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News
Chulrua Newsletter
August 2008
Chulrua Newsletter - August 2008
• Tour dates for our next Midwest tour• Chulrua now available at iTunes -- and ordering online
Check out the August 2008 newsletter here
 |
| Paddy, Daithi, and
Patrick in front of
Club B2 in Moscow
(Photo
by Julie Ourceau) |
|
MEDIA
COVERAGE
from Russian website The Irish Volunteer Translation from Russian |
Chulrua in Moscow
Invited as
part of the city's official
Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in March 2008
 |
| Rocking the crowd at Club
B2 in Moscow (Photo by Julie Ourceau) |
>> STORY >> WATCH VIDEO
At one point, young people in the crowd held cigarette lighters aloft, as if they were rocking out to the Rolling Stones, and not Irish traditional musicians playing jigs, reels, and hornpipes.
“I thought I was back in Dublin in the 1970s,” Paddy says. “There was such amazing appreciation and enthusiasm for what we were doing. It seems there’s a kind of folk revival—of Irish traditional music—going on in Russia at the moment, particularly around Moscow. The crowds who came to see us were all young people in their twenties and thirties. We met people who spoke Irish, who were into the Clare set dancing. They brought a teacher over from Ireland to teach them dances from West Clare.”
 |
| Out comes the Irish flag
at Club B2 in Moscow (Photo by itsnein.moskva.com) |
“Festival
organizers were telling us that
the young people of Moscow have discovered a couple of LPs I did with
Shanachie
Records back in the 1970s, with Dáithí and fiddler James
Kelly. Those
two LPs, Is It Yourself and Spring in the
Air, came out several years ago as double CD, and the
organizers were telling us that Moscow’s Irish music fans
have seized
on those
recordings as sort of a standard, I guess, the real thing—‘the pure
drop,’ as
we say in Ireland. I almost didn’t believe it, until one point during
the concert
when I started to play a hornpipe, ‘The Rights of Man,’ which is on
that CD, and
suddenly a great cheer went up from the crowd, and this huge flag—the
old Irish
flag, with the harp on a green background—rose up out of the crowd
and
started waving back and forth. It was a little overwhelming.”
 |
| Paddy with Yuri
Andreichuk in Red Square |
On
Sunday afternoon, Paddy, Patrick, and Dáithí
conducted workshops for local players at Moscow's Dublin Pub, a regular
place where traditional musicians gather to share tunes. One of those
local players was not quite local—Andrey
Rubtsov, an student of the accordion who had been corresponding with
Paddy by e-mail from his home in Kiev, Ukraine, made the ten-hour train
journey to Moscow to attend the weekend's events. “He
said he couldn't miss it,”
Paddy says, “Even
though it was his wife's birthday that weekend. We
had a great chat.”
Grants
available for Chulrua performances in Midwest states
Arts Midwest
has funds available through its Performing
Arts Fund for
organizations within Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota,
North Dakota,
Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
This means that nonprofit presenters—venues
like performing arts centers, festivals, arts councils, colleges and
universities—may apply for a portion of the
artist
fee when they book Chulrua for a concert or residency program. Funds
are
distributed on a first-come/first served basis, so it's best to get
applications in early.
Presenters may receive up to to 20% of the artist contract fee
for a Chulrua
performance. Grants may range from $500-$2,500.
Because Chulrua is
based in Minnesota, however, this
touring
program will not support performances that take place in Minnesota.
Organizations must be legally incorporated as a non-profit
organization
with IRS 501(c)(3) status or a unit of state, local, or tribal
government.
Eligible organizations must submit an online eGRANT application, and
applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served
basis.
If your presenting organization is based in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin, you can find application guidelines and information and an online application through Arts Midwest.
For more information, go to www.artsmidwest.org, or contact the Performing Arts Fund at performingartsfund@artsmidwest.org, or (612) 341-0755, ext. 28.
January
2008
Chulrua
tee
shirts and other great swag!
• Tee shirts
• Baseball caps
• Coffee mugs
• Tile coasters
• Other items available
Chulrua Newsletter
October 2007
October
2007
Chulrua
Newsletter - October 2007
• Tour dates for our next Midwest tour
• Listen to samples from the new CD, "The Singing Kettle" -- and order online
Check out the October 2007 newsletter here
Click on picture or link
to see the video
August
2007
Chulrua on
YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvh75CB_tU
Irish traditional trio Chulrua
(Paddy O'Brien, button accordion; Patrick Ourceau, fiddle; and Pat
Egan,
guitar) playing a bit of "Jimmy Ward's Jig" at Matt Molloy's Bar in
Westport, Co Mayo on August 22, 2007.
![[P1000216.JPG]](P1000216.JPG)
August
2007
Catch up
with Chulrua on the Irish tour blog
Julie Ourceau has been posting news and photos on a wonderful blog about Chulrua's tour in Ireland. Check it out here!
Julie has some great snaps from gigs at Bantry House, the Cobblestone in Dublin, Matt Molloy's in Westport, Joe Lee's Bar in Tullamore, and lots more.
| $17.00 |
June 2007
New
Chulrua
CD, "The Singing Kettle" now available!!!
The band has just released a long-awaited CD, "The Singing Kettle" (Shanachie 23002), which is the culmination of three years' rehearsal and recording. "Our approach to the music," says accordion player Paddy O'Brien, "has always been driven by a shared appreciation for the styles of East Clare, East Galway, and West Clare. Most of the tunes come from older musicians we've known and learned from over the years."
