Irish Music Stories Podcast
Music
About
The show about traditional music, and the bigger stories behind it. Host Shannon Heaton talks to musicians, dancers, and scholars about where Irish music has been, where it's going, and what it means to so many people around the globe. Whether you already play fiddle or know dance steps, or you don't know anything about traditional music, the emphasis of this show is creativity, community, and heritage.
Episodes
- Episode 92-Eagles and Eggplants
In Episode 92 of Irish Music Stories Podcast, host Shannon Heaton and flute player Kozo Toyota discuss stories and tunes related to a gold coin, a clipper ship, an eggplant, and a hornpipe.
- Episode 91-Doherty, Norah, and Ma
This episode of Irish Music Stories Podcast features singer Niamh Parsons and host Shannon Heaton tracing the source and evolution of a tune and its lyrics. They discuss how songs and airs transform through listening and shared history.
- Episode 90-Sweeping Through the Classics
In this episode of Irish Music Stories, Shannon Heaton speaks with Clare fiddler Sorcha Costello about a tune's origins and the lasting appeal of classic pieces.
- Episode 89-Singing Out and Lifting Up
Episode 89 of the Irish Music Stories Podcast explores the jig "The Morning Lark," discussing its connections to cartoonists and journalists and the significance of names. It highlights the enduring resonance and transformative power of th…
- Episode 88-Dark Mysteries Bright Melodies
Episode 88 of Irish Music Stories,
- Episode 87-Revisited Fairy Forts and Changelings
As magical new Irish music podcasts emerge, as dark forces swirl around the world, and as much of the northern hemisphere enters into shorter, colder days, the Irish Music Stories re-investigates lore and mystery surrounding Irish fairies.…
- Episode 86-King of the Bees (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). And in keeping with the IMS mission, she al…
- Episode 85: Red Rose and White Lotus (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). And in keeping with the IMS mission, she al…
- Episode 84: William of Orange (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). And in keeping with the IMS mission, she al…
- Episode 83-Copper Over Navy (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). And in keeping with the IMS mission, she al…
- Episode 82-Aristotle in Spring (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). And in keeping with the IMS mission, she al…
- Episode 81-Mapping the Perfect Maze (IMS Sidequest)
In this six-episode "Sidequest" series, Irish Music Stories host Shannon Heaton shares music from her "Perfect Maze" album (pollinator-inspired compositions for flute, strings, piano, and voice). In keeping with the IMS mission, she also i…
- Episode 80-The Winning Hand
When you're tracing a song through six generations, and you're digging into distinct versions of dance tunes carried by players from East Clare, you never know what card games and shipwrecks you might also uncover. This special episode—the…
- Episode 79-Kesh v Glendart
What is the U.S. Electoral College? And what does it have to do with The Kesh Jig and The Humours of Glendart? This election adjacent exploration of two popular jigs takes a look at the stories behind jig (and Presidential) contenders, and…
- Episode 78-Tools of the Trad
When you're making an instrument, you're forming something that can be used to design a melody. Or a musical life. This episode follows a precious flute's unexpected journey. And flute makers Patrick Olwell and Eamonn Cotter, piper Colleen…
- Episode 77-The Bunch of Keys
Irish musicians, and writers, and home makers can all benefit by learning some rules and technical skills—and by allowing a little spontaneity and flexibility. But how much great technique do you need? Does that get in the way of the magic…
- Episode 76-The Power of the Local Pub
Boston producer Brian O'Donovan made a lot of space for Irish music and culture. He was dedicated to sharing it widely. And though he presented music on formal stages and through his WGBH broadcast "A Celtic Sojourn," casual, public Irish…
- Episode 75-Betting on the Punters
Could traditional music sessions exist without listeners? Are the non-playing listeners in public spaces important for tune players? Here's a brief podcast adaptation of a video response to this intriguing little question! ________________…
