Shannon and her grandfather, Bob Lambert
If there was a handbook on how to successfully launch a new CD, RUNA could have written it, with the first rule being: Fill the audience with old and new fans, and welcome them all as though they were part of the family.
Deciding to hold their launch concert for “Stretched On Your Grave” at the Commodore Barry Center (aka The Irish Center) in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia was a no-brainer for the group, whose lead singer, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, grew up dancing there. Turning it into a place as welcoming and familiar as a pub in Ireland became a family affair, with Lambert-Ryan’s mother, Julie Lambert, taking the lead in creating tables of authentic food.
The significance of the role family plays in the band members’ lives was on relaxed display throughout the evening. With percussionist Cheryl Prashker’s husband Charles Nolan at the CD table, and Lambert-Ryan’s younger sister Emma joining her onstage for a delicate and luminous duet of “I Wish My Love Was a Red, Red Rose,” everyone took part.
Even family members across the sea were included, as Dublin-born guitarist Fionán de Barra explained to the packed audience that his mother told him the other day that “she doesn’t think there’s anybody in Ireland who sings the Irish songs as well as Shannon sang them on the album—anybody.” Lambert-Ryan added, “She was the ultimate test, we’ll tell you. If it doesn’t pass her and doesn’t pass Fionán’s eldest brother, Cormac, it doesn’t go onto the album, it doesn’t go into the set. Fionán’s family actually has been very involved in bringing the Irish language back into use in Ireland…so it’s quite a compliment.”
Lambert-Ryan’s best friend from childhood on, Erin McMenimen was also in the audience, and shares photo credits on the CD cover with Philadelphia photographer Jayne Toohey. McMenimen took the delightfully disquieting picture of Lambert-Ryan that appears as the front of the album. “We went on a search for the perfect front cover…to find THE perfect grave…and that is me on the cover of the album. We searched around this area, and up into New England and the Northeast,” said Lambert-Ryan. But the photo they went with was taken by McMenimen in Doolin, County Clare, last summer when they were all over in Ireland for Lambert-Ryan’s Irish wedding to de Barra. “None of the graveyards that we found looked quite forlorn enough over here. So we said we need to stick with that one. And it was a gorgeous picture.”
And the latest addition to the RUNA family is violinist Tomoko Omura. “As we’ve gotten into more of the traditional side of things, we’ve stolen her, or borrowed her, so to speak, from the jazz and classical world, and we really don’t want to give her back,” Lambert-Ryan told the audience. Hopefully, they will be able to keep her for a long time to come, Omura’s exquisite playing is a brilliant addition to the band.
A fabulous, fun evening at The Irish Center, filled with an audience treated to some innovatively traditional music. Watch our videos and take a look at our photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishphiladelphia/sets/72157626282836011/with/5580045046/
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- Shannon and her grandfather, Bob Lambert
