Introducing Trapolin, my featured musician for May and June! Every teacher knows that you learn at least as much from your students as you could ever hope to impart to them. This has never been more true than in the case of Trapolin. Trapolin has a huge breadth of knowledge in so many interesting and… Read More Congratulations to Trapolin!
This was our 13th year attending the wonderful St. Louis Tionól! We look forward to it every year. I have several videos to upload from our Friday night performance so I’ll be back with those once more pressing household responsibilities have been attended to but in the meantime I leave you with some photos from… Read More St. Louis Tionól 2018
I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve sat in on touring shows before but never for a band that lit up the soundtrack of my childhood. Here’s what I learned from being lucky enough to serve as a violinist in the Dave Eggar Orchestra for two tour stops of the Foreigner Orchestral Tour: kindness begets… Read More Foreigner
In what has become an annual tradition and also in the spirit of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater (by which I mean green beer, does a more apt analogy exist?), I give you a poem that has had a lifelong influence on me: Patrick’s Rune, origin anonymous, translated by James Clarence Mangan.… Read More Patrick’s Rune
Our second very special guest on Saturday for our St. Patrick’s Day show at the Sanctuary Pub in Iowa City is no stranger to the traditional Irish music scene in eastern Iowa and was really the engine that kept The Beggarmen running all those many years in his multiple capacities of drummer, singer, sound technician,… Read More …and Friends, Part Two
Keith and I are looking forward to playing for you at The Sanctuary for our St. Patrick’s Day show and we are very lucky to be joined by two of our very favorite musicians. Today I will be crowing about Frank Claudy and how happy we are that he will be with us. Check back… Read More …and Friends, Part One
Introducing Waelyn, my featured musician for March and April! Waelyn is a wonder. She has never met a melody that she doesn’t retain, can hear and demonstrate melodic similarities in vastly different pieces of music, and her impeccable rhythm extends to her comic timing, much to my continued delight. Perhaps it is no coincidence given… Read More Congratulations to Waelyn!
We have secured for you a cozy, delicious and television-free way to enjoy Irish music on St. Patrick’s Day. Music, food, drinks, and friends. Nothing could be better. Please join us!
I’m so pleased to be a part of another Burns Night at the Trumpet Blossom on Friday, January 26 at 8 pm. We gather to celebrate the life of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, who was born 259 years and one day before our event and designated as “The Greatest Scot” by STV in 2009. As… Read More Burns Night January 26 at the Trumpet Blossom in Iowa City
As you can see, this news is almost a month old but I just heard about it yesterday. Many thanks to Karen Impola, Charity Nebbe and everyone at Iowa Public Radio for your wonderful advocacy of local music and of folk music in general. Karen has positioned Iowa artists in the first half of her… Read More Our song is in Best of 2017 by IPR!
Tara McGovern 