In the final run up to St. Patrick’s Day, New York's Irish chanteuse Tara O’Grady is bringing her particular brand of Celtic Swing to New Orleans in a special performance at Treo, 3835 Tulane Avenue, on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

A native of New York with roots in County Donegal, O’Grady’s fourth studio album, Irish Bayou, was inspired by her frequent visits to New Orleans.

“There is a feeling in New Orleans that you don’t get in New York,” said O’Grady. “In New York, you are always on the go. In Ireland, there is an easy-going feeling, and when you speak to people from Ireland who now live here in New Orleans, they say that they love it here because it has that taste of Ireland about it. It is just more relaxed than many other cities in America, and I really like that. When I land in Ireland, my family tells me to take my watch off, let New York seep out of my system, and just calm down. New Orleans makes me feel the same.”

O’Grady’s music combines traditional Irish songs with the swing and energy of 1940s and 1950s blues and jazz. Her adventurous take on Irish music comes as no surprise, as she, said O'Grady, is lucky enought to come from a long line of adventurous women – her mother emigrated from Donegal, Ireland, to start a new life in America where she met O’Grady’s father at a dance in Queens.

“My father's mother was from Cavan, and his father was from Waterford,” laughed O’Grady.  "My mother just thought he was Irish when they first met.”

O’Grady grew up in surrounded by both Irish and Jazz music. Her father is a fiddler, and she was born just a few blocks away from Louis Armstrong’s house in New York.  Family has always been a source of inspiration for O’Grady, and one family story in particular about her paternal grandmother spurred her to follow her passion for both Irish and Jazz music.

“It was the late 1950s and it was a differently time,” said O’Grady.  “My grandfather didn’t want her to get a driving license, but she did it anyway and told him she was going to take their car and drive it across America. And she did it. She took off for seven weeks and had the time of her life. She died not long after but I grew up hearing about this adventurous red-headed woman, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”

When she lost her job as a manager at New York's Lincoln Center for Performing Arts as a result of budget cuts, O’Grady grabbed her chance to pursue a musical career full-time.

“If you  are lucky enought to find your passion, and singing was always my passion, you really should try to follow it,” said O’Grady. “Something that Louis Armstrong said, when he was criticized by jazz purists, was that he was an ambassador of happiness. He wanted to bring joy to his audiences. That was important to him, and whether it is Celtic music, or Jazz music, or something in between, that is what I want to do too.”

Tara O’Grady will be performing at Treo, 3835 Tulane Avenue, from 7.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, March 16, 2017. More information is available at https://treonola.com

More information about Tara O’Grady is available at https://www.taraogradymusic.com