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| 2007 Press |
Woonsocket Call Review
Providence Journal Preview
Valley Breeze Preview
Sun Chronicle Preview
Providence Journal Preview
Sun Chronicle Preview
Woonsocket Call Review
Blackstone River Theatre branches out with Celtic Festival
DANIELLE BRISSETTE, Special to The Call, 7/22/2007
The theatre has been a showcase of Celtic culture for years, and now organizers hope to introduce the musical styles of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Nova Scotia's Cape Breton into the larger community.
The first-ever Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival, sponsored by the town of Cumberland's Parks and Recreation Department, took place on Saturday at Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland. The Blackstone River Theatre designed the festival to branch out beyond the walls of the theatre and into a larger venue in an attempt to build a cultural bridge to the community, as well as accommodate a larger audience.
Friends, fans, neighbors and area residents were in abundance as they fanned out throughout the park - some strolling along to absorb the scene, while others set up chairs and blankets to prepare for performances.
Four stages - the Main Stage, RiverFolk Stage, RiverDance Stage and YoungFolk Stage - marked the four corners of the park, and each stage boasted an assortment of Celtic performers. In the center of the park, food vendors, artisans, information booths and program advertisers lined the concrete walkway.
"A friend told me about [the festival], so I figured I'd come and check it out," Spence Meehan, a local resident, said as he stopped to peruse a vendor table.
While some folks are familiar with Celtic culture and enjoy the Celtic music genre, others may not be as aware of the range of styles and sounds that Celtic music has to offer. Rich in diversity, the music performed by the groups at the festival varied from traditional to contemporary - with modern musical influences from jazz, blues, and even rock.
Among the performers was Pendragon, Blackstone River Theatre's host musical group, featuring Russell Gusetti, producer and booking agent for the Celtic Festival, on guitar and concertinas. In addition to Pendragon, there were also performances by The Atwater-Donnelly Trio, The Jennifer Roland Band, The April Verch Band, The Clancy Legacy, The Publicans, The Gnomes, The Eastern Trad Trio, Windharp, The Alleged Ceili Band, Solas An Lae, The Harney Academy Dancers, Keith Munslow, Rosalita's Puppets, Diane Edgecomb and Margot Chamberlain, Greg Cooney and The Toe Jam Puppet Band.
"She was really impressive. I enjoyed watching the performance," Alison Kelly, a Pawtucket resident, said of Jennifer Roland's performance with The Jennifer Roland Band on the Main Stage. "I always had an interest in Celtic culture, but there were never many places to learn more about it or see performances."
The Blackstone River Theatre succeeded in conveying a message that Celtic music and culture isn't just for the adults. The YoungFolk stage offered music, stories, dancing, and performances specifically geared toward children of all ages. Set across a bridge in a more secluded area of the park, the YoungFolk stage provided a more intimate atmosphere that enabled the children to get more involved in the performances and become engrossed in the storytelling.
Many of the festival's performers donated their music toward Blackstone River Theatre's limited-edition Celtic Festival CD, which was designed as a fund-raiser for the festival and in hopes to expose the audience to music they may not already own. The CD was produced by Blackstone River Theatre's own production label, Blackstone River Theatre's RiverFolk Productions.
"I've never really heard this style of music before and I didn't know what to expect," Kathryn Bonin, a Harrisville resident, said. "I liked it a lot, though. I'll be back next year."
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Providence Journal Preview
Celtic Festival a first in Blackstone Valley
By Rick Massimo, Journal Pop Music Writer
Solas An Lae will be one of many acts appearing at the Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival on Saturday at Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland.
The Blackstone River Theatre has been operating for seven years, drawing roughly 6,200 people a year to shows, classes and other events at their converted Masonic Temple in Cumberland, but managing director Russell Gusetti calls the first Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival "the biggest thing we've ever done as an organization."
The all-day festival, scheduled for Saturday in Diamond Hill Park, also in Cumberland, is intended as a showcase for many of the different kinds of acts the theater presents on a regular basis. There will be two music stages, a stage for children's entertainment and a stage for dance - both performing and participating.
While there's a variety of music presented at the former Masonic temple in Cumberland, Gusetti calls Celtic music "one of our fortes, and it's our first love."