The title track, "The Singing Kettle," was composed by Tipperary fiddler Sean Ryan, and is played as the first reel in a solo selection by Patrick Ourceau. Asked why the band chose that particular tune for the CD title, O'Brien says, "We hope the music on this recording conjures up the simple comforts of an old Irish house, with a kettle simmering on the open fire, and the prospect of uninterrupted musical pleasure when a day's work is done."
Sixteen other tracks feature compositions from Sean Ryan and Tommy Coen, and music from the repertoire of great solo players like Bobby Casey, Mrs. Crotty, Jack Coen, and Jimmy McGettrick, and outstanding ensembles like the Kilfenora Ceili Band. The album's four songs are from the pens of Dubliner Mick Fitzgerald, and Scotland's Archie Fisher, among others.
Look at the full track listing here.
"The Singing Kettle" is now available at our Recordings/Marketplace page, from online retailers like CD Baby, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Ossian, and at Chulrua performances.
January
2007
Paddy's
poetry about traditional musicians
featured in Irish American News of
Ohio
Some of Paddy's poems about traditional musicians were featured in "Éireannach Ceol," Kevin Donleavy's regular column for the Irish American News of Ohio in the January 2007 issue. Here's a short excerpt:
Éireannach Ceol
Immortals in Poetry
by Kevin Donleavy
Éireannach Ceol fans know there are two legendary box-players named Paddy O’Brien. This article will focus on some of the fine poems that accordion player Paddy O’Brien, from County Offaly, has written about traditional musicians that he has played with over the decades.
Most of Paddy’s poems were written from 1989-1991. He writes with sincerity and a cleverness with words, choosing them carefully. His poems give insightful pictures of some dozen or so older traditional musicians back in Ireland. In a fine example, here are some lines from his 56-line poem, John Kelly:
He’d settle into his own bastion of relief
And pull out his concertina
And sitting erect with his arms reaching down
He would humour the little bellows into talking
While all the time The double tapping of his foot
Advanced the constant sound
As gusts of wind would rise and fall
In response to his gentle nudging
That gave testimony
To his memories of County Clare.
Paddy adds, “John once told me I should never play that tune called The Maids of Mitchelstown without first having a big swallow of minted whiskey.”
You can read the complete article here (on page 12 of the magazine):
http://irishamericannews.com/ianohio/Images/ianohio0107.pdf
October
2004
Chulrua
Returns from
Successful Irish Tour
Chulrua
had a very successful tour in Ireland, playing in venues that included
the
Clifden Arts Festival in Galway; the Westport Festival in Mayo; the
Ionad
Culturtha in Ballyvourney, County Cork; and the Armagh Piper's Club,
among
others. The photo at left is from the gig in the back room at Matt
Molloy's
Bar in Westport.
In addition, the Chulrua performance at Mother Redcap's in Dublin was
recorded
for broadcast on RTE Radio, Ireland's national broadcasting system.
Paddy was
also interviewed by Aine Hensey for her RTE Sunday evening program, THE
LATE
SESSION:
Sunday, October 3:
Listen
to the
show
July 2004
Chulrua
Featured in
IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE
Paddy was
interviewed by
Bill Margeson for a July feature in Irish Music Magazine,
talking about
the music and the band's new lineup with Patrick Ourceau.
Here's an
excerpt from the
piece...
THE
TUNE'S THE THING
by Bill Margeson, Chicago correspondent for Irish Music
Magazine
The
music. Button box wizard Paddy O'Brien gets it. Really gets it.
"What I like in a musician now," states Paddy, "is the one who
plays the nicest tune, even more than the technical musicianship." In
that
one sentence the legendary Offaly-born button box player encapsulates a
life
spent in the center and soul of Irish music. And that center is the
music
itself. Not the current fashion. Not the current "hot" group. Not
"the buzz." The music. Period. Full stop.
November
2003
Paddy and Pat are pleased to welcome Patrick Ourceau as a new member of the band, sitting in the chair formerly occupied by pipers Tim Britton and Michael Cooney. Patrick originally hails from France, and is a great interpreter of the old Clare music.
Since moving to America twelve years ago, Patrick has performed with many U.S.-based musicians, including Gearóid ÓhAllmhuráin, a renowned County Clare concertina player now living in Saint Louis. Together with Gearóid, Patrick has performed in concert and at festivals all across Europe and North America. In 1999, they released Tracin', a recording featuring music from Clare.
For the last ten eyars, Patrick has been in great demand as a teacher and regularly teaches out of his home in Brooklyn. He has taught at various festivals in the U.S. and Canada, such as the Chris Langen Weekend in Toronto; the Saint Louis Irish Festival, and the Augusta Irish Week in Elkins, West Virginia. He has been part of the teaching staff for the past several years at the Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York, and at the Celtic College in Goderich, Canada.
September
2003
Chulrua
releases Down the Back Lane, on the Shanachie label
Chulrua Appears at Kennedy Center's
Island: An Irish Arts Festival
Chulrua
appeared on May 13, 2000 as
part of the Kennedy Center festival of Irish arts and letters.
Watch a
digital video of the entire one-hour performance from the Kennedy
Center's
Millennium Stage performance archive:
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