Saturday, Sep 19th @ 8:00 PM

Daithi Sproule & Laura MacKenzie

Dáithí Sproule is a guitarist and singer of traditional songs in English and Irish. He was born and raised in Derry City in the north of Ireland and moved to Dublin in 1968 when he went there to university. In the late sixties and early seventies through his work with the group Skara Brae he was one of first guitarists to develop DADGAD tuning (borrowed from the recordings of Bert Jansch) for Irish music. From 1974 to 1978 Dáithí played most nights of the week in sessions and clubs in Dublin, frequenting the Four Seasons in Capel Street and performing with many great musicians -- such as John and James Kelly, Sean Casey, Pádraig Mac Mathúna, Dáithí Connaughton, Paddy O’Brien and Catherine McEvoy. In 1978 Dáithí left his editing job in Dublin to play and record in the U.S. with Paddy O’Brien and James Kelly -- a second album followed a year or two later, by which time Dáithí had settled in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Here there was a thriving music and dance scene, and Dáithí played with the Northern Star Céilí Band, Miltown na nGael and Peat Moss and the Turf Briquettes. The 80s also brought recordings with Tommy Peoples, Séamus and Mánus McGuire, Peter Ostroushko and Sean O’Driscoll. It was at this time that longer-term partnerships also originated -- the group, Trian, with Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey -- and a friendship with Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, which led to a long involvement with the band Altan. Dáithí has toured all over the world with Altan, including appearances at the Albert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and the Sydney Opera House. In addition to his performing life Dáithí is a composer of tunes, many of which have been recorded, and a writer of academic articles on early Irish poetry, legend and history and of short stories in the Irish language. He has taught courses on Old Irish, Celtic culture and Irish traditional music at University College, Dublin, the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul and the University of Minnesota. < > Laura has learned from many noted tradition bearers on both sides of the Atlantic, and has herself been recognized as a Master Folk Artist (Minnesota State Arts Board). Of Scottish heritage (through Rankins and MacKenzies), her people came to the United States by way of Nova Scotia and Northern Ireland. In St. Paul, Minnesota, Laura learned to play traditional music at ceilis (dances or social gatherings) within the local Irish-American community and soon became immersed in both the music and dance. Laura and her colleagues played a major role in the revival of Irish music and dance in the Upper Midwest as the Northern Star Ceili Band, steaming up dance halls for seven years. During this time, Laura was also a founding member of a dance performance ensemble, the Mooncoin Ceili Dancers, and studied Irish step dancing heartily. Along the way there was a good measure of formal study in anthropology and music, but her best education has been with her comrades and favorite "teachers" -- the players of traditional music -- in kitchens, pubs, folk schools and dance halls across Ireland, Scotland and the United States. Laura has enjoyed vast and varied experience in the world of music while developing as a performing artist. She has been a production assistant for "A Prairie Home Companion", partnered a rare music import business, worked for a folk instrument-building business, struggled as a teaching assistant in ethnomusicology and toiled happily in the archives of traditional music at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. Eventually, the role of performer won out. < > Click below for more details or to purchase tickets.

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