Celtic Calm

The Boys of the Lough, one of the British Isles’ premier Celtic music groups, seemed to derive surprisingly little inspiration from a performance in Los Angeles during the week of the wearing of the green. Saturday night at the Ambassador Auditorium, the Boys presented a far-ranging collection of jigs, reels and marches that was long on accuracy and a bit short on gusto.

Drawing on the music of Ireland, Scotland and other Celtic sources, the Boys constructed near-orchestral blends of flute, concertina, cittern, violin and uilleann pipes. But with the exception of a rousing penny-whistle duet between Cathal McConnell and Christy O’Leary, and an energetic closing set of reels, the music had too much the feeling of a concert program, and too little of the infectious, foot-tapping exuberance of the Celtic dances which are at its source.

The real spirit of the evening, in fact, was provided by singer Jean Redpath, whose slyly educational storytelling and passionate interpretations of Robert Burns’ poems (especially “My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose”), Scottish though they are, found the true focus of St. Patrick’s Day.