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Denise Foley

News

Four to be Inducted Into the Hall of Fame

On Sunday, four stalwarts of the Irish community will be inducted into the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame at a dinner and awards ceremony at The Irish Center in Philadelphia. Here are this year’s honorees:

Bob Gessler was president of Division 87 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians for eight years and served for more than a decade as president of the Philadelphia County Board of the AOH. In 2008, he was the recipient of the prestigious John F. Kennedy Medal, the highest award given by the AOh, in recognition of his founding of the Hibernian Hunger Project, a program that helps feed needy people and has been adopted by the AOH as its national charity.

In his nominating letter, James Coyne listed Gessler’s other accomplishments:

“He was instrumental in bringing a National and State AOH Convention to Philadelphia and hosting the unveiling of the Irish Immigration Stamp. . .He is the Past President of Blarney Political Action Committee, which provides a voice for the Delaware Valley Irish Community. He is the founder and Chairman of the Hibernian Community Development Corporation, an organization that rehabs houses for local families and provides educational opportunities to disadvantaged Philadelphians.

Bob is a member of various civic and Irish association Boards, including more than17 years on the Board of the Irish Memorial and is a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He is the former co-chair of the Kevin Donnelly Memorial Scholarship Fund which provided over $75,000 in tuition assistance. Bob previously served on the Boards of KAN/KARP (a local CDC), the Commodore Barry Club (Irish Center), the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.

He is an Honorary Citizen of the City of Tralee, Co. Kerry and served as one of the Co-Chairs for the Jeannie Johnston Millennium Voyages Project. Bob has been recognized for his accomplishments on behalf of the Irish Community by a number of groups; Federation of Irish Societies (Delaware Valley), Philadelphia County Board of the Ladies AOH, Division 87, The Emerald Society, Irish Northern Aid,Clan na Gael, Philadelphia Irish Festival, Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service Center, Mother of Divine Grace Parish and St. Malachy’s College (Belfast).”

In 1983, Eileen Lavin founded the Tara Gael Dancers, an adult Irish dance group that was the first group of adult Irish dancers in the region and consistently wins top prizes in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. She has been teaching Irish dance since she left Cardinal Dougherty High School. And she learned from the best—Ed Reavy—whom she taught with for many years. She was named to the parade Ring of Honor in 2010. For many years this hairdresser had her own shop, and now operates out of Gloria Dei, a 55-plus independent living residence.

Anne Gallagher McKenna will receive the posthumous award this year. McKenna, who started McKenna’s Irish Shop in Havertown in 1950. She earned her first shillings as a 12-year-old, knitting mittens for a shop in Ardara, County Donegal, where she was born, and they helped buy her ticket to the US in 1947 when she was 17 years old. She met and married Joseph McKenna and they had five children.

After her family was raised, she opened the shop which sold imported wool sweaters, tweeds and woolens. She continued to make her own knitted clothing and her daughter, Nancy Durnin, said she continued to improve her skills, sticking to a project until she mastered it. She loved change, but was concerned that machinery and computers would make hand knitting a lost art. Her only regret, said her daughter, was that she wasn’t able to master and adapt these technologies.

Joseph T. Kelley, Jr., Esq. will receive a special award, from the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, for his generosity and service to the Commodore Barry Club, “Irish Center”. Kelley, whose family has roots in County Mayo, is the president of the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia and immediate Past- President of the Brehon Law Society. He was one of the founders of the US/Ireland Legal Symposium which is designed to bring together internationally minded in-house attorneys, private legal practitioners and business executives looking to invest in key sectors in Ireland, the US, and Europe.

Kelley is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Kelley Partners, Ltd., a law firm with offices in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He focuses his practice on business and corporate law and governance, for both nonprofit and for profit companies, including general counsel services, corporate criminal defense, and healthcare law. As general counsel for large and small healthcare providers and for a host of other organizations.

Kelley is a member of the American, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Bar Associations, the Brehon Law Society and is a fellow of the Council on International Legal Studies, Salzburg, Austria. Mr. Kelley has also served the Irish and Irish American communities by his service as an organizer of the Philadelphia Emerald Society, a founder, Board Member and Past President of the Brehon Law Society and currently serves as Chairman of the Philadelphia Irish Immigration Center.

November 8, 2013 by Denise Foley

News

Aon Sceal

Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo … with a portrait of Ed McDermott. He’s always just over their shoulder.

