For many holiday celebrants, Christmas morning means opening presents with the kids, listening to a little Bing, visiting extended family and attending Christmas Mass.
Kevin Crawford, the flute and bodhrán player for the Irish band, Lúnasa, supplements those activities with a dip in Liscannor Bay.
Crawford has participated in the Lahinch Christmas Day Swim, co-founded by his buddy and fellow musician, the late P.J. Crotty, for nearly a decade.
The annual event, held in County Clare, Ireland is meant to raise money for local charities and involves a large group of men and women running into the water, no matter how frigid the temps.
Crawford recalled a Christmas day swim about four years ago, where the weather was particularly wicked.
“I couldn’t hold my knife and fork at dinner,” said the musician in a phone interview from a hotel in Pennsylvania. “My hands were completely numb.”
Crawford is hoping for as much pre-swim sun as possible in Arizona, New Mexico and California on Lúnasa’s latest Christmas tour, which takes the band through the Berger Performing Arts Center on Sunday.
The instrumental Celtic group’s first trip to Tucson in years will include former Solas singer Karan Casey and will feature a mix of Casey’s works, Lúnasa hits and Christmas fare from across the Celtic nations.
Crawford said the band intentionally chose music that would represent different Celtic regions, including the Galicia community of Northern Spain and the Breton community in Brittany, France.
“There is a festive theme,” he said. “But we chose songs with the view that we could actually play them outside of the Christmas season. They are lovely regardless.”
This is the second year Lúnasa has spent with Casey, who is a powerhouse singer in her own right. Her latest album, “Two More Hours” dropped last January.
“Karan is revered all over the world and is the best known in the current crop of female singers in Ireland,” Crawford said. “We are lucky she agreed to tour with us.”
At the time of the interview, Crawford and company had only performed one Christmas show on American soil. The experience was more challenging than expected.
“We had some rehearsals a couple of weeks ago, but it felt like a couple of years ago,” he said. “It was rabbits in the headlights for us, but still great fun. We are happy to have it behind us.”
Crawford is relishing his time on the road in the sunny Southwest, before the next big swim.
“I should learn to put on a bit of blubber in the winter so I can take the cold a bit better,” he said.
