Little did St. Paddy know that his name-day celebrations would bring out everything from raucous pub-crawls to family friendly festivals. It’s a day when Irish taverns are packed and folks are drinking the emerald green beer.
In keeping with St. Albert’s laid-back lifestyle, Black Velvet Show Band is putting on a Celtic-style dance on Saturday, March 14 at Cornerstone Hall. It is a fundraiser for St. Albert Theatre Troupe.
Mark McGarrigle, the driving force behind both the acting company and the show band, explains that a typical play takes about $20,000 to mount. To pay for costs, the troupe relies strictly on ticket sales and individual donations.
The revelry starts with the McGarrigle Family Band, a talented trio that at the end of the ’70s won the Arklow Music Festival for two consecutive years. Aiden, the patriarch, is a ’50s style crooner who sings traditional songs such as When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Whiskey in the Jar and Bloody Road Dead. His wife Maura (bass) and daughter Paula (fiddle) accompany him.
“Bloody Road Dead is a wake song about a corpse and everyone is happy they’re bloody well happy he’s dead,” laughs Mark McGarrigle.
The Black Velvet Show Band, a 60-40 Celtic-rock band, was launched in the fall of 2014 and is a cocktail of some of the area’s sharpest musicians.
They include drummer Rodger Weir, bassist Ivan Mendozza, guitarist Lyle Hobbs, lead guitar Randy Allan, keyboardist Dwayne Allen, vocalist Natasha McGarrigle and Mark on tin whistle.
“The thing that makes us different is that we’re tight and we have a lot of fun. We’re used to getting crowds going and we have skits in the show,” he says adding that a mischievous leprechaun may make an appearance.
“We’re not only musically tight, but we’ve gelled as a band. We’re also unusual in that we so many singers in the band, we have three and four part harmonies.”
The McGarrigle Family Band gets the action going at 8 p.m. while the Black Velvet Show Band spikes it up a few notches at 10 p.m. Tickets are $25 and $20 for seniors. Advance tickets are available at 780-222-0102 or online at www.stalbertheatre.com.
Catalyst Theatre, now housed at Citadel Theatre, is mounting one of the season’s most anticipated productions – Vigilante.
In this musical spearheaded by artistic director Jonathan Christenson, the Black Donnellys emigrated from Ireland to Ontario in 1840 with hopes of finding a better life. James, Johannah and their children became squatters and soon conflicts developed.
Before long a feud escalated and any time a crime was committed, which was fairly often, the Donnellys were blamed.
By 1880, a cruel and vicious mob took justice into their hands and burned the family house to the ground. Five Donnelly bodies were found in the rubble.
No one was ever convicted and the murders remain a great Canadian mystery.
Vigilante runs until Sunday, March 29. Tickets start at $30 and are available at 780-425-1820 or online at citadeltheatre.com.
