Banish Misfortune is our group of musicians in Western Massachusetts, and we play traditional music from Ireland. Our instrumentation includes fiddle, concertina, mandolin, accordion, flute, bouzouki, whistle and guitar, with which we perform rousing sets of jigs, reels, hornpipes, waltzes, polkas and airs, as well as the occasional inspired song or accompanied Irish poem. All our members hail from western New England, some having played together for decades.
David Brule (fiddle) is a published local author, fluent in Irish Gaelic and several other languages, who brings his love of Irish poetry to the band. Sean Burke (mandolin, bouzouki), born in County Mayo, Ireland, roots the group’s sensibilities with his genuine approach to the music and remarkable repertoire of heartfelt songs. Tim Donoghue (concertina) is legendary among local Irish musicians, with a keen wit and wellspring of Irish songs tucked in his back pocket, from bawdy to beguiling. Kira Jewett is an acclaimed All-Ireland Fiddle Champion and Principal of Holyoke’s Paulo Freire School for Social Justice. Ellen Redman (flute, whistle, concertina) is a music instructor at Smith College, member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and founder of Smith’s Wailing Banshees. John Tabb is a renowned accordion player throughout western New England, revered and beloved by all who know him. David Meuser (guitar) is a writing instructor who instills his accompaniment with his lifelong affection for traditional Irish music and culture.
We play every Sunday at the Northampton Brewery, where we've been enthusiastically welcomed for over eight years. The weekly gathering has become a local institution, replete with dancing young children, delighted parents, beaming elderly, and boundless craic. We also play each of the four seasons at the historic, colonial-era Fitzwilliam Inn in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, as well as at many festivals and public libraries throughout our region. (Our complete calendar can be found on our website, www.banishmisfortune.com.) And in 2015, we were voted one of the “Top 5 Bands in the Valley” in the Valley Advocate Grand Band Slam!
"No Strangers Here" is our first-ever recording, comprised of some of our favorite traditional Irish tunes and songs, as well as an accompanied poem by William Butler Yeats, and recorded at Northfire Studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. It’s available at CD Baby.com, as well as at all our appearances.
"There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't yet met." ~ William Butler Yeats
