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Looking Back to the 2018
Spanish Peaks International
Celtic Music Festival
Before we look forward to the 2019 Festival lineup, last year’s Festival deserves an appreciative retrospection. In many ways, it was one of the most amazing Festivals we’ve had in our fourteen years. On June 26th the Festival leadership was working on the details of a summer fundraising campaign, including an event at the Cuchara Mountain Park. Artistic Director Pat McCullough had arranged for a performer lineup that highlighted individual and small group talent. We were busy working out possible combinations of performers for our larger venues that such a lineup might afford.
Then June 27th happened! What began as a small fire on the western slopes of the southern Sangres rapidly spread, producing an eerie smokey orange sky in Huerfano County.
Despite the strangeness of the day, few of us understood the scope of changes that were coming. Eighteen days later, all but the most northwesterly border of the fire had been contained, but in those eighteen days many in the County had been evacuated from their homes, and the rest (La Veta) remained on a pre-evacuation status. Festival fundraising plans were shelved, and daily concerns were focused on the spread of the fire, and the impact on friends and neighbors. Those who weren’t fighting the fire watched daily from whatever safe spot they had.
Then, after July 15th, those of us working on the Festival began to find our footing again. There were questions to address. Uptop, Cuchara, and Gardner, the venues that open the Festival each year, all amazingly survived the fire, but could they be readied in time? How would the uncertainties due to the fire effect ticket sales? And, oh yes, there were still those performer schedules, and the school program, to work out.
Fast forward to the third week of September. The concept for last year was “Traditions Alive,” the notion that the traditional roots of Celtic music continue to find life in a variety of fresh expression. Our vision was that the exceptional musicians we had lined up would find those common roots in each other, and then, by giving them a stage together, music would happen. And happen it did! Many, including musicians, said it happened “magically”. And, perhaps, nowhere more so than at the late night sessions. These sessions are always free to all, including professionals, semi-professionals, amateurs, and listeners. Performers such as Patsy O’Brien, Colin Farrel, Cormac de Barra, Dylan Foley, Joey Abarta, Máirtín de Cógáin, and Kevin Crawford led the sessions into the wee hours of the next day. It was a true taste of the musical magic that happened from beginning to end.
2018 Featured Performers
Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra
“I think Máire has one of the greatest voices the human ear has ever experienced.” – Bono (1985)
“‘Affinity‘ aptly describes the duo’s shared appetite for harmony-driven, rhythmically complex set-pieces as they mine both traditional and contemporary veins in pursuit of fresh perspectives.” – Irish Times (June 21,2013)
Heron Valley
“I was particularly impressed by the structure of their set, building up the energy incrementally in a series of waves, taking the audience along with them every step of the way.” Johnny Walley 4 August, 2016 Folk Radio
Regarding their debut album, “Roam,” “The instrumentation available allows for a lot of variation in the sets, and the band’s love of what it is doing is patently clear in the crisp, fresh arrangements….If this is what they’re sounding like now, then the future can only hold great things for them.” From Gordon Potter of The Living Tradition
n in Manchester, England, Colin Farrell was from a very musical family with parents from Co.Galway and Co.Cavan. Colin started playing the fiddle and tin whistle from an early age and won numerous titles at the Fleadh Cheoil. He began playing with St. Malachy’s Ceili Band when he was 12 years old, and was a founding member of the band Ceile, with whom he recorded the album Mancunian Way. Since then, he has made a name for himself performing and recording with an array of great musicians in Europe and the US, including such groups as Flook, Grada, Karen Casey, John Doyle, Tim O’Brien, The Elders, Julie Fowlis, The Michael McGoldrick Band and now with Lúnasa. Colin’s 2010 solo debut album ‘On The Move’ was named one of the years 10 best albums by The Irish Echo and his second album ‘Make A Note’ released in 2015 was awarded Instrumental Album of the year by LiveIreland. 
From Lúnasa:
Patrick Doocey, Colin Farrell, and Kevin Crawford
From Irishmusic.org, and other sources – “An All-Ireland winning multi-instrumentalist, Patrick Doocey is quickly becoming one of the most in demand accompanists on the Irish music scene today. Predominately self taught on guitar, Patrick’s exciting style on both nylon and steel string guitar combines influences from many genres.” “He has toured all over Europe, Asia, Africa and America and current performs regularly with top band Lúnasa and Ragús.”
