At Meeting House, April 8—

A Love Of Music Binds The Musicians Of Craobh Rua

By Andrew Carey

Like most working bands, the musicians of the top notch Northern Irish traditional band Craobh Rua live on a touring schedule best described as grueling. They spent the week surrounding St Patrick’s Day on a tour through England, playing a show every night. They returned home to Belfast just in time to prepare for a ten day tour of the American East Coast in April as part of Culture Ireland’s Imagine Ireland, a year-long program highlighting the longstanding connections between Ireland and the United States with visits by Irish artists to all parts of America.

On Friday, April 8, at 8 pm, their tour will bring them to Newtown Meeting House for a concert hosted by Fairfield County-based Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society. STIMS has long-standing relationships with Culture Ireland, Craobh Rua, and the meeting house, and all factors are in place for a fabulous night of music.

Craobh Rua began performing in the early nineties, and swiftly became a vital part of Belfast’s thriving traditional Irish music scene. As founding member Brian Connolly put it, during a recent chat over Skype: “We started out playing music together when we were at school ... there was a great folk club scene, and the organizers would always give you a chance so you could do the opening set for somebody like Liam Óg [Liam O’Flynn, a legendary piper] or The Chieftains, and those people had friends in Scotland, so we started playing over there...” 

Before long, Craobh Rua was on the path that would lead them to tour around the world, to perform on the BBC, RTÉ, and Voice of America. They also began to collaborate with such varied artists as the African-American blues, jazz, and gospel singer Lea Gilmore and the Mongolian traditional band Egschiglen.

Another unavoidable reality of most working musicians lives is the day job, which means that Craobh Rua needs to have a variety of different members depending on who is able to tour in a given place at a different time.

“So,” Mr Connolly said, “we have a team that we’re working with, and it’s nearly getting to be the size of a football team, but we’ve all played together many times before. We just got back from our St Paddy’s Day tour in England, and it went very well, so we’re all warmed up for our trip to the States.”

The musicians for the current tour are Mr Connolly on tenor banjo and mandolin, Jim Rainey on guitar and vocals, Conor Caldwell on fiddle,  and Aaron Hagan on uilleann pipes (the Irish bellows-blown bagpipe) and tin whistle. 

Although their touring schedule might sound grueling, what keeps the musicians of Craobh Rua going is the same thing that keeps everyone involved with Irish traditional music going: their love for the music.

“I was at a lovely session last night, just outside of Belfast,” Mr Connolly said, describing an evening of casual music making with his friends. It is this commitment to and love for the music as a part of life, not simply a job, that characterizes all traditional Irish musicians, from the most famous names to the ordinary people who play for céilí dances or simply for their own pleasure. And it is this commitment to and passion for the music that will be on display in at Newtown Meeting House, at 31 Main Street, on the 8th of April.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for children. STIMS concerts at the meeting house have a history of selling out, so reservations are strongly recommended.

For reservations call 203-254-1271 or email tmquinn@optonline.net. More information may be found at the society’s website, www.ShamrockIrishMusic.org.