Calaveras and foothill favorites, Men of Worth, are back again for the 2014 Music in the Parks series. The lovely outdoor setting at Greenhorn Creek’s CAMPS Restaurant in Angels Camp is the location for the Wednesday, June 25 performance. Music begins at 6:30pm and ends at 8:00pm. Come early and bring your low back chairs, picnic goodies, or purchase dinner from the restaurant and enjoy the summer evening with these fine Celtic musicians and story tellers with your family and friends.
The folk duo, Men of Worth is Scotsman Donnie Mcdonald and Irish musician Jimmy Keigher. Their beautiful blend of voices and the intricately intertwined instrumentation is amazing for a duo. Their stories and interaction with the audience draws you into another world where you can let the stresses of your day melt away. They position themselves firmly at the extreme, traditional end of the Celtic music spectrum. Their tunes and songs are so authentic, so closely connected to their heritage, that Donnie Macdonald sings some in his native Gaelic; while Irishman James Keigher includes time-polished pieces saved from the oral traditions of his native County Mayo.
"Our music has its history in the crofting life of my Hebridean homeland and James’ western Ireland. It was a part of the fabric of everyday life and it came to America with the immigrants a century ago", explained Macdonald. "Now, we’re playing it again, to audiences for whom it could only be a generational memory".
"For us, the irony is we were brought up in Scotland and Ireland, and as boys we listened most eagerly to the music of America, and not especially to the music of own areas. On our radios, we heard Hank Williams Sr. and Jim Reeves. We wanted to see the Arkansas River, not Loch Lomond, and Reeves’ hometown of Carthage, in east Texas, had more romance for me than did the Isle of Lewis”. "Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Crosby, Stills and Nash influenced me greatly”, admitted Keigher, who as a teen was already performing his own songs in the Irish pubs where he learned his wit and humor. "But now I have returned to my own musical bloodlines, too."
The pair could not escape the emotion and tradition of their homeland song heritage. "We could not grow away from those sounds", said Macdonald, "so we have preserved them as accurately and authentically as we can, in our performances". "We entertain people with the real music of our regions; we have an ancient yet fresh musical story to tell".
The musicians each play a handful of instruments, among them mandolin, guitar, concertina and bodhran, a handheld drum. They are both married to Americans and live on the west coast. Keigher lives in Ashland, Oregon and Macdonald lives near Sacramento, California.
They have played concerts across the US, from Alaska to Texas. They also take guided tours to their own musical roots: leading folk fans to the western isles of Scotland and to Ireland’s heartland to hear the real music of the isles in its own home.
To get to Greenhorn Creek, CAMPS Restaurant, take highway 4 west out of Angels Camp. Turn left on Angels Oaks Drive. Angels Oaks turns into Greenhorn Creek Drive. Turn right on McCauley Ranch Road. Turn in to CAMPS parking lot (watch for the golf course and golf carts).
Foothill musicians, The Hot Dark will bring us their post new wave, sax and rock music on Wednesday, July 2 at West Point Elementary School Ball Field. For a downloadable schedule of Music in the Parks and other events presented by the Calaveras Arts Council go to www.calaverasarts.org or call (209)754-1774.