CEOLTAS   TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC

 

As early as the late 18th century, Irish immigrants arrived in New Orleans, setting up shops and integrating into the city’s world-famous melting-pot culture. While much of the music that can be heard in the streets of New Orleans today can be traced back to early African influences emanating from Congo Square, the upbeat rhythms of Irish music have not faded away.

Demand for the type of collaborative, pub-style communal jam sessions that fiddle player Richie Stafford regularly leads in Irish pubs across the city seems to rise every year as St. Patrick’s Day approaches.

But for Stafford, a carpenter by trade who found his way to New Orleans from his native Dublin in 1977, traditional Irish music has always been a part of his life.

 

“I’ve been playing this music all me life, basically, really since I was a kid,” Stafford said. “If you go to New York, or San Francisco, or England, or across, Europe, there’s Irish music everywhere. You can go just anywhere and play in a session.”

These “sessions” consist of any number of musicians—Stafford said anyone who shows up is welcome—and feature musicians playing everything from a traditional hand drum called a bodhrán to acoustic guitars.

 

Stafford is a member of the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Session Band, a loose-knit group of musicians from all walks of life that’s led by 80-year-old bodhrán player and retired design engineer Noel Reid. Together, the band plays a main show once a month at the Kerry Irish Pub on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. They also provide accompaniment for the set dancers that band member Debbie Cornett instructs in traditional Irish dance numbers.

Kerry Irish Pub owner Doris Bastiansen said tourists visiting the French Quarter often expect to hear traditional Irish music at Irish pubs given the city’s connections with Ireland.

“We are probably the only club in the French Quarter that currently has Irish music,” Bastiansen said. “I think that a lot of tourists that are in town do find it charming, and they do like to come in and listen to the Irish sessions and the Irish bands that play.”

The heart of the Kerry’s music lineup has always revolved around singer songwriters who aren’t necessarily big enough to draw a crowd at some of the larger venues in town, Bastiansen said, and traditional Irish music fits into that mold perfectly.

“Being in New Orleans, I grew up listening to all kinds of music, which is why we have all kinds of music at the Kerry,” she said. “But it is very important to have and support Irish music, so we do always have it throughout the month and of course all day on St. Patrick’s Day.”