Catch a traditional Irish music session at this Bristol brewery

Trágmar Ale Works hosts traditional Irish music sessions once a month at its Bristol taproom.

September 11, 2025

Lauren Clem,

Musicians sit around a table in a taproom with green walls and Irish flag decor.

Traditional Irish music sessions take place every second Friday of the month at Trágmar Ale Works. (Photos courtesy of Trágmar Ale Works)

With the arrival of crisp fall temperatures, we’ve officially entered autumn beer-drinking season in Rhode Island. As Märzen lagers and brown ales replace the summer shandies on local taproom menus, Rhode Islanders will flock to Oktoberfest celebrations across the state and raise a stein in honor of the changing leaves and longer nights.

But there’s another European cultural tradition associated with sipping pints, one that comes with fewer lederhosen and more calls of “Sláinte!” An Irish traditional music session — sometimes referred to as a “trad session” or just a “session” for short — is a longstanding practice where musicians gather at the local pub to play traditional Irish folk songs. It’s a common occurrence in Warren resident Chris Kerr’s home country of Ireland. It’s also now a monthly event at Trágmar Ale Works, the Bristol brewery he co-owns with Michael Godot and Jason Buck.

“The fact that it’s open means anyone can show up. We have a local gentleman called Dean Robinson who effectively runs the session for us,” Kerr says. “We have a good group of people that come in and play regularly. Sometimes ten to twelve people, sometimes up to fifteen people that come in.”

Unlike other performances, musicians typically aren’t paid for their efforts. Instead, it’s an opportunity for Irish music fans to jam to commonly known songs over a pint. Musicians typically sit in a circle and are more focused on each other than performing for an audience, though the session still makes for good listening for other brewery patrons. Selections run the gamut of Irish folk tunes, from jigs and reels to slower ballads.

“We had one gentleman come in the last session and get up and sing “The Auld Triangle,” which is an old Dublin song,” Kerr says. “It was almost bone chilling to hear him get up and sing with no instrumental background.”

Anyone is welcome to participate, he adds, though it’s good to have a working knowledge of Irish session music, which you can find on websites like thesession.org. Typical instruments played include the fiddle, guitar, uilleann pipes, flute, mandolin and the bodhrán, a type of drum. Other sessions in Rhode Island take place in Providence and Newport at Patrick’s Pub and the Fastnet Pub. Robins, who runs the session, also performs as part of local groups Fáilte and Trip to Sligo, who will be performing at the brewery in October.

The sessions are part of the brewery’s effort to recreate an Irish pub atmosphere on the East Bay. When Trágmar opened six months ago on St. Patrick’s Day weekend (in the space formerly occupied by Six Pack Brewing), Kerr promised the familiar cozy hospitality patrons have come to expect of Irish bars. In addition to sessions and regular Irish music performances, the brewery has several Irish-inspired beers on draft, including the Morrigan Irish stout, the Goibniu Irish red ale and the Brigid smokey braggot. That last one, Kerr says, is a traditional style that’s a cross between a beer and a mead.

“We do beers across the board, but I think the fact that we have an Irish-themed brewery, people to tend to focus toward that a little bit,” he says.

The sessions take place every second Friday of the month, with other live music and events filling out the brewery’s schedule. This Saturday, Sept. 13, Trágmar will host a “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” party to celebrate its six-month anniversary. The event will include smoked corned beef sandwiches from Waypoint BBQ as well as music by Peter Rosa Janeiro and Keohane & Keneally.

Despite a year of heavy turnover in the local brewery industry, Kerr says he’s not worried. Bristol, he says, has become a brewery destination, and most of the former Six Pack customers are now loyal Trágmar patrons. The brewery, he says, has always been about creating a community gathering space beyond beer drinkers.

“We’re trying to build some other events, trying to get that Irish diaspora [and] Irish Americans into our facility to enjoy it,” he says. “That’s what we’ve always focused on, is more than just the brewery aspect, having that other niche to plug into.”