“You don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy “Songs of a
Catholic Childhood,” journalist Lorraine Anderson says in a recent feature in
the Traverse City Record-Eagle, referring to Chicago folk-duo Michael Smith and
Jamie O’Reilly’s current musical collaboration as "Affectionately
Catholic".
“You just have
to let the lyrics and music take you back to ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s America — a
time of large Catholic families, the era of John F. Kennedy’s election as the
first Catholic American president before the folk Mass reforms of Vatican II.”
Anderson continues.
(See full article. Exclusive to The
Record-Eagle, Traverse City, MI.
Its content ever evolving, the “Songs” concert on
June 22 at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake will include popular
songs, hymns and stories from the original program – which debuted as a benefit
for St. Scholastica's Girls Academy in fall 2011. For the Raue concert, Smith
and O'Reilly have added new songs and stories as well.
There is also a 20 song CD
album, recorded live at Chief O’Neill’s pub in Chicago last spring, which will
be available for purchase at the Crystal Lake show.
“We keep it fresh by nodding to the Catholic
tradition of celebrating seasons and feast days and work them into our
stories.” says O’Reilly. “June was class picnics and 8th grade graduation. We
got a change to put our hair up and wear grown-up clothes instead of school
uniforms. We posed for pictures with classmates in front of the blooming
trees in McCormick Park across from St. Thomas School. There was a
bitter-sweetness about graduation, too. Some kids would go on to the Catholic
High School in neighboring Woodstock, and some (myself included) would attend
the public high school in town."
“In addition to our own stories – Michael’s from
post war New Jersey and mine from the Midwest – we also localize the stories,
when in Chicago we talk about the parishes and the neighborhoods. In the
Michigan show, we talked about summers and growing up near a lake. In a
recent radio interview where the host hailed from Pennsylvania coal country,
Michael talked about his grandfather’s family of miners in Pittston, PA. “
Don't miss Songs of a Catholic Childhood June 22 at
the Raue Center of the Arts
in Crystal Lake, IL, when O'Reilly returns to her hometown,
performing on stage in what was the movie theater when she was a kid. “We
couldn’t afford to go to the movies
much.” (O’Reilly is one of fourteen children.) “But I
remember when I saw Sound of Music there in the 60s. I may not have felt
the calling to be a nun, but I sure wanted to be Julie Andrews.”
For
more information about Songs of a Catholic Childhood
see
the performances pages at jamieoreilly.com
Songs
of a Catholic Childhood Concert listing
Crystal
Lake, IL
Songs
of a Catholic Childhood
with
Michael and Jamie O'Reilly
Saturday,
June 22 at 8:30 PM
Raue
Center for the Arts
26
N. Williams
Crystal
Lake, IL 60014
Tickets
are $20 and $25 day-of; Group rates available
Box
Office: 815.356.9212; boxoffice@rauecenter.org
No comments:
Post a Comment