BCMFest@ICONS preview this Monday

You want a little taste of what you'll see at ICONS next weekend? (Wow, not that far away, is it?)
Then check out the Sept. 8 edition of the Boston Celtic Music Fest's "Celtic Music Monday," the monthly series BCMFest cosponsors with Club Passim in Harvard Square. (BCMFest, in case you're not familiar with it, is Greater Boston's grassroots, community-oriented annual festival that showcases the Boston area's great resources in Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and other Celtic and Celtic-influenced music.)

Appearing at "Celtic Music Monday" will be The New Tyme Sisters (in photo at left) -- serving up Appalachian/old-timey music in a whole new way -- who'll be part of the BCMFest Showcase at ICONS (along with Annalivia and Laura Cortese). And you can also get a first look at the BCMFest Bard Squad, a group of area musicians, singers and dancers who will be leading a session at the ICONS' Burren tent the festival's opening night and popping up throughout the weekend at various places.
Admission is only $12, $6 if you're a member of Club Passim, WGBH or WUMB. You can reserve tickets online or call 617-492-7679.

BCMFest and ICONS. A festival within a festival.

Reminder: special ICONS ticket deal ends Sept. 6

The ICONS Festival special advance ticket sale ends Saturday, Sept. 6. Remember, one day passes are just $15, and three-day passes only $35, if purchased in advance. Go to iconsfestival.com and get yours before it's too late.

Family-friendly ICONS

Families will find plenty to like about ICONS, especially in the festival’s Tir na Nog area. “Tir na Nog” is Gaelic for “Land of the Young,” and at ICONS’ Tir na Nog children and adults can enjoy events and activities that appeal across the generations:

*"Sidewalk Sam," (in photo at left) the popular street artist, will once again visit ICONS and encourage festival-goers to create spontaneous art that inspires and enriches.





*Experience the unique charm of marionettes made by professional actor-puppeteer Charlotte Anne Dore, below, who will use her creations to spin tales of dragons, kings, princesses, mermaids and ghosts who sing and dance.



*Magician and author Debbie O’Carroll, left, presents stage magic with a decidedly Irish flavor, combined with the lively music of Tom O’Carroll and lots of audience participation.






*Visual storyteller Dean Morrissey, illustrator for children’s books such as Ship of Dreams, The Moon Robbers and The Winter King, will share the love he’s nurtured for drawing since his Boston childhood days.
*Michael O’Leary, Kate Chadbourne and David de la Barre will give a sampling of their vast repertoire of songs, stories and tunes from the Irish folk tradition, guaranteed to entertain kids and parents alike.

And there’ll be carnival rides and step-dancing demonstrations aplenty to keep youthful spirits happy.

Club Passim and Celtic music

Harvard Square's venerable Club Passim has a well-deserved reputation as a showcase for great singer-songwriters (think: Arlo Guthrie, Tracy Chapman, Tom Paxton, Nanci Griffith, to name a very few). But it does an awful lot to support Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and other Celtic music -- and not just by providing a stage for it. Passim also offers instructional classes in various aspects of Celtic music, with some very impressive faculty members. This fall, for instance, you can explore the fiddle with Hanneke Cassel or Ellery Klein, or bodhran with Paddy League.
This weekend is one of the club's biggest events, its twice-a-year Cutting Edge of the Campfire Festival, which features several dozen folk/acoustic music acts. The Celtic domain is ably represented by such notables as Matt & Shannon Heaton, Flynn Cohen, Blue Moose & The Unbuttoned Zippers, Matching Orange and 5 AM. Complete schedule here, with links to performers' Web sites and MySpace pages.
And on Sept. 8, there'll be a little preview of some of the musicians appearing at ICONS; more on that later.

--Sean Smith

Beoga on "Woodsongs"

If you want to get a small sample of the vim, vigor and virtuosity of Beoga, check out their recent appearance on the "Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour." "Woodsongs" thoughtfully makes video as well as audio recordings of their shows and archives them. Actually, you could spend a fair amount of time on the site: Other past and present ICONS performers who've appeared include Solas, Crooked Still, Cherish the Ladies and Uncle Earl. And the rest of the archive runs the gamut, such as Barra MacNeils, Ralph Stanley, Boys of the Lough, Blind Boys of Alabama, Grada, Dar Williams...aw heck, go see for yourself.

--Sean Smith

ICONS schedule now available

The 2008 ICONS schedule is now online -- go here and you can print out a PDF version, all the better to start planning for the big weekend.

Tony McManus in Acoustic Guitar magazine

ICONS 2008 performer Tony McManus was interviewed by Scott Nygaard (no slouch on guitar himself) for a recent issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine. There's also some video clips of Tony in full picking glory.
My favorite out-of-context quote: "The mid-’70s is kind of written off as the pinnacle of naff."
Here's the URL for the article.

--Sean Smith