St. Patrick’s Day is Tuesday, but the celebration begins this weekend.
The Paperboys are playing tonight, March 13, in Mount Vernon, Tim Noah’s Thumbnail Theater in Snohomish offers concerts March 14 and 15, and the Seattle-based Irish Heritage Association has its 34th annual Irish Festival, with music and dance, also Saturday and Sunday, at Seattle Center’s Armory.
If you’re only Irish on March 17, that’s OK, too.
You can drink green beer and eat Irish food during an Everett pub crawl Tuesday, moving from O’Finnigan’s at 13601 Highway 99, to Shawn O’Donnell’s at 122 128th St. SE, and then to the Irishmen at 2923 Colby Ave.
Up north, Camano Island’s South End String Band plays at the Leatherheads Pub, 10209 270th St. NW, in Stanwood on Tuesday night, and the Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce St., Conway, hosts several musicians.
A few details follow.
The Paperboys: The British Columbia group plays music that founder Tom Landa describes as being like a “Guinness with a tequila chaser while listening to an Americana Jukebox.” In other words, it’s a Celtic folk music band, performing music that blends Mexican son jarocho mixed in with Irish jigs and reels, a good dose of country and bluegrass, along with ska, soca, African highlife and reggae, zydeco, soul, pop and funk. The performance is at 7:30 p.m. March 13 at McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way on the Skagit Valley College campus, Mount Vernon. Tickets are $20. Call 360-416-7727, ext. 2.
Singer Colleen Raney and flutist Hanz Araki: Among the finest interpreters of traditional Irish songs, Raney, of Seattle and Portland, has released her fourth album, “Here This is Home,” recorded in Dublin. Araki is known for his innovative approach to traditional Irish and Scottish music. The son of a Japanese shakuhachi flute master and a Scots-Irish mother, Araki has made a name for himself in America, the United Kingdom and Japan. The duo will be joined by Irish bouzouki virtuoso Ryan Davidson for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration of Irish and Scottish music at 7:30 p.m. March 14 at the Thumbnail Theater, 1211 Fourth St., Snohomish. Tickets, $15, available at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door. Call 360-568-9412.
Carollo-Burke-Grasso: “A Celebration of All Things Irish” concert by this combo of pipes, guitar and fiddle is at 2 p.m. March 15, also at the Thumbnail Theater. Tickets are $15 at the door. The concert features Eliot Grasso (pipes and flute), Dan Carollo (guitar), and Susan McCroskey Burke (fiddle) and Richard Fynn and Dawn Madsen (vocals and Irish dance).
Irish Festival: The event is noon to 6 p.m. March 14 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 15 at the Seattle Center. Events for kids, music concerts and dancing are planned.
South End String Band: Members Monika Denasha on guitar, Jack Archibald on banjo, Bill Gum on bass, Barry Gum on mandolin and Erich Schweiger on fiddle, the band plays at 6 p.m. March 17 at Leatherheads in downtown Stanwood. As they say in Stanwood, St. Patrick’s Day is the day when even Norwegians are Irish. Admission is free, but be nice and order food.
Anna Tivel, Nathaniel Talbot and Eli West: A St. Patrick’s Day concert is set for 7:30 p.m. March 17 at the Conway Muse. Admission is $10. Tivel, a lyric-driven songwriter and fiddle/guitar player, grew up just a few miles down the road from the Muse. Now based in Portland, Tivel’s latest album was released on Fluff and Gravy Records. Talbot, whose music combines old-time guitar picking and the indie here-and-now, adds thoughtful, melodic vocal lines. West is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental musician who likes angular phrasing and non-traditional improvisation, but still calls it bluegrass.
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