Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Celtic Christmas concert peppered with Irish lore

Harry O’Donoghue and Carroll Brown will offer a unique twist on the traditional Christmas concert – a Celtic one.

O’Donoghue and Brown each has a solo career as an Irish musician, but a few times each year they get together to share the beauty of a Celtic Christmas.
They’ll do it again at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2 at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church.
Brown plays guitar, O’Donoghue plays the bodhran, and together they swap stories and Irish lore between making music.
It’s an informal kind of thing. They’ll segue from an Irish tune to a traditional Christmas song, or perhaps a piece of Americana.
“Both of these guys have really good stage rapport,” said event organizer Jeff Ryan. “They do a lot of back and forth, but they also interact with the audience really well.”
O’Donoghue and Brown first took to the road in 2001 after their first Christmas album, A Christmas Postcard, became popular. This will be their fifth year presenting A Celtic Christmas in Augusta.
O’Donoghue said he and Brown really enjoy performing together. On Friday they expect to perform music from A Christmas Postcard and Nollaig: An Irish Christmas.
Listen for It’s a Snowy Night, which O’Donoghue wrote for the former, and the American country tune Pray for Me, which Brown wrote for Nollaig.
The duo performs about eight shows together each year, mostly around Christmastime, O’Donoghue said.
“(The audience) can expect to have a great time,” he said.
In concert

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2

WHERE: St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church, 1420 Monte Sano Ave.

COST: $15, tickets at church office

WHAT: Harry O’Donoghue and Carroll Brown present an evening of traditional Irish, Southern and traditional Christmas music and stories

MORE: (706) 284-1531 or e-mail kilswah@aol.com

Celtic Christmas concert peppered with Irish lore | The Augusta Chronicle