The Irish Music World has Lost a Local Legend

Joe Derrane outside his home, 2006. Photo: Tom Pich

We were deeply saddened to learn of Joe Derrane‘s death this past weekend. A brilliant musician who was highly regarded in the world of traditional Irish music, Joe Derrane had a heart of gold.

In 2003, I had the good fortune to sit down at Joe’s kitchen table in Randolph, MA to interview him for our archive. The interview became source material for a radio feature that aired on WUMB in 2003. For those who knew Joe, it may bring some small comfort to hear his voice. For those who never met him or heard him play, you missed a gem.

 

Joe Derrane's button box. Photo: Jason Dowdle

Franco-American and Irish Tunes in Lowell

John Whelan and Donna Hébert: The Irish-French Connection will perform Wednesday, June 23 at Immaculate Conception School Hall, as part of Lowell’s Franco-American week. The free concert is sponsored by Lowell National Historical Park and Massachusetts Cultural Council as a way of honoring Lowell’s Franco-American and Irish American cultural heritage. Come experience award-winning French-Canadian fiddling, legendary Irish button accordion, brilliant flatpick and fingerstyle guitarists, and powerful songs in Gaelic, English & French.

Icons in their Irish- and Franco-American musical communities, John and Donna spark the Irish-French connection to life onstage! Each brings 40 years of performing and recording experience to this new group. In their stage and educational programs, repertoires and traditions stand distinct and separate and then find themselves blending and reinventing into something new, as did the Irish and French-Canadian immigrant communities in the northeast where both groups migrated in the 1880s to work in the textile mills.

This free concert will take place following the ham and bean supper in the school hall of Immaculate Conception School, 218 E. Merrimac Street, Lowell, MA. Concert at 7:30 p.m. All welcome. Free parking behind school.

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