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‘Very charismatic and very authentic’: Irish band Caladh Nua coming to IUP in March

Photo courtesy of Michael Meade/ Caladh Nua consists (from left) Brian Mooney on banjo, Paddy Tutty on fiddle, viola and bodhran, Lisa Butler on lead vocals and fiddle, Derek Morrissey on button accordion and Caoimhín O Fearghail on vocals, guitar and flute.

The five band members promise to transport you to their roots in southern Ireland with music and song that reflect centuries of tradition with a contemporary flair.

Caladh Nua, which is Gaelic for “new harbor,” will appear in concert at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Gorell Recital Hall at 7 p.m. on March 5. It is the band’s fifth annual tour in the United States, which it takes every March, band member Derek Morrissey said last week from his Ireland home.

“It’s the highlight of our year,” he said, adding that it will be the band’s first trip to Pennsylvania. “Our American audiences absolutely love Irish music. … (They) really get into it, and it helps us relax and do a better job.”

The concert is part of IUP’s Lively Arts series, which routinely brings international talent to campus, said executive director Hank Knerr, noting that other programs just this season included a musical from India and a dance company from the Philippines.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had an Irish performer; the last one was maybe five years ago,” he said. “Celtic music and Irish music and all that genre are pretty popular almost anywhere in the country.”

Knerr said he heard Caladh Nua’s music at a conference and was sold.

“They’re very charismatic and very authentic,” he said, adding that with the band’s availability just prior to St. Patrick’s Day and Spring Break, “everything seemed to fall together.”

The band includes Morrissey on the button accordion; Brian Mooney on the banjo, bouzouki and whistles; Lisa Butler, lead vocals and on the fiddle; Paddy Tutty on the fiddle, viola and bodhran; and Caoimhín O Fearghail, vocals and on the guitar and flute. They hail from Carlow, Waterford, Kerry and Kilkenny and have played for audiences in Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, Berlin, Mumbai and others, including for the president of Ireland.

In a delightful brogue, Morrissey explained that there are several reasons for the popularity of Irish music in the United States.

“There’s an awful lot of heritage there that is Irish and they want to discover that,” he said.

But mostly it’s the nature of the music that is so captivating, Morrissey said.

“I think it’s the rawness of Irish music that people love. It’s completely spontaneous,” he said. “Tunes are written out, but you have variations on it. … No one really plays the same. That’s what makes it cooler.”

For example, one fiddler might be more aggressive with his bow than another and they’ll sound differently, he said.

“Personalities really come out in the way we play,” he added.

Morrissey, 30, said he has played the button accordion since he was 10; it is distinguished from other typical accordions that have piano keys.

He hooked up with other band members to form Caladh Nua in 2009. It released its third album, “Free and Easy” in Ireland just prior to Christmas, and the upcoming American tour will be the “launch in the States,” he said.

Butler does most of the singing. But O Fearghail will do a lot of traditional singing and knows the Irish language better than the other band members, Morrissey said. Ironically, O Fearghail was born in Chicago — the only American in the group — but moved at an early age to a “Gaeltacht,” or an area where Irish — not English — is the community language.

“So he knows the traditions better than those of us born here,” Morrissey said. “But Lisa is our main singer.”

After their three-week American tour is up in mid-March, the group will return to Ireland and mostly go their separate ways to play with different groups and at summer festivals all over Europe, as well as the United States.

“We’re really busy in the summer with outdoor festivals, so this tour is a really good start to our year,” Morrissey said.

“It helps that people get the music. They really do.”

After the concert at the “intimate” recital hall at IUP, according to Knerr, the band will set up at The Coney at 642 Philadelphia St. in downtown Indiana for a jam session. Concert tickets allow for free entry to the jam session, where Irish food and drinks will be available for an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.

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If you go

What: Caladh Nua

Where: Gorell Recital Hall, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

When: 7 p.m. March 5

Admission: $12 to $22

Tickets/more information: www.IUP.edu/LivelyArts

Starting at $2.99/week.

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