Joe Gerhard playing in the Pub Friday June 7th from 6-8pm.

Joe learned to play traditional music on the fiddle in the early 70s, sitting on the edge of the Irish sessions in Boston, quietly watching and listening. Fiddlers Larry Reynolds, Paddy Cronin, and Roger Burridge were especially welcoming and helpful.

Frequent trips to Ireland led to lifelong friendships with many wonderful musicians, in particular his wife’s uncle Maurice O’Keeffe, a fiddler from Kiskeam, Co. Cork, who really opened his eyes to the profound emotional and spiritual effects of the music and cemented a love for the music and people of the southwest of Ireland.

In New Haven, he led the well-regarded sessions at Anna Liffey’s for 17 years until 2014. Afterwards, he stopped playing the fiddle for nearly five years but was drawn back into the fold by the gentle and persistent encouragement of good friend and fiddler Katie Murray.

These days, Joe plays fiddle, banjo, and bouzouki with musical partners Damien Connolly and Jon Warner at sessions and occasional gigs around the Northeast.