“St. Brigid was a light in the darkest of times, a peacemaker, a woman who provided sustenance and a safe haven for all,”” notes Ivers, a Grammy Award-winning Irish American fiddler. “I’m thrilled to be joining other female artists as part of a livestream concert honoring this beloved Irish saint. May the perpetual flame that St. Brigid ignited so long ago, which still burns in Kildare Town’s Market Square today, live in our hearts and shine through the gift of music and community.” The livestream concert can be viewed on The Association of Irish & Celtic Festivals’ Facebook page.

Along with Ivers and Madden, a flutist and tin whistle player who has been at the helm of the New York-based all-female Irish music ensemble Cherish the Ladies since its inception in 1985, the following artists will be showcasing their musical talents:

The Bowtides (a trio of fiddlers who spent 14 cumulative years – never at the same time – in Gaelic Storm), Ashley Davis (an eclectic American singer-songwriter), Goitse (a multi-award-winning traditional Irish ensemble), Dani Larkin (a singer-songwriter and folk musician from the Armagh-Monaghan border whose music is inspired by the folktales she was raised with, intertwined with elements of traditional melodies and rhythms from around the world in a timeless tradition), Susan O’Neill (SON, an enigmatic singer-songwriter who fuses traditional Irish folk with rock, soul, gospel and blues), Cathie Ryan (an award-winning Irish-American vocalist and songwriter who was the original lead singer with Cherish the Ladies), Clare Sands (a versatile Cork-born fiddler, multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer-songwriter with deep family roots in Northern Ireland and County Wexford, whose sound is rooted in Irish traditional music), and Aoife Scott (a Dublin-based folksinger-songwriter who is part of the legendary Black Family).

The Association of Irish & Celtic Festivals (AICF) is a collective of more than 170 festivals throughout The United States and Canada that aims to bring the Irish culture – via music, education, food and dance – to those not in Ireland in the hopes that those traditions are never lost. Referring to the concert as “a celebration of the female spirit,” Erin O’Rourke from Indy Irish Fest in Indianapolis and an AICF executive board member, said: “We hope that by highlighting this Irish patron saint and her holiday and stories, we can entertain and educate audiences with a program that celebrates her, and some of the best female Irish musicians and dancers across the world.” More information about the St. Brigid’s Day Concert and AICF may be found at irishcelticfestivals.org.

Local, national and international touring artists whose performances are slated to stream @ https://facebook.com/michiganirish over the extended weekend include (in alphabetical order) The Alt, An Dro, Blackthorn, Ruth and Max Bloomquist, Bohola, Daimh, Doolin’, Ian Gould, Shane Hennessey, Seamus Kennedy, The Kreelers, One for the Foxes, Peat in the Creel, RUNA, Scythian, Sharon Shannon, Trout Steak Revival, and Uneven Ground. Singer-Songwriter Ashley Davis will host a songwriters circle featuring Dave Curley, Doolin’, Colin Farrell, and Shane Hennessey, while Shannon Lambert-Ryan, RUNA’s lead vocalist, will host a family-friendly presentation on “Baking with Babies.”

The schedule for the virtual festival appears below. Videos may also be posted on the festival’s Facebook page for replay later if you miss or want to see any of the acts again.

Thursday
5-7 pm Sounds Like Ireland Radio Program
8 pm Runa
9 pm Seamus Kennedy
10 pm An Dro

Friday
6 – 9 am Michael Patrick Shiels The Big Show radio show broadcast live from downtown Muskegon
5 pm Ruth and Max Bloomquist
6 pm Ian Gould
6:30 pm Songwriters Circle with Ashley Davis (featuring Colin Farrell and Dave Curley)
7 pm Dave Curley
7:50 pm Five Farms
8 pm Best of Scythian on Dan’s Wedding Day!
9 pm Shane Hennessy
10 pm The Kreellers

Saturday
12 pm Conklin Ceili Band
1 pm Peat in the Creel
1:30 pm Cathy Jo Smith Storyteller – Seanín the Piper
2 pm Kennedy’s Kitchen
2:30 Bob Harke with Kennedy’s Kitchen
3 pm Baking with Babies
4 pm Songwriters Circle with Ashley Davis (featuring Doolan’)
5 pm the Alt
5:30 pm Cathy Jo Smith – Questions about the Irish Wake
6 pm Friel Sisters
7 pm One for the Foxes
8 pm Daimh
9 pm Doolin’
10 pm CrossBow

