Celtic

Join The Sweet Colleens in this first ever Halloween Monkey Dance Spooktacular! Come in costume (there'll be prizes), it'll be a perfect time to try them out before Halloween. The show will be fun for the whole family, with an open area for the kids to dance, move around and sing along. All the kids are doin' it!

The Monkey Dance is the first kids CD released by the Minneapolis-based Celtic-folk-pop favorites The Sweet Colleens. The CD has 9 songs, which were selected with kids age 2 to 9 in mind; however, as with CDs by artists such as Dan Zanes, kids aged 9 to 99 will enjoy this record too!  Featuring The Sweet Colleens’ classic rootsy sound, the mostly original songs range in style from funky (The Monkey Dance) to folky (Woody Guthrie’s Pretty Baby), Cajun (No Beans, No Brownie) to Caribbean (Going on a Road Trip), sad (The Golden Vanity) to Celtic (the lullaby Da Doo) to…well…just plain gross (Big Fat Wet and Goopy Poopy Diaper).

Cedar regulars will recognize a familiar face tonight: Cedar sound engineer Raymond Yates steps out from behind the board, and takes the stage as singer and acoustic guitarist for his new project The Long Straight Forever.  The Long Straight Forever uses voices, guitars, mandola, bodhran to traverse the oceanic road from the British Isles to the Americas, with echoes of the Chieftains, Warren Zevon, Richard Thompson, Stan Rogers, and Led Zeppelin in their music. Raymond is joined by Gallowglass co-founder Michael Matheny, instrumentalist extraordinaire Matthew Ogden, and bass man Matt Miller; together, they produce music that straddles the Celtic, Americana, and rock genres. Tonight, they'll be celebrating the release of their self-titled debut album, recorded at a cabin on Upper Eau Claire Lake near Barnes, WI in April this year.  For this auspicious occasion, they'll be joined by female choir powerhouse The Idisi.

The group Vishten was formed in Prince Edward Island, in the Canadian Maritimes, at the beginning of the new millennium by traditional Acadian musicians/dancers Pastelle and Emmanuelle LeBlanc.

Vishten’s music is a hardy mixture of the French, Irish and Scottish styles of Eastern Canada, with fiery fiddling and powerful step dancing taking front and center.  Their stage show re-creates the joy and energy of the “kitchen party,” the informal community gatherings where all are welcomed to sing, play and dance.  The rhythms and melodies are inseparable, and reflect a special joie de vivre unique to the Acadian culture, with flying fingers, tapping feet, and an unabashed sense of celebration.

“Intoxicating!” -The New York Times

The eight brothers and sisters of Leahy invite you to join them for A LEAHY FAMILY CHRISTMAS.  Feel like one of the family at a festive gathering back home in Lakefield, Ontario. The step-dancing, fiddle playing, song-singing family promises a Christmas concert featuring sacred hymns and slow airs to fiery Celtic tunes and best-loved carols.

Tickets go on sale at noon Fri Jun 4 from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), from hard-working Cedar volunteers in the front lobby during shows, from Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus, Irish on Grand, Homestead Pickin' Parlor, and Depth of Field), and online at Ticketweb.

"What the internationally renowned Irish band, the Chieftains, has done for traditional Irish music, Battlefield Band is doing for the music of Scotland ..." Jeff Nesbit, BILLBOARD

After more than four decades performing their inspired music sparked by the rich musical heritage and the strength of the modern Scottish cultural scene, the Battlefield Band (and The Cedar) says farewell to founding member Alan Reid, who has decided to leave the band at the end of 2010. Alan will be focusing in future on his duo project. Don't miss this end of an era performance, to cap off a phenomenal stint that began unobtrusively in Glasgow in 1969, and took the Batties to the world's top stages, and to give a rousing welcome to new member, stunning multi-instrumentalist Ewen Henderson!

Mostly (but not exclusively) local artists in a relaxed evening showcase. Come early and stay for the whole evening, or drop in for an hour or so and sample some of the best acoustic music around in optimal listening room conditions. Boiled In Lead's Drew Miller emcees and DJs an evening of local Irish music for tonight's 416 Club -- setting the tone for St. Patrick's Day. Read more »

Legendary Irish traditional band Altan are celebrating 25 years together in 2010, and to mark the occasion, they are making a trek back to one of their favorite haunts for a good many of those years--The Cedar! The line-up will feature as always the gorgeous vocals and fiddle of Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, joined by Dermot Byrne on accordion, Ciarán Curran on bouzouki, Ciaran Tourish on fiddle and whistle, and our own Dáithí Sproule on guitar. Read more »

The Cedar proudly welcomes back contemporary American-Irish band Solas, the same week their brand new album The Turning Tide (Compass) gets released! The new album features a mix of traditional Irish tunes performed with the group's usual impeccable flair and style, and their defining takes on a choice selection of contemporary songs. In for the Solas treatment this time are some heavy hitters: Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad, Richard Thompson's Poor Ditching Boy, and Josh Ritter's Girl in the War. Read more »

One of Celtic music's great concertina players, Niall Vallely (NOMOS, Karan Casey Band) has established himself as one of the most original and distinctive voices in Irish music. In Buí­lle ((pronounced bwee-luh, meaning "beat" in Irish), Niall is accompanied by his brother Caoimhin (ex-North Cregg, Karan Casey Band) on piano, and Paul Meehan (Lúnasa) on bouzouki. Between them they create a contemporary, bright and swinging sound, with almost all the tune sets written by Niall. Read more »

An evening of contemporary Irish folk/pop! Fran King and Duncan Maitland are equal parts Brendan Benson & Elvis Costello, performing old school love and pop/rock songs, with completely infectious results. David Hopkins is a singer-songwriter originally from Dublin, Ireland. He used to play keyboard in the Dublin band Lir, for whom he wrote the top 10 hit In A Day.