Boston-based musicians Matt and Shannon Heaton will be bringing traditional Irish music, with many vocal numbers accompanied by flute and guitar and some accordion, on Sunday evening, May 18, at the Colebrook Country Club on Route 26 in Colebrook, N.H. The show will start at 7 p.m. and is hosted by the Great North Woods Committee for the Arts.
“We are happy to present this fine evening of Irish music at the Colebrook Country Club, bringing to our region two of the best musicians of their genre on the circuit today,” said President Charlie Jordan of the Great North Woods Committee for the Arts. “It is especially nice to bring them to our longest-standing venue. Clay and Michelle Hinds and their staff at the Country Club always make our performers and audience feel most welcomed.”
Matt and wife Shannon Heaton share many similar Irish music memories, because they have performed together from their first meeting in Chicago in 1991. Behind their Irish flute-and guitar-driven tunes and stirring songs is a deep well of mutual memories, setbacks, and triumphs.
Having built their act from years of touring together (first with band Siucra, then as a duo), Matt and Shannon have grown into thoroughly entertaining performers. They bring to the stage a depth of shared experience and a love for Irish music; their stage banter is comfortable, often hilarious.
Matt and wife Shannon Heaton share many similar Irish music memories, because they have performed together from their first meeting in Chicago in 1991. Behind their Irish flute-and guitar-driven tunes and stirring songs is a deep well of mutual memories, setbacks, and triumphs.
Having built their act from years of touring together (first with band Siucra, then as a duo), Matt and Shannon have grown into thoroughly entertaining performers. They bring to the stage a depth of shared experience and a love for Irish music; their stage banter is comfortable, often hilarious.
Musically speaking, the Heatons play the heck out of their instruments (Irish wood flute/accordion, guitar/bouzouki). After years of study in Chicago, and many nights of music in Clare, Galway, and their adopted home of Boston, Irish Music Magazine’s John O’Regan wrote, “their duet playing is tight, sweet, and tasteful, lacking nothing on either technical expertise or instrumental virtuosity.”
As for their singing, when Matt and Shannon perform centuries-old songs, it feels current, conversational. They make traditional music relevant to American audiences. O’Regan wrote, “songwise [there are] hints an older domestic sound, the familiar down home harmonies of The Carter Family and Tim and Mollie O’Brien.”
Before focusing on Irish music, Matt earned a classical guitar degree, played with Chicago popsters the Flavor Channel, and fronted Nuevo tango group Orquesta Atipica. Meanwhile Shannon studied flute and ethnomusicology at Northwestern University, joined Matt’s tango band, and took weekend trips to Chicago’s Wat Dhammaram to continue the Saw Oo (lap fiddle) and Thai singing studies she began when she was an exchange student in Thailand.
Shannon and husband Matt Heaton included their own Irish-style version of Thai classic “Lao Dueng Duen” on their 2009 release “Lovers’ Well” (their fourth as a duo).
Matt’s first taste of professional music was behind the organ console as a page-turner for his father Charles Heaton, a noted organist and composer. In addition to his duo work with wife Shannon, he is highly sought after as accompanist, and has performed with traditional luminaries Aoife Clancy, Robbie O’Connell, Emily Smith, and the Boys of the Lough.
Tickets for the show are $15 and will be available at the door on the night of the concert or in advance at Fiddleheads, 110 Main St. in Colebrook. For more information on this and other upcoming GNWCA shows, visit www.gnwca.org or call 237-9302 or 246-8998.
As for their singing, when Matt and Shannon perform centuries-old songs, it feels current, conversational. They make traditional music relevant to American audiences. O’Regan wrote, “songwise [there are] hints an older domestic sound, the familiar down home harmonies of The Carter Family and Tim and Mollie O’Brien.”
Before focusing on Irish music, Matt earned a classical guitar degree, played with Chicago popsters the Flavor Channel, and fronted Nuevo tango group Orquesta Atipica. Meanwhile Shannon studied flute and ethnomusicology at Northwestern University, joined Matt’s tango band, and took weekend trips to Chicago’s Wat Dhammaram to continue the Saw Oo (lap fiddle) and Thai singing studies she began when she was an exchange student in Thailand.
Shannon and husband Matt Heaton included their own Irish-style version of Thai classic “Lao Dueng Duen” on their 2009 release “Lovers’ Well” (their fourth as a duo).
Matt’s first taste of professional music was behind the organ console as a page-turner for his father Charles Heaton, a noted organist and composer. In addition to his duo work with wife Shannon, he is highly sought after as accompanist, and has performed with traditional luminaries Aoife Clancy, Robbie O’Connell, Emily Smith, and the Boys of the Lough.
Tickets for the show are $15 and will be available at the door on the night of the concert or in advance at Fiddleheads, 110 Main St. in Colebrook. For more information on this and other upcoming GNWCA shows, visit www.gnwca.org or call 237-9302 or 246-8998.
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