By George L. O'Brien
The first fundraiser for the Arizona Irish Music Society on Saturday, December 4th is expected to feature the largest collection of local Irish musicians ever assembled in the "valley." While the primary goal of this event is to support the efforts of the Arizona Irish Music Society (AIMS) to promote Irish music in Arizona - a further goal is to showcase some of the less well-known performers. It will also give performers to get to know each other watch one another perform. This promises to be a scheduling nightmare, but it should be a lot of fun.
This will be the first serious fundraising effort by the Arizona Irish Music Society (AIMS). Most people seem to agree that AIMS has accomplished quite a bit since being formed last April. The web site, www.azirishmusic.com , provides calendar and directory information about Irish music in Arizona. This site is now registered on all the major search engines such as Yahoo, Infoseek, Excite, and so on. It is also listed on many of the major Irish and Irish music sites such as Ceolas (the largest Irish music site in the U.S.), IANET, among others. After the Dolas site (they rate Irish web sites around the world) gave us a favorable review, we received an unsolicited request for a link exchange from the Irish site "Donegal on the Net" http://www.dun-na-ngall.com
The weekly e-mail calendar with "News and Notes" has generated considerable response from people who appreciate hearing about what is happening. A number of people have told me they have gone to performances entirely because of reading about them on the "e-zine." One sign of the impact it is having is that musicians have begun to routinely send news items they would like to get out. People interested in receiving the weekly calendar and "News and Notes" such send an e-mail to aims@azirishmusic.com
The main way people are informed about AIMS (and in many cases the very existence of Irish music in Arizona) is through flyers. The flyers tell about the date of the next AIMS meeting, major events coming up, the location of the weekly seisiuns, and include a sample weekly calendar showing who is playing where. The response is extraordinary positive. Never before have I have distributed flyers that get read so intently as soon as they are received.
Most of the efforts to sign people to the e-list and distribute flyers have been focused at the Irish pubs. None the less, AIMS has had fair booths at the Flagstaff Celtic Fair, the Tucson Highland games, the September 25th Gala, and the Phoenix Irish Feis fundraiser. AIMS flyers have been distributed at folk music venues such as the Sharlott Hall Museum Folk Festival and Fiddler's Dream. At Sharlott Hall, people approached me asking for a flyer (in some cases more than one) after seeing other people with them.
One of the things AIMS does is assist organizations to hold Irish music events such as the Phoenix Irish Feis fundraiser and the September 25th Gala. This has involved contacting the performers, making arrangements for sound systems and dance floors, setting up the schedule, and doing the stage management functions. When there was a need for Irish musicians to play at the reception prior to the premier of the movie "One Man's Hero", AIMS became involved in setting up the music.
On a behind the scenes basis, AIMS has worked with the various Irish music venues on scheduling, suggesting performers that are known to be available. AIMS has assisted in setting up gigs at new venues and suggesting new venues for performers to consider. AIMS actively recruits people to come to the weekly seisiuns and is in the process of putting together a directory of seisiun musicians that might be available for someone interested in forming a band.
The point? In an editorial in the August issue of Irish Music Magazine commemorating it's fourth birthday stated, "I like to think at Irish Music that we too, in a small way we are making a bit of a difference to `the scene'." This is the same goal as AIMS - to make a small difference and get a few more people out to enjoy Irish music.
The December 4th fundraiser should be great fun and give a chance to actively support the promotion Irish music in Arizona. But don't wait - get out and support our fine Irish music performers now.
See you at the fundraiser.
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