PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music celebrate the season with an evening of traditional Irish, British Isles, and original holiday music by John Doyle and Mick McAuley on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. at Next Stage.
Both natives of Ireland and from musical families, Doyle and McAuley are "true powerhouses" in traditional Irish music. Their "nearly telepathic musical connection" began in the Irish-American band Solas.
Both now have flourishing high-profile solo careers. They periodically come together to brush off some Solas standards as well as their individual material, played together, for these magical musical evenings. The show "transports audiences to the quiet, small villages of rural Ireland through the songs, tunes, and stories most familiar to these two world-class artists," say event promoters.
Over the past four decades, instrumentalist, composer, producer, and singer-songwriter Doyle has performed folk and traditional Irish music. In 1994, Doyle brought his guitar stylings to the nascent Irish super-group Solas.
With Solas, Doyle performed internationally to sold out audiences and appeared on many television and radio programs. As part of that critically acclaimed group, he also received three NAIRD awards and a Grammy nomination.
In the years since going out on his own, Doyle has recorded two solo albums and has become a sought-after accompanist and session player for the likes of Joan Baez, Eileen Ivers, Tim O'Brien, Linda Thompson, Seamus Egan, Alison Brown, and Kate Rusby.
Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter Mick McAuley has always been part of a movement that pushes the musical boundaries of tradition, bringing Irish music to a wider and more diverse audience around the world.
He says he found the ideal balance of traditional and contemporary in the instrumentals and songs of the newly formed Solas while in the bustling Irish music scene of New York in the mid-1990s, and went on to tour and record nine albums with the band.
McAuley has been a guest on many recordings and performances by artists such as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Larkin, Paul Brennan (Clannad), Susan McKeown, and Mick Hanly and, since 2015, has played melodeons for 17-time Grammy winner Sting in his autobiographical theater production The Last Ship. McAuley's debut solo album An Ocean's Breadth was awarded Best Celtic Album of the year by Washington Post.
Next Stage is at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and $10 for access to the livestream. For information, call 802-387-0102. Advance tickets are available at nextstagearts.org. Next Stage will provide a beer, wine, and cocktail cash bar.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.