Sunday, April 10 @ 7 PM PADDY KEENAN & PATSY O’BRIEN $18/15
Uillean piper Paddy Keenan is a legend of Irish music and founder of the Bothy Band. His virtuosity has led to the nickname “the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes.” More recently, due to his genius for improvisation and counter-melody, he has been compared to jazz great John Coltrane. Singer-songwriter-guitarist Patsy O’Brien plays regularly with Keenan and with Eileen Ivers. His original work crosses over the boundaries of Celtic, folk and jazz and his singing and playing are super fine. www.paddykeenan.com / www.patsyobrien.com
Saratoga is a really cool town. Home of Skidmore College, the ritziest summer horseracing in the world (as in Carly Simon: “Well you went to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won”), lots of really interesting restaurants including a great Thai/Japanese place right across the street from Caffe Lena. From Montreal, it would make a really nice weekend trip although you need to consider that the show is a Sunday night, so driving home afterwards to go to work/school the next day would be a bit of a drag.
Paddy is so good he takes away all the squeaks and squawks from the pipes. I appreciate the man’s genious and I love to watch his fingers, which are a blurr most of the time, but I never bought a CD, and it’s because of the flawlessness. What made Jimi Hendrix famous was the glorious noises he made.