Playing music together is the best way for people to become friends
Sessions
Join us every Wednesday night from 7:00 to 9:00 pm for an open session, held in the O'Carolan room at the Gaelic-American Club, 74 Beach Road, Fairfield, CT. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Guests are welcome to listen while they enjoy food and drink from the pub.
First Friday Pub Sessions
In addition, join us the first Friday of every month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Gaelic-American Club pub for an open session led by guest musicians from the southern New England area. (open to GAC members and their guests only)
Joe learned to play traditional music on the fiddle in the early 70s, sitting on the edge of the Irish sessions in Boston, quietly watching and listening. Fiddlers Larry Reynolds, Paddy Cronin, and Roger Burridge were especially welcoming and helpful.
Frequent trips to Ireland led to lifelong friendships with many wonderful musicians, in particular his wife’s uncle Maurice O’Keeffe, a fiddler from Kiskeam, Co. Cork, who really opened his eyes to the profound emotional and spiritual effects of the music and cemented a love for the music and people of the southwest of Ireland.
In New Haven, he led the well-regarded sessions at Anna Liffey’s for 17 years until 2014. Afterwards, he stopped playing the fiddle for nearly five years but was drawn back into the fold by the gentle and persistent encouragement of good friend and fiddler Katie Murray.
These days, Joe plays fiddle, banjo, and bouzouki with musical partners Damien Connolly and Jon Warner at sessions and occasional gigs around the Northeast.
June 7, 2024 ~ Joe Gerhard
