Dermot Grogan Memorial Session at Dempsey's Featuring Tom Dunne

Please join us at Dempsey's on this night for a very special evening of traditional Irish music as the Tuesday night session meets to honor the late Dermot Grogan.

Dermot Grogan (pictured below) was a supremely talented button accordion and flute player from Kilkelly in Mayo. He spent just five years in New York in the late 1990s and early 2000s before returning to his native Ireland, where he died of pancreatic cancer in 2006 at the age of 48. But while he was in New York, he made a tremendous impact on the traditional Irish music scene here and Influenced musicians young and old. To this day, traditional Irish tunes played all over the world are identified with him, a Dermot Grogan's Reel, Dermot Grogan's Jig, Dermot Grogan's Hornpipe. He was post-humously inducted into the Ceoltahttp://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/5/c/a/a/event_138683722.jpegs Ceoltoiri Eireann Mid Atlantic Region Hall of Fame in 2007. Here's an excerpt from Don Meade's write-up on Dermot from the CCE Hall of Fame site (http://midatlanticcce.wordpress.com/hall-of-fame/):

"...Older players immediately recognized his musical quality, while younger ones sought him out as a source of new tunes and as a touchstone of true traditional style. While in New York, Dermot led hundreds of pub sessions and performed at concerts and festivals that included an all-star flute concert during New York University’s 2003 “West Along the Road” program and a marvelous duet performance at the Blarney Star that same year with Mayo fiddler/composer Brendan Tonra. Dermot can also be heard with guitarist Dónal Clancy on a beautiful hornpipe selection on the compilation Wooden Flute Obsession, vol. 2."

You can read more about Dermot HERE (http://midatlanticcce.wordpress.com/hall-of-fame/dermot-grogan/).

Every year, a rotating session is held in Dermot's memory at one of the pub sessions in New York and this year it's at Dempsey's. Button accordion and fiddle player Tom Dunne, who played with Dermot many times and has been a stalwart of the local traditional Irish music scene for more than 35 years, is the musical guest. I would expect that many other well-known local and even visiting Irish musicianhttp://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/b/a/event_139081722.jpegs will be making appearances as well. So this figures to be an amazing night of traditional Irish music and one you won't want to miss.

We'll meet starting at 7 in the front bar area for drinks, food and conversation. The music starts at 8. Musicians are invited to bring their instruments and sit in with the session. Non-musicians are invited to listen, watch and enjoy. The Dempsey's session is a mix of advanced, intermediate and beginner-level musicians skillfully led by our own John Nevin. Now in its 14th year, it's the longest-running open traditional Irish session in New York and the largest, most popular session in town. The session was the subject of the 2011 documentary film "Beautiful People (http://www.beautifulpeopledocfilm.com/)."

Hope you'll be able to join us for this very special evening.