LIVERPOOL — When organizers in the village of Manlius started brainstorming a “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” celebration, Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce Director Lucretia Hudzinski immediately jumped on the bandwagon. She secured a title sponsor, AmeriCU, and a concert sponsor, the Wenger Corporation, and started booking the weekend festival here.
Since Liverpool had been founded by Irish immigrants early in the 19th century, she thought, that’s a good reason for the village to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day twice.
So stepdancers from the McDonald School of Irish Dance will perform at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, at Johnson Park, followed by two sets of live music by the trio calling themselves Reel Music, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The trio features two of Central NY’s top fiddlers — Diamond Joe Davoli and Eileen Nicholson-Kalfass — accompanied by rhythm guitarist Harvey Nusbaum.
Davoli’s latest CD, “Golden Rule,” ably channels the Emerald Isle from “O’Carolan’s Concerto” to “Danny Boy,” from jigs to reels, from waltzes to planxties. Kalfass’s 2019 disc, “Crossing Bridges,” won a 2019 Syracuse Area Music Award.
Wolf’s Patio Pizza truck will serve wood-fired pizza on Friday at Johnson Park and will return Saturday to Washington Park.
A late-morning parade will kick off events on Saturday, Sept. 18. Parade participants will gather at 11 a.m. at the American High building at 800 Fourth St. and head east toward Washington Park.
“We’ll have the Ghostbusters from Upstate Golisano Childrens’ Hospital, some local Irish families will march along with representatives from Planet Fitness and a fire truck,” Hudzinski said.
A variety of live music will be performed that day at Washington Park, including tunes by the Power of Two from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by Too Smooth from 1 to 2 p.m.
The Chamber will present a spinning wheel and other games, and digital photographer Bill Herloski will host a photo booth.
“The Friends of Historical Onondaga Lake will show us how they play Irish Road Bowling with two-pound cannon balls,” Hudzinski said. “American Legion Post 188 will be selling barbecued chicken dinners, and there will be a hunt for gold coins throughout the park with local businesses awarding special offers to the lucky finders.”
Davoli’s disc rules!
Central New York is home to a downright dynamic fiddler working in the Irish tradition, and his 2019 CD, Golden Rule, shows him to be a master in his own right fully capable of lighting a fire under the best stepdancers in the world with all manner of arpeggios, rolls, trebles, cuts and bow slurs.
His name is Joe Davoli.
Having honed his chops playing bluegrass for the Delaney Brothers, Irish rock with Ceili Rain and Irish pub tunes with the Flyin’ Column, Davoli now stands at the peak of his game. He was inducted into the North American Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame.
To make Golden Rule truly rule, the fiddler collaborated with a half-dozen of the top musicians in town. Ceili Rain bandleader Bob Halligan co-produced along with Davoli, played plenty of tasty piano and electric bass and sang his heart out. First-call drummer Josh Dekaney — who plays an array of percussion from Roland pad to rub board — propels the opening medley of jigs.
Davoli’s Ceili Rain bandmate, Burt Mitchell, adds Celtic authenticity to the proceedings by blowing Irish flute and penny whistle. On tracks such as O’Carolan’s “Si’Bheag Si’Mohr,” Mitchell’s humble whistle plays counterpoint to Davoli’s fiddle, and his flute enlivens a medley of “Christ Church,” “Sally Gardens” and “Red-Haired Boy.”
The beloved standard, “Danny Boy,” appears here as “Derry Aire,” one of the names of the ancient Irish melody on which the popular song was based. Davoli’s instrumental version is appropriately reverent and deliciously unrushed as he tremolo-picks his mandolin over Halligan’s complementary piano comping; joedavoli.com.
