Altan

The East Belfast Arts Festival is on now, as is the Brian Friel Writers' Festival, and the Belfast Mela is this weekend as well as the Tennent's Vital concerts. Since there are 100s of things to choose from, we try to at least get out to one or two.

Tonight we heard Altan play; you can get a taste from this clip. I love traditional Irish music. The gusto with which they play and the way the fiddlers weave their music together is thrilling to me. Many of the songs are played in groups of three and the key changes in between the songs make my heart skip a beat; it's like watching a car chase in a film.

They played a slow song that took me back to my dorm room, freshman year. I was so homesick for Ireland that I would play these sad songs by Patrick Street, a Dublin band, and it just broke my heart. I was so uncomfortable in America and I wanted nothing more than to go back to Ireland. As I was getting weepy listening to Altan--35 years later!!--I simultaneously smiled thinking that I have finally returned to the place I never wanted to leave. I was having my own little Irish drama--joy and sadness sharing the stage.

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