- Episode 74-Leaning in and Branching Out
Communities. Forests. Families. All of these different ecosystems contain a lot of different components that weave and work together. And as people, plants, and pests carry on and creep around, rich and sometimes unlikely collaborations em…
- Episode 73-Fruitful Fells Part Two
In part one of the Fruitful Fells, we met modern and 19th century activists dedicated to making beauty available to current and future humans. In this episode, we learn how our heroes saved acres of woods and bushels of old ballads, and we…
- Episode 72-Fruitful Fells Part One
There are little creatures, trees, ponds, and pedestrians all over the earth. And there are bushels of ballads about the charms of nature. And while there are ecological activists like Mike Ryan and 19th century Elizur Wright, and song col…
- Episode 71-Missed Manners
The weekly Irish music session is a specific niche affair, with a particular code of conduct. Gift giving also has its own rules, at least it has in the past. As older customs like traditional Irish music and wedding anniversary gifts have…
- Episode 70-Navigating Tech and Writing Tunes
New inventions and technology can make life—and Irish music—more convenient, more accessible, and sweeter…. and more complicated. This episode examines a few innovations like the washing machine, the personal computer, and to the electric…
- Episode 69-Tea, Turf, and Wooden Spoons
Lunch routines, laundry, kid art supplies, spoons, and teacups are details of domestic life that don't usually make it into the photo albums, or the tune titles. But they shape lives. And in the midst of the thousands of jigs and reels out…
- Episode 68-20 Years of BCMFest
Presenting concerts can be about a lot more than throwing someone onstage. Matt Smith manages Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has been the central venue and fountain of support for 20 years—and is now the official presenter—…
- Episode 67-Hunting for Wren Tunes and Tales
Why did kids carry dead birds on sticks all over Ireland on the 26th of December? And what did this all have to do with first century Christian martyr St. Stephen? Just like traditional tunes, which can vary from player to player, the whol…
- Episode 66-Up in Smoke
Loss can spark achingly beautiful music. It can also spark new forms of creativity for musicians. This episode is a meditation on the stubborn insistence and the transformative power of creativity, featuring beautiful conversations with Em…
- Episode 65-Cutting Routes and Tracing Roots
As tunes travel they change. And to turn an old Irish reel into an old time tune can involve adjusting notes to suit different instruments, using different techniques… and also digging into the non-musical stories. In this episode I tuck i…
- Episode 64-O'Farrell's Trip to Texas
Beauty is in the eye of the (informed) beholder. Where many of us might overlook a grubby little copy book or an awkwardly named interlibrary loan, others can help us understand them as treasures that shine new understanding on Irish histo…
- Episode 63- Juice Box Sessions
It's really exciting and important to have kids playing Irish music. And it takes organization, skill, and willing adults to create learning opportunities for them. In this episode Annmarie Acosta, Lexie Boatright, Clare Cason, Oisín Mac D…
- Episode 62-Daughters, Maids, and Boys
Most Irish traditional tunes have names. Some go by many different names. So what's in a name? Do names help us associate tunes with people, or remember vast numbers of melodies… or is there another agenda afoot? In this episode, Colm Gann…
- Episode 61: Rounding up the the Tunes
When flute player and police captain Francis O'Neill published his first and most extensive collection of Irish tunes in 1903, he included a LOT of tunes. Nicholas Carolan called it "the largest snapshot of this music ever taken in its 9,0…
- Episode 60-Selma and Rose
Most of the Irish traditional jigs and reels I play have associations, information, history, and sentiments bundled into them. Even these dance tunes that have no words carry so much. And everybody who plays these tunes bears and shares mo…
- Episode 59-Shortcut to the Heart
Irish Music Stories is the show about traditional music and the bigger stories behind it, like how important, ancient songs and little short folk ditties lodge in the heart, not the ears… or the eyes. In this episode, fiddle player Séamus…
