– Irish Edition
6815 Emlen Street
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Tickets are available from the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s website. A discount is available for current Crossroads members.
John Doyle‘s gifts as a guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and producer have played an essential role in the ongoing renaissance of Irish traditional music. While preserving the tasteful simplicity of tradition, Doyle adds a contemporary edge, finding fresh life in even the most well-worn of tunes. His playing encompasses hard-driving strumming, inventive chord voicings, precise single-note runs, and powerful rhythmic effects borrowed from traditional instruments such as the bodhran and fiddle.
Born in 1971 in Dublin to a family of musicians and singers, John was surrounded by traditional music from his earliest years. His father Sean is a remarkable singer and collector of songs, with a vast repertoire of traditional ballads committed to memory. John’s grandfather, Tommy Doyle from County Sligo, taught him his first instrumental tunes.
As a member of Irish-American supergroup Solas – and a highly sought-after session player – Doyle pioneered a rhythmic, sophisticated approach to Irish guitar accompaniment, setting a new standard for the instrument. When the original members of Solas parted ways, Doyle embarked on a solo career, producing albums for other artists and touring as a sideman as well as recording his own material.
Violinist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Duncan Wickel is a “Considerable talent…[he] is as persuasive in a traditional Irish ballad as he is country fiddling or ripping through cascading classical flourishes or atonal double stops” — The Boston Globe. A former native of Asheville, NC, now living and working in the heart of Boston’s thriving music scene, Duncan’s reputation has been growing quickly on a national level as a wildly diverse and highly accomplished improviser, composer and technician on the violin. He is sought after for his stylistic mastery of Jazz, Irish, Old Time and Bluegrass music, captivating audiences and fellow musicians with his creativity as well as the subtle authenticity and chameleon-like ease in which he blends and changes styles.
