Seisiún (sessions) are informal gatherings of Irish traditional musicians. They are wonderful, spontaneous musical events that now can be found all around the world. Join us for a seisiún featuring Sheridan Ruitin who entered the Irish music scene filling the gap between Celtic Rock and traditional Irish folk ballads. The band will be joined by members of the Sheehan Gormely School of Irish Dance for some lively reels.
Sheridan Rúitín was born in The Spring of 2020 in a Congers, NY detached garage converted "Sheridan's Pub." In the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, as more pubs and restaurants were shutting their doors, Billy Houlihan became more and more of a regular at his next door neighbor's (Sheridan's) pub. Sheridan's pub was complete with a speaker system, Guinness on tap, and portraits of the 1916 rising Irish rebel leaders. It was everything you'd imagine a suburban New York garage would look like if it was owned by a man from Kildare. Billy and Sheridan were eventually joined by Billy's cousin Shannon (guitar), and his brother Johnny (accordian), and finally Shannon's husband Tommy (bodhran). This led to many fantastic jam sessions and 3 part harmonies of old traditional Irish songs.
One quiet evening in May of 2020, Billy brought his guitar over to the pub and he and Sheridan sat at the bar, sang rebel songs, and drank beer. Sheridan got quite into the moment while singing "The Kerry Recruit," leading him to tumble off his barstool ultimately breaking his ankle (Irish: Rúitín) in 2 places. Sheridan Rúitín now had an official band name and began recording songs and videos to release on YouTube. As pubs and restaurants were slowly opening back up, the family band began playing many gigs and were joined by old musician friends, John Damiano and Michael Zayas. Towards the end of 2021, the group began creating their own arrangements of traditional songs and writing a few originals to eventually become their debut album. "Rebels in the Night" was released on March 6, 2022, and Sheridan Rúitín went on tour the whole month in support of their debut album.
Funded by a generous gift to the AWPL Foundation
by Glenn P. and Susan D. Dickes.