John Doyle and Liz Carroll-my show and then the WHITE HOUSE

I just got off of the phone with Liz Carroll and I am so proud, happy and excited for her that I can't contain myself. I shouldn't admit this, but I just burst into tears chatting with Liz.

This is John Doyle, Anita, myself and Liz at the 2008 Cleveland Irish festival.

One of my hopes for the new presidency was that "cool" would again be the rule for cultural events at the White House. In recent years, the arts events at the home of our nation's leader have been the exact polar opposite of what I'm into (Travis Tritt? PUHLEEZE...)

Now, every year, the White House hosts a special celebration for St. Patrick's Day. This year the White House will be hosting Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. Under Ireland's parliamentary system, Mr. Cowen is the leader of the government.

And the entertainers for our President and Mr. Cowen this year?

John Doyle and Liz Carroll.

Now, I realize that you might not have heard of them. (Unless you've been listening to my show, of course.) Liz is from Chicago and the child of irish immigrants. John is from Dublin but now lives in Asheville, NC. They are both brilliant musicians and composers. And cool-- really, really cool.

They are about to release a new CD from Compass records called "Double Play" I played a couple of tracks on my show last week. (Their last one was called "In Play".)

And (here's the WBGU FM part) on the day before they go to the White House, the day before St. Patrick's Day, John and Liz will be (phone) guests on my show Monday March 16 at noon, during our fund raising event. How cool is that?

Of course, I realize that our country faces much bigger issues than we've ever encountered in my lifetime. But on the cultural front, the TIDE HAS TURNED!

And don't forget, this week, Tim O'Brien (another great Irish American and friend and collaborator of John and Liz) will be on my show.

Sincerely

Earl
The New Celtic Revival
Monday Noon - 2:00 PM
WBGU FM 881
http://wbgufm.com

Tim O'Brien on the New Celtic Revival

Grammy Award winning folk and bluegrass singer, songwriter and performer Tim O' Brien will be returning to the airwaves of WBGU FM this coming Monday March 2, 2009 to chat about the connections between Celtic music and American bluegrass. O'Brien has released several projects that explore the connections and interactions between traditional music forms from Ireland and America.

Originally a native of West Virginia, his grandfather immigrated to America from County Cavan, Ireland. Tim was a founding member of the groundbreaking "newgrass" band Hot Rize, based from Boulder, Colorado. Since then, he has released over a dozen solo projects and has appeared on literally countless other releases. In 1999, he brought together some of America's greatest bluegrass musicians, such as Del McCoury and Earl Scruggs, with some of the very best Irish traditional musicians to record "The Crossing." In 2007, he won the Grammy award for Best Traditional Folk Recording for "Fiddler's Green." His recent CD release "Chameleon" is his most intimate and personal. It features all new compositions by O'Brien with no guest musicians, just his voice and instrumental accompaniment.

O'Brien is highly sought after as a recording producer, arranger and performer on vocals, mandolin, fiddle and a variety of stringed instruments. In 2008 helped to produce and performs on "Always Lift Him Up- A Tribute to Blind Alfred Reed". Reed was a native of West Virginia and the project was a fund raiser for the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and features performers with ties to the state's rich musical history including Kathy Mattea and Tim's sister, Mollie O'Brien.

Recent weeks saw the release of "Wells for Zoe- Water for Life" a CD compilation to raise funds for development projects in northern Malawi in Africa. O'Brien performs a duet with Karine Polwart of Scotland, on the title track and brought together Maura O'Connell the Duhks, John Doyle (and himself) to record an acoustic rave up of the classic hit from the Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin, "Sisters are Doin' It For Themselves."

Tim will be appearing on The New Celtic Revival radio program with host Earl Britt, between noon and 2:00 PM on WBGU FM 88.1 Outside of Bowling Green, the station can be heard over the Web at wbgufm.com and online with iTunes. Every Monday, The New Celtic Revival explores the interconnections between the current wave of cutting edge traditional music from Ireland, Scotland and other Celtic lands with thriving American music forms such as bluegrass, Appalachian and old time string bands.

