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Sample Track 1:
"Paddy in Zululand" from Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Souls
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"Bunch of Keys" from Crossing the Bridge
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Concert Review

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Journal Sentinel, Concert Review >>

Eileen Ivers takes audience on musical world tour

By Elaine Schmidt, Special to the Journal Sentinel | March 16, 2014

You walk out of an Eileen Ivers concert reminded that you're a citizen of the world — a citizen whose face is sore from grinning and whose shins ache from two hours of unabated foot tapping, but a citizen of the world nonetheless.

Ivers, the Bronx-born-and-raised fiddler who took home the All-Ireland fiddle prize nine times, appeared Saturday evening at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield with her four-piece band, Immigrant Soul.

By the concert's end, the crowd was standing, bobbing and waving their arms above their heads, while singing and shouting along to a rambunctious, soul-infused, revival-style rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

How did that happen, you ask?

It's pretty simple, really. Ivers played traditional Irish music: the age-old airs, laments and dances that remain deeply and lovingly ingrained in Irish culture and followed that music to the corners of the world where the Irish settled when famine and hard times forced them from their homeland.

That music alone is enough to rouse a crowd, but the mix of Irish and the roots music of other cultures just plain gets under one's skin.

Between musical history and Ivers' own creativity, Irish music joined hands Saturday night with roots music of the Canadian Maritimes, the coast of Brittany, South Africa, Appalachia, South America, the American South and so on.

Ivers' playlist ran the musical and emotional gamut from heartbreaking laments and sentimental tunes to wild dances that made it really difficult to stay in one's seat. She played every tune with passion, the natural ease most people bring to simple humming, an in-the-blood sense of Irish musical style, complete improvisatory freedom and fun — lots and lots of fun.

Her band — accordionist, pianist and whistle player Buddy Connolly; guitarist Greg Anderson; bassist Lindsey Horner; and percussionist and singer Tommy McDonnell — matched her high-energy musical approach and blending of styles perfectly.

Ivers and Connolly shared some jaw-dropping, catch-me-if-you-can moments, facing each other and batting improvised lines back and forth. McDonnell added big vocals, constantly fascinating percussion and general musical mania to the mix, rousing the audience to a frenzy.

Five young dancers from the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance joined Ivers and the band with spirited, polished dancing and tremendous charm.

 03/16/14 >> go there
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