Aug 26th Rally at Boarding House Park

On what we hope will be a sunny, Sunday afternoon next month, Patrick will be joined on stage by trad Irish band Drift and rock/reggae group Sunking at the Boarding House Park in Lowell. The event is meant to generate some interest in Patrick and his ideas, to give the public a better, unfiltered view of him, and to connect with what we expect will be a very large audience. Patrick himself may play a few tunes with his sister’s band from NYC. His sister (and mine), Grainne, is an international award-winning Irish fiddler (and the true musical talent in our family.) She’s performed widely across the United States and Ireland, including playing at President Clinton’s final St. Patrick’s Day at the White House. She will be joined by a distinguished group of traditional Irish musicians, including the great accordion player, John Redmond from Co. Wexford. Grainne now plays regularly at sessions and events down in the Big Apple after deciding to end her career as a corporate lawyer. She graduated from Duke University with an A.B., MA, and JD, but has made all of us and herself happy by following her bliss as a musician.

The other band, Sunking, plays a sort of lulling rock that is hard to describe. You can listen to them yourself and give them your own description: www.myspace.com/sunkinglive. Patrick and I went to high school and are close friends with the drummer, Fred Carleton. Like Grainne, Fred’s graduated from a top school but has pursued his love of music. These guys are really good and the big break is just around the corner.

If you follow the local blogs at all, Marie Sweeney (www.richardhowe.com) had a good post on Patrick and some of his musical and familial connections that you can check out here: http://richardhowe.com/?p=363#comments. I would add to her post that we’d played on the Boarding House Park stage many times in our youth–the most notable when our group opened for the Clancy Brothers well over a decade ago. Grainne’s also won the Annual Banjo and Fiddle contest every time she’s entered. And you can listen to two recent recordings of her, myself, and guitarist John Brennan on her myspace page. Click here: http://www.myspace.com/grainnefiddle

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