In a recent thread, Jim Stone asked where he could get whistles in Boston. I was amazed at the results. I would have thought Boston would be a cornicopia of Irish music delights.
Thus I’d like to get ideas on what are the top cities for Irish Trad in the US.
Rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 on these three catagories: Sessions, Top Players, Instrument sellers. And anything else you can come up with.
I don’t really have enough experience to rate a bunch of US cities. But I can tell you that great places for buying whistles and great Irish music scenes don’t necessarily go together.
Case in point: Lansing Michigan. Elderly Instruments has a nice selection of good whistles they will let you try at the store. (And in general, it is one of the premier spots for buying traditional instruments in the US.) On the other hand, the city would be very lucky to be in the top 100 in the US when it came to Irish sessions.
Minneapolis, St. Paul Minnesota. I rate it a 5 for all catagories.
This kind of topic comes up often enough, can there be a page on C&F listing cities where there are sessions, whistlemakers and shops?
New York’s capital region has some of each. Plently of sessions, we have Paul Busman and Celtic Treasures in Saratoga. Did have Andy’s Front Hall, but they are going out of business in order to focus on concert promotion.
Dale, if you’re reading this, is it possible?
Mike
How about Chicago?
I think Columbus (or central Ohio in general) is very session-friendly (maybe a 4 on the scale?). I don’t have much experience, but I’ve heard other locals say that.
I don’t know specifically about Chicago, but if you’re willing to drive 2 or 3 hours south on I-55 to Bloomington, there is always the Whistle Shop. It’s like a toy store for big kids. I love it. On certain Saturday mornings they also have their slow sessions.
Will O’Ban
Washington, D.C.- Has a bit of everythings, sessions, music store(s), teachers, step dancing, ceili and set dancing groups, etc.
All the Best, Tom
The Washington D.C - Baltimore, MD area would rate a 5 for sessions, 5 for Top Players and probably a 4.5 for instrument sellers.
The DC-Baltimore area strongly supports Irish Traditional Music, I don’t know how it rates against other cities such New York, Boston, Chicago, or Minneapolis; but the support here is great.[/url]
Rochester, New York has a pretty strong IRtrad scene. At least two monthly music sessions and one singing session (two of the sessions are in a nonsmoking pub), weekly set dance workshops, a couple of ceilis per year, an Irish radio programme one morning per week, a yearly festival, etc etc. There are lots of immigrant musicians at the sessions, including concertina player Marty O’Keefe who was a guest performer at the 2003 Willie Clancy festival. The Dady brothers give lessons in several different instruments.
The Rochester Irish community also has a website: http://www.irishrochester.org/
I don’t know of any instrument shops per se, but I am sure there are whistles and bodhrans hanging out in shop corners somewhere.
Edit - oh yeah. The East Rochester High School has a Celtic Music society. It’s pretty good, and it seems to have made friends with Lunasa, as they come to play a concert whenever they’re touring the region.
I officially rate Charlotte NC as a -5. Yes, that is a negative 5. They don’t even play Irish music in the Irish pubs! I am alone… 
So, you can be the first. You can be the person responsible for bringing the music and culture to the area. Go for it!
All the Best, Tom
Your question caused me do a search for sessions in Chicago. I don’t know how old the info is, but I found this:
http://www.mcconville.org/main/chicago/chicagoFrm.html
http://www.paddygoez.com/sessions.html
Like I said, I don’t know how old the info is. It might be a good idea to call the establishments to learn if anything on the page has changed.
Will O’Ban
Fort Lauderdale is a Celtic wasteland. Not many Celtic stores, sessions, pubs, or musicians. This probably explains why do more recording sessions for pennywhistle these days. There aren’t that many whistle players to choose from. Most of the time, I’m hired for guitar tracks and bring the whistles along just to see if anyone is interest. Most of the time, they are.
Anyway, Fort Lauderdale/Miami would be close to the bottom of the list!
P3
Here is another link for Irish music sessions around the globe:
http://www.ceolas.org/pub/session.list
This link looks like it is from 1996. Some of the info is probably outdated.
Will O’Ban
Here in Fort Smith, Arkansas, it is probably pretty much the same as it is in much of Oklahoma and Texas. We have some pretty decent blues, country and conjunto outfits, but not much else. There is much more interest in Irish music in Fayetteville, a little over an hour’s drive away.
fugheddaboudit!!! nyc is it! alla youse udda basdids geddafokouttaheah!!!
Is 5 good or bad? If bad, then yer a scutterin eejit, Joseph. 
If good, well, that’s very kind of you, but…I dunno. In a lot of ways we are an outpost, although there’s some stellar stuff going on, too. I give the Twin Cities a 4 at best. Maybe it’s the bodhrans swaying my vote. 
An uptodate list exists at TheSession - eventhough I don’t like or support the bozo who runs the site ..ahem… but they do keep it fairly accurate.
Here in San Antonio there’s a surplus of good players and if you knew where to look theres some fine Irish or should I now say - out of respect for the vast number of Poms about - Oirish musicans living in the area.
Currently we have 3 official sessions - I am not certain about the details…> Google Texas Celtic Network.. - as well as several gureat house sessions and a few more in the making!
Amazingly, the Dallas - Ft. Worth area is not bad. Lots of pubs, a couple of sessions, plenty of musicians…some are top notch, and an annual ITrad weekend “Retreat” with lessons for various instruments at various levels, sessions, shows etc. Oh, yes, and annual major Irish and Scottish festivals. Plus a couple of minor ones.