The High Kings
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When: RESCHEDULED for SUMMER 2021
Wednesday August 18, 2021 @7:30 pm Cost: $45 Premium/$40 Center/$35 Side Contact:
315-686-2200 |
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Ten years ago, four Irish singers, performers and songwriters decided to take a calculated risk. The constituent parts of The High Kings each had a wealth of history in the music business behind them, but knew that in order to maintain any level of creative interest they would have to boldly go where no other Irish ballad group had gone before. In truth, back in the mid-late nighties, Ireland needed a group like The High Kings. The heyday of ballad groups such as The Clancy Brothers and The Dubliners was a distant memory for generations of music fans, and to have another bunch of Irish lads taking up the baton and continue the tradition was great news to thousands of fans worldwide.
The self-titled debut album, released in 2008, reached a highly impressive number two on Billboard Magazine's World Music chart. It was during The High Kings second tour of the US in 2011, however - having graduated from playing small venues to larger halls as they promoted their follow-up album, "Memory Lane," which also crashed into Billboard's World Music chart - that everyone involved realized the fan-base was growing into something that no one had predicted. Subsequently, the group's tour of Ireland sold out within hours.
As if that wasn't good enough, The High Kings received the stamp of approval from the likes of Christy Moore and, perhaps more pertinently, Ronnie Drew, the lead singer of The Dubliners, and the man behind one of Ireland's most recognizable and enduring ballad voices. The High Kings had achieved what many had thought improbable, if not impossible: they were moving the Irish ballad tradition into the here and now, carrying along with them the steadfast older fans while simultaneously bringing it to a new audience.
The self-titled debut album, released in 2008, reached a highly impressive number two on Billboard Magazine's World Music chart. It was during The High Kings second tour of the US in 2011, however - having graduated from playing small venues to larger halls as they promoted their follow-up album, "Memory Lane," which also crashed into Billboard's World Music chart - that everyone involved realized the fan-base was growing into something that no one had predicted. Subsequently, the group's tour of Ireland sold out within hours.
As if that wasn't good enough, The High Kings received the stamp of approval from the likes of Christy Moore and, perhaps more pertinently, Ronnie Drew, the lead singer of The Dubliners, and the man behind one of Ireland's most recognizable and enduring ballad voices. The High Kings had achieved what many had thought improbable, if not impossible: they were moving the Irish ballad tradition into the here and now, carrying along with them the steadfast older fans while simultaneously bringing it to a new audience.