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September 2008

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

You may not realize it, but September is the biggest Irish month in the Philly region after March. You could call it Irish Festival Month.

For example, you can immerse yourself in traditional Irish music this weekend as the 34th annual Philadelphia Ceili Group festival concludes on Saturday night or you can  head up to Gloucester, NJ, for the yearly Shamrock Festival (Black 47 is on the bill—this New York-based band has a huge fan base here too). Closer to home: The BoothandLowe~Stock Festival will be held at the Knights of Columbus De La Salle division in Springfield, Delaware County, to raise money for MusicWorks, an organization that provides music therapy sessions for children and young adults with autism and special needs. Among the groups on hand: the King Brothers (they’re great, even though they’re not really brothers),  Scanlin and O’Leary, and John Lee. The Festival runs from noon till 6:30, then an hour later, Blackthorn takes the stage for another MusicWorks fundraiser.

Or maybe you’d rather watch some athletic women bend it like Beckham. The US National Women’s Soccer Team is taking on the Irish women’s team Saturday night at the Linc, home of the Eagles.

Wow – way too many choices. Lucky for me I have a broken leg. I can’t go to anything. There’s something to be said for having no choice.

On Monday, September 15, you can do a good deed while getting in a round of golf. That’s the date of the third annual Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP Golf, Dinner and Auction at the Plymouth Country Club in Norristown. Five-year-old Ciara was born prematurely at 26 weeks and has Cerebral Palsy (CP) with Spastic Displasia in both legs, requiring years of physical therapy and medical treatment.
This annual fundraiser will help her parents defray some of their costs. There are a couple of tee times and a dinner later, even for nongolfers, and the local group, Paddy’s Well, will play. There will also be both as silent and live auction.

That evening, the High Kings of Dublin are peforming at the Perelman Theater in Philadelphia. You may have seen them on one of their PBS specials: four good-looking Irishmen who play instruments and have fantastic singing voices. As a bit of a music snob, I didn’t want to like them but I did.

Then you’ll need to get ready for the Cape May AOH’s Irish Weekend in North Wildwood, starting on September 18, where you can sample every variation of Irish music known to man, including Paddy’s Well (check out their new CD, First Friday), Canada’s Searson, crowd-pleasers Derek Warfield and the Wolfetones, as well perennial favorites, The Bogside Rogues, The Sean Fleming Band, The Glensiders, The Broken Shillelaghs, and The Highland Rovers. The weekend kicks off with some Irish boxing on Thursday night, then there’s nonstop music, killer food, vendors hawking everything from clever t-shirts and silly shamrock deely bobbers to pretty jewelry and crafts.

If you’re in Philly on Thursday, you can catch Gaelic Storm at World Cafe Live. It’s been 10 years since they played for our poor doomed people in steerage in that great scene from the movie, “Titantic.”They can still make a bad time seem good.

A week later, head up to Bethlehem for the 2008 Celtic Classic where you can listen to even more music, from pipe bands to Celtic rock, or you can watch grown men toss telephone polls (a Celtic sport known as the caber toss) or beautiful dogs that are too smart for their own good herd sheep.

September 11, 2008 by
Music

Review: “Sirius” by Aidan O’Rourke

“Sirius” (just released on the Compass label, but originally released in 2006 by Vertical Records) takes some serious liberties with traditional music.

That’s usually OK by me. In this case, I’m mostly OK with Scots fiddler Aidan O’Rourke’s audacious little CD.

By turns jazzy, funky—and yes, traditional—“Sirius” carves out some new territory. O’Rourke swings, he syncopates, and he twists times signatures into exquisite little knots. He also brings together instruments that, some might protest, simply never should be brought together. (To my way of thinking, being told that something never should be done often is the best reason to do that something.) O’Rourke is accompanied by horns, piano, double bass, drums, guitar—and melodeon, flutes and whistles. At times, I felt like I might be hearing Average White Band. Or Lunasa. Sometimes in the same tune.