From New York Irish Arts – March 11, 2012, on Kevin Crawford’s album, “Carrying the Tune.”“There are ornaments so fast and fluid they sound like a bird whistling in tune, and the transition between tunes in a set seems so smooth you can only picture Kevin turning purple as he keeps playing without breathing. ”
moves from driving rhythm to delicate and melodic finger picking, drawing an astonishing range of emotion from his instrument. “Like a good wine, singer/songwriter Patsy O’Brien has let his musicianship flourish…. throaty vocals, languid guitar.” The Irish Times
Dave Curley
“A talented multi instrumentalist and much requested singer, Dave Curley has become a force in the Irish music scene. Whether the guitar, mandolin, banjo or bodhrán, he plays with masterful finesse….His style is seductive….Oh, did I mention, he is a terrific Irish dancer, too…!” Maryann McTeague Keifer – Ireland Tonight Host at WDCB Public Radio
Tadhg Ó Meachair
“Tadhg, from Dublin, is an All-Ireland champion piano player and has been touring the globe with the award-winning Irish group, Goitse. He is renowned for his ability create dynamic and invigorating arrangements for both traditional and newly composed music.” TradConnect December 21, 2017
Máirtín de Cógáin
“Cork’s Máirtín de Cógáin is a seanachie, and there ain’t many left. He is a wonderful, total entertainer. Bigtime new talent! “- Bill Margeson from www.LiveIreland.com
’Connell was called “A National Treasure” by Ireland’s top music magazine, Hot Press, adding, “… a man blessed with an enviable turn of phrase and a gift for melody bestowed on only the few.”
At the 2010 Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival – Uptop
Ed Miller
“His humor and warmth matches his knowledge of Scottish folk music. But even more impressive to me is the love for song that he expresses in his singing. He honors every tune, seemingly caressing each in its turn.”
Jonathan James – Spanish Peaks Celtic Music Festival
Tanya has been the “leading lady” of song for the Spanish Peaks Celtic Music Festival since 2008, when Scottish singer Alison Bell initiated the festival’s informal singing program where participants could learn favorite traditional songs taught by Festival performers. That’s when Tanya began teaching her workshop “Take Your Voice Out of the Shower.” In 2009 Tanya was asked to help develop a regularly scheduled ‘Singing for Fun’ program. Tanya’s singing workshops have proven to be perennial favorites among festival goers, according to Festival founder, Barbara Yule. Although Tanya does not claim to be a veteran of the Celtic music scene, she does have extensive experience in teaching singing to students of all skill levels with interests across all musical genres.
2016 Festival Memories
“We are rarely rendered speechless by our experiences on the road but yesterday was one of them! For the last few weeks these HS kids have been rehearsing ‘Schooldays Over’, ‘Goodnight Irene’ and ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ and yesterday we finally got to sing them together. Ladies & Gentlemen, the Walsenburg High School Choral Singers!! After we took this photo we performed these songs live together in front of an audience, including the WORLD EXCLUSIVE first-ever performance of ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ Take a bow boys and girls, each and every one of you were amazing!! #proud — in Walsenburg, Colorado.”
~The High Kings
“I’m hoping you will forward this message to all the Board and the Volunteers who made our weekend so great! We loved it, working with the HS kids in Walsenburg was a highlight, as was the show on Saturday, and then those special talks and performances on Sunday! Thanks to all for your very kind hospitality, we will never forget it.”
~Paddy McPoland
Tour Manager
The High Kings
Dublin, Ireland
Defining the Festival
The Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival is designed as an intimate four-day gathering led by renowned guest artists, teachers, and scholars from Celtic countries abroad, Canada, and the United States. The Festival offers over 60 different events, including major concerts; two singing programs; instrumental workshops and master classes; a series of demonstration talks and performances on aspects of Celtic music, history, and folklore; a Celtic Harp Retreat; a newly established Piping Retreat; and sprinkled throughout are ceilidhs/ceilis and playing sessions where anyone can freely join in or enjoy as an audience. Finally, the friendly ambiance and spontaneous interplay between artists and participants spark the exciting sharing of music, ideas, and knowledge, all reflected gifts from the fullness of a rich Celtic experience.
We thank you for coming and sharing this experience with us.
The Festival Board
We invite you to embrace music that reflects the rousing spirit of Celts past and present, whose songs haunt us with their pure beauty or make us laugh with their bold humor, and whose tunes, be they deeply rooted or newly composed, are as delicate as the lilt of a flute on the air or as explosive and exciting as the jigs and reels that fly from a fiddler’s bow, lifting your feet right off the ground –music as compelling today as it was a hundred years ago.
