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NEWS
6/25/06:
FLEADH CHEOIL NA HEIREANN
So back in the middle of May Heather and Amy decided to compete in the MidWest Fleadh Cheoil in St. Louis, MO. Both
had never competed before and honestly had no idea what to expect; however they must have done something right because they
both walked away with the gold! Amy competed in the adult division bodhran competition and Heather in the Miscellaneous
on Viola.
This has now qualified them to go onto the All Ireland's and compete in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal ... and who could pass
up an opportunity to go to Ireland? Not only that but being surrounded by thousands of amazing trad musicians for a couple
days ... just too hard to resist, so both ladies will be heading over literally the day after Irish Fest ends.
They're both honored and extremely excited to be heading over and can't give enough thanks to all those that
have supported them, inspired them and encouraged them along the way!!! (Pictures will be up soon!)
5/8/06:
TWO STRAIGHT WEEKENDS OF
TRAD WORKHSOPS...
...jam packed w/lessons, dancing, sessions, and great fun!
April 21st-23rd athas and Jen :) spent the weekend in Chicago attending Comhaltas. Not only did we have lessons
in our main instruments, but also had the opportunity of doing a crazy amount of set dancing! Throw in a little bit of
late night sessioning and it definitely made for a great weekend.
The following weekend we held our own little Irish Trad Workshop Weekend! April 28th & 29th our amazing Jeffrey put
together a weekend of workshops, sessioniong and a concert calling it Ceol Cois Locha (Music by the Lake). He brought in some
definite top notch Trad musicians: Jackie Moran-bodhran, Liz Knowles-fiddle, Matt Heaton-guitar and Shannon Heaton-flute.
The weekend was definitely a success thanks to the fabulous musicians and Jeffreys hard hard efforts in heading it all up
and pulling it all together so nicely. A big thanks to the musicians and Jeffrey for giving us that incredible opportunity
of education and inspiration!! Oh and be sure to check the gallery for more photos from both weekends!
3/24/06:
ATHAS MEETS THE PROS (LUNASA/FLOOK)!
We finally found time in our crazy busy lives to get together as a band NOT to play music but rather to go
out and become unbelievably inspired by two incredible Irish Trad bands, Lunasa and Flook. After seeing their
concerts and getting to meet them we can easily say that we not only had an unforgetable time but that we were also most definitely inspired
on continuing to make great music! We want to give huge thanks to both bands for the memorable experiences.
Check out more pictures in the gallery!
3/5/06:
MID WINTER SET DANCE WEEKEND!
athas has done its share of playing for dancers and so they figured it was time to lace up their dancin' shoes and get
on the dance floor! Yeah, you better believe it Heather, Amy and Jeff all participated in the Set Dance weekend taking early
morning workshops with Irish Set Instructor Mary Clancy (she was such a sweetheart) and then dancing late into the evenings
with the late night ceili's w/John Whelan (PHENOMENAL Trad Button Accordian player). To find out more check out
our latest pictures! https://athasmusic.tripod.com/set_dance_weekend/Now watch out cuz you just never know whether you'll find athas on the stage or on the dance floor. ;)
2/19/06:
VIDEO GAMES!
We just got this news in our email:
Check it out! Go play. Have fun!
2/5/06:
2ND ANNUAL WINTER FEST A
SUCCESS!
A very special thank you to Green Tea for giving us the opportunity to open for them last night
at Steven Point's very own Clark Place. The warm welcome was more than perfect for that bitter cold evening.
We had a blast not only at the fest itself, but also jammin' til the wee hours of the morning w/Green Tea afterward.
Be sure and check them out as they'll be visiting our side of town during the first weekend of March, playing at the infamous
Irish Pub O'Donoghues. For details check out their website at http://www.greenteaworldmusic.com/index.html .
Thanks once again to all who made it a memorable event for us!
1/16/06:
GOODIES FOR THE NEW YEAR!!!
Here's hoping this update finds you all doing really really well! We're definitely pumped
for 2006 and to prove it we've added more goodies to the site. Be sure to check out our newly renovated "media clips"
page that includes both sound clips and video clips. And also our new "press kit" page ... for those who are interested
in bookings, you now have our press kit right at your fingertips! Hope you enjoy and we look forward to seeing you through
out the course of the New Year!
12/13/05:
AMY GOT A NEW TOY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!
