Irish band Lúnasa is coming to Thrasher Opera House, 506 Mill Street, in Green Lake, on Friday, March 3, at 7:30 pm. For tickets or more information, please call (920) 294-4279, or visit: Home - Thrasher Opera House.
|
Lúnasa, one of the most influential bands in the history of Irish traditional music, celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. Named after an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honour of the Irish god Lugh, the group that Folk Roots magazine once called an “Irish music dream team” was formed from members of some of Ireland’s greatest bands and over the years has proven its mettle time and again, having sold over a quarter of a million records, performed more than 2,000 shows in high-profile concert venues across 36 countries, and collaborated with many notable artists outside the tradition.
The group achieved a worldwide reputation as a different breed of Irish traditional band – one with the repertoire of life-long traditional musicians, the intricate harmonies of a jazz combo, and the energy of a rock band. The all-instrumental quintet is noted for double-bass and guitar-driven rhythms, original compositions mixed with material from Celtic regions such as Brittany, Galicia, and Asturias, and a surprising focus on slower melodies involving three-part harmonies played on the traditional pipes, fiddle, and flute.
More than two decades ago they ascended to the forefront of contemporary Irish music, and there they’ve remained, a leading voice in the genre and the standard against which others are compared. Piper Cillian Valley attributes the band’s longevity to the work they all do individually when they’re not touring together: “Each of us in the band have our own separate projects going on, and when we come back together, it brings a freshness and creativity to the group.”
Lúnasa’s current line-up features Trevor Hutchinson, who achieved fame as the bassist with The Waterboys and later Sharon Shannon; Cillian Vallely was a member of Riverdance and recorded with Bruce Springsteen; Kevin cRawford, considered one of Ireland’s greatest flute players, was a member of Moving Cloud; Sean Smyth, a practicing medical doctor, is a multiple all-Ireland champion on both fiddle and whistle, and has toured with Donal Lunny’s Coolfin; and Ed Boyd made a name for himself in the UK folkscene with bands such as Flook, Kate Rusby, and Cara Dillon. The band is especially excited to be touring North America once again with founding member Sean Smyth, who has been rather busy in recent years with his medical practice in County Mayo.
Along with their broad repertoire of traditional and original music from the many Celtic regions of the world, on this seven-week tour of the United States and Canada, the band will be “road-testing” new material for a release to be recorded in Japan later in the year. As flautist Crawford describes it: “Because this is such a long tour, it’s a perfect opportunity to try out new material. We can share files with each other and learn tunes, share ideas, but also have the road to test them, to play in front of an audience, and get the energy behind them, and see if they work in real life.”
***