Our debut performance as Stoneybatter went great. As a band it is certainly enjoyable to get up and perform. But what make an evening really special is when we have friends and the occasional unexpected guest step in for a set or two.

Last night we had both. Our good friend, Katie O’Neill, from Westboro, once again silenced the crowd with her amazing voice. There won’t be a night that slips by where we wouldn’t ask her to sing.

Another friend, Dan Mahoney, had the entire room singing along with one of his great songs.

We also convinced a very talented young fiddler, Liz Alexander, to grace us with a few great sets. All three helped us to mix things up nicely and infuse some great energy into the room while showing off the great talent we have in our own backyards.

During the later half of the evening the crowd swelled with another group of talented musicians and dancers that we would later find out had just finished their performance at the Hanover Theater as part of the Celtic Crossroads.

They also joined us for a few. First, Zac Leger, the multi-instrumentalist, joined us on flute for a lively set. I had never met Zac, but when he sat down he looked familiar. It quickly came back to me that I had posted a youtube video of him a while back, both because I was impressed with his playing and his cool capo. Here’s another nice video of him and some friends. Zac is on the pipes, which is what he plays with Celtic Crossroads as well. Nice guy, great player, keep up the great work.
 

We then backed a few of the Celtic Crossroads dancers while they entertain the crowd culminating in roaring applause for the dancers. One of them, Kristen, is actually from Middletown, CT.

To end the evening we were graced with Marianne Knight from County Mayo. Marianne is a stunning vocalist with Celtic Crossroads. She joined us to sing Caledonia. George and I did our best not to embarrass ourselves as we tried to back her on a song we’ve never played. You can decide for yourself about her talents in this video of her performing with Celtic Crossroads. Really amazing.
 

 
We, Stoneybatter, would really like to thank all our friends that came to the show and joined us for some all-around phenomenal music. I hope we will all get to do this again soon. We also wish good luck to Celtic Crossroads as they make their way around the U.S.