Sunday
11 am Uneven Ground
11:30 am Deb O’Carroll’s Irish Magic Show
12 pm Runa featuring Eamonn and Cormac de Barra
1 pm Songwriters Circle with Ashely Davis (featuring Shane Hennessy)
2 pm Trout Steak Revival
3 pm Bohola
4 pm Best of Sharon Shannon
5 pm Blackthorn

American, Canadian, Irish and Scottish artists will be featured in what Cheryl Prashker, the festival’s artistic director and general manager; hopes will be “a magical online experience.” Nearly eight hours of pre-recorded music made especially for the festival will be viewable via the festival’s website (CelticFestival.ca), as well as its Facebook page (https://facebook.com/goderichceltic) and YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/channel/UCHRa3SZ8Y1wn88xYtNvR4Lg/featured?view_as=subscriber). FolkMusicNotebook.com, a 24/7 online music channel, will also stream the festival on its website.

From its humble beginnings as one-time memorial concert in 1993, the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival is now the oldest pan-Celtic festival in North America. In addition to a three-day outdoor festival showcasing some of the world’s best Celtic musicians, dancers and artists, it has grown/evolved to include a weeklong Celtic College and a Celtic Kids Camp, as well as a series of rural outreach mini-concerts,

The festival –- whose physical location is surrounded by the Irish and Scottish heritage reflected in the nearby communities of Belfast, Dublin, Kincardine, Lucknow and Seaforth — was founded on the spirit of community and connecting people with Celtic roots and exploring new Celtic expressions. It generally features more than 60 hours of live musical performances by dozens of artists and acts on five stages, ranging from small intimate ones to a high-powered main stage.

Postponing the 28th edition of the Goodrich Celtic Roots Festival to August 2-8, 2021
“was a really emotionally hard decision to make,” Prashker acknowledged, ”but we’re going all out with this virtual one.” Prashker -– who is also part of the Celtic roots group RUNA and a ‘percussionist to the folkies’ — noted that when she assumed her position with the festival two years ago it was her “secret hope to put the beautiful small town of Goderich on the world map … and now it will be on the world stage virtually.”

Here’s a link to view a short commercial for the festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fcUWQrzE0

The virtual Goderich Celtic Roots Festival 27.5 will feature pre-recorded performances by Ariko (Canada), Bourque Emissaires (Canada), Cherish The Ladies (U.S.), Shane Cook (Canada)), Joe Crookston (U.S.), The deBarra Brothers (U.S. & Ireland), Flack (Canada), Eve Goldberg (Canada), Joe Jencks (U.S.), Kruger Brothers (U.S. & Ireland), Emory Lester (Canada), Malinky (Scotland), North Atlantic Drift (Canada), Brian O’Headhra & Fiona MacKenzie (Scotland), One for the Foxes (Ireland & U.S.), Reynolds, Robinson & Lodge (Canada), and RUNA (U.S. & Canada).

“We returned to the festival the following year and, by that time, I had absolutely fallen in love with the town and the people, not to mention the beach at Lake Huron,” said Prashker. Noting that “There is an energy here that many say is what keeps them coming back time and time again,” she continued, “Each year after that, even if RUNA was not booked at the festival, I would come back anyway and teach at the Celtic College.” That led to her spending more and more time in Goderich — visiting and eventually moving there and assuming her current dream job. “It reads like a fairy tale (at least to me it does.), and I am so honored to be here,” she added, expressing hope that online festival viewers will get a small glimpse of the spirit and beauty of Goderich that drew her there.

The annual Celtic Roots Festival is run under the auspices of the Goodrich Celtic Folk Society — a charitable nonprofit organization that produces events designed to foster awareness, participation, and education in the world of traditional Celtic culture. Although admission to the virtual festival is free, there will be a virtual tip jar (celticfestival.ca/donate) and all contributions will go to the participating artists.

RUNA, a Philadelphia, PA-based contemporary Celtic vocal and instrumental ensemble whose repertoire features traditional and more recently composed music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the Untied States and includes both high-energy and more graceful acoustic melodies, was named both Top Group and Top Traditional Group in a Pub, Festival or Concert. Keith Harkin, a singer-songwriter from County Derry, Northern Ireland, who also is a principal singer with the popular vocal group Celtic Thunder, won two awards for Top Solo Performer in Concert and Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue.

