On the downside, Katie Grennan no longer gets to see Gaelic Storm with her friends every year at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival.
But on the plus side, she’s on stage with the band.
“As a kid, going to see Gaelic Storm at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival with my friends was always the highlight of the year,” says the fiddler, who hails from Franklin Park.
In 2001, while a member of the Burke Conroy School of Irish Dance, she got to dance with the Santa Monica, Calif., Celtic pop-rock group, famed for being the steerage band in the movie “Titanic.” In spring 2017, she became a full-time member of Gaelic Storm, which returns to headline the Irish Festival at Riverplex this weekend.
Where: : Riverplex at Sandcastle, Waterfront, West Homestead.
What: : Gaelic Storm performs at 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Also on the bill: The Screaming Orphans, Rory Makem, The Willis Clan, Doolin’, Dennis Doyle, plus The Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh, Bell School of Irish Dance, Burke-Conroy School of Irish Dance, The Pittsburgh Ceili Club, Pittsburgh Irish Reelers, and Shovlin Academy of Irish Dance. There will also be shopping, Irish cuisine and beverages, children’s activities, genealogy, ax throwing, hurling and more.
When: : 4-11 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday; and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $12; $15 at the gate; $10 seniors (over 60); $10 students with I.D.; $10 public safety/military (retired or active) with I.D.; 12 and under free; $35 weekend pass; $5 happy hour admission Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.; $5 admission Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. with college I.D.; pghirishfest.org.
“We actually had encountered each other almost every year since I danced with them for the first time at the Irish Festival, but sharing the Milwaukee Irish Festival stage with them in 2016 ultimately ended up leading to my invitation to join the band.
“At the time, I was playing for the Trinity Irish Dance Company, and our group invited Patrick [Murphy] and Steve [Twigger] to join us for one number to add some comic relief and entertainment to our show. It was the first time that I played with them and I think we naturally hit it off, which led to my invitation to join the band full time only a few months later — no audition required!”
She certainly knew the music well. She listened to their record “Tree” almost every day while she was in middle school in 2001, and their 2008 album “What’s the Rumpus?” was also a favorite.
“ ‘The Samuari Set’ was a track that I brought to the Notre Dame college dance team I was a member of and used for our choreographies at football pep rallies and basketball games.”
When she moved to Chicago, she took fiddle and whistle lessons from Kathleen Keane, who was a member of Gaelic Storm for two years.
“It certainly felt like a lot of things came full circle when I received the call from Steve Twigger to join the band last year,” she says. “We only had about two days of rehearsal before the first show, so naturally I was a little nervous even though I felt confident with all of the music. From start to finish, I couldn’t get over the energy from the crowd and just how happy everyone in the audience was. Immediately, I felt at ease with both the band and the audience and everything seemed to naturally fall into place.”
At the time, she was finishing a master’s degree in arts management at Carnegie Mellon University, but, suddenly, that had to come second.
“It was an easy decision for me because getting a chance to join one of your favorite childhood bands doesn’t come around very often,” she says. “My goal for the past few years or so had been to ultimately try to do music full time. I was making a living as a musician and teacher and paying my way through grad school using both of these skills. It was nice to be offered a more full-time gig with a major band as opposed to piecing together a lot of freelance work, even though I am still involved in a variety of musical projects on the side.”
She works part time for a nonprofit in Chicago called Sharing Notes, which provides live music in hospital settings for patients and their families.
In her spare time, she also recorded “The Second Story,” a lovely solo album of Celtic music that includes 10 originals.
“I was initially working on it as a labor of love and didn’t have a plan for it besides finishing it at its own pace, whenever that might be,” she says. “However, once I decided to join Gaelic Storm, I had a feeling I would gain more exposure quickly within the industry, so I ended up finishing the last couple tracks and put a bow on it sooner than I originally planned so that I could have an accurate depiction of my playing at that point in time.”
She says her first recording with Gaelic Storm could happen over the next six months.
In the meantime, she says, “We keep a very busy tour schedule — we sit on planes and in the tour van far more than we actually play music together!”
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com.
First Published: September 6, 2018, 12:30 p.m.