SHORT TOUR SPRING TOUR IN APRIL AROUND NEW YORK: CHECK OUT THE VIDEO!
Sun April 11th: DEXTER'S Tunes Tales & Ales, CT
Mon April 13th: Landmark Session, NYC
Thurs April 16th: New York Irish Center, Queens
Frid April 17th: American Folk Art Museum, Manhattan
Sat April 18th: Live in the Parlour at Fox & Crow, NJ
Sun April 19th: Brooklyn Folk Festival, Brooklyn
Sun April 19th: The Scratcher Sessions, Manhattan
I'm delighted to let folks know that the official release date for new records will be early August.
It has taken five years in total, but I'm very proud of the work and thankful for those folks who contributed ideas and even sent money for the vinyl production. I'll get those records out asap!
There are ten songs in total and musically this album has been very absorbing, as I’ve spent time learning to play new instruments: bouzouki (made specially for the project), chromatic concertina, and dulcimer.
The songs (ballads) themselves paint a picture that is influenced by traditional Irish and American folks song motifs and melodies. You’ll hear fragments of traditional songs throughout from both sides of the pond. The narrative is not completely linear but it does begin in Corcoran’s place of birth , Balbriggan with ‘A Man After My Own Heart’ (adapted from a New York Times article of the same title), and then briefly moves to New Orleans (‘Creole Girl’), and then on to the Five Points in New York City. Corcoran soon moves up to 40th street, and is the first to settle a shanty town on a high ridge of ground known as Goat's Hill (‘King Corcoran’). This soon becomes a home for over 100 Irish families newly immigrated. It’s where the Tudor City is today, and there’s even a Gothic inscription to Corcoran that says, “Here was Corcoran’s Roost till the year 1877.”