“We are unbelievably excited and honored to be recognized with so many incredible artists,” said Shannon Lambert-Ryan, who fronts RUNA with her rich, vibrant vocals. “We are so grateful to all of our fans (our spectacular RUNAtics) for their unending support and for voting for us,” she continued, expressing thanks also to the Irish Music Association for its support of Irish music and culture. The five-member group, which previously won an award for Best Song in the World Traditional category in the 12th annual Independent Music Awards, is set to release its fourth album this spring.

Phil Coulter, a popular musician, songwriter and producer, who also hails from Derry, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award., while the Tommy Makem Award went to The Dubliners, an Irish folk band that played its final concerts last month, following a career that spanned more than 50 years.

A complete list of Irish Music Award recipients follows:
Top Solo Performer in Concert: Keith Harkin
Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue: Keith Harkin
Top Duo in Pub, Festival, and Concert: Ryan Kelly & Neil Byrne
Top Group: RUNA
Best New Irish Music Artist(s): Gothard Sisters
Top Celtic Rock Band: The Fighting Jamesons
Best Irish Tenor (individual): Emmet Cahill
Best Female Vocalist (individual/traditional): Meav
Best Sean-nos Singer: Brid Ni Mhaoilchiaran
Top Traditional Performance Show: The Chieftains
Top Traditional Group – In Festival, Pub & Concert: RUNA
Tommy Makem Award: The Dubliners
Top Harpist: Moya Brennan
Top Uilleann Piper: Kieran O’Hare
Top Fiddle/Violin: Cora Smyth
Top Button Accordion: Danny O’Mahony
Lifetime Achievement Award: Phil Coulter

The Irish Music Association produces, promotes and perpetuates Irish music through sponsored events, festivals, concerts, pub shows, and an annual network production, according to its website.

Artists slated to perform include Barleyjuice, Blackwater, Brownpenny, Burning Bridget Cleary, Dublin 5, The Elders, Emish, Four Leaf Clovers, Full Set, Glengarry Bhoys, Jamison, Seamus Kennedy, Kilmaine Saints, Long Time Courting, Makem & Spain Brothers, Carl Peterson, Piper’s Request, Poor Angus, RUNA, Slainte, Craig Thatcher & Nyk VanDyk, and Timlin & Kane. Other musical attractions during the weekend include pipe band, fiddle and drum major competitions. Irish dancers from the Irish Stars School of Irish Dance and the O’Grady Quinlan Academy of Irish Dance also will take part in the festivities, as will several Irish and Irish-American comedians.

North America’s largest highland games take place during the Celtic Classic. The U.S. National Highland Athletic Championships will include the lifting of heavy stone, throwing 16 and 22-pound hammers, and tossing of the sheaf and caber. Border collie exhibitions, a “Showing of the Tartan” parade, a Guinness “Pour a Perfect Pint” contest, a new children’s tent, instructional contra and ceili dancing, clan tents, and a Celtic marketplace featuring crafts, merchandise and collectibles also are on tap.

The festival grounds are located along the banks of Monocracy Creek and adjacent to downtown Bethlehem’s Main Street shopping area. More information on one of the most popular events in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, including daily schedules, may be found at www.celticfest.org.

Maintaining and strengthening the strong connections between Ireland and the U.S. is vital to Culture Ireland, which creates and supports opportunities for Irish artists to present their work at strategic international festivals, venues, showcases and arts markets. During the APAP Conference, Culture Ireland presented its fifth showcase of performing arts in New York – highlighting some of the emerging artists on the Irish music scene who are bringing new life to old traditions and pushing the boundaries of traditional music. Its New Music Showcase at the New York Hilton featured short performances by Realta, The Young Folk, I Draw Slow and The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, while Culture Ireland also lent support for showcases by noted Irish groups Dervish and the Alan Kelly Gang.

Realta, a young Belfast-based trio featuring dual uillean pipes, whistles, bouzouki, guitar, bodhran and vocals, kicked off the showcase with a set of Irish traditional tunes. A song about a guy who proposes to a girl he doesn’t know followed, and the group closed out with another driving set of tunes.

