Loes & The Celtic Link from Prague to Westport (and Back) #0: Hit It!
"We're 1250 miles to Westport. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.... Hit it."
Our trusty Ford S-Max is to take us – that is Loes & Honza: Dutch singer/guitarist Loes van Schaijk & Czech singer/fiddler Honza Bartošek – all the way from the Czech Republic to Westport in Ireland via Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, and Northern Ireland. And, if all goes well, it will also bring us back.
7 weeks, 7 countries, approximately 7000 kilometers: that's what awaits us.
This is the longest international tour we have ever been on, with 20 performances planned in theaters, folk clubs, breweries, somebody's garage, proper Irish bars, and at festivals such as The Big Freezone (Dorset, UK), Westport Folk & Bluegrass Festival (co. Mayo, Ireland), Galway Folk Festival (co. Clare, Ireland) and Doolin Folk Festival (ditto).
There will be double-bills with Paul van Vlodrop, Rob Clamp, and Michel Ebben.
For the Ireland leg of the tour, we will be joined by our friend Caolán O'Neill-Forde (who loyal Insounder-readers might know from his series The Guitarist's Survival Guide) to form the trio Loes & The Celtic Link. We will play a mix of original songs, bluegrass, and Irish/Scottish trad... We are very curious how the good people of Ireland will react to this Dutch-Czech-Irish trio's take on their cultural heritage!
If we're lucky, we might catch the shows of the legends who are playing at the same festivals as we are. To name a few: Daorí Farrell, Fionn Regan, Elephant Sessions, Frankie Gavin & De Dannan, The Cox Family, The Scratch… How about that!
There is also (in most of the countries we will visit) a large chance of rain, excellent whisky and cheese, close encounters with sheep and more rain.
We will sleep on friends' couches, in a yurt, on a boat, under the stars and in a 4-star business hotel.
Maybe we will get robbed, maybe our car will break down, maybe our ferry will sink, maybe our instruments will get trampled by a herd of sheep, maybe we will be discovered by Ed Sheeran and become instantly famous, maybe we will have a chat with somebody from county Kerry and understand more than half of what they are saying.
We will write a 6-part tour report about all these experiences and hope you will enjoy reading it.
Coming up in the first episode:
- 10 May: BeePartment (Munich, Germany)
- 15 May: De Parel van Zuilen (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
- 17 May: Deutsches Haus (Reckenfeld/Greven, Germany)
- 18 May: Vulcaan Brewery (Vlaardingen, The Netherlands)
Have a look at our tour poster and at the line-up of the Galway & Doolin Folk Festivals. Who are your favorite acts? Which concerts should we review and who should we try to get an interview with?
If you have found an error or typo in the article, please let us know by e-mail info@insounder.org.
