© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Disney House Band Creel Plays Celtic Classics - Sans Mouse Ears

Creel website

Just in time for Irish Fest, the duo Creel comes to Milwaukee by way of England, Ireland – and Disney World.

All artists sacrifice for their art because everyone has to eat. Actors make commercials. Novelists write for popular magazines. And world class Irish traditional musicians become the house band for a pub at Disney World in Orlando (no, they don’t have to wear the ears.)

And they say it’s not a soul-killing gig - really.

“They” are UK born fiddler Colin Farrell and Irish born guitarist and singer Damien McCarthy. Individually they have played and recorded with some of the giants in Celtic music: together they are Creel.

But playing as the house band for Disney's Raglan Road Pub  is a much different gig than what they'll play at Irish Fest.

"So many songs and tunes we do play – it’s hard – the set in Milwaukee is only for an hour or so," Farrell says.

McCarthy jokes, "Yeah, we’ve been playing four hours a night for probably 5 years, 6 nights a week. So we’re going to be finished by the time we warm up."

But they are both looking forward to their Irish Fest sets, which begin tonight and continue throughout the weekend. Colin’s played here before, but it’s Damien’s first time to experience the festival. You can find their full schedule here.

The band has also just released a new live CD. You can also watch a video of them playing at Disney below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Utt2ZcIaGTg

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.