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CELTIC THUNDER: The One & Only Original
Co-founded by Terence Winch, Celtic Thunder played its first gig in May of 1977 at the Harp Pub in Baltimore, and went on to become one of the most influential traditional music groups in the U.S. Called "a great Irish band" by the Village Voice and "one of the best Irish folk acts in America" by The Washington Post, Celtic Thunder has released three albums over the years. The band's second CD, The Light of Other Days, won the prestigious INDIE award for Best Celtic Album. In addition to touring Ireland and playing innumerable concerts, ceilis, and pubs in the U.S., Celtic Thunder also performed at the White House twice during the (Bill) Clinton administration.
Under no circumstances should Celtic Thunder be confused with the PBS t.v. production (and related CD) of 2008, which features a variety of commercial Irish and non-Irish material sung by an assortment of male vocalists and others, collectively calling itself "Celtic Thunder."
Celtic Thunder's three albums are generally available through Amazon and other on-line sources. A new compilation of Terry Winch's compositions, featuring many of Celtic Thunder's best-known songs and tunes, is now out. See below for information on ordering the new recording, called When New York Was Irish. Meanwhile, a new website with information on the recordings and performances of the original Celtic Thunder is now up and running.
New Release: Following on the heels of Terence Winch's new book, Boy Drinkers, Celtic Thunder Music has released a new CD anthology called When New York Was Irish: Songs & Tunes by Terence Winch, Featuring Celtic Thunder & Narrowbacks. The album's 16 tracks showcase Terry Winch's best-known compositions, including "When New York Was Irish," "In Praise of the City of Baltimore," "Hooley with the Herd," "The Best Years of Our Lives," "Saints," and several pieces that have never appeared before on a recording, including "The Irish Riviera." The CD is now available from Trade Root Music Group, an excellent new distributor of traditional music. See their listing for When New York Was Irish. The album can also be ordered from Celtic Thunder Music/ c/o Terence Winch/ PO BOX 23205/Washington, DC 20026. CDs are $15 each (shipping and handling are free; checks should be made out to T.P.Winch).
"Terence Winch is known as a poet and fiction writer, and has penned a bonafide folk hit with When New York Was Irish, the eponymous title track of this album.... The song reminds us that scholars looking for Irish music were searching the wrong places....Winch captures the vibe of Irish-American life in the latter quarter of the 20th century: its jigs, reels, barn dance tunes, stories, and rhythms."
---R. Weir, Sing Out!
Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch's latest collection of poems, was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2007.
Hanging Loose Press (click & scroll down)
231 Wyckoff Street
Brooklyn, New York 11217
phone: 212 206-8465
PRESS RELEASE:
TERENCE WINCH'S NEW COLLECTION OF "CLEAR-EYED, UNSENTIMENTAL, AND HILARIOUS" POEMS IS PUBLISHED BY HANGING LOOSE PRESS
The latest work from this acclaimed poet, musician, and fiction writer reaches down to the roots of the contemporary Irish-American experience. Boy Drinkers unearths the fragile matrices of belief, tradition, and grace stemming from Winch's strict Irish Catholic upbringing in the Bronx in the 1950s and '60s. With his singular poignancy, wit, and clarity, Winch casts the poet's gaze across the landscape of a childhood colored by the delusions and disillusions of faith.
Winner of the American Book Award for his poetry collection Irish Musicians/American Friends and of the Columbia Book Award for The Great Indoors, and grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, and the Maryland State Arts Commission, Terence Winch is recognized as a significant presence in the literary community. Winch---also known as a songwriter with his celebrated band, Celtic Thunder---has been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and on Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac."
The son of Irish immigrants firmly planted in the Catholic community of their adopted home in the Bronx, New York, Winch grappled with the antipodal tides of Irish-Catholic tradition and American self-invention. In Boy Drinkers, these themes resurface in a mirror-hall of guilt and choice, debt and legacy, and the betrayals of belief that shake the self to the core.
