Bloggerhythms

Due to all of the bad news of the last few years the sad events of September 11, 2001 may have receded deep into the minds of many people. But, on this twenty-fifth anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters - and the heroics of the passengers on United 93 - I believe it's time to discuss one of the saddest songs you'll ever hear. Seamus Kelleher was known around the Philadelphia area as an excellent rock guitarist when he was a member of the now disbanded, locally popular, Celtic-rock quintet, Blackthorn. He left the band in 2011 to pursue his own muse and released two solo albums. Both of them were favorably reviewed here . Kelleher is quite eclectic. He's versatile on both acoustic and electric guitars. Not only can he play the hard driving blues-rock of Rory Gallagher, he also covers slide guitarist Elmore James. On his second album, Another Side of Town , he gets mellow and topical with " Streets of London ," a folk song written and ...

One of the great things about the Internet is that it gives everyone exposure to news, information, and entertainment that they would not have normally been exposed to without it. The web is why a recording artist who has only acquired a local following can have his music heard at anytime, worldwide, at little or no cost. Such is the case with Irish-American guitarist, Seamus Kelleher , who just released his second solo CD, Another Side of Town . Kelleher has a cult following from New York City to Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore but to anyone living out of the area he’s quite unknown. I always liked his lead guitar work with Blackthorn , a Celtic-rock band from Philadelphia that he was an important member of for around fifteen years. Another Side of Town is even better than Kelleher's debut, Four Cups of Coffee , because it's more stylistically unified while avoiding all of the traps that make everything on an album sound redundant. Kelleher can rock hard when the ...

I'm sure most of you have never heard of Seamus Kelleher . I wrote about him briefly last year when I reviewed Push & Pull , the latest CD by his Celtic rock band, Blackthorn . Kelleher is an Irish immigrant who, for the last twelve years, has been the lead guitarist for the quintet who may be Philadelphia's most popular unsigned rock band. In concert Blackthorn plays rock versions of Irish folk music, covers of Irish rock standards, and songs from their three independent CDs of original material. As with a lot of musicians, who play very important but supporting roles in their respective bands, Kelleher felt a need to express himself more fully outside the framework of his group's proven formula. This led the guitarist to pursue his dream of recording a solo CD, Four Cups Of Coffee , that was recorded over a four day period this past April in Nashville. Four Cups Of Coffee is an eclectic mix of styles that reflect all of the varied influences tha...

Visitors to this website who are not from the Philadelphia area, nor part of the thriving East Coast Celtic music scene, have probably never heard of Blackthorn, a perennial concert favorite in the region for the last fifteen years. Blackthorn have developed a loyal following from Philadelphia and its suburbs all the way to the Jersey shore playing bars, folk festivals, and numerous small town, outdoor, summer music venues.While they have been recording since 1994, and released five CDs, I was only introduced to their music in 2002. Since then I’ve made a point of seeing them live every summer except for last year. Because I missed them last summer July 19th was the first time I’ve seen the band live since their lineup underwent a major change. Paul Moore, who was a member of the original quartet, was their primary lead singer and their most prolific and best songwriter, left the band at the end of 2004. The vacancy left by Moore could have been a disaster of major consequence but al...