• the217
• Life
• Local band Emerald Rum brings Irish music to CU

Related Media

Irish music group, Emerald Rum, performs at the Blind Pig every Sunday from 5pm-8pm. Photo by James Kyung

• See Slideshow (7 images)

Related Venues

Mike 'n' Molly's »
Address: 105 N. Market St. Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 355-1236
Show on map

Bentley's Pub »
Address: 419 N. Neil St. Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 359-7977
Show on map

Irish music shouldn’t be relegated to one day a year on St. Patrick’s Day. Keeping the Hibernian spirit alive year-round is Emerald Rum, a local band specializing in Irish jigs, reels and pub songs.

The band started out as a small, informal gathering of local musicians interested in playing Irish music. Eventually, a few of the musicians started meeting regularly for practice sessions. As the band congealed, a practice venue revealed itself when the owner of Mike ’n’ Molly’s offered his upstairs room to the players under the condition that they paint the dilapidated space. The paint color chosen was a deep green, and the room was nicknamed “the emerald room.” The bandmates unofficially assumed the name.

The story of the band name’s birth gets a little fuzzy at this point as members debate the finer details. However, it is agreed that the final incarnation of the name was purely a mistake. The first time the band name was run in print, “Emerald Room” was mistook as “Emerald Rum,” and the rest is history.

“It works,” said George Colden, Emerald Rum’s Irish flute player. “It has to do with Ireland, the Emerald Isle and drinking — the rum of course.”

A change of venue was needed some time ago when the pipes in the emerald room above Mike ’n’ Molly’s burst one frigid winter day. Emerald Rum moved their performances to the Blind Pig on Sunday evenings and Bentley’s on Wednesday nights. While on Wednesday nights, their routine is more structured, Sunday nights at the Pig have been deemed informal sessions where any interested musicians are welcome to come and join in the Gaelic musical merrymaking.

Each of the five members, all hailing from the Champaign area, brings a unique musical talent to the ensemble.

For Andy McDowell, the band’s mandolin player, this kind of music has been an indelible part of his life. “I grew up on Irish music,” he said.

Colden, on the other hand, got into the genre during his college years. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Colden said, “I was just never exposed to the big Irish scene up in Chicago.” However, as a self-proclaimed “language-geek,” he fell in with some other students who were studying Celtic Languages while at the University in 1977. From there, he joined an Irish folk club. Since then, he said, Celtic culture has been a major part of his life.

In addition to a flutist and mandolin player, Emerald Rum also features Shane Rhoades on guitar, William Wolfe on the fiddle and Miriam Faux on accordion. The blend of all these instruments produces a unique and distinctly Irish sound that leaves the listener longing for a pint of Guinness and the shores of Eire.