The Martin Family Band from south-eastern Pennsylvania brought the spirit of Irish music and dance to Bucks on Saturday Oct. 15.
For the past 18 years, Bucks has been bringing in talent to play for the Celtic Family Evening held every year.
The Martin Family Band has been that talent for the past four years. The money from the tickets that were sold went to CCC Celt, the organization that supplies the books for the school library’s Celtic collection.
The Martin Family Band started back in 2004 and has been going strong ever since. The family’s members are Nelson (dad), Elaine (mom), Emily, 20, Melissa, 18, Brian, 15, Christy, 13, Zach, 10, and the youngest child Alex, 5, who is not yet part of the band. Earl Pyles, a sixty-something year old man, is a family friend that plays the drums.
The misconception is that the band is Irish, but they are far from it and are actually former Mennonites.
A little less than half of the crowd in attendance was of Irish heritage.
Tom Slattery, opened the night by delivering a few jokes, while the Martin Family was getting ready to come on.
The Martin Family came on stage from behind the curtain one by one, each playing a different instrument and playing acoustic music.
After the first performance, Nelson Martin introduced his family and told the crowd that all six children have been practicing instruments from the age of 5.
The 2nd song incorporated some Irish dance that delighted the crowd. Then came Melissa with her accordion in the 3rd song. The 4th song was Emily playing the bagpipes. Melissa would then grab attention with her mandolin in the 5th song. The final song before intermission featured bongo drums played by Brian, while his sister’s river danced.
Audience members such as Laura and Carlos Rivera who seemed thoroughly impressed with the performance offered their feedback during intermission. “I think they are doing a great job” said Laura who was part Irish. “I think my daughter Lily is especially enjoying it.” said Carlos.
Laura Rivera is actually the daughter of Tom Slattery.
Julio and Patricia Dieso also offered their feedback. “I think their doing a super great job,” said Julio. “We are actually Italian, but we are also friends of Toms and we always enjoy coming here.” said Patricia.
The next performance featured Brian, Melissa, and Emily playing various instruments on chairs. All in all, the Martin Family band played around 12 performances.
Afterward, the audience and band members gathered in the Gallagher room for refreshments where more public reaction was found.
“Me and my dad came to this last year and I think they were better this year,” said John McNamara, another performance major from Bucks. “This music makes you want to get up and dance.” he added.
Nelson and Elaine explained that the idea for the band actually came from their oldest daughter Emily who thought it would be good for them as a family.
The crowd size doesn’t seem to affect Nelson or his family. “I think when you’ve been playing this long you kind of become numb to nervous feelings, but I still get butterflies when there are a lot of people.” Nelson said.
Elaine is not only a mother and a member of the band, but also homeschools all her children. She elaborated on how the band came to be. “Well the idea for the band came from our daughter, but Nelson really works hard to keep us going.”
She also spoke on how the band keeps growing and said, “Word of mouth has basically been the way our band’s popularity has gone around.”