- Episode 58-The Astonishing Adventures of Shannon Heaton
Learn how and why Shannon Heaton creates the Irish Music Stories podcast, as Matt Heaton turns the mic around in the sunroom studio. Tune into this Old-Time radio (half) hour celebration of community, DIY ingenuity, and weighted blankets.…
- Episode 57-Best Laid Plans
Setbacks and surprises are inevitable. Weather and illness—and all sorts of other plan disrupters—are not always foreseeable or controllable. But when disappointment and disruption descends, we can regulate our reactions. Here's a short fo…
- Episode 56-Born for Sport
For many Irish musicians, it can be a tricky and essential game to stay active and find balance between artistic, intellectual, social, and physical pursuits. In this episode, Aubrey Atwater, Evangelos Stowell, and Pa Sheehan share tales f…
- Episode 55-Written in Mortar
Flute player John McKenna left troves of treasures when he recorded 78 RPMS in the 1920s; Na Píobairí Uilleann in Dublin helped preserve Irish piping; and Dr. Charles Heaton inspired his grandson to play piano with just eight bars of music…
- Episode 54-Banquet of Collective Wisdom
Irish Music Stories is the show about traditional music, and the bigger stories behind it. Episodes are often 40-50 minutes long (and 51 seconds). Here's a shorter installment. With help from Ellery Klein I delve into collective wisdom; an…
- Episode 53-Songs of Cattle and Copper
For centuries, traditional music in Wales have endured empire, organized religion, and connections with port towns in Ireland, like Wexford and Cork. In this special IMS spotlight on Cymru, Rhodri McDonagh, Ceri Rhys Matthews, Angharad Jen…
- Episode 52-Garden of Ballads
Plants can be carefully cultivated or can spread naturally. Songs, too, can spread deliberately or accidentally. Here's a small sampling of just a few of the song collectors who helped preserve gardens of old English, Scottish, and Irish b…
- Episode 51-Depot of Expected Needs
If you want to share music with folks outside of your home, you gotta carry your instruments and gear (unless you're live-streaming). And if you want to share podcast episodes along with show notes and other extras, you gotta build a site…
- Episode 50-Framing the Stories
How much power does a backdrop have? As the Irish Music Stories production team works to assemble episodes and bonus materials, Shannon explores the wooded hills of Medford, Massachusetts to find visual and organizational surrounds that lo…
- Episode 49-The Naming of Birds
After a horrific week of social unrest in the U.S., and as Irish Music Stories begins a major overhaul, host Shannon Heaton offers a meditation on how cataloging and organizing can soothe the soul. There's also plenty of music in this epis…
- Episode 48 Trailer
Trailer for the December 2020 episode of Irish Music Stories .
- Episode 48-Between the Tunes
What's up with stage banter? And why all the joking around between tunes in a session? Explore the on- and offstage chat that surrounds traditional music with Máirtín de Cógáin, Paddy League, Joanie Madden, Rus Bradburd, Liz Carroll, and J…
- Episode 47-The Myth of Tragedy
How do new traditional Irish and Scottish tunes come together? How do composers conjure melodies? Composers Liz Carroll, Dáithí Sproule, and Katie McNally share thoughts on creativity, the tune writing process, and the myths behind the mus…
- Episode 46-Ancient Tongues, Modern Times
Learning just a few words in Gaelic is mannerly when visiting Ireland and Scotland. And it can be a way IN to cultural values and humor. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Séamus Ó Flatharta, Ciarán Bolger, Michael Coult, Julie Fowlis, Mary Jane Lamond…
- Episode 45-Trad in the Classroom
There's no definitive Irish or Scottish music method book. A lot of seasoned practitioners learned their music in kitchens and pubs. So how do they bring that immersive, social learning approach into the classroom? In this episode, June Mc…
- Episode 44-Not Easy Playing Green
The topic of sustainable travel for touring musicians has been reframed, as Covid-19 has cancelled most music live music events for an unforeseeable amount of time. But as activity kicks up again, conversations about responsible, viable, g…