Praise for Boy Drinkers
Here is a new look at the Irish diaspora, where the sound of glasses clinking is as familiar as the smell of incense at a Catholic Mass, where Terence Winch prays, "If the spirit has its own life, let the noises /it makes be as silent as the multiplication / and subtraction of time, and not / the rattle of a cough in the dark." Boy Drinkers looks with sober eyes at the people, tragedies, and traditions that shaped any of us who grew up in a community where alcohol and God were equally able to bring us to our knees. With his musician's ear and Irishman's humor, Terence Winch pokes fun at the Holy, makes sacred the mundane, and redefines the meaning of "grace." ---Meg Kearney
Terry Winch writes the kind of poems that make you want to kick back and listen, and say to hell with what you were supposed to be doing. These vignettes of growing up Irish Catholic in New York City during the '50s and '60s evoke a world that seems long gone, in many ways with good reason. In a voice that manages to be understated, precise, and casual all at once, Winch exposes us to a set of characters struggling with a world that's changing too fast not only for them, but for anyone. These are poems you'll remember. Clear-eyed, unsentimental, and hilarious, they'll also break your heart. ---Mark Wallace
Reviews of Boy Drinkers
- "Winch seamlessly weaves comedy and tragedy, the personal or conversational and the highly lyrical.... What one discovers is a universality of feeling: the pleasure of being admitted to a world of strangers who speak your language."---Anna Ziegler, Smartish Pace magazine (for the full review, go to Smartish Pace).
- "These witty, narrative poems are light, brave particles of truth." ---John Jacob, Rain Taxi
- "Terence Winch is a poet and founding member of Celtic Thunder, the storied Irish music group. Boy Drinkers is his mesmerizing new collection of autobiographical poems about growing up Irish-American in the Bronx."---Dylan Foley, The Newark Star-Ledger
- "Winch's nostalgic new collection about growing up Irish Catholic in New York in the 1950s and 1960s...packs the undeniable punch of memories dragged up and pried away from whatever might have obscured them from view."
---Kevin Nance, Booklist
To order Boy Drinkers, click on CONTACT.
Don't forget Terence Winch's last book, That Special Place: New World Irish Stories, an acclaimed collection of non-fiction stories about Irish music and the musicians who make it, published by Hanging Loose Press in 2004.
About That Special Place: New World Irish Stories
- "You can see the sights, taste the air, hear the sounds, and smell the atmosphere (no matter how smoky and boozy) in all his stories. A delightful read!" ---Dirty Linen magazine
- "In That Special Place, Terry Winch reminds us again that he is the voice of Irish America." ---George O'Brien
- "Terence Winch's work is a joy to read. ...He brings a fiction writer's eye for epiphany to his nonfictional storytelling.... Winch's book is full of the soul's stories, and it will occupy that special place in readers' own memories." ---Earle Hitchner, The Irish Echo
- "The narratives...focus on the wild, the profane, and the often simply crazy world of the itinerant performer and are often hilarious. That Special Place represents...a vital contribution to Irish American writing."
---Eamonn Wall, The Irish Literary Supplement
- "A small but powerful collection of stories and lyrics.... The author's compassion for all his characters shines..., as well as his ability to observe and unthread the smallest nuance of human word, emotion, or behavior. Perhaps it's his musician's ability to tie the strings of life together without missing a beat." ---Kathleen Cain, The Bloomsbury Review
PERFORMANCES:
[performance archive]:
Narrowbacks/Celtic Thunder appeared in concert on Saturday, March 15th, 2008, at Governor Calvert House in Annapolis, Maryland, in a program sponsored by Creative Conversations that featured poet David Whyte. The inimitable virtuoso Brendan Mulvihill, former All-Ireland fiddle champion, joined the band for this performance.
Terry Winch (button accordion), Jesse Winch (bodhran, mandola, guitar), and Rob Thornburgh (fiddle) were featured at Blue Fins Bar & Grill (formerly Mrs. O'Leary's)on Sunday, February 10. Rob, Celtic Thunder's fiddler for many years, was visiting from Mayo, where he has lived since 1990. Singer/box player Pat Garvey was also on the bill. This event was a fund-raiser for the Gaithersburg St. Patrick's Day Parade. Location: corner of Quince Orchard & Clopper Roads. Call 301 947-1993 for more information.
NARROWBACKS/ CELTIC THUNDER (Terry Winch, Jesse Winch, Dominick Murray, Linda Hickman, and Tony DeMarco) performed in concert for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society's 30th Annual Irish Evening on Friday, February 8th, 2008, in Columbia, Maryland. The band was be joined by Eileen Korn, an extraordinary young singer, and by knock-out step-dancers from the Culkin School. The concert was preceded by a reading from Irish poet Eavan Boland. Check Hocopolitso's site for more information on the event.
On Sunday, September 2, 2007, at 1 p.m., Terry Winch (button accordion), Jesse Winch (bodhran, bouzouki), Michael Winch (fiddle), and Dominick Murray (guitar, vocals) performed a concert set at Glen Echo Park, Maryland. Special guest was stepdancer Fiona Winch.
