the
Boston Street Céilí Band IT WAS JUST A REGULAR SATURDAY, and I was busy doing Saturday things. Heading out with a long list of errands, I thought I’d zip into Giddy Up Coffee House in Folsom for a cup of liquid energy to get me through the morning. An hour later, not a single errand was scratched off my list because, as I opened my car door at the coffee house, I was involuntarily pulled into the music swelling from the bandstand across the alley. It was Celtic music—and some of the best I’ve heard this side of Ireland. There was no decision to be made. I slipped my beach chair from the trunk and joined the party. It was obvious the musicians offering up this heavenly music were having the time of their lives. The smiles and smirks and eyebrow arches that flashed between them were enchanting, and I felt like they’d be playing just as spiritedly if there were no audience listening. They loved the music they were creating and were as fun to watch as they were to listen to. I learned they were The Boston Street Céilí Band, a collection of local music educators and enthusiasts fated to meet and marry their talents. It was just a matter of time. The first one I met was fiddler Annie Young
26 Inside Northside
Bridges. A longtime professional violinist and string teacher in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System, she’s also the founder of the popular Northshore Strings Fiddle Camp, where she teaches students authentic Celtic and Cajun styles of playing, dancing and singing. “This all started with the kids,” she says of her 250 Mandeville-area students. “They were getting bored with the classical violin pieces I was teaching them. So, I started introducing some fiddle tunes just to hold their interest.” That interest grew over the past eight years into a school-based fiddle group and then the fiddle camp, which has been wildly successful. As the camp grew, George Serban came onboard to help Bridges, and, eventually, so did Jim Gunter. While George originally trained in classical music and Jim began with Scottish bagpipes, the camp’s instructional book, Fiddle Club Favorites by Bridges’ longtime friend and colleague, Tom Morley, emphasized traditional Irish music. So, the two men made the transition. Both men have impressive resumes. Jim had been studying Celtic music since he was 16, but more in the Scottish tradition, concentrating on the tin whistle and Irish flute and competing in Irish dancing
photo: ELIZABETH SERBAN
by Mimi Greenwood Knight