Of the 10 tunes on “Sirius,” “Lochaber Drive” and “Peoples Park Part 2” are particular favorites. “Lochaber” features an improbable pairing—melodeon, flute and O’Rourke’s fiddle with hot licks from the aforementioned AWB-style horn section. “People’s Park Part 2” starts out all traditional and then quickly transitions into Solas-style syncopation—hey, kids, let’s play “Find the Time Signature!”—and from there O’Rourke starts to coax some slick Eileen Ivers-style squeaks, squeals, whines and moans from that fiddle of his.

And, as I say, I mostly like this intriguing recording. There were moments when I thought we were crossing over into “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” territory. But whatever faults I might find are pretty minor. And, on balance…it’s a pretty good balance.

Not everyone’s cup of tea, to be sure, but well worth a listen.

September 10, 2008 by
Music

Review: “Starfish,” by Catriona McKay

Comparisons aren’t always fair to musicians. But it’s the only way I can think of to explain the Scottish harper Catriona McKay. If the Swiss New Age harpist  Andreas Vollenweider and the Indie rock guitarist Kaki King were to have produced a love child … ah, but that doesn’t really quite work, either.

And it’s weirding me out.

Catriona McKay is pretty much her own baby.

I don’t play Celtic harp, but I know enough harpers to say … some of you might not like her latest offering, “Starfish.” It’s not the pure traditional stuff. Nothing like it, actually. Like the harper itself, most of this recording (from Compass) is hard to classify. Part jazz, part Celtic …part all kinds of things. However, the whole of this lithe and lively little recording—just 10 tunes—is greater than the sum of its parts. You’ll wonder how two hands can produce such lush, complex and original sounds and rhythmic patterns, all served up with astonishing clarity. One explanation is that she’s playing a Franken-harp of her own creation. You harpers will recognize that it has some really weird tuning. But the more meaningful explanation is that Catriona McKay is just that scarily good, with some truly dazzling left-hand work on the faster numbers, including the title track, the jazzy “Greenman,” and a wild set of tunes called “Lums O’Lund.”

Oh yes, she can play the fast stuff. But she also plays the slower pieces with extraordinary feeling.

A particular favorite is a gorgeous piece with the inscrutable title, “Swan Lk243.” (Harp teacher alert: Your kids will want to learn it.) McKay performed the piece as part of the BBC series, “Transatlantic Sessions.” She is backed up by the great Jerry Douglas on dobro and Scottish fiddler Aly Bain. If this doesn’t melt your heart, you probably don’t have one. Here it is on YouTube.

McKay has some very able backing on “Starfish,” including Fionan De Barra (guitar), Alistair MacDonald (fiddle, guitar and strings), Séamus Egan (nylon guitar), Donald Grant (fiddle), and Matt Baker (double bass). The Red Skies string ensemble also figures prominently. The pairing of McKay with Egan on “Aval Moon” is especially lovely.

You can hear a sneak preview on McKay’s MySpace page.

Then, run right out and buy this one.

September 4, 2008 by
People

Remembering Greg Duffy

Greg Duffy

Greg Duffy

Greg Duffy was quite well known. Not the kind of “well known” that merits a page 1 headline in the New York Times, necessarily, or that prompts heads of state to issue statements of condolence.

But within the worldwide community of Irish traditional music and culture, it was clear that Greg Duffy’s sudden death on the night of August 28 was truly of great moment. Indeed, notice of his passing had made it onto the Irish Traditional Music Listserv by 3:37 a.m. on Friday.

Local musician Bill McKenty, who has known Greg and his wife Charlotte for 15 years, posted the announcement. It read, in part:

“… husband, father, friend, photographer and great fan of traditional music and its people, Greg lived within the music, befriending many and opening his heart and home to the music …”

Within the traditional community, Greg Duffy was quite well known indeed, and loved. And now, mourned.