It’s back! We resurrecting our news briefs because there’s just so much going on in Philly’s Irish community, we just had to. For those of you who aren’t Irish speakers (full disclosure–neither are we), Aon Sceal means “what’s the story?” Feel free to send us your special announcements.

Major Honor for Two Local Musicians
Musicians Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo will be inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Mid-Atlantic Hall of Fame at the Provincial Fleadh and North American Convention in Parsippany, NJ, in April. The husband-and-wife duo have been performing together in the Delaware Valley as McDermott’s Handy since 1979. They are multi-intrumentalists who are also co-founders with Chris Brennan Hagy of The Next Generation, a group of student musicians who take instruction, play and perform together at the Irish Center and at events. Gormley and De Angelo have been teaching for more than 17 years. They will join an illustrious group of musicians and promoters of Irish culture and music in the Hall of Fame, including Mick Moloney, Ed Reavy, the late Tommy Moffit, Cherish the Ladies’ Joanie Madden, and Kevin McGillian.

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (pronounced coal-tis keeyol-tory air-in) is an international organization, based in Ireland, dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of Irish music, dance, and culture with over 400 branches worldwide.

Ray Says a Musical Thanks
A few weeks ago, Tyrone born musician Raymond Coleman was awakened early in the morning by police. Someone had broken into his van and took all of his instrument and equipment. It started out as just about the worst day of his life. Coleman supports his family as a fulltime musician. But before the day was over, it turned into one of the best days he’s ever had.

Fellow musician Frank Daly of Jamison Celtic Rock started a crowd-funding campaign on giveforward.com to help Coleman replace his stolen guitars and equipment. By the next day, dozens of people—and a few foundations—had donated more than $3,000.

To say thanks to his donors, Coleman is holding an “Appreciation Night” at the Plough and the Stars, 123 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, on November 21, starting at 7:30 PM. His brother, singer-songwriter Mickey Coleman, and several other guest performers will join Coleman on stage. If you helped this young musician out, you’re invited.

Win a Box of Goodies
You can win tins of biscuits, a Christmas stocking, tea, jam, sweets and loads of your favorite Irish goodies and support the Philadelphia Irish Center just by buying a raffle ticket.

The drawing for the basket, which contains hundred of dollars worth of treats, will be on Sunday, December 15. It benefits the Commodore Barry Club Real Estate Tax Fund. Contact members of the center’s board for tickets.

Tom Walsh, 215-843-8051
Vince Gallagher, 610-220-4142
Denise Hilpl, 215-527-8380
Tom Farrelly, 610-633-1803
Kathy Burns, 215-872-1305

Honors for Two Local Lawyers
Last month, Lisa Maloney, senior vice president of Capmark, and Mark Foley of
Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor were among other members of the legal community nationwide to be honored at the Irish Legal 100 event. The program acknowledges the most accomplished lawyers of Irish descent from around the U.S. Past honorees include Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, NJ Gov. Chris Christie (a former federal prosecutor) and Associate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. The ceremony was held in Washington, DC, at the residence of Irish Ambassador Anne Anderson, who was named to her post in August.

November 8, 2013 by Denise Foley

Music, News

Have an Irish-American Christmas!

I love Christmas. I usually start humming carols as soon as the last trick-or-treater leaves my porch. But Frank Daly has me beat by a mile. Or, more accurately, by four months.

He was playing Christmas music in the car last July, driving his four kids to the shore for vacation. “I was saying, what do you think about this one?” recalls Daly, lead singer for Jamison Celtic Rock and co-founder of American Paddy’s Productions. “And my kids were, ‘Really, Dad?’”

Daly wasn’t rushing the season but planning for it. With his American Paddy’s partner, C.J. Mills, he’s producing his second American Celtic Christmas show for December 7 at Bensalem High School. Producing a show—and they have a thousand moving parts–isn’t like Christmas shopping. It takes more than a couple of months and you sure can’t do it the night before.

It took more than a year to plan the first one—from finding the venue, nailing down the performers and yes, selecting the music of the season when it wasn’t the season. But he loves it. “I have a passion for theater, for theatrics and incorporating a lot of moving parts,” he admits.

He’s also partial to Christmas. “I am a Christmas lover. Always. How can you tell?” he laughed. “I make a conscious effort this time of year not to be overwhelmed by shopping, stress, time constraints, weather. Many years ago I was talking to a priest and he was telling me that when he does funerals, he always asks [the deceased’s loved ones] about vacations and Christmas because those are the memories that are strongest in most people’s minds. That stuck with me.”

