By Natalie Herman
What started out as a regular Thursday night gig for Michael Brunnock turned out to be a successful - and greatly entertaining - fundraiser for GOAL Ireland’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal.
The gig was already booked when the tragedy struck on January 12, and the wheels began to turn for Brunnock and for Bryan Keane Stack, owner of The Diving Bell in Sunnyside, Queens. Assembling other musicians for the cause - the advertising poster listed four musicians and “special guests” - Brunnock was able to stage a benefit concert where a total of ten musicians performed songs to raise money for the disaster.
Stack, quick to rise to the challenge, offered to donate 50% of the drink tickets to the cause. Admission to the event was free, but a $10 donation was suggested.
Beginning at 8pm in the Sunnyside bar, but also broadcast worldwide on FairplayCollective’s ustream.tv channel, the fundraiser would continue to entertain for five hours straight. Brunnock started it off with “Dance to the Wind,” a song, he explained, he wrote when a tree talked to him on the way home in Ireland one night. “When I woke up, I wrote it.” Brunnock, who was suffering from the flu, also explained that he was getting his germs all over the microphone for all of his friends.
Roesy, an Offaly native living in Holland but currently touring the States, followed, noting that he would stay far from the microphone. It didn’t matter, though, because his giant and powerful voice reached Connecticut, Florida, Washington state, California, Spain, and Germany quite nicely regardless.
Joe Whyte performed next; he’s one of the “honorary” Irish singers, with an Americana style. Whyte, who supported the legendary Rosanne Cash at a sold-out Infinity Hall in Connecticut over the summer, ended his set by treating us to a new song with the help of Brendan O’Shea (playing the harmonica beautifully!), who then took his own turn at the mic playing some of his well-known songs as well as a new one. O’Shea, who is recovering from the flu himself, has a new CD due out in the spring.
Prizes were raffled off: Roesy, also a talented painter, offered a print; DebchePhotography was offering a photoshoot (and was also running the camera for the live stream); Stack offered a very good bottle of whiskey; local studio Yogatonic offered a free mingun massage; the performers pooled their CDs for a musical package - the generosity was overwhelming! In fact, the owner of local Bar 43 was in the audience and at the spur of the moment offered a $100 gift certificate to his bar! Then, the winner of that gift certificate decided to return it to the pool, “selling” it the highest bidder ($80!) to go to the Haiti fund. The artists offered to give 30% of all album sales to the charity, and Whyte donated a full 100% of the monies earned off CD sales to GOAL Ireland. GOAL was in Haiti long before the earthquake and is one of the key agencies involved in the current relief mission.
After the first set of prizes were raffled off, Niall Connolly performed. Connolly, originally from County Cork, has a residency on Bleeker Street at The Red Lion. (He is also this week’s guest “At The Mike Stand”.)
He was followed by another “honorary Irish” singer, Georgia-born E.W. Harris. Though a self-described “reluctant soloist,” he displayed a knack for holding a show on his own.
After Harris’s impressive set, another impressive thing happened - Colin Campbell performed. Campbell, a Belfast native who plays guitar and sings in Kidd Dynamo, was in Diving Bell to enjoy the music and support the cause, but he ended up onstage as part of the show!
Lauren Hunt and her incredible voice came on next. Brunnock introduced saying that her songs were going out to the people watching from France. Far reaches, indeed. In addition to performing a few songs in her soul rock style, Hunt donated a gift certificate for ice skating.
Originally from Dublin, Anthony Gibney performed his set to the delight of the audience both in the bar and online. The ustream chat was abuzz about the singer. Gibney has recorded with producer and Little Palace member, Martin Quinn and has shared the stage with big names such as Damien Rice and Bell X1’s Dave Geraghty. Gibney is now living and performing in New York.
After all the acts had a cycle around (including another song by Brunnock and lots more prizes raffled), they begin again - Roesy, Whyte, O’Shea — Brendan mixed it up by starting a sing-a-long to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and even the folks at home could heard Alice Farrell’s strong operatic voice.
Hunt came back and beautifully covered Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and “Let it Be” by The Beatles.
Maureen Sullivan (better known as the interviewer from the “Gossip in the Garden” series) sang a spirited song with Gibney and Connolly.
In what was to be the last song of the night, Brunnock - and his ailing throat - soldiered his way through “Man Overboard” with help on vocals by Connally and guitar and vocals by Gibney and Roesy. It was an incredibly touching moment that summarized the spirit of the night.
All good concerts have encores, and this night ended with Roesy, Gibney, Connolly, and Hunt singing “I Shall Be Released.”
Brunnock gave special thanks to all of the musicians who gave up their time and played for free, to Diving Bell who hosted the event and gave generously of the house receipts, to all who donated items for the raffle, to Colin Ahearn for volunteering to engineer the sound and Debra Reschoff-Ahearn for running the worldwide webcast, to all who came out and gave their money and especially for being an attentive audience, and to those watching around the world.
The in-house collected amount was $1227.00, with an unaccounted-for amount of donations being made directly to www.goal.ie by the folks watching at home.
It truly warms the heart what can be accomplished when one man makes up his mind to do something about it.
Natalie Herman provides content for Paddy-Whacked Radio™ News
Copyright © 2010 Natalie Herman and Paddy-Whacked Radio™