Steve Holloway's Bodhrán Blog

 

A union bodhran player, wow!

For the past year I've been in the UK, taking a sabbatical of sorts at Alchemea College of Audio Engineering in London. Great people, good course, I'm looking forward to the next recording projects! :=)

I found this recording of a Solas concert from (I think) 2002 in Denver, Colorado at the Blue Bird Theater. I hope Seamus won't mind if I upload a brief excerpt from the concert's finale... it always made the crowd very happy when Seamus played flute, and it was great fun grooving along with him! (Go to MUSIC page)

I'm happy to announce that I'll be rejoining Riverdance, The Boyne Company, for their next North American Tour which runs between December 18, 2007 through May 18, 2008. Cities include: Fresno, CA Sacramento, CA Eugene, OR Boise, ID Spokane, WA Portland, OR Seattle, WA Calgary, ON Edmonton, ON Winnipeg, MB Regina, SK Duluth, MN Peoria, IL Madison, WI Des Moines, IA Grand Prairie, TX Waterbury, CT Providence, RI Akron, OH East Lansing, MI Bloomington, IN Aurora, IL Columbus, OH Newark, NJ Raleigh, NC West Palm Beach, FL Atlanta, GA Dag, I'm going to have to get my road legs back! :-)

It was shocking news to hear of the sudden death of jazz singer Zan Gardner, who was killed in a car crash. I had the pleasure of working and recording with Zan many times over the years. Rather than trying to describe her, her music and her spirit, please read this article about her in The Philadelphia Enquirer, they say it better than I can. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obituaries/20070506_Nontraditional_singer_became_Phila__standard.html Zan, you are dearly missed.

Just finished a three week reunion with Riverdance, in Chicago, Wausau, and Buffalo. Great to see some good friends, hard to say goodbye, but looking forward to getting home to Brooklyn (the journey will commence in about 5 hours.) I put a new audio soundbite up on the "music" page, of Declan Masterson, Pat Mangan and me playing a tune in the hotel in Chicago...pretty fun. It seems that I like to write these updates in the wee hours of travel days. Call it "myspace-lite", without the spam. Cheers--

Just played a fun gig at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, NJ with old friends John Carlini and Brian Glasman. Brian and I helped John start his own jazz group in the mid 90's, and we made a couple of fun CD's. It's been a few years since we last played, so it was like "gettin' the old band back together." :-) John is founding member of Dave Grisman's band, has done a great duo recording with Tony Rice as well as dozens of other cool CDs. If you like bluegrass and jazz, you've got to check him out. JohnCarlini.com Tomorrow morning I'm off to Chicago to work with Riverdance for three weeks. Looking forward to seeing old friends and playing Bill Whelan's music again - it's a great gig. Peace--

I'm long overdue for an update, partly because this winter has been mostly about preparing, instead of actually doing. I've been subbing on the broadway show "Grey Gardens" which has been very challenging, fun and rewarding. And I'll be rejoining the Boyne company of "Riverdance" in April for three weeks while they're in Chicago and Buffalo. That's about it, really, everything else is bubbling below the surface, somewhere in the quantum field of infinite possibilities! This is the first winter I've spent in New York City for over three years, it's been really great to be home. All the best! -- SH

Season's greetings! This past summer, my friend Bob Harris, a great guitarist and record producer, asked me to play on a swinging, jump-style song written and sung by Lucy Clark. It was a funny, tongue-in-cheek take on an Italian family called "Jersey Bada Bing Christmas." With the holidays upon us, and the endless repeats of the same old Christmas songs, Lucy's song made a big splash when DJ Big Jay Sorensen of WJRZ played it on his morning show. People went crazy about it, the phones lit up at the radio station and it's now the number one requested song at WJRZ. Other stations are now picking it up, and people ordering the CD's like pizzas (literally!) www.jerseybadabing.com