Amy's super excited to share not only the great news, but the great sound of her brand new
bodhran. (Pictured to the right there ... ain't it pretty?) She went through Chicago bodhran maker Mike Quinlan,
who's by far one of the sweetest most 'customer pleasing' makers she has ever met. She heard about his drums through
bodhran extrodinare Jackie Moran and in a matter of months she had one of her own. If you have even the slightest
interest in purchasing a tuneable bodhran Amy highly recommends checking out his site http://www.qdrums.com/. So be sure to get out to some of our gigs and hear the new and improved heartbeat to athas' irish trad!
10/15/05:
MORE TUNES!!!
Jeffrey was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to mix two more tunes we recorded on
October 7th and get them up onto the site. They are two very beautiful tunes, a march and a slow reel, that we really
hope you will enjoy. We wanted to literally 'change the pace' a bit and give you guys a sense of some slower, prettier
irish tunes. Enjoy!
10/14/05:
ANOTHER NEW SESSION SPOT!
This one's going to be downtown at The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. We'll be able to play
in the Cabaret Dinner Theatre (which is on the 3rd floor of the complex) on opening nights (friday's) 1hr. after the
end of the show.
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATRE
108 E. Wells St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202
The first one will be next week Friday Oct. 21st starting around 11pm. Mark your calendars!
It should make for a fun (late) night! :)
9/26/05:
I
THINK THEY LIKED US! ;)
"Thanks to all who came to Good Harvest Market on Saturday. You sounded just great and
we received lots of wonderful compliments. Looking forward to seeing you again on October 22nd. If there are any
other days you would like to play during the month, let us know ahead of time - we'd love to have you!" ~Joe Nolan (Owner)
The acoustics are great and the people are so friendly; definitely come out on the 22nd if you can!
Good times!!
9/12/05:
NEW SESSION SPOT!!!
Hey everybody we just landed a new spot for sessioning:
GOOD HARVEST MARKET - fourth
sat. every month 1-3pm
http://www.goodharvestmarket.com
1850 Meadow Lane
Pewaukee, WI 53072
262-544-9380
The first one starting on Sat.
Sept. 24th. Hope to see you there!
Also be sure and check below for some new
gigs we've just recently booked.
8/29/05:
SOUND CLIPS UP!!!
We've been working extremely hard
the past couple days to finalize some sweet sets and get them recorded and up on here, so you can finally get a good listen
to what we're all about! We came across these sets after much rehearsing, experimentation and inspiration from "Irish
Fest Week" and recorded them on August 26th, 2005. We tried to give you guys a good range of tunes; we hope that
you enjoy them and they leave you asking for more!
8/23/05:
IRISH FEST 2005
So Irish Fest was completely AMAZING!!! It rocked in
so many ways. First having the summer school and each one of us learning from the greats in advanced classes in our
main instrument ... Heath got lessons from fiddle great Liz Carroll, Jeffrey got lessons from legend flute player Mike
Rafferty and Ames learned from percussion extrodinaire Jackie Moran. We spent the majority of our afternoons incorporating
what we each learned into our sets during rehersals at uwm and then the evenings were spent attending sessions and
getting to know other trad lovers and irish greats.
At Irish Fest we were able to perform early
Sat. morning for the Arthritis Run/Walk. It was a nice touch for all the early runners/walkers and a great way
for us to test out some of our new sets. We then proceeded on to play for the President ... yes the President of Ireland!
We took a bus over to UWM later on that day and around 6pm we were playing music for Mary McAleese while she was being shown
the different things UWM has done to promote the Irish language, culture, music, etc. It was truly an honor.
She's so down to Earth; an amazing public speaker w/a great sense of humor. :) And of course it wouldn't
be Irish Fest if we didn't end up on the terrace of the Park East hangin' w/some of Ireland's finest.
So we're sad to see it's over, but happy
that it was one heck of an amazing week! We're now working real hard on some original sets we've put together and
are happy to say that we'll be having some full sound clips up here, finally I know, for you to give a listen too.
7/31/05:
UP NORTH GIG W/CEOL CAIRDE
Amy just recently returned from a long weekend spent in Minocqua, WI where
she joined local Trad band Ceol Cairde http://www.ceolcairde.com/ in their performance at the Northwoods Hymn Festival 'Celtic Blessings'.
She was more than honored to play w/Ceol Cairde and definitely made some lasting memories and
friendships. A very special thank you to Ceol Cairde for this unforgettable experience!
:)
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