Saturday 25th October – Album Launch – ‘Grace Bay’ by Tommy McCarthy and Louise Costello /  ‘Note for Note’ Mary MacNamara

5pm at the London Irish Centre, Presidential Suite – FREE

Tommy McCarthy and Louise Costello met in Boston in 1986, where both were part of the city’s thriving traditional music scene. They married in 1992 and in 1996, opened the now iconic bar, The Burren, which is a mecca for traditional music in the area. It also sells more Guinness than any other bar in the USA…

Born and raised in London, Tommy spent much of his teenage years in West Clare. His playing is influenced by his father’s and the greats from Clare, such as Bobby Casey & Willie Clancy.

Multi-instrumentalist Louise is from Galway. She too comes from a musical family and grew up playing with her father, Denny, local fiddlers Joe Morris and Jim O’Brien and flute player Joe Collins.

Tommy and Louise display an intuitive, sympathetic approach to duet playing, blending the musical styles of West Clare and North Galway. Their debut CD, Grace Bay, is dedicated to the memory of their fathers, Denny Costello and Tommy McCarthy Sr.

They have played with some of the great Irish musicians, including The Chieftains, Altan, Dervish, Sharon Shannon and Lunasa, many of who have joined Tommy and Louise for a session in the back room of The Burren after a concert in the Boston area.