Here’s a link to an official video of The Young Folk performing “Way Down South.”

Highlighting the Culture Ireland New Music Showcase was I Draw Slow, a Dublin-based five-piece string band (with vocals by Louise Holden) whose joyous and rootsy original music fuses Appalachian old-time and Irish traditional styles with a dash of Americana. Signed last year to Pinecastle, the North Carolina-based roots record label, I Draw Slow cracked the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report folk radio chart in December with Redhills, its second album.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video of I Draw Slow performing “Goldmine,” a song about a bordello girl who falls in love with a fiddler.

Rounding out the Culture Ireland Showcase was The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. Named after a poem about a haunted canal lock, this five-piece outfit has a sound that mixes Irish folk with experimental/progressive rock, somewhat reminiscent of the Irish band Horslips.

Immediately preceding the Culture Ireland New Music Showcase, Irish folk mainstays Dervish, an innovative internationally touring band launched in Sligo more than two decades ago, performed a solid set of instrumental tunes and songs – including a couple that will be on a new album due this month.

The Alan Kelly Gang, an Irish quartet fronted by a master piano accordionist, delivered a strong set of instrumental tunes and songs that included jigs from the Celtic regions of France and Spain, as well as Ireland.

Solas and Cherish The Ladies Impress with Extended Showcases

Recalling the “No Irish Need Apply” signs that dotted storefronts and factories in many American locales at the time, Egan noted that those who settled in Butte (Shamrock City), a place once called “the Richest Hill on Earth,” included his great, great uncle, Michael Conway, about whom Solas performed a beautiful ballad.

Prior to Solas, McAuley Horan O’Caiomh performed a set of traditional and original reels, waltzes, jigs and airs — mostly from its 2012 release, Sailing Back to You. The trio features Solas members Winifred Horan (fiddle) and Mick McAuley (accordion), along with guitarist Colm O’Caoimh. Also sharing the bill was Maria Doyle-Kennedy, best known to U.S. television audiences for her role as Mrs. Bates on “Downton Abbey.” Doyle Kennedy is a soulful, Dublin-based singer who performs a mix of folk, pop and torch songs. She closed out her set with a rendition of the title track of her fifth album, Sing. The Duhks, a Juno award-winning Canadian roots outfit whose original music fuses such musical styles as Irish dance, American folk, Brazilian samba, zydeco, and old-time string band closed out the evening.

Another highlight of the APAP Conference was an hour-long showcase by Cherish the Ladies, the all-female Irish-American instrumental ensemble that was launched in New York City 28 years ago with flutist and tin whistle player Joannie Madden at the helm. Madden and guitarist Mary Coogan remain with the group today. Through the years, Cherish the Ladies also has featured several talented female vocalists who have gone on to pursue solo careers. As a special treat, Cathie Ryan, its original lead singer, who has released five solo albums and been twice-named Irish Female Vocalist of the Decade by Irish American News, reunited with the group for this showcase; she also performed solo during the conference. The ensemble was also joined on several numbers by four talented Irish step dancers — helping to make for a rollicking good time.

Along with Irish singer Maura O’Connell, Cherish the Ladies will be part of An Irish Homecoming, a new PBS television special of a performance filmed live at Bucknell University that begins airing in March.

Aoife Clancy, another former vocalist with Cherish the Ladies, also was at the conference showcasing with her group, The Jammin’ Divas, whose music is a blend of traditional and original folk music from several cultures. Also showcasing their talents during the APAP Conference were Irish American jig-rockers The Prodigals, led by accordionist and singer Gregory Grene, who also fronts Acoustic Mix; American roots and Celtic soul duo Switchback; and Colcannon, an ensemble that performs traditional and original Celtic music and has eight albums and an Emmy Award-winning PBS concert video to its credit. In addition, Padraig Allen’s McLean Avenue Band was accompanied Joanna Barry Connolly’s Irish dance group, Emerald Fire, in an extended showcase at an Irish pub and restaurant on Manhattan’s East Side.

Other Showcases, Workshops and Forums Abound

These showcases were just a small part of this year’s APAP Conference. The global performing arts marketplace and multidisciplinary arts business event attracted several thousand people who chose from a wide array of showcases, professional development workshops and forums primarily focused on the theme “Imagination,” which asked both speakers and attendees to reflect upon the innovation and entrepreneurship that make the performing arts integral to community engagement. As in years past, exhibition halls teemed with booking agents, representatives of regional and national cultural arts organizations, and presenters eager to speak with them. And much networking took place during the conference.

