A Note from Michael (view in e-newsletter format)
As Saint Patrick’s Day approaches I think of my great-aunt Mamie, Mary Brennan, whose family was from County Cork, born in 1880, 8 years old during the Blizzard Of March 1888, when in New Jersey the snowdrifts were fifty feet high. Mamie married Michael Maccri, who was Italian and worked in a hat factory in Hoboken. Before she introduced him to her folks he changed his last name to McCrea, so that Mamie’s parents would think he was Irish, too. At 70 Mamie walked around our house humming, an amazing amount of ash still clinging to the Pall Mall dangling from her lower lip. Mamie used to call my sister Kate Catherine Elizabeth Cecilia Anastasia. I stole that line for a song of my own years later. If I and my sisters caught Aunt Mamie in a good mood she’d take her dentures out for us. Now that’s entertainment! Yes, sir, I’m from an Irish show business family. When I was four Mamie taught me to sing Paddy McGinty’s Goat when company came over. I don’t remember this, my mom remembered it for me.
I had a great time at The Winery last month, opening for Sons Of The Never Wrong, thank you, folks… I’m doing a gig with Jamie O’Reilly at Wishbone on Saint Patrick’s Day. Irish tunes, but I’ll abjure Paddy McGinty’s Goat and the removal of dentures. Third encore, maybe. March 31, April 1, 2, and 3 I’m at the MCA with Blair Thomas in his meditation on Moby Dick.
Mamie would say: Clearly Michael’s a boy who only works with the classier people.
Listen to Michael sing Kilgarry Mountain.
Jamie O’Reilly’s St. Paddy’s Day Fête
Performers: Jamie O’Reilly, Peter Swenson,
Michael Smith and Al Ehrich.
March 17, 2016, from 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Wishbone North Restaurant
3300 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago
$20 adv. music cover, $23 door
Reserve ahead. PH 773-549-2663
Dinner and drink specials. Southern Reconstruction Cooking with an Irish twist!
Tickets via PAYPAL here: https://www.jamieoreilly.com/jamies-st-pats-concert-tickets-for-wishbone-317/
Poster design: Nia O’Reilly Amandes
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Blair Thomas & Co,
Moby Dick: The Brotherhood of the Monastic Order of
Ancient Mariners Purges the Ills of Society through a
Reading of the Tales of Moby-Dick
March 31- April 3
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
Box Office 312-397-4010
Ticket Link: https://mcachicago.org/Calendar/2016/03/Blair-Thomas-Moby-Dick
With Blair Thomas, Michael Smith, Michael Zerang, Greg Allen
Moby Dick Photo: Kipling Swehla
