he recorded three critically acclaimed albums and toured
extensively. He also appeared in two major motion pictures: Backdraft
(1991) and Blink (1994). “What is really magical
about Sean’s melodic style of fiddle playing,” said
Keane, “is
his stealth way of blending in with my accordion playing. It is
truly amazing – at
times, it is like listening to a mirror image. He is the ultimate
duet partner!”
bohola’s key to their sound is the interplay between the
musicians and the approach they take to their music. “It
is really the music that counts,” states
Keane. “We really listen to and respond to each other when
we play – bending,
twisting, and caressing the music as it flows along.” Keane
considers bohola fortunate to be able to perform and carry
forward the traditional Irish music art form while placing their
special touch to the music. “We are
here to serve this great music and bring out what we feel is
the best nature in the tunes and songs we play.”
The Chicago Tribune wrote, “bohola plays
300-year-old jigs and reels as if they were trying to tear the house down.
Keane's rippling accordion and Sean Cleland's darting fiddle play rapid,
swirling melodies, while Pat Broaders accents the rhythm with
his staccato bouzouki strumming. Broaders also takes the spotlight
to sing plaintive ballads.”
“We try to always play from the heart,” said Keane, “and
bring to the audience the core and the spirit of what the
music we play and sing is about.”
In concert, bohola perform music selections that weave in and
out between tunes and songs that can continue for twenty
minutes or so, ever evolving and flowing. They play tunes that range
from hundred-year-old harp pieces, reels, jigs, slides,
polkas and barndances to newly composed pieces in the traditional
idiom. And the songs run the gamut from the ancient melodies
of Ireland, to songs brought to North America by immigrants,
to newly composed songs from here and abroad. All played
with a freshness and subtlety of approach that is unique in Irish
music today.
bohola will be in concert at the September 30, at 8 pm
at the CTMS Center for Folk Music, 16953 Ventura Blvd in
Encino.
At the door unreserved tickets only will be available for
$20, but you can order in advance and save!
To order tickets send
$15 for each unreserved general admission ticket,
$25 for each reserved front section (rows 2-4) ticket,
or
$30 for each reserved front row ticket to
Please make the check out to CTMS and mail to: CTMS, 4401
Trancas Place, Tarzana, CA 91356-5399.
(We cannot accept credit card orders by mail, but see below)
Include a self addressed envelope with 37 cents postage
for the return of your tickets. Otherwise you tickets will
be held a will call. Note ticket orders received after
September 23 will be held at will call.
You can also order tickets on line with a credit card by from our website:
http://www.ctmsfolkmusic.org/about/news.asp
(there is a small processing fee added per ticket for credit card orders.)
The California Traditional Music Society is a Non-profit Tax
Exempt 501(c)(3) Educational Corporation
Mailing Address: 4401 Trancas Place, Tarzana, CA 91356-5399 818 817-7756 FAX:
818 817-7734
email: info@ctmsfolkmusic.org website: www.ctmsfolkmusic.org
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