And the musical acts are familiar faces to BRT fans - from big names such as The Clancy Legacy featuring Aoife Clancy, Donal Clancy and Robbie O'Connell, and The April Verch Band, as well as local heavyweights such as Atwater-Donnelly, Pendragon and The Gnomes.
"All of these acts have played at the theater before," Gusetti says, and the hope is to showcase the range of Celtic music, from Irish and Scottish music to Cape Breton tunes to everything in between. And after the festival, a Celtic session with nearly all the performers will be held back at the Blackstone River Theatre, for a chance to see and hear the players close up.
Eight of the artists have also donated two tracks each from their records to a compilation CD that will be sold at the park. "A lot of people have pre-conceived ideas" about Celtic music, Gusetti says, and he hopes to dispel some of them with the festival and the disc.
Gusetti describes Diamond Hill Park as "an underused, quite nice" park that hasn't been home to any consistent programming in several years, since a free concert series dried up.
"It just felt like time to do a large scale event," says Gusetti, who is also the festival's producer and a member of Pendragon. "It's really a way to reach out, and in one day potentially meet half the crowd you get in a year."
Celtic music is alive and well in Rhode Island, but there hasn't been a daylong festival of the music in at least 10 years, Gusetti says. "It's because it's a major undertaking, financially and time-wise," he theorizes. Gusetti says he's been "consumed" for four months with logistical details of the festival.
"If you're going to do a festival, you really have to be prepared. It costs money and it takes a lot of time." Since people can't organize Celtic-music events on a full-time basis, Gusetti says, they do one-off events and series on a smaller scale, "and there's nothing wrong with that. But I think this is just part and parcel of what we do.
"And the main thing is, we hope you find more about the BRT and everything we do."
The Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Diamond Hill State Park, on Diamond Hill Road in Cumberland. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for the elderly, $5 for children; children under 5 are admitted free. All tickets can be had at the door. Admission to the session is $15. The rain date is Sunday; call (401) 725-9272 or go to www.riverfolk.org.
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Valley Breeze Preview
A Celtic good time
By FRANK O'DONNELL, Valley Breeze Entertainment Writer
CUMBERLAND - Russ Gusetti is planning two Celtic festivals. He's hoping he'll only need one.
"Ah, the vagaries of weather," said Gusetti during our recent interview about the upcoming Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival. He was able to reserve both Saturday and Sunday, July 21 and July 22, just in case. "It's nice to have a rain date. I hope I don't have to use it. Still, I have to plan for two fests, even if I don't use the second one."
Gusetti, a musician who runs the Blackstone River Theatre on Broad Street in Cumberland (when he's not setting copy for The Valley Breeze), says "it's kind of the time for" the Celtic festival. "We've been doing this for seven years," he says, referring to the theatre. "It's time to grow outside the theatre."
Outside indeed, setting up an all-day event on four stages at Cumberland's Diamond Hill Park. "I'm also trying to get this park utilized. It's a nice raw space, quite nice, and big too. There hasn't been a summer concert series here in seven or eight years. I'm hoping this will kick start that. And hopefully, this is just the first of many events we're going to do here."
The festival is family-friendly, says Gusetti, which means among other things that there won't be a beer tent. "People keep saying, you can't have a Celtic festival without a beer tent. And I tell them, 'It's okay, guys. You don't need beer to enjoy a great day of music.'"
For Gusetti, it simply "echoes of what we do at the theatre." It's a rare occasion when patrons can find anything but soft drinks at BRT.
One of those occasions will happen with the After-Festival Music Session, immediately following the festival. "It's a very cool, very free-flowing event," says Gusetti. Festival attendees will be able to mingle with festival performers. "The atmosphere is designed to create an environment of camaraderie just like that found in a local pub," writes Gusetti. There are a limited number of tickets available for this event, at $15 each.
The majority of the acts performing in the festival have already performed at BRT, performers like the Clancy Legacy, Pendragon, the April Verch Band, the Atwater-Donnelly Trio, the Harney Academy Dancers, the Gnomes, the Alleged Ceili Band, Keith Munslow, Rosalita's Puppets and the Toe Jam Puppet Band, among others.
