Review of the Máire Brennan Concert in San Francisco, CA





The following was sent in by Linda Cowan:

Review of Maire Brennan's San Francisco concert, March 4, 1999

[Link to Pictures]

Maire Brennan and her band members put on an energetic performance for the audience of less than 100 people at the 7th Note Music Club in San Francisco. A very inappropriate opening act by a young woman from County Louth did little to warm up the concert-goers. It took a couple of old Clannad tunes to finally get some applause going. Maire also sang tracks from her other two solo albums as well as more recent Clannad songs. She mentioned the fact that "Landmarks" had just won the Grammy for the Best New Age album. The concert lasted about 90 minutes, with one encore of "A Mhuirnin O". Jody Harper and I were quite pleased with the night's performance.

We overheard that Maire might come out briefly to meet fans after the concert. After greeting a few native Irish from S.F., Maire grabbed Jody's and my hands, saying, "You two!" She had recognized us as being in the front row, center, just below her microphone. We were the ones clapping and swaying as we sang and hummed through her whole performance! "Thank goodness you were here tonight! You saved me!," she said, referring to the subdued response of the crowd seated behind us. We felt so "recognized"! We then asked about the rest of her tour, how her kids were, how she felt about her latest album and the Celtic Christianity expressed there. I mentioned that I had seen a music video of "Oro" where she sang to Aisling while in a boat off of Donegal. She inquired, "How did you get a hold of that??" (Thanks to Bruce Phillips' Enya and Clannad tapes) We mentioned that the Magical Ring exists and that American fans really want to see Clannad in concert here again. Pictures and autographs were taken as Jody and I couldn't believe our good fortune at meeting this talented, kind and gracious lady. It was a night to remember!

Song list:

1. Doon Well
2. Na Buachailli Alainn
3. An Tull
4. Light on the Hill
5. Oro
6. Our World
7. Fon Mharta
8. an unnamed jig
9. Broken Pieces
10. The Big Rock
11. Perfect Time
12. Nil Sen La
13. Harry's Game
14. Na Paisti
15. Alasdair MacColla
16. Heal This Land
17. Against the Wind

Encore: A Mhuirnin O

Thanks to Linda for sending in this great review of the show in San Francisco. Don't for get to check out the pictures.

Anyone else have reactions to the shows? Please be free to send them to the Unofficial Clannad News Page and we'll include them on the page.

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Official Web Links:

Atlantic Records' Official Clannad Web Site

Word Records' Official Máire Brennan Web Site

Unofficial Clannad Web Site

Ed Plekkenpol's Clannad Pages

Newsgroup:

alt.music.clannad