Colcannon
March 6, 2010 • 7:30 p.m.
Kelly Walsh High School Auditorium
Co-Sponsor: Comfort Inn.
The musical group Colcannon has developed a distinctive, inventive, and contemporary musical style while still keeping in firm touch with the heart and essence of traditional Irish music. Colcannon’s concerts are renowned for their energy, for singer/frontman Mick Bolger’s irrepressible sense of humor and sly wit, and, of course, for the music that expresses flights of joy, deep sorrows, and an unquenchable zest for life.
The band formed in 1984 in Boulder Colorado, USA, and the have released seven CDs on the Oxford Road Records label. The band’s most recent CD ‘The Pooka and the Fiddler’ received a Parent’s Choice Award for its artful interweaving or music and storytelling. The Emmy®-award winning PBS special, “Colcannon in Concert,” has aired nationwide. Colcannon was named ensemble-in-residence at The Colorado College for the 2006-2007 academic year.
The group was featured on John McEuen's soundtrack for the television mini-series "The Wild West", as well as on the Western Heritage Award winning album of the same name and The Nashville Network Television special "The Music of the Wild West". Recently, the group hasprovided music for an audio project "Secrets of the World -- The Good People" featuring Irish master storyteller and folklorist Eddie Lenihan.
Other recent projects include the development of 'Lusanna' a work for Colcannon and chamber orchestra, written by Colcannon bassist Mike Fitzmaurice, with text and lyrics in Irish and English by vocalist Mick Bolger. Earlier collaborations with orchestra featured Fitzmaurice's 'The Red Kite', as well as arrangements of some of Colcannon's original compositions.
Colcannon’s appeal crosses lines of age, gender and ethnic background. For while the musical focus is on the beautiful wealth of traditional Irish music -- all acoustic instrumentation, traditional as well as original tunes and songs, with some of the songs in Mick’s native Irish language -- Colcannon’s true message is the story of the resilient and joyous human spirit.
