Stoneybatter Band Shares Irish Culture Through Music at Library

Four-year-old Maeve Kennedy loves to dance the Irish jig, the reel and any other kind of Irish step dance and she had her chance on April 3 as the Stoneybatter Band played its traditional Irish music at the Medfield Public Library.

“I liked it,” said Maeve, noting that she and her three-year-old brother, Kieran, likes Irish music and plays the Irish drum at home.  “I like to dance.  I just liked it.” 

The Kennedys were part of a standing-room only audience that filled the library to hear the Ashland-based band. The men had been playing music together at Stone’s Public House in Ashland on Tuesday nights for many years before forming the Stoneybatter Band about two years ago. 

Band members include George Arata of Framingham on the Bouzouki – a Greek string instrument that found its way into traditional Irish music in the late 1960s – Jim Buchanan of Millis on the fiddle, Jim Gleason of Holliston on the Irish (wooden) flute, Pelham Norville of Framingham on the Uillean pipes – similar to bagpipes, literally ‘pipes of the elbow’ – and Joey Sullivan of Rhode Island on the Bodhran (Irish drum).

“We play pubs and festivals and concerts here and there,” said Buchanan. 

The April 3rd library performance included traditional Irish music, original compositions by band members Buchanan and Gleason, and Irish folk songs including “Paddy’s Not at Work Today.”  The audience participated by singing and clapping and, in Maeve and Kiernan’s case, dancing. 

The performance was presented by the Friends of the Medfield Public Library. 

For more information, visit the band's website or find them on Facebook.