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Welcome to Irish Music Stories! This is the LIBSYN Landing page for Irish Music Stories.

Irish Music Stories is the show about traditional music.... and the much bigger stories behind it. IMS is about everything--through an Irish music lens.

Whether you already play the fiddle or you know nothing about trad music or dance, I hope you'll join me, Shannon Heaton, as I learn how a band of Boston tweens ended up at a big music competition in Sligo, and what it meant to their families... and as I dig into the darker, sweeter side of Irish humor... and as I explore what learning Irish songs together is really all about.

Meet thoughtful and incredibly charming people in pubs, kitchens, and backstages throughout the U.S., Ireland, and beyond, underscored with toe-tapping and heart-soaring melodies that seem familiar, even if you've never heard them before.

  1. All Episodes
  2. 2023

Episode 70-Navigating Tech and Writing Tunes

Mar 21, 2023

New inventions and technology can make life—and Irish music—more convenient, more accessible, and sweeter…. and more complicated. This episode examines a few innovations like the washing machine, the personal computer, and to the electric bicycle—though you’ll have to go to Episode 18-Wax Cylinders to the...

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Episode 69-Tea, Turf, and Wooden Spoons

Feb 21, 2023

Lunch routines, laundry, kid art supplies, spoons, and teacups are details of domestic life that don’t usually make it into the photo albums, or the tune titles. But they shape lives. And in the midst of the thousands of jigs and reels out there, the simple (and profound) cup of tea.. and the basket of turf...

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Episode 68-20 Years of BCMFest

Jan 10, 2023

Presenting concerts can be about a lot more than throwing someone onstage. Matt Smith manages Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has been the central venue and fountain of support for 20 years—and is now the official presenter—for Boston’s Celtic Music Festival.  For Matt, it’s all about creating...

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