Irish and American

Irish and American: that can be a challenge, as much as it is a connection. That’s often especially true when it comes to music.

It is challenge we explore often along the music road and that I explore elsewhere as I write about Ireland and Irish music, as well. As we are now well into Patrick season, that time of year when shamrocks pop up in the oddest place and both beer and rivers sometimes turn green. here’s the first of several articles with a look at musicians we’ve met along the road who follow this path.

Liz Carroll grew up in Chicago, taking classical violin lessons and absorbing Irish music from family and friends. She won her first all Ireland championship on the fiddle when she was eighteen. It is as a composer she’s made her strongest mark, writing tunes that are played in sessions and passed along around the world.

Eileen Ivers is a fiddle player too. Her specialties include exploring the edges and margins where Irish rhythms meet the sounds of other lands, and tracing the interconnections of immigrant communities as heard in their music, always with Irish music at the heart of it. She saw those connections early, growing up in the Bronx, in New York, and traveling back to Mayo in Ireland to spend summers with her grandparents.


There’s more ahead about Irish and Irish American artists just around the corner -- have you a favourite?

you may also wish to see

Music Road: exiles return: karan casey & john doyle
Music Road: Road Trip Music visits Pennsylvania

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