There were 1,000 people at last year’s show, which featured former Causeway singer Kim Killen, Celtic Flame Dancers, the Bucks County Dance School, a hip-hop DJ, and, of course, Jamison. Killen, Celtic Flame, the Bucks County Dance School and Jamison will be back, and joining them this year will be singer-songwriter John Byrne (who will be performing solo and with Jamison) and DJ Dan Cronin, founder of the Hair O’ The Dog black tie charity event (which this year benefits the Claddagh Fund and takes place on November 27 at Vanity Nightclub in Philadelphia).

American Paddy’s other event, The Philadelphia Fleadh, held in Pennypack Park last June, mixed traditional Irish music and culture with Celtic rock and other strictly American music. Hip-hop DJs, uillean pipe players, Irish step dancers in full Book of Kells regalia, and modern dancers in leotards all came together at the big Irish-American table. Likewise, the American Celtic Christmas Show is a genre-twisting night of Irish culture. As Daly likes to say, “we celebrate being Irish American and not just Irish.” So the Celtic Flame Dancers will be dancing to a technoclub song—you’ll see how step dancing easily makes the genre leap—while the Bucks County Dancers will do a modern dance to an Irish reel.

Daly and Mills hoped that the show would take off and become a holiday tradition for Irish-American families and they saw evidence of that last year. “A lot of people started buying tickets for family groups,” says Daly. “People were telling us they invited family from an hour or two hours away and had a dinner. It served as their Christmas gathering because it gets so crazy the week of Christmas.”

Daly also hoped it took off because he quit his day job last year when the planning got bigger than he could handle in a 24-hour day. (He was director of marketing for the McGrogan Group, which owns Kildare’s, Harvest, and other restaurants). It was a gutsy move. “I quit with no means of support except what we make in the band. And I have four kids and a mortgage.”

But there was that love thing too. “I absolutely love this, it’s all I ever wanted to do,” he says. “I never worked so hard in my life but I never felt so satisfied. It’s been a really good couple of years.”

Pick up some of that Christmas spirit yourself. There are two American Celtic Christmas shows this year, one at 3 PM and the other at 7 PM on Saturday, December 7, at Bensalem High School, 4319 Hulmeville Road, Bensalem, PA. Tickets range from $10 to $20, with a 10 percent discount for groups of 10 or more. For more information, go to the website. You can also purchase tickets by clicking on the American Celtic Christmas ad you see at the top of our pages.

November 8, 2013 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Elizabeth Spellman when she was crowned the 2012 Philadelphia Rose of Tralee.

Elizabeth Spellman, a 28-year-old Havertown social worker, will give up her crown as the 2012 Philadelphia Rose of Tralee on Saturday night at the Radnor Hotel. The annual event is open to young women of Irish descent. The winner competes in the televised Rose of Tralee event in County Kerry, Ireland, in the summer.

Also on Saturday night, catch Galway Guild at Marty Magee’s in Prospect Park.

Also, Gerry Timlin—he of the beautiful voice and a million ad libs—will be doing two performances at the Act II Theatre in Ambler on Saturday night.

On Sunday, the annual Easter Rising Observance will be held at Holy Cross Cemetery at the graveside of Joseph McGarrity, prominent financier of the IRA who lived in Philadelphia. Sinn Fein Councillor from Monaghan, Sean Conlon, is expected to speak.

At the Irish Center, catch the GAA weekly telecast: 10 AM, Tyrone vs. Kerry, and at 11:45 AM it’s Cork Vs. Mayo (a delayed broadcast). Pay-per-view cost is $20.

At 1 PM, there will be an open house and free clinic sponsored by the new Glenside GAA, a youth Gaelic sports club, at Bishop McDevitt High School In Wyncote.

On Tuesday, Villanova Theater offers a staging of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” a stunning adaptation of the Biblical tale involving St. John the Baptist.

On Wednesday, “The Hand of Gaul,” a new play by Philadelphian Jared Michael Delaney, opens in preview at the Inis Nua Theater Company’s Off Broad Street Theater. It’s been described as “is a wild comedic romp through the ‘what might have been’ of November 18, 2009. That was the day Ireland got bounced out of a place in the World Cup 2010 contention by the unchecked foul of French superstar Thierry Henry. Three ardent Irish supporters decide to avenge their team and get mixed up in international intrigue beyond their wildest imaginings.” You had me at wild and comedic. Opening night is April 10.