Greg was known for his loving photos of Irish traditional musicians. (A good example is currently posted on the Thistle and Shamrock Web site. It’s a remembrance of singer-guitarist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill.) View it here.

He was also renowned for his great hospitality. Many, many road-weary musicians were fortunate to stay in his Jenkintown home.

We asked a few of those who knew him best to share their thoughts and memories. (Of course, you can also offer your comments in the little form that follows.)

Bill McKenty, longtime friend and musician

Greg was always trying to drag me to concerts as I tend not to go to many.

About a year-and-a-half ago, he enticed me to go on my birthday with him and his wife Charlotte to a Flook concert in Wilmington. Michael McGoldrick, one of my favorites, was filling in for Sarah Allen of the band as she’d just had her baby. I agreed to accompany the Duffys as McGoldrick almost never comes to the US of A.

The Duffys were very well known at venues such as the Cherry Tree, Green Willow and Sellersville. They always had front row seats reserved for them as Greg’s wife Charlotte was pretty much confined to a wheelchair.

So we get to the show. I go outside to catch a smoke, and who should bum a butt off me but Michael McGoldrick. We hit it off quite quickly, trading tunes in the “diddly di,” lilting kinda way flute players do.

Later, as I was sitting in the front row with the Duffys, McGoldrick would sit next to me in an open chair on sets in which he wasn’t playing with the band, and egg the band on from the audience. McGoldrick and Flook were quite the characters.

So at half time, McGoldrick and Greg compared notes and friends and chatted away. Nice concert. At the end they did an encore and went to start the first tune but couldn’t remember how it went. Greg looked over to me and said, “You know that,” so I hummed a few bars. McGoldrick hears me and goes, “Ah, that’s it.” He comes over to me, hands me his whistle and shoves me up on stage, much to the horror of the rest of the band, as they didn’t know me from Adam.

After a few awkward moments they ascertained that i did know the tune and great fun ensued. Of course, Greg took much delight in this and started to shoot away …which is where the attached came from.

He had a great eye, a great ear and a great love of the music and the people and characters who lived it.

Andy Irvine, Irish singer-songwriter

I was extremely sad to hear of the unexpected passing of Greg Duffy. He was a man I held in high esteem and respect for many years.

I first met him in Philadelphia, at The Cherry Tree, sometime around 1985/86 and we became friends immediately. As any traveling performer might say, I never had enough time to spend with him and his wife, Charlotte.

I stayed in his house in Jenkintown on a few occasions. He made a pretty good breakfast! Conversations with Greg were always witty and well informed from his side. He took a great interest in all things Irish.

In retrospect I was very happy to have made a detour in June of this year to visit the family on the occasion of Charlotte’s birthday. Greg was in great form and walked me to my car when I was leaving. We had a farewell hug and I never thought it would be the last I would see of him.

A good man has passed.

Lois Kuter, longtime friend and Breton music authority

I met Greg as a fellow fan of Celtic music—and that means not just Scottish and Irish, but also Welsh, Breton, Manx, Cornish, Galician, and Asturian (when you had the luck to hear them).

I can’t recall where or when I met Greg but he and Charlotte listened to the Breton music radio program I did for WXPN from the mid ‘80s to the mid ‘90s. They had impeccable taste in music—picking out the most innovative and interesting. I renewed a friendship with them at a scattering of concerts over the years.

I’ve met very few people who have such knowledge and true appreciation for the rich traditions and innovative variations of music from the Celtic world.

I am sure all the musicians who beat Greg to Heaven are thrilled to have him there to share the joy and beauty of their music. I am sure Johnny Cunningham has a big hug for him.

Kevin Burke, Irish fiddler

He was a great supporter of the music. Ever since Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and I were newcomers to the U.S., Greg and Charlotte were regular attendees at our concerts anytime either of us were in the Philadelphia area.