"It's an extension of our normal acts," says Gusetti. "We can only perform for so many people just over 160 at a time at the BRT." It's impossible to guess how many will attend the outdoor festival, but some estimates are in the thousands.
The four stages will feature Celtic music, Celtic dancing and a children's stage. "We'd like to shine a light on the performing arts in the area," says Gusetti. "We've got a ton of entertainment, for very short money."
The first-time event is sponsored by the town of Cumberland and presented by BRT. Gusetti's grateful for the support the festival has received from area sponsors like Amica Insurance, Open MRI of New England and APC/MGE. The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is also supporting the festival.
The Valley Breeze and Motif Magazine are on board as media sponsors.
Some of the musicians featured in the festival have donated their time to create a 17-cut commemorative CD that will be sold exclusively at the festival and the theatre to help raise money. Only 1,000 copies will be available at $15 each.
"We're taking the bull by the horns," says Gusetti. "There are no other entities doing something of this size locally."
Gusetti's excited about the venue. "It's just like in real estate. It's all location, location, location. Diamond Hill Park is a well-known spot. And so easy to get to. One exit off 295, head north for four miles, you're there. You're not going to get lost in the woods like you might think about with some of these other festivals."
It's been a lot of work, but Gusetti enjoys it. "It's fun figuring out the physical space. Where's the electric service? Where's the sun come up, and where does it go down? What stays soggy if it rains?"
No matter how it turns out, Gusetti vows to do the Celtic Festival right. "We're doing this with the same pride we have in presenting our indoor shows. The rules are the same it's just a much bigger thing."
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Sun Chronicle Preview
Trio carries on legacy of the Clancy Brothers
BY RICK FOSTER / STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 11:43 PM EDT
In 1956, four Irish immigrant brothers who had come to America for subsistence jobs and a shot at theater acting recorded an album of humble songs from their homeland. With a follow-up record in 1959, the quartet found an enthusiastic audience in the USA that would carry them all the way to "The Ed Sullivan Show," Carnegie Hall and triumphal European tours.
But together with fellow Irish folk musician Tommy Makem, The Clancy Brothers did more than record 50 major albums and fill nightclubs and arenas worldwide. They transformed folk and pop music and infused Irish culture with a new sense of pride in a land only just emerging from British imperialism.
Of the four original Clancys - Pat, Tommy, Bobby and Liam - only Liam, the youngest, survives. But the spirit of the epochal group remains strong in the voices and instruments of The Clancy Legacy, a trio composed of songwriter Robbie O'Connell, a nephew, and Donal and Aoife Clancy, the children of Liam and Bobby Clancy, respectively. The trio, which was formed last year amid the clutter of other solo and ensemble projects, will be appearing at the first Blackstone River Theater Celtic Festival this Saturday at Diamond Hill State Park in Cumberland, R.I.
"It's interesting the way the voices of one family seem to blend together," said O'Connell who spent more than 20 years performing with the original Clancy Brothers and its offshoots. "Even though we hadn't performed together as a trio, our voices just sounded good together."
The Clancy Legacy got its name "accidentally" when the trio was invited to perform at a holiday concert last year and was unable to provide the promoter with a name.
"He called us The Clancy Legacy," said Aoife, who has had her own successful solo career. "At first we cringed but, after, we thought it sounded quite good."
Clancy says the members of the trio have agreed to pursue their project, and a CD is undoubtedly in the works after Aoife completes a recording of traditional songs this fall. "A lot of people have been asking us to do it," said O'Connell.
The trio undoubtedly will be one of the most eagerly awaited attractions at the new festival, which runs from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. A separate-admission, after-the-festival show will be held at the Blackstone River Theater on Broad Street in Cumberland.
Besides the trio, some of the featured acts include Acadian fiddler April Verch, Pendragon, the Jennifer Roland Band and the Atwater Donnelly Trio plus a plethora of dance performances on a separate stage.
The proliferation of Celtic music and dance festivals throughout the country is itself a tribute to the Clancy Brothers and other seminal Irish performers like the Chieftains and the Furey Brothers. They transported Celtic music across the Atlantic in the 1950s and '60s and re-established it as a thriving genre with traditional roots but infinite aspirations. And much of the thanks belongs to the Clancys themselves.
