Get Jazzed for the Summer at the Jazz and Blues Fest

Don't wait for summer - get the shore fun started this weekend. Join us at

The 3rd Annual Pt. Pleasant
Jazz & Blues Festival
May 21 - 2 pm to 10 pm
May 22 - 2 pm to 8 pm
Corner of Arnold Ave. & Route 35 So
Point Pleasant Beach

This is a jam packed event with something for everyone - day long musical celebration, children's activities, lots of food, and wine tasting from 8 of New Jersey's premier vineyards. And of, of course, wonderful crafts from folks like us at Celtic Chairde Creations!

The event is free. If you want to participate in the wine tasting, it's $12. That gets you a sampling glass usable at any of the vineyards.

Get jazzed about the coming summer! We are! Mention this post when you come to our booth and receive 10% off your order.

Art & Music Make a Song; An Emerging Artists Showcase

Chairde means friends in Irish. So we love to share news about great projects our friends are working on. This promises to be lots of fun with some great friends!

The third and final installment of
Art & Music Make a Song; An Emerging Artists Showcase
will be on Friday April 23rd at The Nutley Museum.

Artists showcasing will include photography by Ken Miller, painter Caren Frost Olmsted, music by Jillian Tully & Mandy Heck (Akwarian Sea Rebel), poetry by Devyn Joseph Michael Barat and Candice Tomlin, and a film to end the night by StrangeDog Film entitled Kill Your Friend.

Please come and enjoy some great wine, great cheese, and more importantly, GREAT ART!

Date: Friday, April 23, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: The Nutley Museum
Street: 65 Church Street
City/Town: Nutley, NJ

Fáilte Lughnasa - Celtic Festival of the Harvest

Welcome to August! Summer begins to wind down and the fruits of our gardening labors are ready for picking. In Ireland and the Celtic nations of old, this was a great festival time - the end of summer growing, the start of the harvest.

As with most Celtic festivals of old, there was a lot of celebrating going on. Lughnasa was a day to honor Lugh, a Tuatha De Dannan king who is often referred to as an ancient god of light. There is some wonderful information about the Irish and Scottish celebrations of Lughnasa - both ancient and modern - at the All Saints Parish website.

This is a wonderful time of year to enjoy the fruits of your labors and cherish the

warmth of summer. I'll spend Lughnasa baking some bread, making yummy tomatoe sandwiches, and visiting our local farmers markets.

With the harvest comes lots of work - putting up fruits and herbs into jams and jellies, drying herbs, making herb vinegars and tinctures, freezing fruits and veggies. After the dog days of July, August begins the flurry of activity that leads to the cool of Autumn.

So Happy Lughnasa everyone! Let the celebrations begin.

Join us for Croi na mBan

Just a quickie reminder that Croi na mBan will be at the Watchung Arts Center, Saturday, April 19 at 9 p.m. Sara, Suzanne and Jim create such hauntingly beautiful music, it would be a shame for you to miss it.

Some of the songs they will be performing are:

Come By the Hills (which is my favorite!)
Beidh Anoch Amarach
Suil A Run
Si Do Mhaimoi I
Ta Na Baid
Roisin Dubh
Puirt a Beul
Dulaman
Thugamar Fein
Raglan Road
Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile
Song For Ireland
Fear An Bhata

and many more! To get a sampling of their music, you can go to their MySpace page.

Croi ba mBan means a Woman's Heart

My favorite performers just happen to be to very good friends. Sara McCabe and Suzanne Gallic make up the musical group Croi na mBan, which means a Woman's Heart in Irish. These two women have the most amazing voices, and when they sing in harmony, well, it's enough to make the fairies sigh.

I met Sara about 10 years ago, when she and I were in a play together. Her talent on the stage was astounding, she just glowed. Suzanne and Sara have been friends for years.

When Sara was moving in to directing her first musical in 2004, naturally she chose one of her best and most talented friends to join her. That was for I Am Ireland, a tribute in song to the amazing women that bind Ireland together. Sara not only directed, but created the intricate musical arrangements that made the show so magical.

Since then they have performed throughout the tri-state area, at the Celtic Fling at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair Grounds, at the Jersey Shore Irish Festival in Sea Girt, and other locations. They also performed together in another show directed and arranged by Sara, Ceol na Mara (Songs of the Sea).

They songs they sing are in Irish and English, many of them are sung in the haunting sean-nós (old style), which has no or minimal accompaniment. It is just beautiful to listen to. One of my favorite songs that they sing is Come By The Hills - it just sounds like a beautiful day in Ireland.

Sara and Suzanne, along with Sara's husband, Jim McCabe, will be performing at the Watchung Arts Center on April 19, 2008 at 8 p.m. If you enjoy Irish music - or just if you enjoy music, I hope you can join us. You can get a taste of their singing at their MySpace page.

After all, their dlúthchara (close friends), and this is Celtic Chairde - which is all about friendship!