Leahy

It is hard to get gifts for Sean since his birthday is so close to Christmas. He turns 10 on Dec. 22nd. So in lieu of gifts, we went to see Leahy, a Canandian Celtic band. They were playing at the George Mason Center for the Performing Arts last night. Everybody went except Will who decided he doesn't like Celtic music because I play it all the time in the car and also at home when I'm trying to clean or wake myself up on a sleepy morning! But all the rest of us went and had a great time. Can I say that I have a high strung and deeply musical child in Sean? At the end he came up to me in tears, (TEARS!) saying, 'That was fantastic!" It was really, really incredible. And he was weepy over how incredible it was!

Leahy is a family of 11 children (all grown now) who grew up on a farm in Ontario. Both parents were musical. The mother is from Cape Breton and the father from Ireland. The kids grew up without television playing music constantly. They all know how to play the piano, the fiddle, the guitar, the drums. They all step dance.

This was their Christmas concert and it was very, very Catholic! The family is Catholic and one of the features of the show were audio clips of the parents being interviewed about how Christmas was celebrated in the Leahy household. Last night, they sang lots of religious carols. They talked about how they'd go to midnight Mass and pretty much partying from Dec. 25th to Jan. 6th. They even sang a song that the choir director at their church wrote that had never been sung outside the church. In fact the choir director had it in his head and had to write it down for the Leahy's so they could sing it properly in concert! It was beautiful! I especially like their beautiful version of the Huron Carol.

Only 8 of the 11 Leahy's are in the band right now. They kind of switch in and out according to what's going on in their lives. Some couldn't make it because they were busy have babies. Nine children were traveling with the show. A fourteen year old girl (I forget her name) came out and sang a wonderful rendition of Go Tell It On the Mountain. Spectacular voice! Later she came out and step danced too. Then they had two little girls, both six, who did some wonderful step dancing too. Very darling.

The music is incredibly energetic and powerful. Sean said that the main fiddler, Donnell's, fiddle was going to catch fire. It is lots of fun. So if you want to listen to great celtic music and support a wonderful Catholic clan, go to www.Leahymusic.com and buy their cds!

After the concert, everyone decided that we should go to a Celtic music festival for vacation one day. Wouldn't that be cool? Rick wants to go to Cape Breton. A few years ago we got as far as the very bottom part of Nova Scotia. But we just couldn't drive all the way up to Cape Breton with our limited vacation time and little ones in tow, but ever since then we've wanted to get all the way up there!

Time to run. Hannah is having extra Christmas choir practice and can't teach RE again this Sunday. So I'm substituting again.