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“The new Celtic royalty” (The Boston Herald) returns to our stage for another lively and joyous Celtic holiday celebration! One of the most influential bands in the history of traditional music, Lúnasa has sold over a quarter of a million records and performed over 2,000 shows across 36 countries. Their complex arrangements and unique sound have reshaped the boundaries of traditional music and energized audiences the world over. Collaborations with singers Natalie Merchant, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and Tim O’Brien and high-profile concerts at The Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Glastonbury Festival, and Bercy Arena Paris have broadened the band’s audience and cemented its place at the forefront of contemporary Irish music. Named for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. Its members have helped form the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade. Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys, and later he, with guitarist Donogh Hennessy, would form the dynamic rhythm section of The Sharon Shannon Band; Ed Boyd (Flook, Michael McGoldrick Band) has recently replaced Hennessy; fiddler Sean Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Donal Lunny’s Coolfin; Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland played with the acclaimed traditional group Moving Cloud; and piper Cillian Vallely of the famous Vallely artistic clan has performed with Riverdance and recently recorded with Bruce Springsteen. Folk Roots magazine has rightly termed them an “Irish music dream team.”
