Maggie's Wake, Grand Theatre

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This afternoon, Sunday March 17 (St Patrick's day) we went to the matinee Album Release of "Maggie's Wake" on the Auburn stage at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. It was a general admission ticket with a sold out house so we arrived early in hopes of getting good seats to enjoy the show. We ended up in the front row next the Lindsay's mom. I took a lot of pictures, as I often do, and have whittled them down to a few that are definitely worth sharing.

Maggie's Wake is a Irish/Celtic band with fiddles, tin whistles, piano, accordian, guitar, bass, and drums. The music is largely words by Tara Dunphy (vocals, fiddle and tin whistle) with many tunes by Lindsay Schindler (vocals and fiddle). The band is rounded out by Stephan Szczesniak on percussion, Andrew Kosty on bass, Dean Harrison on piano and accordian, and Kenneth Palmer on guitar. All of these are mature, experienced players who have done their 10,000 hours.

We have followed Tara for years — we are big fans of the Rizdales (an Americana/Country band with her husband Tom) and her other projects. Lindsay we know through her work with Rant Maggie Rant, a local/Stratford Irish/Celtic band that has recently run it's course. The Maggie's Wake band name is a play on Rant Maggie Rant — there's the notion of following in a boat's wake, there's also the notion of a funeral wake.

We had the CD well in advance of this release as we were early supporters via Kickstarter. I had listened to it a bit but the live performance really helped to deepen my appreciation. Tara songs, the stories, sometimes brought me tears (e.g., Maid of Fortune). Lindsay's reels and tunes had us wanting to get up to dance (Kate has a history with Irish dance from her childhood). I was particularly impressed by the percussion by Stephan — he's no ordinary drummer! I wonder if Ken Palmer, of Dixie Flyers fame, is any relation to Kenneth Palmer the guitarist here? While it was mostly acoustic guitar there was an electric guitar tune on the album that really impressed me. All of the music is worth a listen. They did a few tunes in celebration of St Patrick's day, e.g., a medley of South Australia, Tell Me Ma and Whiskey in the Jar.

I talked briefly to Tara and Tom during the set break. They were both aware of our travels and happy to see us back. I talked a bit with Tara about our Austin experiences; they are fans of the music scene there but have not been back since 2019. The album has a song about going to New Orleans, Louisiana, I know they've been going there lately. We've been once, in 2018, it is another music city worth visiting.

To top off the show they also had 3 young girls from the Sarnia Celtic Dance school who came out to dance! There was an "after the show" gathering/celebration at the Richmond Hotel that we missed.