Karan Casey and Kevin Crawford on MY show

When I was going through WBGU FM DJ training, the first thing that they taught us was that WBGU FM strives “to promote underground, under-represented and under-appreciated music.” And that “aesthetic is more important than music popularity.’ I think that’s a pretty good intro to the guests who will be on my show next week.

My show, The New Celtic Revival, tries to draw connections between Celtic music and American folk music, such as bluegrass and old time Appalachian music. Just as there is a wave of American “newgrass” and string bands, there has been a number of acoustic bands from the Celtic lands who start off in very traditional forms, but infuse a cutting edge aesthetic and energy.

My very special guests next week will be Karan Casey and then Kevin Crawford of Lúnasa.

Karan was the original lead singer in Solas, who remain the preeminent Irish-American neo-trad band. Since leaving Solas, she has released a series of brilliant solo projects. Recently, she was featured on the Solas Ten Year Reunion CD and DVD and released her fifth solo project “Ships In the Forest” which is available from Compass Records. She also did a great children’s project called “The Seal Maiden.”

She has collaborated with the best acoustic and folk musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, including her husband, Naill Valley, as well as Tim O’Brien, Buille, Lúnasa, Peggy Seeger and Altan. She has been a frequent performer on American public broadcasting, including A Prairie Home Companion and The Shamrock and Thistle and PBS television specials, including “Absolutely Irish” and “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn Live” (both available on DVD from PBS.).

Kevin Crawford leads the mighty Irish instrumental group, Lúnasa. Born in Birmingham, England, Kevin Crawford’s early life was one long journey into Irish music and County Clare, to where he eventually moved while in his 20’s. A virtuoso flute player, Kevin has also recorded two solo albums, “D’Flute Album” and the more recent “In Good Company”. Formed in 1997, The Irish Voice has called Lúnasa “Ireland’s newest ‘supergroup’…the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet.” (Amen to that!)

The band has released seven recordings, including “The Story So Far.” They are about to release a new recording made while they were artists in residence in Leitrim, Ireland and Kevin and bandmate Cillian Vallely are about to release a new recording called “On Common Ground.”

I hope that everyone will tune and hear these artists.

Sincerely

Earl Britt
The New Celtic Revival
Monday Noon - 2:00 PM
WBGU FM 881
http://wbgufm.com
http://celticrevival.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/newcelticrevival

Raising O The Green benefit

The Irish of Northwest Ohio are uniting to put on a great bash to kick off the St. Patrick's Day season and to raise money for the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank.

Here are the details:

Sunday, March 1, 2009, 3:00 – 7:00 PM

Manhattan’s Restaurant

1516 Adams Street, Toledo, Ohio 43604

Entertainment by

Whiskey Before Breakfast
Patrick Lewandowski
Toraigh
John Connolly and Company
Extra Stout
Step Dancers
Pipers and much more

Cost: $25 per person
Includes Irish Buffet and one drink

All proceeds to go to
Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank

Tickets can be purchased at Manhattan's Restaurant,
the Blarney Irish Pub or by calling 419-217-3715

Gratitude

Gratitude

I have to offer gratitude to my higher power and my doctors for saving the vision in my left eye yesterday.

On Thursday, I started having big problems seeing with my left eye. There was all sorts of “junk” floating in my eye, along with searing flashes of white light and all overlaid with opaque black specks.

Bummer.

I had heard of “floaters” and thought I was just having my first bout with them. But this was REALLY bad.

What was happening was called a “posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) with retinal tears.” I had two rips in my retina which were trying to play “connect the dots.” The holes in my retina were hemorrhaging which was allowing blood to contaminate the clear fluid inside my eye.

Now I’ve discovered that this problem runs in my family.

This condition could have lead to a complete retinal detachment and the loss of sight in my eye. Even without a detachment, the blood leaking into my eye could have greatly decreased the sight from my eye.

