The McGee Band and Professor David Wilson entertained an audience with tales and music with an Irish flair in the Lee Theater of the Touhill Performing Arts Center on February 13. This entertainment consisted of a variety of Irish, Scottish and Quebecois music. Professor David Wilson, sometimes accompanying the band on a flute, told stories of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, for whom the band is named.
This was a fine performance, one with toe-tapping music and interesting facts. McGee had a truly amazing life.
Wilson read the passages with feeling and emotion, one felt as though they were actually there. McGee was a visionary who had enemies and setbacks, he did not let anything stop him, and he kept going right up until his murder at age 40. The respect for this man and his ways was heard as Professor Wilson read; it seemed that he wanted the audience to understand just how great a man McGee was, and thanks to his reading it seems they did.
The McGee band played with such feeling and passion. One could tell that they loved the music they play and playing with each other. Most of the songs would start with just one instrument, like the flute, then the accordion would join in or perhaps the piano. There was also a fiddle and a native Irish instrument called a bodhran which is a type of drum.
It was very easy to become engaged in the music, for the musicians themselves had to continuously tap their feet, bop their heads and move their shoulders. It was a night filled with applause and music that was worthy of it. Several of the compositions played by the band were written by two of the band members, but there were also two native Irish songs that were performed.
Though only one of the songs had actual lyrics, the songs the band played were definitely written with as much emotion as if they had lyrics. The pride and respect could be heard and felt with every stroke of the bow or pump of the accordion. It was a pleasant evening that the participants will talk of for a while to come thanks to the McGee Band and Professor David Wilson’s toe-tapping, emotion evoking music and touching, thought-provoking stories.
