Mexicobeachbum, we love Cherish the Ladies, too! Our children danced with their show when it came to our town a few years ago.

Did anyone mention The Corrs?

If you live in the Midwest (or even if you don't), check out this link for the KC Irish Fest on Labor Day weekend: www.kcirishfest.com

Performers for 2006 include:
Gaelic Storm, Black 47, Enter The Haggis, The Elders, Hothouse Flowers, Gráda, Seven Nations, Luka Bloom, John Spillane, Máirtín de Cógáin

Cherish The Ladies, Eileen Ivers, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, among others have played in the past and may be added to the bill as the Labor Day approaches.

Come to Milwaukee in August for Irish Fest. I believe that it's the largest in the US. Tommy Makem is always there, and we've seen the Clancys, Gaelic Storm, Natalie MacMasters, Cherish the Ladies, Barley Bree, Schooner Faire, and more other groups than I can count.
http://www.irishfest.com

The Irish Cultural Center Festival in Canton, Mass is another huge 3 day event.

We are all forgetting the Wolfetones also - Streets of New York, Flight of Earls - all classics.

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions! I love the Dropkick Murphy's rendition of Finnegan's Wake! And it looks like I have alot of listening to do. I just might have to make it up to Milwaukee ths August...

Some harder to find stuff:

The Elders. If you have a chance to see them live you'll be addicted. Their CDs are good, live shows are better. http://www.eldersmusic.com
In addition the the KC Irish fest, they will be in Colorado the week after July 6-9 at various places including the Colorado Irish fest.

Gerry O'Beirne. We believe we may be related. He has one CD out "half Moon Bay" and some of his songs get performed by others. Mary Black for instance does a very nice job on his "The Holy Ground". I love his writing style which is very much his own which tends to treat the voice and the guitar more contrapuntally that the tradition chordal accompaniment. Find him at: http://www.gerryobeirne.com/main.html

Just some other very nice options.

Bill

Also try the celtic link on accuradio.com. That could keep you going for quite a while.

Bill

Sinead O'Connor's "Sean Nos Nua" is a collection of irish traditional songs and very beautiful. Christy Moore is a God in Ireland and you just have to listen to some of his stuff before you go -- my faves include "Don't forget Your Shovel If You Want to Go to Work" and "Lisdoonvarna". He has some really beautiful haunting melodies too. An absolute must.
Seamas Egan is great for contemporary trad instrumental music. I listen to his album "when Juniper Sleeps" all the time. Sharon Shannon's accordion instrumentals will get your toes tapping and your heart singing.
The Frames are a young cool alt/rock band. A Woman's Heart is a stellar compilation of contemporary Irish female artists including Mary Black, Maura O'Connell and Dolores Keane.
The Pogues are rip-roaring and lively (although not so much fun in concert) and The Saw Doctors are a blast. Don't forget old favorites but never old, Thin Lizzy: Whiskey in the Jar, Boys re Back in Town. Great stuff! Oh I could go on!...

We love the Pogues! When my late brother and I were little, my mother used to call us &quot;pogues&quot; when we were disobedient, which was most of the time. We never knew where she picked up that term, most likely from her own mother who called <i>her</i> children that. The musical Pogues are great, and I just LOVE the name!

Hello! My wife and I have seen Gaelic Storm three times and they always put on a GREAT show. We have two of their CDs and have them playing in the car. Nice to see someone else supporting a small band.

Eilis Kennedy from Dingle. A beautiful singer! 2 wonderful cd's: TIME TO SAIL &amp; the recently released ONE SWEET KISS. WWW.EILISKENNEDY.COM

look its really easy
to your laptop or to your ipod.....download for free
from www.clarefm.ie
2 nhours of trad music 5 nites aweek ... i listen to this in guadalajara... enjoy it...mick

I don't know about celtic performances in other parts of the US, but Milwaukee Irish Fest is awesome. I think this year its August 16-19, 2007. Chicago also has CelticFest in mid September which is also pretty good.

As you can tell from my name,I play the Irish harp and adore Irish music, Grainne Hambley is a wonderful choice, I've actually taken harp workshops with her, she is a lovely lady, very sweet, as well as a great teacher.

Try also Aine Minogue she is an incredible musician from Tipperary. Her label is called Druidstone. She plays Irish harp but her vocals are what angels listen to ( when they're not listening to Mozart) .
Her CD's are not only harp music but a wonderful mix of trad instruments, vocals and pure harp.
She has several CD's some on her own label and some on SONY. You can find the MP3 samples at http://www.minogue.com/listen/

Gaelic Storm will be in Chicago again the weekend of July 13 for the Irish Cultural Festival(??). We also love the Elders from KC

Sharon Shannon, Ger Wolfe, John Spillane, Ciaran Wynne, Niall Connelly, James Brosnan ...

Sean Nos Nos, d*a*g*d*a, Rory Gallagher, Brian Kennedy ....

Are we there, yet?
Bob

My favorite Irish indiepop band is still The Catchers, but most folks here might find The Thrills a little more accessible. They sound like a modern Beach Boys, all summer nights and ocean waves.

bookmarking

A few other names:

Matt Molloy (from the Chieftans): The Stoney Steps.

A local CD was produced here in Boulder CO called &quot;Sunday at Conor's&quot; They do a very good job on some standard trad and an absolutely beautiful arrangement of Moran's Return for guitar and fiddle. There are 3 vocal tunes that leave a bit to be desired, but the rest is very fine. http://cdbaby.com/cd/boulderirish

An Duchas has a CD out that is in the fusion arena. Some nice stuff there. Also Michael McGoldrick and Flook do some nice things in that vein

Bill