Lúnasa Christmas from Ireland
with
Ashley Davis, Vocals
Cara Butler, Irish Step Dancing
Tickets: $30 General Admission / $26 Advance / $50 Gold Circle
Location: GE Theatre at Proctors
“Lúnasa's trademarks have always been the subtle rhythmic segues between tunes and the way they ratchet up the intensity during each set of music…there’s real passion in the performances”
– NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
“Determined to drag Irish music kicking and screaming into the 21st Century”
WASHINGTON POST
Named for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa gathers of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. Its members have helped form the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade.
Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys, and later he, with guitarist Donogh Hennessy, would form the dynamic rhythm section of The Sharon Shannon Band; Ed Boyd (Flook, Michael McGoldrick Band) has recently replaced Hennessy; Fiddler Sean Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Donal Lunny’s Coolfin; Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland played with the acclaimed traditional group Moving Cloud; and, piper Cillian Vallely of the famous Vallely artistic clan has performed with Riverdance and recently recorded with Bruce Springsteen. Folk Roots magazine has rightly termed them an “Irish music dream team.”
The musical passport of recording artist and songwriter Ashley Davis offers a rich display of colorful stamps from Ireland and Scotland, but also heavily draws from the influences of her birthplace, the Kansas plains, and the country music traditions borne of the Appalachian Mountains. An internationally recognized recording artist and songwriter, Ashley has collaborated with musical luminaries such as the Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney, fiddle player Eileen Ivers, harpist Cormac De Barra, the “First Lady of Celtic Music” Moya Brennan, Sara Watkins and John Doyle, among many others.
A lover of the stage from very young, Cara Butler started dancing when she was six years old. Under the tutelage of renowned Irish dance master Donny Golden, Cara went on to win numerous Irish dance championships at world-class levels, including five regional and six national titles. Her competitive years were also intermingled with performing with the best of Irish music exports, including Cherish the Ladies, Greenfields of America, and Solas.
Since 1992 she has been the principal female dancer with The Chieftains, six-time Grammy award winners. She has appeared with them numerous times on ‘Late Show with David Letterman’, ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ and ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’. Cara is famous for her starring role as the lead dancer in the nationwide Folgers coffee commercial, ‘A Dancer’s Morning’, and can be seen dancing in Shania Twain’s video, ‘Don’t be Stupid’. She has also appeared in and choreographed dance sequences with Brad Pitt in ‘The Devil’s Own’ and Cher and Ryan O’Neal in ‘Faithful’. Cara is the younger sister of Riverdance star Jean Butler.