Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures! Touring in the US as a non-citizen can be very difficult. It has required some groups in Ireland to forego any such touring outside of large festivals that can secure visas. Or perhaps your singer’s passport gets damaged and a new one can’t be procured in time for a tour. So what do you do? You call me last minute and invite me on a tour that starts in less than a week! In all truth it was a lot of fun working with the folks in Téada. My bandmate Seán, from Bua, tours with them fairly regularly when stateside and I have made friends with most all of the members through the years. It did not take long figuring out song repertoire and a few places within the setlist to showcase a few steipeanna ar an sean-nós. My wheezy, old Wheatstone concertina had a more difficult time of keeping up with their signature tempo though! We started the tour in upstate NY at a sold out show in Beacon at the Town Crier and from there a twisty, snowy route through CT, RI, MA, ME, MI, and OH. Some of the venues were simply breathtaking—old theatres and churches and even a library built in the fashion of Trinity College’s own library! The pictures don’t do it justice but they paint a picture all the same.