Folquebec presented its annual showcase featuring noted Quebecois folk groups Le Vent du Nord and De Temps Antan, as well as D’Harmo (featuring four of the Canadian province’s top harmonica players), klezmer group Kleztory, Trio Yves Lambert, and Maz (a quartet whose sound is a mix of electric jazz and Quebec’s traditional music). Folquebec’s founder and president, Gilles Garand, also conducted a 90-minute session on “The State of Trad: Traditional Folk and Dance Music,” during which he provided an informative history lesson on Quebec’s traditional folk and dance music, before inviting attendees to join him in exploring what can be done to preserve and promote traditional folk music of various cultures. He also promoted a Montreal Trad Conference, an international rendez-vous slated for May 9-12.

Rosanne Cash Delivers Closing Keynote

In keeping with the conference’s theme of “Imagine,” Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash acknowledged in her closing keynote that “Re-imagining myself as a performer has been among the most enriching and transformative experiences of my life.”

While writing her memoirs, Composed (2010), Cash spent considerably more time delving into performance than she had initially anticipated. “I came to realize that my life as a performer was so central,” she said. Cash acknowledged that her first experiences performing were with her father [the late Johnny Cash] and that she was initially terrified and clueless about her abilities. “I enjoyed these little guest spots on my dad’s tour, but I had no illusions of the life,” she said, noting that when she later embarked on her own career as a touring artist, “the performing experience was initially torturous. “She had stage fright and preferred being a songwriter. “Now,” says Cash, “I approach every show with a deep sense of community.’

“The impulse to people-please is death to an artist,” she said. “What you think you’re showing the audience is actually just a fraction of what they’re really seeing…The emphemeral nature of performing is the part I like most. Sometimes the only thing you have is a powerful instinct; you’ve refined your skills such that you can trust your instincts.” She observed that “Some career risks are like chess, while artistic risks infuse my soul [and] make me what I am.”

Maintains Cash, “We need art and music like we need blood and oxygen… Art in the larger sense is the lifeline I cling to in a confusing and sometimes unfair world… There is light in this world and it is always available – much of it through music.”

Irish Music Awards nominees for 2012 include:

Top Solo Performer in Concert: George Donaldson, Christy Moore, John Doyle, Tommy Fleming

Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue: Ian Gould, Luka Bloom, Tony Cummins, Mickey Coleman

Top Duo in a Pub, Festival, Concert: The Ryans Irish Band , Lilt, Switchback, Siusan O’Rourke and Zig Zeitler

Top Group: Cherish The Ladies, Lunasa, Gaelic Storm, Altan

Best New Irish Artist(s): Burning Bridget Cleary, The Rovers, The Fighting Jamesons, Ciorras

Best New Irish CD: Lilt – Onward, The Mickey Finns – Prayers and Idle Chatter, The Ryans – Songs of Irish Freedom, Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts – Urstan

Top Celtic Rock Band: Barleyjuice, Roger Drawdy & the Firestarters, The Clumsy Lovers, Scythian

Best Irish Tenor (individual): Paul Byrom, Anthony Kearns, Daryl Simpson, Tommy Fleming

Best Female Vocalist (individual/trad.): Katie McMahon, Chloe Agnew, Méav, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of RUNA

Best Sean-nos Singer: Brid Ni Mhaoileoin, Maighread Ni Dhombhnaill, Aine Meenaghan Len Graham

Top Traditional Performance Show: The Fureys, Celtic Crossroads, The Henry Girls, Fidil

Top Traditional Group in a Pub, Festival, Concert: Vishten, Guidewires, Slide, Dervish

Top Uilleann Piper: Diarmaid Moynihan, Cillian Vallely, Barry Kerr, Paddy Keenan

Top Harpist: Seana Davey, Chad McAnally, Triona Marshall, Sibohan Owen

Top Fiddle: Martin Hayes, Alasdair Fraser, Mairead Nesbitt, Kevin Burke

Top Button Accordion: John Williams, Liam O’Connor, Paddy O’Brien, David Munnelly

Tommy Makem Award: The Irish Rovers, Máirtín de Cógáin, Mick Moloney, Jimmy Crowley

Note: This award is presented to an Irish music act that best reflects the performance style, philosophy, and traditional approach to Irish music of the late Tommy Makem.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Patsy Whelan, Carmel Quinn, Joanie Madden

Note: This award will be given to someone who has dedicated his/her life to Irish music and continues to be an icon in the Irish music community globally.