On Wednesday, Irish singer Len Graham (County Antrim) and American Brian O hAirt, an award-winning traditional singer, will offer an evening of Irish singing and storytelling at a house concert in Center City Philadelphia, then again on Thursday at The Banana Factory or 25 W. Third Street in Bethlehem. They recently released a CD, “In Two Minds,” and have performed together at the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival. Please see our calendar for information on the concert in Philadelphia–seating is limited.

Enjoy your week! Buy Irish!

April 5, 2013 by Denise Foley

People

A Tribute to a Man Who “Made Everyone Feel Important”

The late Charlie Dunlop

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

It says a lot about a man when the people he ran into at the convenience store where he bought his coffee every morning turn up at his viewing to pay their respects.

That was Charlie Dunlop.

Dunlop, a native of Donagmore, County Tyrone who lived in Havertown, died of a sudden heart attack on November 28, 2011, at the age of 45, leaving behind a wife, Nancy, a son, “wee Charlie,” now 7, and hundreds of people who could say, as one did, “Charlie Dunlop always made you feel important.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t remember, but one thing stuck in my mind, and that was meeting people I didn’t know at Charlie’s viewing who told me, ‘Oh, we know Charlie from the Wawa,’” says Nancy. “That was where he got his coffee every morning. We didn’t have a coffee maker and I said, well maybe we should get one, and Charlie said no, it was his thing to go to Wawa every morning and say hi to everyone, so we never got one. That’s the way he was, he was always laughing and telling stories, just pleasant to be around. After Charlie had passed, I had someone say to me that they thought he was so special because when you spoke to him you had all of his attention. He made everyone feel important.”

Even the customers of his electrical contracting business who flooded Nancy Dunlop’s mailbox with cards and letters, who cried with her on the phone. “They all said that he wasn’t just their electrician, he was their friend,” she recalls. “I’ve kept all those notes from my son so he could see how much people loved his father.”

Last Saturday, March 30, some of the people who loved Charlie Dunlop—there were 500 of them—paid $100 a ticket to attend a banquet to raise money to continue the work he did in the community. The opening ceremonies included everything that Charlie loved: family, GAA sports, Irish culture and music, and a united Ireland. Representatives from each of Ireland’s 32 counties carried their county’s flag into the ballroom of the Springfield Country Club along with jerseys from each of the county GAA teams. Charlie Dunlop was instrumental in founding the Tyrone Gaelic Football Club in Philadelphia which, after a hiatus of a few years, is being resurrected this year. His son was presented with a jersey from the St. Patrick’s GAA in County Tyrone which his grandfather brought with him from Ireland. It was the only jersey they had left and, ironically, it carried Charlie’s old number.

His old band mates from Clan Ceoil, John “Lefty” Kelly and Pat Kildea, played, as did Blackthorn. But the tunes that brought many to tears came from Bridget Reilly, playing Charlie’s favorite tunes, including “The Lonesome Boatman,” a slow air composed by Finbar Furey, on the tin whistle. That was Charlie’s instrument.

His friends originally started The Charlie Dunlop Memorial Fund as a scholarship fund for young Charlie. “But I didn’t feel comfortable with that,” says Nancy. “Charlie would have wanted to help other people and selfishly, I wanted people to remember him—people forget so quickly—so I wanted something in his name that would continue what he did.”

What he did: Sandy-haired, “cuddly”—“He would say a little cuddly, he wouldn’t say chubby or anything,” laughs Nancy—with a perpetual grin and impish twinkle in his blue eyes, Charlie Dunlop was, by all accounts, the first one to lend a helping hand when it was needed.

“Charlie always helped, he’d always given to everything, every cause, when he was asked—and most of the time no one had to ask,” says Nancy, who was “fixed up” with Charlie by her mother when Nancy was bartending at the family tavern, McFadden’s, in Upper Darby, and Charlie was their electrician. (“She said I had to meet this buy because he was so cute and I said, ‘Mom, if you like him I’m not going to,’ but she loved him to death and thought there was nobody better. She was right,” Nancy laughs.)

“He sponsored people here, he hired young Irish and trained them,” Nancy says. “He was genuine and kind, very friendly—he would have talked to anybody, honestly—made friends very easily and never wanted anything in return. He cared about people.”

Need someone to talk to at 2 in the morning? “Charlie was a 2 AM friend,” said Patricia Crossan, who met Charlie Dunlop when they were both new immigrants 25 years ago. “And after you finished talking to him you’d think everything would be fine because Charlie told you everything would be fine.”

