To kick off my birthday week, and give myself a well-needed break, I took myself to the Annapolis Irish Festival. Having the whole day to myself with no expectations or responsibilities to others hanging over me for the day was such a refreshing sensation I can’t remember the last time I felt, and filling it by being surrounded with my own Irish heritage with a backdrop of Celtic music, my soul felt overwhelmingly unhindered happiness and freedom.
I explored the vendors for some time, mainly in search of a Claddagh ring to hold me over until I settle on options for a bespoke piece; unfortunately, shopping for rings for myself is akin to shopping for pants, because I’m between sizes, and half sizes simply aren’t stocked at such a craft fair. After browsing, and finally getting something to eat, I settled in to enjoy some of the music more purposefully.
Bastard Bearded Irishmen
Bastard Bearded Irishmen were in the later portions of their set once I finished eating, and I took some pictures of them playing a few of their last songs of the afternoon.
They finished their set with a cover of Sweet Child o’ Mine.
Gaelic Storm
The star act of the Festival was Gaelic Storm; a Celtic band headlined by Patrick Murphy on lead vocals, accordion, and spoons, and English guitarist Steve Twigger, the two remaining original members of the band that shot to fame after being featured performing in 1997’s Titanic. They are joined by percussionist Ryan Lacey, Peter Purvis on bagpipes and flutes, and the group’s newest member, Natalya Kay, a talented fiddler who joined the ensemble last Summer.
I admit, I’d never heard of Gaelic Storm until a few months ago when a friend in another state saw them perform at an earlier stop on this same tour, and raved to me about them. (I also have still somehow never seen Titanic in its entirety.) Coincidentally, the Annapolis Irish Festival had already been on my radar for several months, so between the rave review by a friend, and a sense of reclaiming a tarnished St. Patrick’s Day, I was absolutely going to make sure to see Gaelic Storm play, whether at the Annapolis Irish Festival, or the night before at Leesburg’s Tally Ho. In the end I’m glad my festival plan ultimately came to fruition.
Suffice to say, Gaelic Storm has a new “storm chaser” (what their fans are known as). I’m not new to Celtic music; I’m a lifelong fan of The Corrs, and was lucky enough to see The Chieftains perform a few years ago, but having already previewed and enjoyed some of Gaelic Storm’s music in the weeks before their concert, I was excited to finally see them live. As the sun set, Gaelic Storm took to the stage, and I think the pictures will do the rest.
Video
I did take some video, but wasn’t intending on focusing on video, so the audio is trash using the internal mic. This served me well, however, because it gave me a great set of files to learn on - I’ve been teaching myself Final Cut Pro, as Adobe Premiere Pro still doesn’t have a proper DolbyVision / HDR workflow (come on Adobe, get it together; it’s been 3 years, fix your Rec. 2100 support!).