The Irish Music Association produces, promotes and perpetuates Irish music through sponsored events, festivals, concerts, pub shows, and an annual network production, according to its website.

Fay “had a serious face but would have the rest of us in stitches,” Maloney told Irish newspapers. The Belfast Telegraph quoted him as saying: “As a player, he was fantastic. For instance, the theme music for Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, the first fiddle you hear is Martin. That’s the kind of magical music he leaves behind.” It was The Chieftains’ work on the soundtrack to that 1975 film that helped catapult the group to international stardom. Fay stopped performing with The Chieftains just over a decade ago, having reduced his touring commitments in 2001 before retiring the following year.

On The Chieftains’ official website, his former bandmates posted the following message shortly after his death was announced: “Martin’s memory and music will be with The Chieftains always. He will be dearly missed.”

A self-taught banjo player, who reportedly mastered the instrument by age 12, McKenna joined Ronnie Drew, who had one of the most recognizable voices in Irish folk music, and other friends playing some famously raucous informal sessions on Friday nights at O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin’s Merrion Row in 1962 . These sessions, which customarily packed the small pub, marked both the start of the Irish ballad revival and the birth of The Dubliners.

Initially known as The Ronnie Drew Folk Group, The Dubliners’ original members also included Luke Kelly and Ciarin Bourke. Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February, the group, which toured internationally and released more than 30 albums, was, perhaps, best known for its bawdy 1967 Irish hit single “Seven Drunken Nights,” as well as renditions of such rousing folk songs as “Black Velvet Band,” “Finnegan’s Wake,” “McAlpine’s Fusiliers” and “The Wild Rover.” Based on Child Ballad #273, “Seven Drunken Nights” contained risqué lyrics that initially caused it to be banned from radio play in Ireland. The Dubliners’ latest release was a two CD set, The Dubliners – A Time to Remember, recorded live in Vienna in September 2009.

Although McKenna had diabetes, was blind in one eye, and had experienced some difficulty walking following a stroke, he continued to perform with the group.

Noted Irish musician Mick Moloney credits McKenna with being single-handedly responsible for making the GDAE-tuned tenor banjo the standard banjo in Irish music, while Michael D. Higgins, Ireland’s president, hailed McKenna for having “made a major contribution to music and song,” noting that “His influence on and generosity to other instrumentalists was immense.” He’s been immortalized in Andy Irvine’s song “O’Donoghue’s, which describes the Irish traditional scene of the 1960s that was centered there.

(Here’s a link to a video of Barney McKenna playing the banjo in concert, accompanied by Eammon Campbell on guitar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scawc6Q9heI)

Although the tenor banjo was his primary instrument – and he also can be heard playing it on recordings by Boys of the Lough, the Chieftains, Christy Moore, and The Pogues — McKenna also was adept on the mandolin and melodeon. He also sang comical songs, sea shanties and other crowd favorites on occasion and was noted for the tall tales and funny yarns – often illogical anecdotes that became known as “Barneyisms” – that he shared with audiences during The Dubliners’ concerts.

“The band, his family and friends would like to thank everyone for their kind words and support,” McKenna’s bandmates declared in a prepared statement posted on its website. “Words cannot describe how we all feel. He was one in a million. The greatest tenor banjo player of his generation. Barney spent his life traveling the world playing Irish music. He loved it. The world loved him. May he rest in peace.”

Now in its ninth year, the festival will feature more than 100 performers, a mix of established artists and new or emerging acts from the Boston area’s Celtic music community – including fiddlers, flutists, accordionists, guitarists, singers and other musicians, as well as dancers. Their styles and approach run the gamut from dyed-in-the-wool traditional to more contemporary sounds.