I called my friend Dr. D. Wayne Bell who explained what was happening to me and told me that I had to get it repaired IMMEDIATELY.

Doc Bell is from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada and he's about as crazy about music as I am . (You should see HIS music collection!) He’s familiar with all of the incredible music ans from Cape Breton, like the Barra MacNeills, the Rankins, the MacIssacs and the MacMasters.

He was really concerned about my eyes because of my diabetes. (Diabetics face problems our eyes and our feet. And, well, everything else.)

So the first thing yesterday morning, I called my crack ophthalmologist Dr. Reed Roth, who told me to get to his office ASAP. I hustled up to his office and they were waiting for me when I got there.

He examined my eye and spotted the two rips in my retina. Knucklehead that I am, I wanted to postpone getting the repair done until after my show on Monday --but he told me in no uncertain terms that was NOT an option.

And Dr. Reed, thank you for that. As my family says, I can be a “ real butt hole” at times, but he got it through my thick skull that I had to take action at once.

He called Dr. David Kozy at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo who saw me right away. Dr. Kozy used a laser to blast away at the damage in my retina to close the openings and basically “tack weld” my eye back together so that my retina didn’t detach any further. This also stopped the blood from leaking into my eye.

Vitreous fluid is clear, blood is not. So when there is “blood in your eye”, your vision is very cloudy.

This morning, my vision is already a lot clearer. As the retina heals and the blood and floaters clears out of my vitreous fluid, things will only improve. I still have some fuzziness and some floaters, but even if it doesn’t get any better, this is OK...

considering the alternative!

Upcoming Concerts that you won’t wanna miss!

Upcoming Concerts that you won’t wanna miss!

Liz Carroll & John Doyle
Friday March 13, 2009 8:oo PM
The Ark Ann Arbor, MI
theark.org

Lunasa and Karan Casey
Mar. 06, 2009 8:oo PM
Mercyhurst College
Erie, PA

Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul
Mar 8 2009 7:00P
Southern Theatre Columbus, Ohio

Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul
Mar 13 2009 8:00P
The Renaissance Theatre Mansfield, Ohio

Joan Baez w/John Doyle, Todd Phillips and Dirk Powell
March 07
Ohio Theater Cleveland, Ohio

Joan Baez w/John Doyle, Todd Phillips and Dirk Powell
March 09
Southern Theatre
21 East Main Street
Columbus, Ohio

Laura Cortese
March 7, 2009
Presented by Highlands of Ohio
The Cafe in Pumpkin Hollow
24 Bell Street Mansfield, OH 44907
http://www.highlandsofohio.com/events.html
highlands@neo.rr.com

Beoga
Tuesday March 10, 2009
The Ark Ann Arbor, MI

Crooked Still
Tuesday March 17, 2009
The Ark Ann Arbor, MI

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
Thursday March 26, 2009
The Ark Ann Arbor, MI

The Duhks
May 2 2009 6:00P
Oberlin College Oberlin, Ohio

Irish United Foodbank Fundraiser

The Irish United Fundraiser to benefit the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food bank will be held on Sunday, March 1, 2009 at Manhattan's Restaurant at 1516 Adams Street in downtown Toledo beginning at 3:00 and continuing through 7:00 PM. The event will include an Irish buffet dinner and Irish entertainment and the cost to the public will be $25 a ticket. There will also be a raffle of donated merchandise from area vendors. www.toledofoodbank.org.

Contact: Ellen McCarty
419-843-2631

This is the line up for the event at this time:
3:00- 3:15 Pipers
3:15- 3:30 Dancers
3:30 -4:00 Whiskey Before Breakfast
4:00 - 4:15 Dancers
4:15 -4:45 Patrick Lewandowski
4:45 -Pipers and comedy
5:00 -5:30 Toraigh
5:30 -5:45 comedy
5:45 -6:15 Connolly and Company
6:15 -6:30 comedy
6:30 -7:00 Extra Stout