Need a ticket back home to Ireland to see an ailing relative? It was Charlie Dunlop who wrote out a check without blinking. “We all think we would like to be like that, but when it came down to writing out a check for $1,300 most people would balk. Not Charlie,” says Jake Quinn, a contractor from Huntington Valley, who also grew up in Donaghmore. Though Jake is closer in age to Charlie’s dad, Sean, the two became very close friends, bonding over their mutual loves, including Gaelic football and, having both experienced “the Troubles” firsthand, the dream of a united Ireland.

“Most people remember Charlie for the incredible generosity he had with his time and his treasure,” says Quinn. “And you would have never heard anything like, ‘this man owes me this’and this man owes me that.’ That wasn’t Charlie.”

You apparently didn’t have to know Charlie for long before you succumbed to his personal gravitational pull. After his death, new friends from the marina on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where Charlie and Nancy kept their boat sought out Charlie’s parents in Ireland, Sean and Ann, to express their condolences. “They’d really only known him a few months but here were these people, ringing our house and telling us about the son we had,” says Sean, who, with his wife, flew to the US last week to participate in the memorial event. “But that was typical. Everyone who came to the viewing said he did this, or he did that. It was very, very comforting for us. I can tell you that if a father wanted a good son, we got him. He was good to everyone he met.”

Those same new Eastern Shore friends also held a memorial in which they set green, white, and yellow lanterns afloat on the Chesapeake, says Jake Quinn. “There was a beautiful little ceremony on the beach and the people there told me that until Charlie came, they really didn’t know each other, but they all gravitated toward Charlie because he was so much fun, so they got to know each other.”

By its very name, a memorial is meant to keep a memory alive. In Charlie Dunlop’s case, the Charlie Dunlop Memorial Fund is designed to keep a spirit alive. For as long as it lasts, Charlie Dunlop will still be lending a hand. “It will be an emergency fund, if something happens to someone like what happened to us, someone needs an emergency flight home, when something goes wrong,” says Nancy. “It’s actually perfect. It’s something Charlie would have absolutely wanted to be involved in.”

April 4, 2013 by Denise Foley

Arts, News

Calling All Irish Actors

Shawn Swords

Local filmmaker Shawn Swords is looking for a few good actors.

Swords, whose critically acclaimed documentary, “Wage of Spin,” focused on the Philadelphia music scene, Dick Clark, and the payola scandals of the ’50s and early ”60s, is planning to film the play “Seanchaithe,” a variation on the Irish word for storyteller, in various locations in Philadelphia and Delaware County.

“We’re looking for theater-trained actors who know how to act and take directions, not aspiring wannabes or regional models,” says Swords. “We’re only accepting e-resumes/headshots.” So far, he says, “90 percent of the actors who have sent resumes/headshots don’t even look Irish.”

Along with a face that has the map of Ireland all over it, an authentic Irish accent is a plus.

The plot? “I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot because there is a major twist in the third act,” says Swords. “I suppose it could be categorized as a drama/black comedy/satire/noir.”

Suffice it to say that there’s an upscale Irish pub in the city and a blue collar Irish pub frequented by Irish nationals involved, as well as four songs and two dance sequences “but this is not a musical,” says Swords. One well known local Irish musician has already signed on.

If you have some acting chops and look like you might be from County Mayo or Cork, sent your resume and head shots to tom@characterdrivenfilms.com.

March 29, 2013 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How to be Irish In Philly This Week

Members of the Ensemble Gallelii will appear in Philadelphia this week.

Happy Easter! Hope the kids find all the eggs you hid around the house in record time. If they miss one, that’s an event that can call for hazmat suits and a visit from the Environmental Protection Agency. We don’t want that.

On Monday, April 1, the Irish flag will be raised at the Red Bank Battlefield in National Park, NJ, a program sponsored by AOH Div. 1 in New Jersey. There will be a mass celebrated at the division hall followed by a free lunch. The event is open to all.

Also on Monday, tickets will go on sale for the Philadelphia Fleadh Festival, scheduled for June 22, which will features bands including Black 47, the Young Dubliners, Jamison Celtic Rock, the Bogside Rogues, Galway Guild, Raymond Coleman, a bagpipe competition, and a feis stage for dancers. Check their website for the info.

