Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman bring blazing Irish harp and acoustic guitar to Ventura

On Saturday, October 17, at 7 pm Máire joins guitarist Chris Newman at NAMBA for an evening of breathtaking acoustic music rooted in Irish tradition but far too curious to stay there. Their performances travel through driving dance tunes, hot jazz, bluegrass, baroque music and striking original compositions, with the occasional sharp turn into Chris’s Breaking Bach and his famously dry, subversive wit. Tickets are $20 online at NambaArts.com or $25 at the door at 47 So Oak Street in Historic Downtown Ventura.

The harp has a reputation for behaving politely. Máire Ní Chathasaigh has spent a career putting fire back into it. Máire is one of the defining figures in modern Irish harping. Raised in a musical family in West Cork, she pioneered techniques that brought authentically ornamented Irish dance music onto the harp and helped return the instrument to the center of the living tradition. Her influence earned her Gradam Ceoil TG4’s Musician of the Year, Irish traditional music’s most prestigious honor.

Chris is a dazzling flatpick guitarist, improviser, composer and producer whose musical path has crossed folk, swing jazz, bluegrass and classical repertoire. His collaborators have included Stéphane Grappelli and Boys of the Lough, and his playing can move from a clean Irish reel to Django-flavored swing before most guitarists have decided where to put the capo.