Saturday

March 9, 2019

7:30 pm

 

 

Shay and Michael Black are part of the renowned Irish musical family, The Black Family, and have been performers all their lives.  Shay has been a long time Berkeley resident, and teaches Song Repertoire on Mondays at The Freight and Salvage. Michael now lives in San Francisco and has also taught singing at various musical retreats.

Their internationally famous sisters Mary (http://mary-black.net/) and Frances Black are perhaps the most popular singers in Ireland and have toured extensively all over the world. Frances  has just completed her third year as a Senator in the Irish Parliament. (http://www.frances-black.net/ )

The repertoire of the Black Brothers (www.black-brothers.com) is very broad and includes old Dublin street songs, music hall songs and historical ballads, songs from the Irish and Scottish traditions, along with songs by contemporary writers. Shay and Michael are close harmony singers, with a special fondness for songs that include their audience in chorus.

Their lively performances include up-tempo reels and jigs, along with mighty fine dancing and other surprises, which bring added excitement to every performance.  With each show is interspersed with stories, jokes and humorous childhood anecdotes, audiences invariably leave their concerts smiling broadly and humming new choruses.

Joining the brothers on stage for this performance will be Eamonn Flynn (https://www.eamonnflynn.com/) on piano.  Dublin born Eamonn was the keyboardist on the 12 million selling movie soundtrack CD of the movie “The Commitments”.  The brothers regretfully announce that their long-time fiddler, Bobbi Nikles, will no longer be joining them as she has recently moved from the bay area.  Shay and Michael are close to confirming an excellent replacement so this will be one of the first performances by the “new” band.