It seemed like a strange event to post on our calendar, but given that so many Irish are involved in the building trades, we approved it. So, on Wednesday, April 3, there’s an outreach event for construction subcontractors at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing. You can learn about the Pennsylvania Gamin Control Board’s service provide registration and certification process as well as the Whynne Reports and the proposed Wynn Philadelphia Resort. It’s touted as a networking event, so it may be worth the gamble. Uh-oh, bad pun alert. Details are on the calendar.

Also, on Wednesday night, special guests Aine and Bernie McGill from Ardara will be part of the Singer’s Session at the Irish Center. Aine is an award-winning (and world-ranked) Irish dancer from County Donegal.

On Thursday, Professor John Walsh from the National University of Galway will be speaking on new trends in Irish-language acquisition in the US—new speakers of Irish.

On Thursday night, noted Dublin-born publican Fergus Carey (Fergie’s Pub, Monk’s Café, Grace Tavern, Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant) will be roasted and toasted at an event at The Ruba Club, 414 Green Street in Philadelphia.

If you’re in Delaware, Scottish singer-songwriter Jim Malcom will be appearing at the Blue Ball Barn in Alapocas Run State Park in Wilmington. Old Blind Dogs fans will know Malcom—he was their lead singer for seven years.

In Sellersville on Thursday, catch the Battlefield Band, the “Scottish Folk Band of the Year,” at the theater at 24 W. Temple Street.

On Friday night, April 5, Trio Galilei, which mixes early instruments with Celtic traditional music, will be appearing at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. The concert will take place by candlelight—which promised to be a beautiful, spiritual experience.

On Saturday, Elizabeth Spellman will be giving up her tiara. She’s the reigning Philadelphia Rose of Tralee and her successor will be chosen at an event hosted by CBS3 reporter Jim Donovan at the Radnor Hotel in St. Davids.

March 29, 2013 by Denise Foley

Music

The CD the Audience Demanded

The John Byrne Band Celtic Folk, available now.

Last year, the Philadelphia-based John Byrne Band toured more than 18 states, hitting venues large and small with a mix of original tunes (from their first CD, After the Wake), throwing in “two or three Irish songs,” says Dublin-born Byrne.

“Then invariably at the merch table, people were looking for the Irish songs,” recalls the singer-songwriter. “The only thing we had were some old Patrick’s Head [Byrne’s previous band] which isn’t what we’re doing now.”

When the band—including Andy Keenan (who also tours with Amos Lee), Maura Dwyer and Rob Shaffer—returned home from their Midwest adventures, they started talking about doing an Irish album.

What they put together at Turtle Studio in Philadelphia isn’t exactly an Irish album. In fact, it’s exactly what the photo on the cover says it is. The photo shows a handmade sign on a country road just outside Lincoln Nebraska, where the band played in an old barn. It reads, in white paint: “John Byrne Band, Celtic/Folk, Tonight 7 PM.”

Packed with traditional songs arranged by the band, honed on stages throughout the US, it includes familiar Irish standards such as “Follow Me Up to Carlow,” “The Parting Glass,” “The Raggle Taggle Gypsy,” and “The Irish Rover,” as well as roots-style music including the poignant and arresting “The Lakes of Ponchartrain” (rewind alert!) , the ballad of an Irish immigrant smitten by a Creole girl made popular by Planxty, and “The Ballad of The Old Black Pearl,” written by American Jim McGrath (while on a ship by the same name in the mid-Atlantic).

“Andy heard a bunch of guys [The Reprobates] on Block Island singing [McGrath’s song], he bought their CD and learned the song,” says Byrne.

Before going into the studio, each band member made a list of the songs he or she loved. “And the lists turned out to be very similar,” says Byrne. “Some are straight-up barn-burners, pub songs, and some are the really delicate songs that we like to do best, like The Lakes of Ponchartrain.

When I asked Byrne which was his favorite, he paused. Turns out that’s as tough a question to answer as “Which of your kids do you like best?”

“I’m in love with all of them,” he confesses, laughing. “When you’re making the album you’re listening to the songs over and over, and you just have to stop. When I picked up the CDs and stuck one in the CD player in the van, I was really happy.”

As you may be. You can purchase Celtic Folk online at CDBaby and on Amazon or at one of the band’s gigs. They’re at Rosie O’Grady’s, 800 7th Avenue, New York, on Saturday, March 30, and Byrne and his bandmates do the Fergie’s Ballad Session on Sundays (next one, April 7) at Fergie’s Pub, 12th and Sansom in Philadelphia. The band will also be opening for Tempest at the Sellersville Theatre on Saturday April 13.

March 29, 2013 by Denise Foley

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