Gerry O'Beirne with Mark Dignam

Tickets are $12 in advance, and $15 at the door.

Doors are at 6 PM. Show is at 7 PM.

Gerry O’Beirne

Born in Ennis, County Clare, along Ireland’s music-rich west coast, Gerry O’Beirne is a renowned singer, songwriter and guitarist (6 and 12 string guitar, tiple, and ukulele, slide guitar among others).  He grew up in Ireland and in Ghana in West Africa, and has since lived in England, California, and Mexico. He lives now near Dingle in Co Kerry. His own compositions blend the passion found in traditional music with the freshness of contemporary song.

Gerry’s first solo album, Half Moon Bay, featured his own songs and instrumental compositions. Half Moon Bay was cited as one of the 12 best releases of the year by Performing Songwriter magazine and was chosen as one of Folkworld’s Top Ten Albums of the year. His second album The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar, was named CD of the Month on the radio show Echoes, and one of the essential albums of the year on the same show and was featured on the Irish TV show Nationwide. His latest album “Yesterday I Saw The Earth Beautiful” with fiddler Rosie Shipley was described as “"an extraordinary album with innovative arrangements and hauntingly beautiful songs." by Folkworld.

Many of his songs have been embraced by the contemporary folk community.  Maura O’Connell recorded Half Moon Bay, Western Highway, Shades of Gloria, and The Isle of Malachy.  Mary Black recorded The Holy Ground as a title track.  Cathie Ryan recorded Shades of Gloria and The Lights of San Francisco. Muireann Nic Amhloaibh has recorded Western Highway and The Isle Of Malachy on Daybreak: Fainne An Lae, and his music for Irish language lyrics on her new album The Small Hours.

Gerry has toured the globe as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys.  He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, and played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull.  He composed and recorded the score to River of Dreams, an artistic response to the River Shannon commissioned by the Irish Department of Arts and Heritage, and he has written music for film and theater.

Gerry has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion.  His performance of Western Highway was chosen as an audio highlight on A Prairie Home Companion’s website. (http://www.prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/20011110/) 

As a producer, he has a large number of albums to his credit, including Promenade by Kevin Burke and Michael O’Dhomhnaill (winner of the Grand Prix Du Disque at Montreux), Irish Times by Patrick Street, Man in the Moon and Donegal Rain by Andy M. Stewart, First Foooting by Anam, The Connaughtman’s Rambles by Martin O’Conner, Up Close by Kevin Burke, Lifting the Veil and Sacred Space by Fiona Joyce, To Anyone At All by Clandestine, Fine Small Storm by Jen Hamel, The Willow by E. J. Jones, Silver Hook Tango by Australian singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazella, When Two Lovers Meet and I won’t go home ‘til morning by Sarah McQuaid and Lumina by Irish piper, low whistle player, and composer Eoin Duignan, which was hailed “a stunning achievement” by Hot Press, Ireland’s foremost music magazine.

Gerry has toured in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, performed solo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and has taught musical composition from visual art at Swananoa Music Camp. He recently played on the new Lunasa and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh albums and his latest album with fiddler Rosie Shipley has featured in the US Folk DJ Radio Chart. He has been writing a new series of songs based in life in the Dingle Peninsula and this song collection was featured in a concert during 2014’s Féile na Bealtaine arts festival in Dingle. His songs will be celebrated in a special concert at Sligo’s Fleadh Cheoil in August 2015.

Mark Dignam

Born in Ireland, Mark Dignam grew up in the adventurous North Side Dublin suburb of Finglas, His father was a truck driver, his Mother was a typical Irish housewife of the time, except she sang around the house – a lot.

A noticeable vocal talent led him to dream big and to leave the neighborhood as soon as he possibly could, finding a very cheap (read - no heat!) apartment in an old Georgian tenement in the city center, at the age of 18.

First, busking on city streets for pocket change and exposure, along with his friends, Glen Hansard (The Frames, The Swell Season, Oscar winner for best song for the indie movie - Once), Mic Christopher (The Mary Janes), KIla (Irish Traditional supergroup) among others; they quickly became the darlings of Grafton Street, a well-known center, of Dublin busking,; counting among their audience such luminaries as The Waterboys, Van Morrison, and Sinead O'Connor.

Mark struck out on his own in the nineties, releasing the acclaimed Poetry and Songs From the Wheel in 1995. The album, named a top ten best debut of 1995 by Ireland's Hot Press Magazine, cementing Mark's reputation as a powerful voice on the singer/songwriter circuit.

He's continued to release records, from 1997's In a Time of Overstatement, a stark collection of spiritual and political musings, to 2005's Box Heart Man, chosen as one of WYEP Pittsburgh's top picks for 2005. Mark has been invited to open for, or tour with: The Swell Season, David Gray, Billy Bragg, Joan Armatrading, Richard Thompson, Mike Nichols (of The Alarm) among others...

Today, when he isn't touring with his band "The House of Song," or at home with his family, Mark is in the studio preparing his long-awaited follow up to Box Heart Man, "Re-Build," recorded live at Treelady Studios in Pennsylvania.