LIVE: Screaming Orphans @ Universal Preservation Hall, 03/12/2022

St. Patrick’s week got a kickstart from Ireland’s own Screaming Orphans joined by dancers from Green Island’s Boland School of Irish Dance for a festive Irish Hooley Saturday night at the historic Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. 

The four Diver sisters, Joan on drums and vocals, Gráinne on guitar and vocals, Marie Thérèse on keys, accordion and vocals, and Angela on bass, violin and vocals, are from Bundoran, County Donegal, Ireland and are known for their harmonies and their genre-breaking fusion of pop and folk music.  From a musical family, the sisters started a pop/rock band in their teens and have over a dozen albums to their credit.  They have been backing vocalists for Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor, and Joni Mitchell.  Their roots in traditional Irish music were evident with their beautiful blending of sibling voices on the moving “The West’s Awake” and the finale “The Parting Glass”.  The Orphan’s pop/rock side shined with originals like “Liar” and “Lonely Boy”.  Enough vibrant sing-and-clap along energy to drain your pint to and enough expressive sentimentality to fill it up again with your own tears.

Photo Gallery by Leif Zurmuhlen