At a house party last evening, a fellow flute player was telling me about the time he was performing with two other musicians, and one of the audience, a woman from somewhere in the 'burbs, came up and complimented them on all the “Irish hip-hop”, but didn’t they play any “real” Irish music, like Danny Boy, at all?
But they were gettin’ jiggy wid it.
Just thought I’d share. 
…typical.
A friend of mine had a similar occurrence here. He and some others had a gig at one of the pubs for a while. Pipes, fiddle, concertina and Zouk. The first night they’re playing, the manager comes up and says “Hey, we needed you guys to play Irish music! What’s this stuff?” True story. Sad part is that the pub was Irish owned, but they hadn’t the sense to hire a manager who knew anything about Irish stuff.
Another evening, I overheard a punter ask his friend, “Is this Irish music?” THAT I consider legitimate. On second thought, maybe that was a critique…
i used to play with an all ireland trio champion banjo player from galway named , are you ready for this, sinead o connor. anyway, we were playing at an awards ceremony for a social service agency and when the bodhran player went for a drink he was asked " is that greek music that you’re playing?"
Some people never learn. One time I was listening to the Pouges and gave someone else a listen they said “it’s like country music” I was just like, no.
Seancahi & the Unity Squad
Real Irish hip hop, for real Irish homies.
Love it! What a sense of humor!
Well, since it was Franky Gavin I’d just call it “sarcasm.”
Royce
Seancahi & the Unity Squad – just checked out their website. Interesting. 