Songs of Emigration: Storytelling Through Traditional Irish Music

Description

Through traditional music, Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki relays some of the adventures, misadventures, and emotions experienced by Irish emigrants. The focus is on songs about leaving Ireland, sometimes focusing on the reasons for leaving (a man who is driven from his land by English persecution), revealing what sometimes happened upon arrival (an immigrant drafted into the Union army during the Civil War), and exploring the universal feeling of homesickness of a stranger in a strange land. Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki discusses the historical context of these songs, interspersing their stories with tunes from Ireland that made their way into New England's musical repertoire, played on his fiddle or guitar. Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki is an award-winning fiddler/singer. This program is made possible by a grant from NH Humanities, and is free and open to the public.