Archive: 2008
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MAY
 Hi
everybody. Thanks for visiting our website. This is our
seventeenth year together and we're still going strong. Our
friends, families and fans have been a big part of our success and
we continue to be very grateful. Our newest CD "Donegal" has
proven to be an unqualified smash. It's getting airplay and
positive reviews throughout the world. It's nice to be based
in upstate New York and yet be known far out of the region.
Here in the northeast, folks always seem to complain that we don't
get a spring. This has been one of the best springs that any
of us can remember. Hopefully the great weather will hold up
throughout the summer and into the fall.
Hair Of The Dog will be appearing
at many festivals this summer. They include The Chicago Gaelic
Park Irish Festival, The Greater Hartford Irish Festival, The Great
American Irish Festival in Central N.Y., The Cortland Irish
Festival, The Capital District Scottish Games, The Danbury CT Irish
Festival and The Irish 2000 Music And Arts Festival in Altamont, NY.
We will also be performing at numerous town concerts, clubs, parties
and weddings. In all, close to fifty appearances this summer!
After the summer, we'll be
returning to The Parting Glass, our home base in Saratoga Springs,
NY. The Parting Glass is not only a fine music venue, but it's
also a great place to eat. And they have the awards to prove
it. In February, The Parting Glass won the award for "Best
Chowder off-Broadway" and in April, they won two awards; one each
for main dish and dessert in the second annual Saratoga Mardi Gras
Festival. About twenty restaurants participated and The
Parting Glass received close to six hundred votes. Kudos to
Linda DiBlasio, Susan Thomas, Kathy Hearn and chef Aaron Mondore.
The Mardi Gras Festival raised funds to help the rebuilding efforts
in Waveland, Mississippi. And don't forget, Hair Of THe Dog
will be in residence the entire month of January, 2009 for our
second annual "Hair-A-Thon".
And finally, it's with great
sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our friend Joe Dolan.
Joe was a leader in The Capital District Irish American community
for as long as we can remember. Born in Albany in 1935, Joe
graduated from Siena College and UAlbany before joining the Navy and
serving in The Korean War. After the war, he returned home
where he was active in county and state government. But Irish
Culture was Joe's true passion. Joe's legacy will be his work
with The Irish American Heritage Museum in East Durham, NY.
Dolan was a driving force behind many of the museum's major
exhibits, including a photo exhibit that in 2006 made the museum the
first American museum to exhibit at the national library in Dublin.
We just saw Joe this past March at The Irish American Legislators
Dinner at The Albany AOH and he was in fine spirits. We will
all miss him very much.
Once again thanks for your
support. Please be sure to check out our schedule page.
We hope to see you all this summer.
Rick and The Boys
NOVEMBER
Hi everybody. 2008 came and went
in a flash, didn't it? Probably because it was a busy year for us,
especially during the summer months. We met a lot of great people at
numerous Irish festivals, town concerts, boat cruises, parties and
weddings that we played throughout the United States. And we're
happy to report that our CDs are getting spun regularly all over the
world. One of our goals is to have enough new material to record a
CD in the not too distant future.
For quite some time, people have been asking us when we're going to
sponsor our next trip to Ireland. The plans have been finalized.
Hair Of The Dog's 8th Tour Of Ireland
will be February 13-19, 2010. This trip of a lifetime is, of course,
open to the public and includes visits to The Guinness Brewery,
Blarney Castle, The Dingle Peninsula, The Cliffs Of Moher and The
Aran Islands. Overnights will be in Dublin, Killarney and Galway.
You can get more information by going to our
Road Trips page or by contacting
Hammond Tours at 866-486-8772 or 518-765-2056. You can also e-mail
them at
mhammond@hammondtours.com.
Besides drumming in the band,
Scott Apicelli keeps himself occupied
owning and operating Blue
Sky Music Studios. Blue Sky is a full service recording
facility. They also have a music store and they offer music lessons.
At Blue Sky, hundreds of people of all ages study guitar, bass,
keyboard, drums, percussion, voice, violin, woodwind, brass,
children's music and audio engineering. Blue Sky's faculty includes
many of the Albany, NY area's finest musicians, including HOTD's
Eric Finn. Eric teaches guitar and violin at Blue Sky and he's one
of their most popular instructors. The student body includes Mike
DeAngelis' son Jack. Jack has been studying drums at Blue Sky for
several years and he's really making progress. Our latest CD, "Donegal"
was recorded, mixed and mastered at Blue Sky and it sounds great!
Scott is a first rate producer too.
As many of you know, Eamonn's in
Loudonville, NY was our home from 1993 until it was consumed by a
fire in 2005. Many of our initial gigs were at Eamonn's, we recorded
our first CD there and they had the best fish and chips in the
world! This situation left us without a quality venue in which to
perform on a regular basis in Albany County, our base of operations.
Towards the end of 2008, we appeared at a new music venue on Wolf
Road in Colonie, NY called
Old Chicago. What a pleasant surprise. Old Chicago has a huge
parking lot, easy access for loading gear, a big stage, 200 beers,
good food, lots of big screen TVs, a large dance floor, enthusiastic
management and a friendly staff. Could this be our new home base?
Time will tell. Our fans loved it and we can't wait to go back!
If you're a fan of The Beatles, you won't want to miss
Rick's 2nd Magical Mystery
Tour of England. This Beatle fan's dream vacation will be
November 14-20, 2009. Rick will co-host the trip with Kevin McKrell.
The tour includes most available Beatle Tours, 2 nights in
Liverpool, 3 nights in London, a West End theater ticket and a whole
lot more. For more information, call Hammond Tours at 866-486-8772
or 518-765-2056.
We hope to see everybody at an
upcoming show. Don't forget,
The Parting Glass in
Saratoga Springs continues to be our northern home base. It's one of
the best places to see us. We will be appearing there on a very
regular basis throughout the winter and spring months. What better
way to beat the winter blues than with a pint of Guinness and a
little Hair Of The Dog? Please drive safely, and drink responsibly.
Good health and much happiness to all.
Hair Of The Dog
Winter/Spring 2009
Dog
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