It was always a pleasure to see them as they always had a few kind, appreciative and supportive words for us. Greg was also a very talented photographer—he had the great and rare skill of being able to remain very inconspicuous with the camera while at the same time getting great live shots of the performers.

To this day some of my favourite shots are those taken by Greg. He was much loved and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. My sympathies go out to all his family and friends.

September 4, 2008 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish In Philly This Week

This is one great week to be Irish in Philly, and not just because the Philadelphia Ceilii Group’s annual (year 34, folks) traditional music and dance festival starts on Thursday (but let’s face it, if you’ve ever been there, you know it’s an exciting three days on nonstop music, dancing, and carrying on and you love it.)

There’s also the Green Lane Scottish Irish Festival, which promoters say will go on rain or shine.

On Sunday, you have a good deed to do.

Now, you won’t need your walking shoes until October for the annual Susan B. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, but you can put on your dancing shoes for the fundraiser a group of local Irish women have planned for Sunday, September 7.

Courtney Malley, BethAnn Bailey, Rosaleen McGill and Anne McNiff—all “residents” of our online Irish community, BallyPhilly—will be participating in the annual walk to raise money for breast cancer research as part of a team of 14 whose goal is to drum up $35,000. They first posted news of the benefit on BallyPhilly to encourage other virtual residents to help out. (There’s lots of interesting stuff going on in the little village of BallyPhilly—proof that if you build it, they will come and take over.) Then, with the help of local musician and manager Fintan Malone, brought in the livewire group, the Hooligans, to play at the beef-and-beer benefit, scheduled for 4-9 PM at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy section. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door, and covers everything, including food (if you’re not into beef, there will also be vegetarian options). You can order advance tickets at www.theirishcenter.com/ceili.php.

This is a great cause—Philly’s own version of “Stand Up to Cancer”—so get out, enjoy yourself, and feel good all over because you helped fight a disease that kills an estimated 40,000 women and nearly 400 men a year.

Also on Sunday, a rare chance to see Irish singer-songwriter Luka Bloom (he’s the younger brother of Irish folk singer Christy Moore). An interesting thing about the guitarist, who has played with Eileen Ivers: His style is called “electro-acoustic” but he plays in DADGAD tuning, which is a common tuning for Irish traditional music. While he plays his own material, he’s also done covers of Elvis, LLCoolJ, ABBA, and Bob Marley. Can you say, eclectic, boys and girls? You can catch this amazing guy at the World Café in Philadelphia, a great venue.

Thursday through Saturday, September 11-13, save room for the 34th Annual Philadelphia Ceili Group Traditional Irish Music and Dance Festival, which will be held at the Irish Center. See our story for all the details. Seriously, if you love Irish music, or if you’re a folkie, this is the most fun you’ll have since the ‘60s, about which the wise guys say, ”If you can remember it, you weren’t there.” So create some new memories.

And remember to check out our calendar for all the details–darn thing can’t keep a secret.

And my ankle is still broken, so please, enjoy some of these events for me.

September 4, 2008 by
Dance, Music

It’s Ceili Group Festival Time Again!

Singers Terry Kane and Rosaleen McGill are on the bill for the 34th annual Philadelphia Ceili Group music festival.

Singers Terry Kane and Rosaleen McGill are on the bill for the 34th annual Philadelphia Ceili Group music festival.

Tony DeMarco.

As far as I’m concerned, you don’t get much more Irish than that. Sure, his Dad was Italian, but the part-Irish DeMarco (his mom’s a Dempsey) is one of the finest practitioners of the so-called Sligo style of fiddling. It’s bouncy, intricate (musicians call it ornamentation), and you can’t keep your foot still for love nor money.

DeMarco, who recently produced his first CD, will be challenging you to stay in your seat on Friday night , September 12, when he performs during the 34th Annual Philadelphia Ceili Group Irish Music and Dance Festival, held at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy. The three-day event is a musical must-see for anyone interested in traditional Irish music and dance–in fact, for anyone with an interest in real folk music. 

