Just a word of thanks to three outstanding musicians. Among the guest artists at the Woody Guthrie Birthday Bash in New York City last night (July 15, 2001) were Larry Otway, Gina Tlamsa, and Eric Levine, three members of Sorcha Dorcha. From the little I know of Irish Gaelic, the name is oxymoronic, meaning something like Bright Darkness. Anyway, Larry, Gina, and Eric first performed "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon" ("Deportees") like we have never heard it done before. On the second go-around of the round robin, they held the audience spellbound with "Amadou Diallo," Larry's original composition about the African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 police bullets as he stood in the vestibule of his own apartment building.

If Larry, Gina, and Eric are any indication of what the entire group is like, then Sorcha Dorcha is a band worth hearing again and again.


--- Steve