For centuries, traditional folk tunes such as "Brennan on The Moor" and other mournful ballads had formed the soul of Irish music, full of laments and connotations that were sour reminders of long-time British repression. Irish folk had become for most bad karma and had almost been written out of the island's culture.
"With the exception of a small number of traditionalists, most people had almost forgotten about them," said O'Connell.
But as Liam Clancy recalled in an interview years ago, the Clancy Brothers' idea of music wasn't limited to the traditional. He recalled how the group sat around in a Greenwich Village apartment talking about re-working "Brennan" to capture the feeling of a highwayman's galloping horse. The result: The song changed from a dirge to a rousing paean to an Irish legend.
"We knew we had established something new," Liam Clancy said. "A new way of singing old songs."
Irish music was no longer a repository for lament and sentimentality. It now featured added elements of celebration and inspiration.
"The Clancy Brothers didn't play Irish music," said O'Connell. "They set the whole thing on its head."
Although some traditionalists moaned that the Clancys had merely "commercialized" Ireland's music, the world was thrilled. A 14-minute appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1961 stirred up a hurricane of interest in those pre-Beatles days. A hit record and a triumphal U.S. tour was followed by a sensation when the group returned to their native Ireland.
At the same time, a 12-year-old O'Connell was being awed by his uncles' success and their countrymen's reaction.
"I can remember the lines of people waiting to see them when they'd perform, the references to the Irish Beatles," he said. "Before long there were immitator groups - always four guys in Irish knit sweaters."
The Clancys rode their musical talent and a treasury of reworked Irish folk tunes to a remarkable run of more than a decade in the top tier of American music. Then came a series off breakups, reformations and reshufflings in 1974. Tom finally became a successful actor and Pat returned to Ireland to run a dairy farm he and his wife had bought. Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy continued to perform together.
A comeback followed a few years later, only on a lower fire and with O'Connell replacing Liam in the lineup. Limited to a part-time schedule, however, the Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell still packed them in at Carnegie Hall and other well-known venues. O'Connell, meanwhile, added an element the Clancys had never emphasized: fresh, original tunes that harkened to tradition but looked forward with openness and optimism.
Reinvigorated, the original Clancy lineup reunited in the mid-1980s, first for a documentary and eventually for a reunion tour of England, Ireland and the United States. A series of solo acts and collaborations involving various permutations of former Clancy Brothers followed, but the death of Tom in 1990 brought about the first in a series of major changes. In the 1990s, Pat and Bobby continued touring as the Clancy Brothers, but with Bobby's Son Finbar and American Eddie Dillon added to the group. Before the end of the 1990s, however, both Pat and Bobby had died.
Members of the Clancy clan continue to make music, of course, with Liam continuing his career and appearing for a time as Clancy, O'Connell and Clancy with his son and nephew. Aoife, meanwhile, plays to festival crowds and Carnegie Hall audiences alike.
In the years during and since the heyday of the original Clancy Brothers, musicians ranging from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones have acknowledged the priceless contributions of the brother band that reformed a somber musical form, fashioned a thing of joy, and brought it to the world.
The pioneers that revolutionized Irish music are now mostly gone. Thanks to the Clancy Legacy, however, a new generation of fans may yet learn something of the spirit that transformed Celtic music from an obscure genre to an integral part of world music.
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Providence Journal Preview
Irish music fest features Clancy Legacy
By Philip Marcelo, Journal Staff Writer
CUMBERLAND - In 1961, four musicians from the other side of the Atlantic performed in front of a televised audience of 80 million people on The Ed Sullivan Show and brought a new sound to America.
They weren't the Beatles, who would bring down the house with their first stateside performance on the show three years later, but the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, who were, for many Americans, their first taste of traditional Irish folk singing.
The group would go on to sign with Columbia Records, cutting more than two dozen records over 25 years and introducing listeners around the world to Irish folk.
Today, Liam Clancy, the last surviving member of the group, continues to tour and perform old standards. But it is the sons and daughters of the Clancy brothers, accomplished musicians in their own right, who are bringing the group's music to town.
Aoife (pronounced "ee-fah"), the daughter of Bobby Clancy, and Donal Clancy, the son of Liam Clancy, as well as their cousin Robbie O'Connell, who played on the Clancy Brothers last tour, will perform tomorrow as The Clancy Legacy, one of the featured acts at the first Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival at Diamond Hill Park, on Diamond Hill Road near the Woonsocket city line.
