C'mon, Eileen!

Last night, we attended the Eileen Ivers (if you don't know, she's a violinist -- or, more appropriately, a fiddler!) concert here in Augusta. I'd been looking forward to this for a long time -- had, in fact, purchased season tickets to the Pops series because of Three Dog Night and this. Of course, this week, having lost Butler and still dealing with grief, I really didn't want to go anywhere -- and I was afraid that too much mournful Irish music might do me in. Well, it was far from mournful, I'm happy to say, though, in the beginning, when only the Augusta Symphony was performing, the slow Christmas carols did make a few tears roll down my cheeks. But, once Eileen and her band, Immigrant Soul, took the stage, all was well. Lots of foot-tapping and hand-clapping -- Irish dancers from Savannah and the chorale from one of the local high schools made the show quite personal. After the show, Ms Ivers came out to meet the crowd -- Mark and I were able to speak with her -- she was so gracious and friendly -- she autographed our Christmas CD, which contains many of the songs performed at the concert. Ms. Ivers had also performed with RIVERDANCE -- we saw RIVERDANCE ON BROADWAY back in 2000 -- she was not a part of that show but it was RIVERDANCE which opened me up to the world of Irish music -- including my beloved Brian Kennedy. I'm adding Eileen Ivers to the list of folks I'd love to see again!