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The way you two met sounds like a great modern-day romantic movie plot. Can you tell the story of how it happened, and how your partnership, musical and personal, evolved?

Shannon: I was looking for a guitar player for a wedding gig. I got three names, and Matt's was second on the list. Good thing the first guy wasn't home when I called! We started playing a few gigs together, then started going on vacations together. We've played together in various bands for almost 10 years, and over the last three to fours years we've started developing our duo act, which is now our musical mainstay. Even when we're with a band, it's now usually the "Matt and Shannon Band," which is the same music, but adding extra players.

Let's talk about your musical roots. Shannon, instead of going what might be thought of as the "usual" route - such as taking part in the Fleadhs [competitions in Irish music] - you came to Irish music in a rather unconventional way, didn't you? How do you think this influenced your development as an Irish flute and whistle player?

Shannon: While I did compete in the regional Fleadh in my late teens in Chicago, my Irish music roots were sown earlier on by my folk-music loving family. My writer parents would take me and my sister with them on book research trips all over the world. And during long trips, we'd listen to recordings of the Bothy Band, Planxty, Scottish pipe music, Mozart horn concertos. I always loved when the Irish flute was featured, and when we were in Africa, my dad found a Belgian woman to start me on the recorder and tin whistle. I think I have a respect and fascination for the social role that music can play from these early experiences.

Matt, you also explored other genres before you started playing Irish music - was that before you met Shannon? How did you get interested in Irish music?

Matt: My dad is an organist, so I had a formal music education from him and in college (classical guitar). And, for balance, I had played electric guitar in rock bands since grade school - including a surf-rock band called The Flavor Channel. I had listened to a bit of Irish music along the way, and did an independent study in traditional music the year before I met Shannon. After we met, I started going to sessions with her and was taken with the whole social part of the music. Then I got a steel string guitar and got serious. It's my main form of music now.

What brought you to Boston, and what have you found here that made you want to stay?

Shannon: Unlike Chicago, Boston's size is manageable. It's possible to get to sessions around the city in relatively little time. Because of the geographic set-up, people tend to go out to each other's sessions. There is a strong traditional music scene, and at some events, you'll even get Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, old-timey and contra dance players all having a tune together. We like the connected, tightly knit trad scene of Boston, as well as the great songwriting scene. And we love that there are a good few clubs that support these communities (like Club Passim, Johnny D's, The Burren, Toad, Lizard Lounge). When we moved out here, we had an aunt and uncle in Jamaica Plain, and cousins in Cambridge. They've all moved on, but we've found lots of musical family out here.

Shannon, you are a co-founder of the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which will take place for the fourth time this coming January. Has this been your first real foray into the organizational end of Irish/Celtic music? How is BCMFest important to you?

Shannon: Through my involvement with BCMFest, I have learned a lot about event planning, and I have a keener appreciation of all the work that goes into making these weekends of music and dance happen. I think BCMFest is unique in its grassroots approach. We have a working board of visionary leaders and an amazing team of creative volunteers - and these are the people who make the whole thing happen. It's a great expression of what's already happening here, and of how the community pulls together to nurture new and ongoing events of all sizes.

As you know, your concert is part of the newly named "Gaelic Roots Series" at BC, honoring what was an extremely popular event for many years. How much of Gaelic Roots were you able to experience? What do you think its significance was?

Matt: Shannon and I were around for just two Gaelic Roots weeks. We attended a few lectures, and played in some great late night sessions. And there is one particular session cruise which many of us still talk about. It was, indeed, a real loss to the greater traditional music community - and also for the Boston musicians - to see the festival come to a close. It was a real anchor week, and seemed to be a real point of pride locally. I think it helped to put Boston on the map as not only an historically strong Irish cultural community (which it had already been, of course), but as a vibrant living culture, eager to make connections with the greater traditional music communities.

How important is it for an academic entity, like BC's Center for Irish Programs and Irish Studies, to present these kinds of events to the public and to college students?

Shannon: BC's involvement and endorsement of Irish traditional music and culture is a natural - Boston boasts such a proud and active Irish community, and is recognized state-wide and in Ireland and the UK as a hub for preserving and advancing traditional arts. I think it's great for BC to be associated with the activities of the greater Boston Irish communities. And the facilities and administrative/creative involvement BC offers to traditional music and cultural events certainly help to elevate the quality and stature of these events.

The last couple of years, you've begun introducing your own composed material, especially songs, alongside the traditional. Did you make a conscious choice to become songwriters, or did you just find this aspect of yourselves asserting itself?

Shannon: Yes, the latter. Then again, it's a bit of a natural for traditional musicians. When working with traditional song lyrics, I've always re-arranged words, and re-wrote melodies to suit my own American lexicon, and to satisfy my picky melodic sense. It wasn't a big stretch to take some of those age-old themes inherent in traditional ballads and make my own stories and melodies from scratch. This being said, I'm always trying to keep all the images timeless and "traditional-sounding." This is a more satisfying approach for me, and then I can put my originals beside traditional ballads and have it all hang together.

What's it like, being a full-time professional musician couple? How are you able to balance the "we-need-to-practice" part with the "we-need-to-relax-and-remember-we're-married" part?

Shannon: Yep, setting up systems for this has been key, and we're learning as we go. For example, we each have our own music administrative jobs, and try to stay out of each other's ways for these. We e-mail booking questions to each other so we don't have to sit around over dinner to discuss tours. And we have meeting times to discuss things that don't work over e-mail. After that, we don't mention business. Rehearsing and talking about music is more fun, but we try to keep that in check, too. Gotta have time for biking, gardening, and acting ridiculous.

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