"Saturday's performance is something they do every once in a while, getting together to play the songs that made their family name famous," says Russell Gusetti, managing director of the Blackstone River Theatre.
The Celtic Festival brings 20 acts - Irish step dancers, fiddlers, and vocalists - that will perform on four stages. It is a full-day affair, with performers and food vendors out from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
After the festival, there will be a special music session from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. with complimentary food and a cash bar for 100 ticketed guests at the Blackstone River Theatre, at 549 Broad St.
Guests will be able to listen and mingle with performers in the smaller, more intimate setting of the theater. "It will be very loose and unstructured, like a house party," Gusetti says.
The Celtic Festival is the biggest event the seven-year-old theater has produced and promises to be one of the largest Celtic celebrations in Rhode Island in many years, according to Gusetti.
Many of the acts are familiar to town, having performed at the Blackstone River Theatre in the past.
Some are traveling a long distance to make an appearance. Jennifer Roland, for example, is a 27-year-old fiddler and step dancer from Nova Scotia. The April Verch Band hails from the Ottawa Valley.
Local acts, such as the Atwater-Donnelly Trio and Windharp, are veteran performers who have toured the region for at least two decades.
The idea for the festival came from the theater board of directors and their love of Celtic music, that broad genre that encompasses sounds from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany, North Umbria, Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias and Northeastern Portugal, explains Gusetti, himself of Italian and Portuguese descent.
Three of the board members, including Gusetti, grew up in Cumberland and are members of Pendragon, a 24-year-old Celtic band that draws its sound from the Irish, Scottish, and French Canadian heritage of the Blackstone River Valley.
And while the theater offers more ethnic folk music and art than the Celtic, Gusetti says the festival "is an opportunity to expose more people to what we do at the Blackstone River Theatre. It is a great overview of what we do year-round."
The Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival will be held tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Diamond Hill Park. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for the elderly, $5 for children; children under 5 are admitted free. Admission to the after festival music session is $15. The rain date is Sunday; call (401) 725-9272 or go to www.riverfolk.org.
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Sun Chronicle Preview
New festival will soldify local Celtic reputation
BY RICK FOSTER/STAFF WRITER
It may not be Boston, but when it comes to Celtic music the Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts regions aren't without resources.
Rhode Island's Pendragon and the Atwater-Donnelly Trio have long been able custodians of traditional song and the Celtic heritage that runs through European and American folk music. And Franklin's Robbie O'Connell, together with Aoife and Donal Clancy maintain a modern-day link to both the Clancy Brothers tradition and the lasting connection between the old country and America's evolving music scene.
Uniting all those influences and playing gracious host to European and homegrown traditional music has been the Blackstone River Theater, which has brought hundreds of artists within reach of local music enthusiasts over the years. Until now, all that's been lacking to solidify the area's reputation as a haven for Celtic and other forms of folk music has been an annual festival. Now that bridge too has been crossed with the announcement of the first ever Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival on Saturday, July 21 at Diamond Hill State Park.
Scheduled from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., the festival will offer a heaping helping of music and dance featuring the likes of The Clancy Legacy (composed of O'Connell, Aoife and Donal Clancy) The April Verch Band, Pendragon, The Publicans and the Jennifer Roland Band.
Calling the Celtic Festival a natural outgrowth of Blackstone River Theatre's programming, Russell Gusetti, BRT Managing Director and festival producer, looks forward to utilizing Diamond Hill Park and hopes to expand to a two-day festival next year.
"The Blackstone River Theatre Celtic Festival will host world class musicians and feature family-oriented entertainment and cultural activities on four stages," he explained. "This festival allows us to expand the scope of our programming beyond our physical theater space and reach a much larger audience with one event."
BRT is also releasing a limited edition compilation CD of songs from festival participants that will be sold only at the festival.
A separate "Riverdance Stage" is being set up for dance performances featuring no fewer than nine separate presentations and workshops.
Best of all, the alcohol-free festival is being priced at a level to make it accessible to everyone from those with casual interest to deep-down devotees of Celtic music. Tickets are $12.
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