It kicks off with one of the best additions in recent years—Thursday’s Irish Circle of Song, featuring local singers Rosaleen McGill, Matt Ward, Kathy DeAngelo, Eugenia Brennan, and Terry Kane. Also joining them on stage will be Brian Hart, the only American ever to win an All-Ireland title for singing at the Irish Fleadh Cheoil, and Canadian sean nos (old time) singer Catherine Crowe, who also usually brings her handmade jewelry to sell.

If you really, truly can’t keep your feet still during Tony DeMarco’s performance on Friday, or it gives you a case of the restless legs, head into the Irish Center’s Big Ballroom where you can kick up your heels to Danny Flynn’s The Bog Wanderers, a topnotch ceili band from Maryland. The Washington Post called their first CD “consistently enjoyable.”

On Saturday, the doors open at noon to one jam-packed day, tailor-made for the multi-tasker. There are workshops in fiddle, accordian, bodhran pipes, sean nos singing, and step-dancing from noon to 2 PM in the Ballroom. There’s a tin whistle workshop followed by a pipes, flutes and whistles concert so everyone can show off what they learned.

In the Ballroom, what’s billed as a “continuous killer ceili” will keep you moving and grooving from 2 to 10 PM , followed, if you have the energy or are still living, by a traditional Irish House Party (a dance so called because it was traditionally held in someone’s home, with the furniture pushed against the walls to create a dance floor) with set and figure dancing to live music. 

On the Fireside and John Kelly Stages, there will be concurrent performances, from 2 PM to 10 PM, by a variety  of performers. They include the father-son team of Kevin and Jimmy McGillian, brother and sisters John, Judy, and Eugenia Brennan, Brendan Callahan, Sean McComiskey, Fintan Malone of Blarney, Tom O’Malley, Caitlin Finley, Dennis Gormley, Kathy DeAngelo, Tony DeMarco, Danny Flynn,The Bog Wanderers, Brian Hart, Jeremy Bingamen, Mary Malone, Paddy O’Neill, Matt Ward, Matt Heaton, Brendan Mulvihill, Kieran Jordan, Tim Britton, McDermott’s Handy, Catherine Crowe, Rosaleen McGill, Terry Kane, Tim Hill, and more. All are welcome to stay for the Open Music and Song Jam Session (seisiún in Irish) until the wee hours!

But if your bent is more the spoken word, at 6 PM there will be a presentation by, well,you, if you want to read or recite a piece of poetry and prose. Festival director Frank Malley says he’ll “tell a story to start it off, then call on one, then another and another for about an hour to recite, read poetry, or tell stories.”

Local Irishspeaker, Tom Cahill, will recite in Irish, then translate into English.

All-festival tickets are $35. Individual tickets cost $12 for Thursday’s Irish Circle of Song, $15 for Friday’s Tony DeMarco Concert and The Bog Wanderers; and $20 for Saturday’s musical extravaganza. 

Check out some of last year’s photos here. 

And here. 

Here’s where you can buy tickets.  

And here’s why I love Tony DeMarco’s music so much.  Listen to tracks from his new CD here.  

This is why I can’t get enough of Terry Kane’s angelic voice. Listen to clips from her CD here. 

September 4, 2008 by
Arts

Portraits of Courage

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowan, third from the left, with the Philadelphia contingent. They are, from left, John Joe Brady, Darby O'Connor, John Egan, Brenda McDonald, Tom Farrelly, Sean McMenamin, Vera Gallagher, Billy Brennan, and Vince Gallagher.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowan, third from the left, with the Philadelphia contingent. They are, from left, John Joe Brady, Darby O'Connor, John Egan, Brenda McDonald, Tom Farrelly, Sean McMenamin, Vera Gallagher, Billy Brennan, and Vince Gallagher.

