RAMBLINGS
Hi and thanks for stopping by,
It would seem that 2014 is shaping up to be another busy year, for me anyhow…and you? I do hope to be able to pace the year a bit better than last year, so fingers crossed. The end of 2013 brought with it a flourish of activity and I must thank all who came to our Celtic Christmas concerts and to the Holiday Pops concerts. I did cross another item off my bucket list when I performed with the Savannah Philharmonic and it truly was a wonderful experience singing with the orchestra. Thank you Maestro Peter Shannon for the invite.
I’m all set for our jaunt down to the Caribbean with Joanie Madden’s Irish Cruise. We sail out of Miami on February 2 and return on February 9. I look forward to being back on the Norwegian Epic along with Cherish the Ladies, Cathie Ryan, Tommy Sands, Gabriel Donahue, The Ennis Sisters, Danny Quinn, Matt Molloy and a host of other Irish entertainers. It will be a lot of fun and late as it is there are still a few cabins available so if you have even a slight interest in coming along please call Kevin at 1-855-474-7427 or contact me directly.
Our annual Ireland Tour begins at Shannon airport on July 23rd. This year is our 27th Tour and we’re very pleased that it came together so well. We plan to visit the Southwest of Ireland from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry to Tipperary, Clare, Limerick and County Cork. We will, as always, stay in well-appointed hotels and have a full sightseeing itinerary with visits to The Blasket Island Centre, Kerry County Museum, The Jameson Experience and more. The Tour cost is $1,887.00 per person and the full itinerary is on our Tours page here on the website. The Tour size is between 25-30 members. Once again please contact us with any questions or to sign on.
I’m at the art work stage of the Terra Nova project. The CD should be available in Spring and will be titled Terra Nova, the Collection. It will contain 18 songs from our two original albums. I am quite pleased with the sound quality. These recordings were made 29 and 31 years ago and it will be cool to have the finished product in hand.
The Savannah Irish Festival is scheduled for February 15th and 16th and I look forward to performing with Seamus Kennedy, Brendan Nolan, Carroll Brown and Ennis. You can go to the official website for the full scoop on the Festival. www.savannahirish.org
Tara Feis will be held on Saturday, March 15th and this year’s headline act is the McLean Avenue Band, a high energy Irish quartet from the New York area. Savannah singer/songwriter Cecelia Witt will perform on the main stage with support from fiddler Colleen Settle and myself. There will be a children’s stage with Irish dancers, a magician, puppeteers and local musician Jamie Keane. Tara Feis is sponsored by the City of Savannah and is an alcohol free open air event held in Emmett Park on Bay Street in downtown Savannah.
Big changes are under way at Georgia Public Broadcasting and I hope The Green Island Radio Show is not one of them. If you listen to the show please contact GPB in Atlanta and let them know that you support the program. We’ve been on the air since November 1992 and it would be a shame to cancel it while it’s still being widely supported.
I’m scheduled to perform on board the Norwegian Dawn again this year. I will be on the first part of the repositioning cruise leaving from Tampa on April 27th. I assume to be dropped off (not literally) somewhere down in the islands seven days later and the ship will continue to Boston.
I will be back on board when the Dawn does her Canadian/New England runs on September 12 to October 10th. She leaves Boston and sails for seven days to Quebec City and another seven days back to Boston. These cruises can be booked as either a 7 or a 14 day cruise.
My last contract will have me join the Dawn in Boston on November 7th as she repositions to New Orleans. Again I will disembark down in the islands seven days later. Whew…gonna be a whole lot of moving around!
I look forward to being back up in Buffalo in April and I hope to see you at one of my shows somewhere along the road. Please check our Calendar page for the complete schedule and don’t forget to call ahead or contact me if you are unsure of a performance date or venue.
Strange as it might seem, we, Carroll Brown and I, are taking bookings for our 2014 Celtic Christmas Concert Tour. We do plan to have a new Christmas recording released by December and look forward to performing some of the new material live.
The thought of recording a new solo album is lurking about in my mind and so I will begin pre-production soon.
Thank you as always for your support and encouragement and here’s wishing you a terrific 2104.
