With their music, the Wild Swans’ Mikey and Katie Dunlavey share traditional Irish ballads, sea shanties and Sean Nos Gaelic singing while also educating others about Irish music and culture.
Their upcoming event, “The Wind that Shakes the Corn” — Saturday, April 27, at the Pima County Historic Courthouse — will incorporate Irish folklore, poetry, music and history.
The program features the songs, stories and poems of rebels, blackguards and outlaws and explores themes of love, sorrow, crimes of passion, justice and injustice.
Mikey hosted and organized the Tucson Irish Music Showcase at the Live Theatre Workshop in February. This event highlighted Tucson musicians who play Irish music.
He and Katie have also been putting on a weekly Irish music session at the Hotel McCoy for about a year.
“It has taken a life of its own, and now we have a dozen or more musicians each Tuesday who come out to play,” Mikey said.
“We’ve seen a lot who are highly experienced and others who are brand new, but we’re welcoming to everybody. We just like to share the passion for the music.”
Mikey said that he is trying to bring more music-centric Irish cultural events to Tucson.
“Having been to Ireland a few times, the performances that personally have influenced me were those intimate musical performances where you really got the feel for the Irish music and culture. I did feel that that was something missing here in Tucson,” Mikey said.
Mikey has performed at the Pima County Historic Courthouse as part of its Friday Music in the Courtyard series.
Mikey said the courtroom will provide an intimate concert setting.
“We will be basically playing in front of the judge’s bench, near the jury box,” Mikey said.
The event will feature Mikey on the Irish uilleann pipes and Katie on an Irish drum called the bodhrán. The duo will be joined by fiddler John Parkhurst.
Mikey and Katie have been performing together as the Wild Swans for about a year and a half. They moved to Tucson in 2021 and formed the group in 2023 after attending the Ceol na Coille School of Irish Traditional Music in Ireland.
Mikey performed for a decade with a band in Pennsylvania.
“I have been retired from the Army for going on 12 years now,” Mikey said. “That was just always a dream of mine to follow my passion of Irish music. It’s really wonderful that Katie is now involved with it.”
The Wild Swans recently released their first album “True Gods of Sound and Stone.” Mikey’s Irish friends read his original poetry on this album.
They will play some songs from this album at the event.
Being part of the Wild Swans have pushed Mikey and Katie as musicians.
For the duo, Katie picked up the bodhrán.
Mikey has been learning the Irish uilleann pipes, which are challenging, he said. Mikey said that he is unusual as a uilleann piper because he is left handed.
“They’re a really beautiful sounding instrument, but they’re very technical,” Mikey said. “The adage is that it takes 20 years to learn and play them. I’ve been really enjoying playing them. They’re an instrument that is very iconic for Ireland, along with the harp.”
He said that his instrument is different than Scottish bagpipes because he doesn’t blow into them to create a sound.
“My left arm pumps the bellows, which inflates the bag that is under my arm. … They have more of a haunting sound compared to the Scottish pipes, which can be pretty high-pitched,” Mikey said.
Mikey grew up in a big Irish family and grew a deep appreciation for Irish cultural traditions.
His parents listened to the Clancy Brothers, an Irish group that often incorporated poetry into its music. He said he always appreciated how they used different art forms to tell a story.
He has also been influenced by Luke Kelly and the Dubliners and Tommy Makem.
Mikey has an extensive collection of books on Irish folklore, history and poetry, which he often relates to the music he performs.
“I always earmark passages that I come across, whether an anecdote or a poem that I think have a similarity to one of the songs I learned over the years,” Mikey said.
“I like to introduce a song with a poem or a historical anecdote to give the song even more life than what it already has. A lot of the songs do have a really deep history from where they originated, whether a particular place in Ireland, particular event or person. With a song, you might not get the real full story behind it. I like to bring that out with respect to the poetry and the historical anecdotes that I come across.”
The couple puts on the event with the help of a grant from the American Federation of Musicians.
The couple already has plans for other Irish music events, including a Celtic New Year Celebration at the Sea of Glass Center for the Arts in November. This event will highlight music, fairy tales, legends and ghost stories that tie into the Celtic New Year and Halloween.
“The Wind that Shakes the Corn”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27
WHERE: Dillinger Courtroom, Pima County Historic Courthouse, 115 N. Church Avenue, Tucson
COST: $20 presale general admission, $25 at the door, supplies limited
INFO: thewildswansmusic.com
