It was a warm June night, and the sun was still shining when we arrived on June 10 at Slainte in Oakland, Calif., for the Irish-American Writers and Artists salon. First up and a first for our West Coast salon was the hilarious and elegant magician Magic Genii, who regaled us with illusions and card tricks, that did not always work but made for more laughter. Magic Genii just celebrated her 25th anniversary as an illusionist here in the Bay Area.
Marcia B. Loughran, a member of New York’s Irish-American Writers and Artists salons, was on a West Coast promotion of her new chapbook “Skylights.”. Marcia read “Believers” from this new work. She then continued with New York-themed poems such as “On The road to Thousand Islands “and “Daydream( the herring are running in Canarsie)” Marcia is a spell-binding and engaging reader.
Shea Gaier sang a beautiful tune that her mother composed, “The Riddle Hornpipe” with lyric hints about Irish instruments in each verse. Shea quizzed the audience, who called out “fiddle,” “guitar” and the Bodhran. Shea then took out her fiddle and shared two jigs and reels in the tradition of the Donegal-style tradition.
Clif Linton, who typically shares a fiddle tune or two, this time exercised his storytelling skills with “Honey, I Lost the Dog.”
And we went on the anxiety-filled , high-energy and hilarious journey as Clif struggled to follow his lost dog while also anxious to make an IRS appointment.
For the finale we had the amazing singer-songwriters, the Keller Sisters, who rocked the house beginning with “Green Eyed Blues,” and a sweet childhood memory song, “Swing,” and ended with the anthem about a bad ass 80-year-old “Wanna be Betty.”
And we all wanted to be the living large Betty.
Slainte salon is taking a break for the summer.