CELTIC THUNDER 1981 (Terry Winch, Jesse Winch, Dominick Murray, Linda Hickman, and Tony DeMarco) returned to the Baltimore Irish Festival on Saturday, September 15, 2007. The band performed a concert set in the afternoon. See the Festival site for details.
READINGS:
Terence Winch, Bill Nevins, and Angelo Verga, all graduates of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, returned to the campus on Friday evening, November 16, 2007, to read together in a first-ever Iona poets event. For a story from the Ionian, the student newspaper, on the reading, see the Iona website (click on the Nov. 20th issue PDF, p.6).The three met up again two days later, on Sunday evening, Nov. 18, to read at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Manhattan. They were joined by fellow Iona alumnus Terence Hegarty (singer/songwriter), Belfast musician Ray Collins, and Black 47's Larry Kirwan.
To celebrate the publication of The Book of Irish American Poetry: From the 18th Century to the Present, Terence Winch took part in a reading in Manhattan at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House October 11, 2007. Also on the program were Jean Valentine, Joseph Lennon, Greg Delanty, and the anthology's editor, Daniel Tobin. For information on Ireland House, visit the Ireland House site.
On September 15, 2007, Terence Winch, Doug Lang, and Betsy Andrews read in the i.e. series in Baltimore. At the Carriage House, 2225 Hargrove Street. For information on the i.e. readings, call 410.727.1953. Also see the i.e. series website.
On August 24, 2007, Garrison Keillor read "Forgiveness" from Terence Winch's new book Boy Drinkers on his daily radio feature "The Writer's Almanac." To listen to the poem, go to The Writer's Almanac website and scroll down to August 24.
On May 18th, Friday, 2007, Terence Winch & Beth Joselow read at Chapters Literary Bookstore at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave NW (entrance at 445 11th St). For a review of the reading, check out the VRZHU blog.
PUBLICATIONS:
The Chicago-based Irish band Bohola has just released the digital version of its new Christmas album, called Bo-ho-ho-hola (tracks can be downloaded for 99 cents each/ the CD won't be available until Jan.). Track 3 includes their version of Terence Winch's Christmas poem "Celebration" from Boy Drinkers. You can find it through Amazon and other web sources.
Kim Roberts, editor of the Beltway Poetry Quarterly , appeared recently on the Happy Booker blog, naming her 5 top poetry books of 2007, a list that includes Boy Drinkers. Check out Kim's list.
Poetry Daily, the popular website, has chosen "Comfort," the lead-off poem in Boy Drinkers, as the featured poem for Friday, Oct. 26. Check out Poetry Daily.
Boy Drinkers, Terence Winch's latest book of poems, is now available from Hanging Loose Press. See Hanging Loose's 2007 titles.
The Innisfree Poetry Journal has introduced a new feature called "A Closer Look," which focuses on the work of one writer. The inaugural installment offers a selection of work by Terence Winch. See the Innisfree site.
Read Anna Ziegler's review of Boy Drinkers in Smartish Pace magazine.
See Michael Lally's inimitable blog for his very generous remarks on Terence Winch's songs: Lally's Alley.
Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry has just been published by Soft Skull Press. It includes a poem called "Strategy" written in 1981 by Terence Winch and Bernard Welt. See the Soft Skull site.
Three poems by Terence Winch are included in the new issue of Inertia, an on-line magazine guest-edited by Jordan Smith.
Two poems from Terence Winch's series Lit from Below are out in the new issue of Word for Word: A Journal of New Writing.
Five more from Lit from Below are included in the updated DC Poetry Anthology.
Check out "Jennifer Connelly Sestina" on McSweeney's website.
Terence Winch's poem "Mysteries" is included in The Oxford Book of American Poetry, a new and more expansive edition of this landmark anthology, chosen and edited by David Lehman. See Oxford's website for more information.
Terence Winch's "Sex Elegy," which originally appeared in Verse, has been chosen by Billy Collins for Best American Poetry 2006.
The Book of Irish American Poetry from the 18th Century to the Present, the long-awaited anthology that Eamonn Wall calls "prodigious and remarkable," has just been published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Edited by Daniel Tobin, it includes work by Terence Winch, Michael Lally, Ed Cox, Meg Kearney, and scores of other writers. See Notre Dame's site for more information. Check above under Readings for the publication event on Oct. 11, 2007, at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House.
New poems by Terence Winch have also recently appeared in a number of excellent, print-only journals, including New American Writing #24, Crowd #7, Court Green #4, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry (final issue), An Sionnach, and Smartish Pace #14.
Check back for upcoming events, media coverage, and related information.
To order books or recordings by Terence Winch, click above on CONTACT.
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