Laune Clippings

what they're saying about

Laune Concerts...

"Last Sunday night, an Irish promoter lured me off the couch to hear fiddler Liz Knowles and her husband, a piper, play at the brewery ... The back hall of the second-floor sports bar at the Appalachian Brewing Company is stark in a brick-wall, urban art gallery way. With a platform stage and sound system, it's a cozy concert box for a crowd of a hundred or so. Easy access to some of the finest beer brewed in Harrisburg is not to be dismissed as an attribute. Nor as a complication. ... Still, sitting in that corner of Harrisburg, Pa. - often named to the Guinness Records' list of the Ten Dullest Towns in America - was a pleasure. ... The Forum has an impressive formality and there is an easy charm to Whitaker's performance theater, but it's great to have smaller settings." Pat Carroll (Harrisburg Patriot-News) what they're saying about the Laune Rangers to read reviews of LAUNIE TUNES, go to: Rambles or go to Soundbytes' album review page and look for the Laune Rangers "The thing about the musicians at the weekend Celtic festival was that they enjoyed making their traditional Irish and Scottish music so much - just as much as we enjoyed listening to it. [Jamie O'Brien] grinned broadly as if the huge smile were a permanent part of his anatomy, while he fingered the guitar and provided commentary for their duet. [Cara Kelly] played the fiddle with her whole self - eyes, ears, mouth, hair, arms, hips, legs, feet ... and heart. Their repertoire included jigs and reels: sea-faring songs and highlanders' ballads of sailors long gone, lovers long lost and rebels long dead. During one pair of reels requiring a complicated run of repetitive bowing and fingering, her entire torso followed bow, hand, elbow, arm and shoulder into the flow of the tune, which was named "Buttermilk", if I recall correctly. There was a point at which we feared she would fall off her high, platform-soled shoes and right into her fiddle, but the music was so captivating that it carried us all right along with her to the next trill." Eileen Graham (Harrisburg Patriot-News) * * * "Traditional music is very much alive in the hands of the 20- and 30-plus artists on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps more so than at any time in its history. Locally, Philly can look proudly upon Broadside Electric, Run of the Mill, and a number of fine performers. ... The English folk scene went into serious hibernation with Sandy [Denny]'s untimely passing... Most of that hibernation came to a close with the emergence of an English folk movement that was equal parts Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel and Maddy Prior. Artists like Eliza Carthy, our own adopted Jamie O'Brien, the phenomenal Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts, Flook!, Kathryn Tickell, The Kings of Calicutt and most recently Yorkshire's Chris Sherburn in partnership with Galway's Denny Bartley have not just revived England's flower, but sown a whole new garden." Pol O Dubhthaigh (Irish Edition) * * * "...thank you for doing such a wonderful job providing the music for my party. Your music was the perfect touch to the evening..." Yet another satisfied customer! * * * "'Cause she [Cara] is [ever so] brilliant!" John Brennan (Actually, those weren't his EXACT words, but they're close enough) * * * "If anyone around these parts can play Irish guitar better than Jamie O'Brien then at least I know I have lovelier legs!" Jamie O'Brien now go home