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Annual Hair-A-Thon Livens Up January Music Scene

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  • Annual Hair-A-Thon Livens Up January Music Scene

    ANNUAL HAIR-A-THON LIVENS UP JANUARY MUSIC SCENE
    By Brian Mcelhiney

    Schenectady Gazette
    http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jan/ 08/0107hairdog/
    Jan 8 2009
    NY

    It's no secret to musicians and fans that January is a slow month
    for live shows.

    About five years ago, Rick Bedrosian, bassist and vocalist for Albany
    Irish rock and folk band Hair of the Dog, and Eamonn McGirr, the late
    owner of Eamonn's in Loudonville, came up with an idea to help combat
    the winter doldrums. McGirr booked Hair of the Dog to play a marathon
    at Eamonn's, with shows every Friday and Saturday night throughout
    January, and the annual Hair-a-thon event was born.

    "It was a great success," Bedrosian said during a recent phone
    interview from his home office in Delmar. "In fact, instead of it
    wearing out, we actually got more and more crowded as the month went
    on, and by the final weekend lines were out the door like it was
    Saint Patrick's Day."

    This will be the second year that the Hair-a-thon will be held at The
    Parting Glass, which is where the band moved the event after Eamonn's
    burned down in 2005. The shows began last Saturday and will continue
    this Friday and Saturday nights at 8.

    Keeping shows different Along with Bedrosian, the group comprises
    guitarist and vocalist Mike DeAngelis, banjoist John Haggerty, fiddler
    Larry Packer, electric guitarist and fiddler Eric Finn and the newest
    member, drummer Scott Apicelli. Even though the Hair-a-thon features
    one band playing every weekend at the same venue for a month, Hair
    of the Dog has enough songs to draw on from its 16-year career to
    create a different show every night.

    And for the show's first half, the audience will help out with the
    set list. This year's Hair-a-thon will feature a "Stump the Band"
    contest, with audience members contributing song titles on pieces of
    paper. The band will then try to play anywhere from 10 to 20 of the
    titles, faking their way through songs they don't know.

    There are also prizes involved, including CDs, T-shirts and hats. The
    idea came from a similar segment on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny
    Carson.

    "Eric and Scott both teach, and we all know tons of songs. So
    if somebody asks for something, chances are one of us knows it,"
    Bedrosian said. "Sometimes, we embarrass ourselves, but it's always
    fun to do styles of music we never do. We can have fun with it."

    The second half of the show proceeds as a normal Hair of the Dog
    concert would, featuring the group's original Irish folk-rock and
    their takes on traditional Celtic material. The band has four albums
    under its belt, including the most recent, 2007's "Donegal."

    The half-Irish, half-Armenian Bedrosian, who started out as a rock
    musician inspired by The Beatles, developed an interest in Irish music
    in 1984 when he subbed in Kevin McKrell and Jeff Strange's Irish group,
    The Newports, for their national tour.

    "They needed somebody really fast to do the tour," Bedrosian said. "I
    learned their repertoire, about 30 songs with a few originals. That
    was my bapitism-by-fire kind of thing. I liked it and ended up a
    permanent member of the band."

    Bedrosian, a veteran of local country rock band Silver Chicken and one
    of the founding members of The McKrells, formed Hair of the Dog with
    DeAngelis and Haggerty, who at the time played together in The Porters,
    in 1993. The group grew from a trio to a sextet over the years, adding
    Packer, who's played with Sha Na Na and on The Band's "Last Waltz"
    video, and Finn and Apicelli, both Berklee College of Music graduates.

    Another Ireland trip

    Coming projects for the group include the band's eighth tour of
    Ireland for February 2010, on which the band brings a group of fans
    to Ireland for a week. The group is working on new material, but is
    taking its time, Bedrosian said.

    "It's as much art as it is business," Bedrosian said of Hair of the
    Dog's performances. "We're there to help club owners sell booze;
    it's not like the Egg, where you just sit there and play music. What
    we're selling is a good time, forgetting about your problems just
    for two to three hours to be able to enjoy yourself, hear good music,
    good vocals and really good instrumentalists."

    Hair-a-thon WHO: Hair of the Dog When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
    in January Where: The Parting Glass, 40-42 Lake Ave., Saratoga
    Springs How Much: $13 (reservations needed) More INfo: 583-1916,
    www.partingglasspub.com.
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