Unique round-table gig from Boston’s Session Americana

Session Americana Session Americana play Monroe’s Live on Saturday, October 12. The Boston-based band is aptly named – because if you like rootsy, impeccably played American music, then this is the show for you.

 The group is about to embark on a UK and Irish tour, so do its members have a last-minute checklist to run through before they pack up and hit the road?

 “Funny you should ask, I’m doing it right now!” says singer and guitarist Ry Cavanugh. “I need to find a bass amp, a couple of accommodation things.”

 On top of all that, they were asked to perform on RTÉ’s Saturday Night Show on the same night as the All-Ireland hurling final, so they  had the extra task of finding accommodation in Dublin alongside throngs of Clare and Cork fans.

In concert, Session Americana assemble around a round table, playing original songs and some choice covers. This is not your everyday set up – how did the idea come about?

 “I was trying to make a less formal kind of a gig, and I was inspired by the casualness of the Irish sessions, but I had no interest in playing that kind of music,” Ry says. “So we decided to do a similar format with a little café table. We got a little bass amp, and we got a small condenser mic to put on the table so that when we sang it would get a little bit louder and get up over the din of the bar.”