BCMFest is a community-based grassroots organization dedicated to promoting all kinds of Celtic music in and around the Boston area for the past 5 years.  BCMFests Celtic Music Monday's have been a regular feature at Club Passim, and this past Monday “Berkelee Celtic Night” featuring acts with strong ties to the Berkelee College of Music was just too cool to miss. 

  Folk Arts Quartet, a self-described “backwoods chambergrass” ensemble performed first.  At first I was a little skeptical.  They really looked a little too much like a string quartet in their hose and black outfits, but as soon as they launched into their first song the crowd and I were instantly won over and stomping our feet.  They managed to keep the liveliness and edge of traditional music while incorporating a classical flourish and precision that doesn't detract from either tradition.   They are Hannah Read and Ivonne Hernandez on violin, Julie Metcalf on violin, and Liz Davis on cello.    It was good to see a strong young group really going for it and sharing their own compositions.   They win the award for the most light-hearted band of the night for their banter before Hannah Read's composition, “Half Decade”. 

  Next up was the very seasoned violinist Kimberley Fraser accompanied by Mark Simose on guitar and cellist Natalie Haas.  According to Kimberley's website and MC Sean Smith's introduction, she comes from a Cape Breton family that has had fiddle music in it's blood for a little over a century. It was in evidence that night.  With brilliant accompaniment from both guitar and cello, she led the audience through beautiful meanderings that did her pedigree justice.  She really stretched out on all the material and only played one down-tempo song, "Tel Agorn (sp)" that stood out as the most moving performance of the night.  The entire performance was flawless and routinely settled into the sublime with the audience straining to catch every nuance of a performance overflowing with it.

  At last, Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers took the stage.  The least “traditional” band of the night, the group has Andy Reiner on 5 string violin, Bronwyn Bird on the mysterious nyckelharpa, Stash Wyslouch on guitar, and Mariel Vandersteel on Hardanger.  Maybe it was just getting a little late on a school night, but the crowd thinned out a bit for the last act.  And I'm here to tell them that they TOTALLY BLEW IT it by leaving early.  This act really blew the roof off the joint, and the crowd went a little wilder (and no it wasn't the beer they've started selling at Passim,...no really!).  They flew threw number after number projecting good plain fun, vigor, and more than a little mischief.  For this band no number really stood out as better than another because they were all so good.  Even their lone ballad was played in earnest, demonstating that this band is not just about infectious grooves.

  For a finale everyone joined them onstage for a rousing number and then dispersed like fog into the cool night.  It was a really cool night and I was and am grateful to BCMFest for putting it on. 
 

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