Join Sheridan Rúitín for a night full of lively Irish tunes right on the waterfront in Greenwood Lake.
Saturday, August 26th
7:30 to 9:30pm
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 (ran through G-mix), 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 would bring his banjo over to the pub every day after working his construction job, and him and Sheridan would drink beer and have a laugh playing all sorts of Irish ballads, rebel songs, and jigs & reels. They eventually invited over Billy's cousin, Shannon Cokeley, to sing and play guitar and soon enough she found herself a regular in the pub after working as a school teacher during the days.
Billy's brother, Johnny Houlihan, was sent home from college in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, only to become jealous of the fun Billy, Shannon, and Sheridan would have in the garage pub every night playing music. This led Billy to purchase a used accordion on the internet, hand it to Johnny and say "learn it." As Johnny became well accustomed to the buttons on his (new to him) accordion, Shannon's husband, Tommy, had begun learning how to play a 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." The album saw much success in pre-orders from all over the world. "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.
The band has since been added to the bills of major Irish festivals in the USA, and is currently working on new music and another album. Sheridan Rúitín takes over the New York suburbia Irish music scene by filling the gap between Celtic rock and traditional Irish folk ballads.
In the words of Sheridan: "Me feckin leg is in bits."
Thomas P. Morahan Waterfront Park
Greenwood Lake, NY