By Brenda McDonald

As a photographer for the London Evening Standard, he took the famous back-lit photograph of a young nursery school teacher named Lady Diana Spenser, soon to become Princess Diana,  wearing a diaphanous dress revealing more of her slim figure than “shy Di” was comfortable with. Over his long career, Dublin-born John Minihan has become renowned for his pictures of the      rich and famous—along with England’s future “queen of hearts,” Minihan’s subjectshave included Gloria Swanson, Al Pacino, Ray Charles, Irish novelist Edna O’Brien and especially playwright Samuel Beckett, with whom the photographer had a special bond.

But Minihan also took beautiful portraits of many ordinary people. Some of those photographs, described by Irish poet Derek Mahon as “real people untouched by celebrity,” are in a special exhibit at the Irish Arts Center in New York called “To Love Two Countries.” All of the dramatic black and white images Minihan took are of Irish immigrants from Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey who came to the US between the years of 1948 and 1967.

A special reception was held on July 15, attended by many of Minihan’s “real people” subjects. It was hosted by Irish Ambassador Niall Burgess and the Irish Arts Center in association with the Commodore Barry USN Irish Center in Philadelphia, the Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers, NY, the Irish American Cultural Institute in Morristown, NJ, and Irish American Society of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens, Moneola, NY.

Among the Philadelphians featured were John Joe Brady, Barney McEnroe, and Tom Farrelly from Cavan; Jimmy Meehan and Barney Boyce from Donegal; Sean Healy from Kerry, Maureen Healy from Clare, and Jerry O’Connor from Limerick.

In the publication distributed at the event, John Minihan expressed the hope that those who view the photographs see them as a testament to human endurance. He noted that what all of these people shared is their pride and a strong sense of who they are and where they came from. The importance of their faith and their Irishness was very evident to him as he visited them in their homes in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, talking over cups of Barry’s tea, as they described the tragedies and poverty that drove them from Ireland to make their new lives in America.

The special guest of the evening was Ireland’s An Taoiseach Brian Cowen.  This was his first official visit to the United States.  He told the group that it was no accident that he chose his first event to be the photographic exhibition.  He can see now, he said, why the Irish are so influential in the US today. “It is because of the seed sown by earlier generations.”

 He congratulated Mr. Minihan for capturing the spirit of Irish immigrants.  “Mr.Minihan’s exhibit tells 1,000 words,” said Cowen.  “The exhibit literally shows in black and white the fortitude of the people who left and made numerous cities what they are today.  It is an indication of the huge number of people who came with not much in their pockets but huge hearts.  That legacy will live on.  Ireland is everywhere.  We need to make sure that we are united as a people with faith, hope and commitment.”

Christine Quinn, speaker forthe NYC Council, congratulated the organizations that brought the exhibit together, especially the Irish Arts Center which she remembers as “the little art center that could.”  The city has invested $5 million in city government funds to help fund the center. 

Other dignitaries in attendance were Niall Burgess, Consul General of Ireland, Breandán Ó Caollaí, Deputy Consul General and Michael Collins, Irish Ambassador from Washington, D.C.

In addition, on July 16 Niall Burgess and his wife, Marie Morgan-Burgess,  hosted a reception in the Ground Floor Lobby of the Consulate General of Ireland’s office on Park Avenue to honor Cowen.  More than 500 people were in attendance to welcome him to the United States.  From the Philadelphia area were Michael Callahan, (First Vice President of The St. Patrick’s  Day Observance Association), Jim Coyne, (President Emeritus of the Irish Memorial of Philadelphia), Edward Last, (President of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick),  Bernadette Truhlar,(Treasurer of the Commodore Barry Club), Michael Campbell (Donegal Football Association) and Brenda McDonald (Board Member of the Commodore Barry Club).  

“To Love Two Countries,” commissioned and presented by the Irish Arts Center and the Consulate of Ireland, will be at the Irish Arts Center at 553 W 51st Street in New York through December 2008.

September 4, 2008 by