The Glorious Heresies  

Lisa McInerney  

Tim Duggan Books 2015  pp. 389

On St. Patrick’s Day this year we played a concert in Scottsbluff, NE and were also asked to do an outreach at the local correctional facility…

Hillbilly Elegy
J.D. Vance 
Harper, 2016 
272 pp.

I’ve gone ‘round a few times, debating with myself whether to write this review or to stay with fiction. Fiction is safer and it’s easier to write about because not so much…

I’ve not been keeping up with my reading of late. At least, not with my fiction reading. The pile I want to get to is getting higher all the time and includes books I’ve wanted to read for years. Instead…

This song is on our CD, Saint Bartholemew’s Feast and, though it’s not one we perform a lot, it’s one that I have a great affection for. It’s a Donegal song and it’s one that my father was likely to…

A Drink Before The War  
Dennis Lehane  

This is the book that made Lehane’s reputation. It won the Shamus Award the year it was published (1994)  and introduces the PI duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. I’d not read…

Chicken Thighs Dijon Style 

I got this recipe from a cookbook by Jacques Burdick called French Cooking En Famille (1989). The blurb on the front by M.F.K. Fisher sold me on it and, though it’s a bit tattered and…

If you’re familiar with our Facebook page or our Twitter, you’ll be familiar with the daily haiku. Every day we post an original haiku, sometimes referring to things that are happening with the band and sometimes, it’s just about whatever…

It happens every year with some fruit or another. The crop has ripened and all of a sudden there’s this great but brief abundance. Sometimes it will be strawberries or raspberries or mangos — sometimes it seems as if everything…

Unbroken Brain  
Maia Szalavitz  
St. Martin’s Press 2016  
352 pp.  

I found this book fascinating. I’m an alcoholic and central to all the mess that surrounds such a condition is a disturbing existential disconnect. I’ve referred to it in…

Song Profile: Mollaí na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin.  

Some songs just grab you straight away. Some songs grow on you over time or when you hear a particular rendition. This song grabbed my attention after I heard the version called…

Black Chalk  
Christopher J. Yates  
Picador 2015  
352 pp. 

There’s something wrong with this book — or there’s something wrong with me. I say that because there were parts of this book that I really enjoyed but I was perplexed…

Mellow Moist Low-Fat Chocolate Cake  

It doesn’t seem that long ago that low-fat recipes were all the rage and and a sort of panacea for losing weight and maintaining cardio health. This was a little unfortunate in that many…