Review: Celtic Fiddle Festival

Subject: Review: Celtic Fiddle Festival
From: Stewart
Date: 12 Mar 04 - 04:25 PM

I just heard the Celtic Fiddle Festival perform last night (Thurs 3/11) in Seattle. What a fantastic performance! The "Festival" is really a trio of great fiddle players - Breton fiddler Christian LeMaitre, Irish fiddler Kevin Burke, and French-Canadian fiddler Andre Brunet. The original group included Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham, but after his tragic death last December, the other two decided to continue and added Andre in his place. The current tour is dedicated to the memory of Johnny Cunningham.

The show began with Christian playing his exotic and highly rhythmic Breton 'festou-noz' dance music. Then Andre came on stage to play his highly energetic Quenbecois "kitchen dance music" complete with sounding board under his feet. Finally Kevin played his highly ornamented and fluid Sligo style fiddle music. And all of this was accompanied by the talented guitarist Ged Foley. After the intermission they all played together each other's music in a tightly knit ensemble. Even Ged picked up a fiddle and played along on one tune. These are three of the most talented fiddle players and they were in top form. It was really an exciting evening and one of the best fiddle concerts I have heard.

Tonight (Fri) they are playing in Bellingham, WA, then Portland and Eugene, OR on Sat and Sun, and down to California - Saratoga, Sebastipol, Arcata, and Chico the following Thurs through Sun. If your're in any of those places, don't miss them.

Cheers, S. in Seattle