BCMFest kicks off with a customary Friday night “Roots and Branches” concert at Club Passim that will feature a diverse array of the area Celtic scene’s talented young musicians and singers. Fiddlers Hanneke Cassel, Kimberley Fraser and Emerald Rae, singer and multi-instrumentalist Grace Van’t Hof and Irish stepdancer Siobahn Butler will join the house band composed of Eden Forman (fiddle, vocals), Abbie MacQuarrie (fiddle, feet), Jefferson Hamer (guitar, vocals), Neil Pearlman (piano, mandolin) and Nic Gareiss (feet). Also slated for Friday night is the ever-popular Boston Urban Ceilidh – a Celtic dance party – at The Atrium, featuring a variety of dance music including New England contra (The Reiner Brothers), Breton (Triple Spiral) and Scottish (Neil Pearlman and Friends).

The festival continues on Saturday with a day-long series of performances at Club Passim and on three different stages at the nearby First Parish Church, where a grand finale concert also takes place.

Musicians Nic Gareiss and Bill Wiegant will lead a tribute to Nic Jones, one of the most influential artists to come out of the 1960s-70s British folk revival, whose albums like The Noah’s Ark Trap and Penguin Eggs showcased his distinctive guitar style and his idiosyncratic yet expressive singing as well as his penchant for reviving obscure or overlooked songs. Although not even born when Jones was in his heyday, Gareiss views his work as “crucial to understanding where the trans-Atlantic folk revival – and I would argue, revitalization – stands today.” He believes “Jones’ songs, particularly his harmonization, guitar parts, and innovative accompaniment approach, have influenced countless folk singers, perhaps the most notable of this generation being Kate Rusby. In turn, these younger folk artists have set the bar for the standard and aesthetic of traditional English, and by extension in these post-global times, Irish, Scottish and American folk.” Joining Gareiss, a stepdancer and foot percussionist, singer and musician, in paying tribute to Jones, aside from vocalist and guitarist Wiegant, will be Laura Cortese (fiddle, vocals), Jefferson Hamer (guitar, vocals), and Lissa Schneckenburger (fiddle, vocals).

Others set to perform during Saturday’s “Dayfest” include: Bob Bradshaw; Amanda Cavanaugh & Gareiss; Chasing Redbird; Dylan Courville, Wells Burrell & Bob Jennings; Corvus; the Deadstring Ensemble; Fellswater; Highland Soles; Adrienne Howard & Emily Peterson; Katie McNally & Eric McDonald; NOIR; Neil Pearlman’s Scottish Infusion; Ken Perlman & Jim Prendergast; Hannah Sanders & Liz Simmons; Triple Spiral; and The Whiskey Boys. In addition, The Boston Scottish Fiddle Club and the Stoneybatter Band will lead open music sessions, while the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society’s Boston branch will demonstrate dances and afford audience members opportunities to join in. Also on the schedule are a “Kitchen Ceilidh” of Cape Breton song and dance led by Kyte MacKillop; a “Bawdy Breakfast” presenting a more cheeky, risqué side of Celtic music; and “McThriller,” a Celtic send-up of the music of Michael Jackson.

“Our feeling is, yes, let’s have a serious side, where we explore these vital, enduring music traditions – but let’s not forget to have fun, either,” says Shannon Heaton, who co-founded BCMFest with Laura Cortese. Heaton’s husband, Matt, and fellow guitar, bouzouki and mandolin player Flynn Cohen have organized Saturday night’s finale concert which will feature collaborations by an array of artists who are generally more likely to be found at sessions in pubs than in concert settings. Among them are Tina Lech (fiddle), Ted Davis (flute), Katie McNally (fiddle), Sean Clohessy (fiddle), James Hamilton (flute), Joey Abarta (Uillean pipes), Kimberley Fraser (fiddle) and Maeve Gilchrist (harp, keyboards). Heaton also will perform with his wife, Shannon (Irish, flute, whistle, vocals), while Cohen joins his “alt-trad” band Annalivia. Heaton and Cohen also will perform as a duo and, along with some of their guest musicians, pay tribute to the Bothy Band, one of the seminal groups in the modern Irish folk music revival.

“We’re looking forward to sharing the stage with people we play music with regularly, but also some of the more underappreciated ‘tradition-bearers’ and ‘sessioneers,,” says Heaton. “There will be a good sampling of Irish, Scotttish, Cape Breton and other music that makes Boston such a wonderful place to be a Celtic musician.”

For more information on BCMFest 2012 – including a schedule and ticket prices – visit www.bcmfest.com.