Entertainment

Skerryvore

Friday, June 13th, 7:30pm

Saturday, June 14th, 8:00pm

Celtic Rock

At the forefront of a movement that has reinvented and reignited a traditional Scottish scene for a modern, multicultural audience, Skerryvore have brought their high energy performances to audiences across the globe. With a mix of bagpipes, fiddles, accordions, and whistles, alongside guitar and vocals, underpinned by driving bass, drums and keys, Skerryvore represent the best in contemporary Scottish traditional music. Their now 7 studio albums demonstrate the wide range of influences the individual musicians bring to the mix – a unique fusion of folk, trad, pop and rock.

Iona Fyfe 

Friday, June 13th, 4:30pm 

Saturday, June 14th, 4:15pm 

Scots Singer of the Year 

Aberdeenshire folksinger, Iona Fyfe, has become one of Scotland’s finest singers, rooted deeply in the singing traditions of the North East of Scotland. In 2021, she became the first singer to win the coveted title of Musician of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. Iona is a fierce advocate for the official recognition of the Scots Language, leading a successful campaign to pressure Spotify into recognising Scots and add it to its list of languages. Honoured at the Scots Language Awards with the title of Speaker of the Year in 2021, Iona performs both folk and pop songs in the Scots language, remaining true to her rooting in tradition. Iona has featured in several publications including The Sunday Post, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Times. She won the title of Scots Singer of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards in 2018 and was described as “one of the best Scotland has to offer.” 

Iona’s debut album Away From My Window was held to critical acclaim and received nationwide airplay on programmes such as BBC Radio 2 The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk, Take The Floor and BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal. An exploration of her unique style and songwriting voice, Away From My Window features archive material of singers such as Stanley Robertson and Lizzie Higgins whilst drawing on the work of more recent songmakers such as Michael Marra and Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap). “Away From My Window” was premiered at a sold out Celtic Connections performance featuring a larger musical ensemble and live on-stage sampling of source singers.

Jamie McGeechan

Friday, June 13th, 2:00pm

Saturday, June 14th, 1:00pm

Award winning singer-songwriter

Born in Falkirk and raised in Ayrshire, Jamie has released three albums to date, High Hopes in 2015, Midnight Kingdom in 2020 (which was nominated for Scottish Album of The Year) and Roots in 2016 (which saw Jamie record the songs of Robert Burns live inside Burns Cottage in Alloway, Scotland making history as the first person to do this). Jamie has performed at festivals across the world including Celtic Connections and The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Camperdown Burns Festival in Australia, New York Tartan Week, New Hampshire Highland Games, ScotFest in Oklahoma, Ohio Scottish Games and the South East Florida Scottish Festival. Jamie has performed on TV shows including BBC Alba’s RAPAL show, STV’s The Hour and has had his music played on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland and Celtic Music Radio. At times performing under his own name and other times performing under the name of ‘Little Fire’ Jamie has experimented with sounds and genres through his career so far but his distinctive vocals remain a constant throughout.

Shadowfields

Saturday, June 14th, 2:15pm 

From Scotland’s Cairngorms to the U.S. Great Smoky Mountains, you’re immersed in Shadowfields’ rock-flint drums, torchlight fiddle, and soulful dual lead vocals. This 18-year collaboration between songwriters Tom McKeown and Heather Humphrey delivers Appalachian acoustic bliss. Tom, a descendant of Mary Queen of Scots through the Logan clan, leads with vocals and instruments while Heather charms with vocals, piano, and flute. Their 5-piece band crafts musical hooks, deft arrangements, and lonesome Islay ballads. With 7 studio albums and U.S. and international tours, Shadowfields captivates audiences worldwide. Catch their original music on 200 indie radio stations and follow their journey at www.shadowfields.com or listen to all discography on Spotify.

Logical Fleadh

Friday, June 13th, 5:45pm

Saturday, June 14th, 5:30pm

Celtic Music Chicago Style  

Logical Fleadh is an album over a quarter century in the making. The initial flash of inspiration came in 1996, when Logical Fleadh bandleader Ethan Taylor Sellers and his father attended an early concert by Irish-American super-group Solas in Philadelphia. Amazed by Solas music’s precision, speed, and beauty, Sellers was instantly a fan.

As a listener, Sellers subsequently followed the “family tree” of related projects to broaden his knowledge of traditional Irish, Scottish, and other Celtic music. Sellers also began penning a series of original compositions that reflected this influence, occasionally performing them with his rock band Tautologic.

After more than a decade of listening and co-curricular dabbling in Irish/Scottish music, Sellers decided to make a serious go of it with Character Fleadh in 2009. Starting as an exclusively-instrumental fiddle/guitar duo, Character Fleadh gradually expanded its line-up and learned hours and hours of traditional Irish/Scottish songs and instrumental repertoire, playing regional festivals, concert series, and private events.

After a few years, Sellers began to get the impression that some of his bandmates in Tautologic – Emily Albright (fiddle, vocals), Pat Buzby (drums, bodhran), and Nathan Britsch (bass) – wanted in on the action. Dana Joras (flutes, whistles, vocals) and Joe Kilroy (tenor banjo, mandolin, bouzouki) from Character Fleadh were both amenable to a “cross-over” collaboration. Logical Fleadh – a mash-up of Tautologic and Character Fleadh – was born.

Logical Fleadh gigged and rehearsed for nearly two years before recording most of the album in a 2-day session at Rax Trax Recording. Over the course of the next two years, Sellers worked around busy schedules and a pandemic to complete overdubs by each band member and an array of special guests, including Tautologic electric guitarist Jay Montana, violist Chuck Bontrager, Grammy-winning cellist Nick Photinos, Seán O’Riada Gold medal winner Seán Gavin, and Solas co-founder and accordionist John Williams.

 The tracks on Logical Fleadh marry Irish/Scottish tunes/songs with a driving rock rhythm section – connecting tradition to the present day.

Frogwater

Friday, June 13th, 3:15pm

Celtic Folk

Frogwater is the acoustic musical pairing of John “Jack” & Susan Nicholson. Renowned for their virtuosity and exuberant live performances, they like to think of themselves as musical ambassadors. Their repertoire spans from Celtic to Delta blues, from classical to pop with a healthy dose of unique original material filling out the mix. For the past several years Frogwater has performed regularly at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, Bastille Days & other area festivals. They have received honors as best band in the Bluegrass & Country categories in the WAMI (Wisconsin Area Music Industry) awards. In recent years they have also been featured in Lancaster WI “Music on the Square” The Gay Mills Folk Festival, The Bayfield Folk Fest, The Wheatland Traditional Arts and even a performance in England!