fRoots (uk)

“Colcannon's brand of Celtic style music is packed with subtle touches and fluid interplay.” (fRoots)

Metro Santa Cruz

Colcannon has never drifted to New Age or Celtic rock clichés. They are traditional entertainers, displaying emotional stories, heroic and sorrowful, backed by a precise blend of instruments that charecterizes the best of irish music. Band leader Mick Bolger sings in Gaelic and English, and wins the most diffident crowds with his charm and tall tales. Band members play every instrument associated with Irish music, plus a few ancient oddities. Their newest CD, Trad., maintains a happy balance of rollicking good-time tunes and addictive Gaelic melancholy. Sure, you can expect the soothing refrain of an Irish melody, but be prepared to be blasted from your reverie by original compositions from one of the best acoustic Celtic bands in the United States.

Best of all, they share that name with the tastiest potato concoction on earth.

Dirty Linen

Colcannon continues its quest for Celt-world domination. Colcannon is a band that never forgets to have fun... band can also play with the precision and legato grace that characterizes the best of Irish music. All lovers of fine music can claim Colcannon as countrymen. (PMW Dirty Linen #95 August/September 2001)

Rambles

clean, exciting instrumentals and the rich, heartful voice of Mick Bolger... Colcannon has an amazing partnership that sounds more cohesive and finely tuned with each new offering. The mix and selection of tunes is delightful, the arrangements stunning, and the performances stellar, as you would expect from Colcannon.

Soundbytes

“....Colcannon is as tight, polished, and professional a band as I have heard in a very long time. Any singer would sound better backed by Colcannon. (Mick) Bolger is better than just any singer. What he and this band do together is very special. Bolger has a rich singing voice that fills out and enhances any lyric, but there's more to it than that. No rustic, he has a fine-tuned voice through which his accent shines enough to establish the Irishness of his songs while remaining subtle enough for foreign audiences. Bolger keeps the sense of story in his presentation, never sacrificing the story to the music, yet using the music to underline the stories he tells. There is a great sense of balance in Bolger's singing.
This is clearly music intended not for a parochial Irish audience but the world (feel free to read North American) market. The sound is full and rich and avoids the cliches of both simplistic folk treatments and the new so called Celtic and Celtic-rock movements. It is centered just right to appeal to audiences of all ages at every level of society.” (Bob MacKenzie, Sound Bytes)

Kevin McCarthy

“It takes talent and skill to make traditional material sound like one's own, and one's own material sound traditional. Such is just one of the trademarks of Colcannon.Lead singer Mick Bolger's authentic vocals are at home with whatever he sings, in both gaelic or English. The instrumentals swing back and forth between delicate and rollicking, all performed cleanly and tightly. You deserve to hear them. They deserve to be heard by you. Make it happen.” (Kevin McCarthy)

Westword

....the playing is as sprightly as it is deeply felt, with poignant vocals that are as mighty as a spring storm. (Michael Roberts, Westword)

The Celtic Connection

The members of Colcannon are charismatic ...and inspiring They are each excellent musicians as individuals, and as a band, they are spectacular. Their arrangements are subtle, tasteful, and thoughtful. Their performances convey both the vitality and the depth of feeling inherent in Irish music. Having the opportunity to work closely with musicians of this caliber is an extraordinary experience ...

Redlands Herald (CA)

We started the evening as strangers and ended up great friends. The five-member Irish band Colcannon brought their warmth, vitality and unique brand of Celtic music to an enthusiastic audience at the Redlands Bowl Tuesday evening. Those who weren't aficionados of Irish music when they arrived must surely have been so by evening's end.
Band leader and vocalist Mick Bolger sprinkled the group's performance with huge dollops of Irish wisdom and deprecating humor. A great storyteller with a flyaway mane of white hair, Bolger introduced many of the band's numbers with background information or jokes. Often his jibes poked good-natured fun at the Irish, Welsh, Scottish or English, eliciting laughter and hoots from audience members.
From toe-tapping dance tunes to plaintive ballads to humorous ditties, the band offered a full range of Celtic music that lifted the spirits and happily heated up an already warm night. From dirge-like minor keys to lilting and cheerful melodic lines, the music expressed the whole gamut of emotions both instrumentally and vocally.