Celtic Concert Celebrates Fall: Harpist Aine Minogue

Irish harpist and singer Aine Minogue (pronounced Anya) — famous for her celebrations of Celtic culture and sacred seasons, including the transition from summer to fall — will perform a Harvest Eve concert at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 12.

She will focus on that time between the veils, as the seasons change, exploring the Celtic roots of Halloween as it is derived from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

Bang the Drums Peacefully At Outerland With Entrain

Entrain’s Drums For Peace, a concert focusing on the theme of peace, love and unity, will be presented twice on Friday, Oct.3: first, an alcohol-free, all-ages show at 7 p.m., then an over-21 show at 10 p.m. Both shows are at Outerland at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.

Entrain’s energetic percussion-driven sound will offer the audience an explosive two hours of drum ensemble pieces and rhythms from all over the world. The full band will also be playing tunes from their seven compact discs that contain this positive message.

Chicken Out? No, Try Out For Nancy Luce Musical

On Sunday, Sept. 28, there will be tryouts for two original one-act musicals about Vineyard history:

Nancy Luce, The Musical was originally produced in the summer of 2007 as part of Children’s Theatre Workshop summer program, with a book by Dana Anderson and music by Linda Berg.

An Island of Women, Life on the Vineyard, 1850-1852, written by E. St. John Villard, takes place at a time when much of the male population was at sea whaling. Philip Dietterich has written the music and lyrics.

Ugandan Children’s Choir Kicks Off American Tour on Vineyard

Wearing matching grey fleeces, the children from the 33rd Watoto Children’s Choir filed out of the pews of the Faith Community Church Sunday, smiling broadly as they approached the altar. Standing side by side in a few short lines, one behind the other, the 17 children — along with four of their adult leaders — were ready to sing. When they did, the smiles on the church members faces matched those of the children.

Pipe Dreams? Irish Trio Brings Lunasa Spirit to Saturday Show

Irish musicians are melting the membrane that once separated the flute, fiddle and pipes from the driving baselines and hip-swiveling rhythms of modern music — and three free-wheeling members of the band Lunasa will show how it’s done at a concert Saturday, Sept. 6, at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

Love and War and Grace Potter: Musing on Rock’s Nocturnal Tour

Grace Potter is two hours into her summer tour and she’s already laughing. The woman who throws herself at a Hammond B-3 organ with a force that can only be described as feral retains her cheerful sense of rock and roll social awareness.

“Yeah, we’ve got a new vehicle,” she reports. “A sprint-er.”

Roots Icon Taj Mahal Hooks Pop Collaborators for Album

The laugh is still that down low rumble of thunder and a box car about to go out of service, and blues-folk legend Taj Mahal laughs a lot. It’s not just a survival strategy for the guitarist who burst into public consciousness in the sixties, but more the reflection of a love affair with life that has informed the roots icon’s journey through the shifting tides of American music over the last four decades.

Newfoundland’s Great Big Sea Plays it the Way it Was, But Better

“Newfoundland is a beautiful, dangerous place,” laughs Great Big Sea’s Sean McMann, about the locale that forged his band’s sound. Part shanty reel, part chiming pop, part sweeping folk, ten albums in, the little band from the island that was a shipping and fishing outpost between Mother England and Canada has let its isolation protect their individuality.

Cruz Lines: Entrain Original Warms Up Music Fans From Hawaii to Vineyard

Touring musicians are supposed to say they like the venue they’re about to play.

John Cruz and the Island?

You can’t shut him up.

“Yeah, I was in Amherst at University of Massachusetts and a friend I gigged with always summered there and told me the Vineyard was perfect for my music,” the Hawaiian born performer songwriter said by phone this week from Oahu.

“Two things kept me there. One, I fell in love with the place and, two, the bonito, man. I fell hook, line and sinker for fishing bonito and the derby.

Homegrown Festival Fills Cliffs with Music Heard by Too Few

Jim Glavin had a wonderful 60th birthday party on Saturday night. He was hoping more of his friends would show up, but the estimated 800 who attended the first Aquinnah Music Festival made Mr. Glavin’s 60th birthday magic. “I see a lot of happy people out there,” he said on Saturday night, looking over the lawn at the Aquinnah Circle.

Pages