good craic for St. Pat’s
Slainte! Whether you’re tipping back coffee or a pint of Guinness, the strains of traditional Irish music will be ringing for St. Patrick’s Day. Don some color and bust out your Jonathan Papelbon dance.
Jackson’s own Celtic music troupe, Slip & the Jigs, will be performing three gigs today in a marathon test of stamina and sobriety. The smaller version of the group, The Blackthorn Trio, kicks off the festivities from 9 to 11 a.m. at Shades Cafe, where green-frosted rum raisin scones are on the menu.
Later, the full band convenes for a session at the new Fitzgerald’s Bicycles shop. The party will run from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. before shifting next door to the Brew Pub.
This evening, the celebration o’ the green continues at the Wort Hotel, where Slip & the Jigs will perform from 7 p.m. until the wee hours, assuming the musicians are still standing.
“We’re going to loosen things up later in the day as we get a sense of how the pace is holding up,” says Jamie Reilly, the talented thespian and singer.
The full band features Mark Tuttle on fiddle, Tom Marshall on guitar, Dave McCann on stand-up bass, Kathy McCann on fiddle, Patty Marshall on bass and fiddle, and Reilly on the bodhran (pronounced “bow-ron”), an Irish drum. Reilly’s brother Matt also sits in on guitar.
Slip & the Jigs have been leading sing-along sessions Monday nights at the Wort for several weeks, while The Blackthorn Trio — Tuttle, Jamie Reilly and either Tom Marshall or Matt Reilly — have brought the atmosphere of an Irish pub to Shades’ cozy cafe on Saturday mornings.
Tuttle, an artist better known for his painting, traveled to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 2006 to take a week-long fiddle camp, where he immersed himself in Irish and Scottish jigs, reels and ceili dances.
“It’s a blast,” he says of playing Irish music with his mates. “It’s something that has rounded out my life a lot and made it a lot more fuller, more fun.”
Slip & the Jigs are looking for whistle or flute players to join them as they prepare for a busy summer of weddings, parties and other gigs.
Tonight at the Brew Pub, the party really gets crazy with the Highland Bagpipers starting at 5 and Four4 DJs at 9. Picture being below deck on the Titanic.
Here’s a dose of Irish humor from last year. Erin go bragh!
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