Pittsburgh Irish Festival: Sept 8-10

The fact that Pittburgh based Irish sing-a-long band Ceann has made it performing in an Oakland bar to holding the covedted timeslot preceding perpetual Irish Festival headliners Gaelic Storm says something about persistence. After all, when self-proclaimed "Yankee-Irish Drinking Music" band Ceann started out plucking tunes about cold bottles of Iron City, the group couldn't get a word in with promoters on the "serious" East Coast Irish-music circuit. Now, with the release of the professional (yet still funny) Almost Irish album, Ceann is playing nearly 200 shows each year on that same circuit - even if it still thinks Yeats is a beer ingredient. So celebrate the coming of age of a young, yet firmly instilled, Pittsburgh tradition and raise a pint to Ceann, along with the likes of Tommy Makem and Gaelic Storm, at the 16th Annual Pittsburgh Irish Festival.

Justin Hopper