Folks, I caught word this week that registration for the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh is now open! The Mid-Atlantic is one of North America’s two qualifying fleadhs for the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, where this year’s All-Ireland competitions will be held. (Belfast, August 2-9, see https://fleadhcheoil.ie/ for more.) To get there, though, you have to qualify at the Mid-Atlantic first, and to do that you’ll have to be at the Crowne Plaza Princeton in Princeton, N.J., April 17-19, to compete.
This year’s Mid-Atlantic Fleadh promises to be an amazing time. Competitions, sessions, and youth events are all part of the festivities, with the weekend’s highlight being the Hall of Fame induction and banquet honoring this year’s inductees, Tom Dunne and James Early. Mike McLaughlin, recipient of the 2026 Service Award, will also be recognized. Add to this an incredibly friendly, kid-friendly atmosphere and you have a recipe for a fabulous, music-filled weekend.
To register for the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh, visit https://feisweb.com/. Fleadh requirements, syllabus, rules, clarification on any aspect of the registration process, and information about taking advantage of the host hotel’s special accommodation rate ($149/night, full breakfast buffet inclusive), can be found at https://ccemidatlantic.com/.
In seasonal live music news, there are some incredible choices for this coming St. Patrick’s Day because not one but two unbelievable concerts will take place on the 17th.
Head over to Carnegie Hall and you’ll find Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble. Widely regarded as one of the great figures in Irish fiddling, Martin Hayes has spent his life shaping the sound and reach of traditional Irish music. Raised in County Clare, he grew up playing with his father, the great P.J. Hayes (a man said to be “as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the mart at Scariff”) in the seminal and legendary Tulla Céilí Band. This experience led him to six All-Ireland championships before turning 19, and ensured that Hayes’s upward trajectory into traditional music’s stratosphere was set.
His mark on the fabric of traditional music has been indelible. Hayes’s 20-year partnership with the brilliant guitarist Dennis Cahill yielded albums like “The Lonesome Touch,” and had a major influence on the sound of traditional Irish music. He’s been a driving force in several bands, including The Gloaming (with Iarla Ó Lionáird and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and Doveman) and Tríur (with Peadar Ó Riada and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh), and The Teetotalers (with Kevin Crawford and John Doyle). And, since 2003, Hayes has been the musical director of the Masters of Tradition festival, held in Bantry House in County Cork. In that time, he’s also collaborated with artists outside traditional music, including Bill Frisell, Ricky Skaggs, Jordi Savall, Brooklyn Rider and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. In 2008, he received TG4's Gradam Ceoil Award for “Traditional Musician of the Year.”
In addition to Hayes, the Common Ground group includes Cormac McCarthy (piano), Kate Ellis (cello), Kyle Sanna (guitar), and Brian Donnellan (bouzouki, harmonium, concertina). They’ll be joined by an assortment of very special guests, such as Sam Amidon (guitar, vocals), Síle Denvir (harp, vocals), Nic Gareiss (percussive dance), Stephanie Keane (percussive dance), and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. The music they make mixes traditional music with classical, jazz, dance, and poetry and the results are impressively nuanced and richly rewarding.
Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble is being presented by Carnegie Hall in collaboration with Irish Arts Center and National Concert Hall, Dublin. To book your tickets, visit the Irish Arts Center’s website, https://irishartscenter.org/.
However, over the past 40 years, there is perhaps no group greater or more revered than Altan (https://altan.ie/). Formed in 1985 by Frankie Kennedy (flute), Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle and vocals), Ciarán Curran (bouzouki), and Mark Kelly (guitar), the band released its first album in 1987. Over the years it has grown and changed in myriad ways (its founder Kennedy passed away in 1992 and in their time several members have passed through the band’s ranks), but it has always represented the music and heritage of County Donegal at its highest and most sophisticated level. Altan is one of the greats and they will appear on St. Patrick’s Day at Sony Hall. Choices, choices!
Altan.
Altan has released 14 acclaimed studio albums, five “best of” compilations, and a live album. In addition, they’ve collaborated with artists such as Dolly Parton, Enya, the Chieftains, Bonnie Raitt and Alison Krauss. On this tour, the band’s lineup consists of original members Ní Mhaonaigh, Curran, Kelly, alongside more recent members Máirtín Tourish, and Clare Friel.
Ní Mhaonaigh, who received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil for “Traditional Musician of the Year” in 2017, still leads the way. Curran and Kelly, who have been an integral part of their signature sound over the decades, remain stalwarts. Tourish, who has been with the band since 2013, is an accomplished composer and was TG4's Gradam Ceoil Award “Young Musician of the Year” in 2008, the first piano accordion player to achieve that honor. A permanent member since 2023, Friel, has an impressive career as well, having played or toured with the likes of Chieftains, Moya Brennan, Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, Carlos Nuñez, Cherish the Ladies, and the Máirtín O’Connor Trio, and who received the Gradam for “Young Musician of the Year” in 2018.
Joining them on this tour is American banjo and guitar player Alison Brown. Brown is an acclaimed musician who as comfortable playing Celtic styles as she is with those from American. She won a Grammy in 2001 for her song "Leaving Cottondale” with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck. In 1990, she also performed on Alison Krauss’s Grammy-winning album “I've Got That Old Feeling” and that same year was nominated for a Grammy nomination for her album “Simple Pleasures.” In 1991, Brown was named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Banjo Player of the Year.”
Altan hasn’t played in New York all that recently, so this is a special opportunity to see a legendary group whose music the actor Brendan Gleeson once said is “as bright as the Donegal air, as fierce as its winds, as beautiful as its landscape.” I’m excited to see them perform and with Brown there as a guest, it should be an outstanding evening of inspiring music. For ticketing information, visit Sony Hall’s website, https://sonyhall.com/.
