Irish super group, RUNA, at Mt . Airy venue this Sunday

Posted 3/4/20

Shannon Lambert-Ryan (center) and other members of the Irish super group RUNA will perform on Sunday, March 8, 7 p.m., at the Philadelphia Irish Center, 6815 Emlen St. in West Mt. Airy. by Len Lear …

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Irish super group, RUNA, at Mt . Airy venue this Sunday

Posted

Shannon Lambert-Ryan (center) and other members of the Irish super group RUNA will perform on Sunday, March 8, 7 p.m., at the Philadelphia Irish Center, 6815 Emlen St. in West Mt. Airy.

by Len Lear

When asked what was the hardest thing she has ever done, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, front-person, singer and step-dancer for the Irish super group RUNA, replied, “Deciding to become an Irish folk musician! Ha ha! You definitely don’t choose this career for the wealth or the fame! It’s a love of really hard work, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love what I do, and I love the people I get to tour with.”

Shannon, 38, who grew up in Olney, and her universally acclaimed group (“Best of all, RUNA sounds like no one else!”—Travis Rogers, Jr., Music Life & Times) have definitely pushed the envelope of Irish folk music into the Americana and roots music genres, seasoned by the herbs and spices of jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues. And those spices can be savored on Sunday, March 8, 7 p.m., when they will perform at the Philadelphia Irish Center, 6815 Emlen St. in West Mt. Airy.

According to the London Celtic Punks, a website for Celtic-Punk music, RUNA is “one of the best and inventive folk bands of this modern era!” John O’Brien, Jr., Artistic Director of the Cleveland Irish Festival, wrote that RUNA is “genuine and with endless innovation…” The group, which has performed at the Pastorius Park summer concerts three times, has been honored internationally, winning Top Group and Top Traditional Group in the Irish Music Awards and three Independent Music Awards including Best Live Album, Best World/Traditional Song and Best Bluegrass Song.

RUNA, which means “mystery, secret lore or secret love” (Celtic and Nordic roots) was formed in August, 2008, after Fionán de Barra (guitar, vocals and bodhran) and Shannon recorded an album together in February of 2008. That album became the foundation for the band. “When we decided to put a small concert together in Philly, Cheryl Prashker (of Mt. Airy),offered to play percussion for us. After the show, we all looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, this is something special! We should do this again sometime!’ We have been touring together as a band ever since.”

As a child, Shannon studied with Pat O’Donnell for eight years at the Commodore Barry Club. “My mom had been going to the céilis (traditional Scottish or Irish social gatherings) on Friday nights since she was 17 years old, dancing with Jimmy McGill, Frank O’Malley and Eugene O’Donnell! I also used to go to the swing dances every first and third Saturday in the ballroom. So it’s been in our family through the generations, and it’s always amazing when it comes full circle and we get to perform there with RUNA!”

RUNA performs a mixture of original, traditional, and contemporarily written music within the band. Generally, speaking, they play about two-thirds Irish or Scottish-based songs and tunes and one-third a combination of folk, contemporary, bluegrass and swing. They have been out on the road since the end of January, performing shows in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. They also spent a few days in New Orleans recording some new music videos

and a few days in Oklahoma meeting and collaborating with members of the Choctaw Nation on an upcoming project. 

One particularly fascinating song written by Lambert-Ryan and de Barra is “The Ruthless Wife” on their “Current Affairs” album (2014). It’s about Shannon’s great-great-grandfather, a cop who was killed in 1922 while on his beat near 8th and Callowhill streets, a few blocks north of Independence Hall. “He was dealing with a local gang lord and owed him money. He was also fond of the ladies, and my great-great-grandmother was not too happy about that. She refused to accept his pension when they came to present it to her. Meanwhile, another lady he was seeing at the time poisoned herself after hearing about his death. She changed her mind, took a cab to Hahnemann Hospital, but it was too late to save her life.”

Shannon graduated from Muhlenberg College in Allentown in 2003 with a double major in History and Theater and a minor in Music. For several years, she worked as an actor in theater and film productions, including the Arden Theatre Company’s “Sweeney Todd,” Brian Friel’s “Translations” with the Irish Repertory Theatre of Philadelphia and M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village.”
In 2004, she went to Italy, where she performed as Ermia in the world premiere of “Il Sogno di una Notte di Mezza Estate” (Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) with the International Opera Theatre Company. Lambert-Ryan met de Barra at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2006. They married in 2009 and currently live in Newtown, Lower Bucks County.

Current RUNA members are Lambert-Ryan, de Barra, Prashker, Caleb Edwards (mandolin and vocals) and Jake James (fiddle and step-dancing). For the show at the Irish Center, they will be joined by Ontario fiddler, Tom Fitzgerald.

For more information about the March 8 performance: 267-575-7744 or phillyceiligroup@gmail.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com

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