Alan Kelly Quartet to perform at Glór

RENOWNED accordion player Alan Kelly, along with fiddle player Tóla Custy, Donogh Hennessy on guitar and Steph Geremia on flute and vocals will lead a monster concert in Glór this Saturday night.

The Alan Kelly Quartet, who are working towards their first album with an expected release date of early 2011, will treat the audience to a great show, including material from Alan’s last album After the Morning and some new material that the four musicians have been working on together.
The concert will also feature harpist Laoise Kelly, vocalists Lumiere, popular Clare traditional group Moher, box player Murty Ryan, fiddler Siobhán Peoples and guitarist, bouzouki player and singer Cyril O’Donoghue.
“I feel this will be a great concert, featuring great music and musicians from the Clare and Roscommon traditions. Everyone playing in this concert knows each other well, so hopefully the audience will pick up on how much we enjoy playing music and playing together,” Alan said.
Alan has worked with all of the other musicians who will play in the Glór concert, and most regularly with Tóla Custy.
“Tóla and I go way back. We played together in a band called Savannah a number of years ago, mainly in Galway. We did swing and country, a real mix of instrumental music from all over Europe. Mainly we did corporate functions. A couple of years after that, we joined forces with Arty McGlynn and a number of other musicians and formed a group called Mosaic, which was a form of a big brass band. We have a great understanding of how to work together and really enjoy working together,” he added.
Last weekend Alan was in Edinburgh doing a show with Eddi Reader.
“We have playing together now for about six years and she has sang on some albums with me. We are just back from Australia, where we did some shows with guitarist Boo Hewerdine, who is also one of the best-known songwriters in England. He and Eddi have been playing together for years. I feel we make a good team.”
While Alan lives in Galway, he comes to Ennis regularly to see his brother John, who also plays the fiddle.
“John and I obviously played together a lot in the past but now that John is a dad he doesn’t play quite as much. Of course, there is always that thing of playing with your sibling, that’s always so familiar and nice. We literally grew up playing music together. We made an album together in 2003 called Four Mile House, where our father, Frank, comes from in Roscommon. Dad and fiddle player, Paddy Ryan, a cousin of our mother’s, taught us music. Our mother, Mary, used to play the piano and the saxophone, so we had music coming at us from all directions. She was in a band called the Cottage Girls in Ballinagar, near Castlerea. Music was and still is a big part of our lives and I’m delighted to be involved in it to the extent that I am,” he commented.
Tickets for the concert in Glór on Saturday are available from Custy’s Music Shop on 065 6821727 and Glór on 065 6843103 or online at www.glor.ie. There will also be a raffle at the Glór concert.