This was a night of Celtic music highlighted by a 60 minute-plus visit in WSHU’s Studio A by Burning Bridget Cleary, an up-and-coming Celtic band from the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania fronted by two vibrant and energetic fiddlers, 19-year-old Rose Baldino and 18-year-old Genna Gillespie, and including Rose’s father, Lou Baldino on guitar and vocals and Pete Trezzi on percussionist. I’ve been extensively programming Burning Bridget Cleary’s music since their 2006 debut album release, “Catharsis.” They’ve since issued a second album, “Everything is Alright…”.

The band was en route to an appearance at the Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival in Webster, Mass. The group will be making its debut at the Philadelphia Folk Festival on Aug. 14. Clearly, they are a band to be reckoned with in the future and Rose and Genna are indicative of what’s occurring in folk music today — the rise of a younger generation of talented and skilled musicians who have a respect for tradition but aren’t shy or reluctant about crossing musical boundaries.

You can discover much more about the group at www.burningbridgetcleary.com Tune in to the archived version of this show on your computer and find out the story behind their name. Our thanks once more to WSHU Chief Engineer Paul Litwinovich, who engineered and edited the taping of Burning Bridget Cleary, which we did earlier in the afternoon.

We “bookended” Burning Bridget Cleary’s appearance with a mix of new and old pieces, including two selections from Liz and Yvonne Kane who are performing at a house concert in our broadcast area this month.

Listen to the live portion of the show:
with RealPlayer
With Windows Media Player

• Artist, "Title", Album, Label

• Bua, “Johnny Henry’s/Martin Wynne’s #4/Miss MacDonald”, “The Harvester”, “The Shepherd/The Boyne Water”, An Spealadoir, Mad River Records

  ---------------

• Liz & Yvonne Kane, “Medley Of Jigs”, Our Music To You, Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society

• Liz & Yvonne Kane, “Air: Sean O’Dubhair na Ghleanna”, The Celts Play Connecticut, STIMS

  ---------------

  Burning Bridget Cleary: Live Is WSHU’s Studio A

  A Gaelic Song

  Set of Reels, including “Homeward Bound Reel” and “Mountain Road Reel”

  Song: “The Blacksmith”

  Set of Jigs, including “Uncle Tom’s Wager” and “John Nachton’s”

  “Jimmy Leg Set: Winnie Hills Of Leitrim/Jimmy Leg/Terry Kane”

  ---------------

• Burning Bridget Cleary, “Burning Bridget Cleary”, Catharsis, Independent

• Burning Bridget Cleary, “Ah Tusa Shi/Killavill Jig”, Everything Is Alright, Independent

  ----------------

• John Whelan, “Spellan The Fiddler/Gan Ainm”, “From The Heart”, From The Heart, Jar Productions