A friend of mine, Pat Broaders, has been telling me for a long time that I need to get down to see his new band. Last night that band, Bohola, played at my local. I had one of those rare Saturday nights off, so I went to see this band. I am not sure that I have ever enjoyed a concert more.

The lineup in this band is Pat Broaders on Irish Bouzouki, Jimmy Keane on Piano Accordion, and Sean Cleland on fiddle. Jimmy is known to be one of the very best piano accordion players in the world. Pat is known in Chicago, and around the world both for his uillean piping and his bouzouki work. He has played uillean pipes with any number of bands including Secret Garden, and his bouzouki work is considered to be next to none. Sean is one of the founders of, and played with for a number of years, with The Drovers (the band featured in the movie Backdraft).

My critique of the performance would be that these guys are damn near flawless. Each arrrangement consists of 15 to as much as 45 minutes of music. They will start you out at one end of the emotional spectrum, and through the skillful use of tempo changes, key changes, song selection, and tunes, they will pump you up, deflate you, wring you out emotionally, engage you, and then dump you out on the other end completely spent. As a performer meself, I am always impressed when a band that is primarily tune oriented can hold a crowd all night. But with Bohola, fully 90% of the people that were in their seats at 9 PM were still there at 12:15 AM. To say that they are masters of their instruments and craft is an example of classic understatement

Do not miss the chance to see these boys. You will be glad you did.

All the best,

Mick