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Another Successful St. Malachy’s Concert

When Mick Moloney comes to Philadelphia to do his annual concert to benefit St. Malachy’s Church and School, he always brings a collection of superlative performers. He didn’t disappoint this year either.

Along with premier accordion player Bill McComiskey, uillean piper Jerry O’Sullivan, and fiddler Dana Lyn, the concert featured 11-year-old Haley Richardson of New Jersey, a 2013 All-Ireland winner in two categories; British singer John Roberts; folk singers Saul Braudy (who played a mean blues harmonica), Dick Swain, and Murray Callahan; and one surprise—to Moloney at least—bodhran player.

He introduced the crowd to Mal Whyte, whom he hadn’t seen, not mentioned played with, for 40 years. The London native, an actor (Father Ted fans may remember him as the picnic warden in The Old Grey Whistle Theft episode, or, more recently, in The Borgias on Showtime), now living in Philadelphia, joined Moloney on stage and played as though no time had passed.

Mock Moloney

Check out our photo essay and watch the video of Haley Richardson playing with the big guys.

October 25, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music, News

First Irish Center Pub Concert “A Good Start”

Jim and Betty O’Brien of Ambler dancing to the music of the John Byrne Band.

It was serendipity. Ed Weideman, vice president of the Philadelphia Irish Center board, was talking to musician John Byrne about booking Byrne’s band for the Donegal Ball at the end of November when he got a call.

When he finished on the phone, he must have looked seriously concerned because Byrne asked him what it was about. To pass a board of health inspection, Weideman told him, the Center needed to replace a new sink and ice bin in the bar, install a prep sink in the kitchen, and replace a range hood which alone could cost five figures.

“Then John said, ‘I’ll do a benefit concert for you,’” recalls Weideman.

And that’s what he did last Friday night. Stormy weather may have kept back some potential concert-goers, but what the crowd lacked in quantity it made up for in enthusiasm. There was food available and the ballroom was set with tables to create a pub atmosphere while Byrne and his band—Andy Keenan, Rob Shaffer, and Maura Dwyer—recreated their Pogues’ tribute show from World Café Live, interspersed with Byrne’s own songs and some familiar favorites that got people up and dancing.

Both the band and the Irish Center won new fans. “They’re really good,” said Denise Hilpl, also a Center board member, who said she was hearing the band, which has a wide following, for the first time.

Weideman estimated that about a third of the people who came to the show were either at the Irish Center for the first time or had only been there once or twice. “There were some people who’d never been there before who became members that night. A lot of those people are asking if we’re going to do it again, and we are.”

Over the next few months, Weideman is planning a series of “pub nights” featuring local Irish contemporary bands, along with The John Byrne Band, to introduce the bands—and the Center—to a wider audience. “I’m really excited about this—it’s something different, something new,” he says. “The concert was a good start—a successful start, with more to come.”

Check out our photos from the evening.

October 18, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music

Celtic Fiddle Festival: Still Going Strong After 20 Years

Celtic Fiddle Festival

Legendary Irish fiddler Kevin Burke is wrestling with what he suspects is an insoluble problem.

“I’m looking for a job,” Burke says. “I need to get a proper job. I’m still waiting for one to come along. In the meantime, I’m playing the fiddle.”

For now, that fiddle thing seems to be working out OK. Burke’s career includes membership in the iconic Bothy Band and Patrick Street. His always fresh, bright style of play is on full display throughout countless collaborations, including an early relationship with Arlo Guthrie—and, more recently, a marvelous album with the superb Portland, Oregon, guitarist Cal Scott. The New York Times once described Burke as “one of the great living Celtic fiddlers.” No doubt, he’s gratified to be counted among the living. So rest easy. Kevin Burke seems to be paying the bills.

Burke is also one of the founders of a brilliant international musical partnership called the Celtic Fiddle Festival. In 1993, Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham joined Burke, together with famed Breton Christian Lemaître, to merge the distinctive musical influences of the world’s fiddle hot spots. Regrettably, Cunningham passed away in 2003. Québécois fiddler André Brunet joined the lineup not long after Cunningham’s death. The great Nicolas Quemener accompanies the group on guitar. The four recently released a triumphant album, “Live in Brittany,” recorded in Quemener’s home town of Guémené-sur-Scorff.
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The eclectic ensemble is touring now, and will appear in concert Thursday night, October 17, at the Sellersville Theater. The show starts at 8.

It’s hard to believe the idea is so long-lived, Burke reflects.

“When we did it, it was kind of an experiment. We thought many people would find it moderately interesting and amusing. We didn’t think it would go any further than that. Now, it’s almost like a band, even though the personnel has changed.

“The Celtic Fiddle Festival stands for this amalgamation of this kind of music, even though we’re all playing the same instrument. What Johnny and I thought would be a one-off has become part of the folk music establishment, which is great. If you go back 20 or 30 years ago, Breton and Québéc fiddling were not as well known here. Even among the Irish music fans, a lot were not quick to embrace music from other areas, even though there are obvious strong ties there. Now they see that this amalgamation is not an oddity, but something they can take for granted.”

Twenty years on, the band still hasn’t lost its propensity to surprise. Fans frequently discern a little tweak or twist they haven’t heard in previous performances. They’re not alone. Burke says he always hears something new. Each fiddler’s style reflects the musical influence and sensibilities of his native region, but each comes from a different creative starting point.

“We all play solo to show how unique each style is, and how they’re quite connected,” Burke explains. “It doesn’t take much for one to fit with another. We try to choose pieces of music that demonstrate that. It’s a fun bunch of guys, and it’s always challenging because the repertoire is not exactly native to me, you know, but that’s part of the fun—learning more and more about the Breton and Québéc music. André and Christian seem to have an endless store of knowledge about my own music. I hope, if you were talking to them, they would say the same thing about me.”

After all these years, Celtic Fiddle Festival remains true to its roots.

Burke believes his his co-founder would be pleased, but in his own distinctive way. With a laugh, Burke remembers how Cunningham sized things up. “Johnny used to say that we demonstrate how three cultures can be destroyed by one common instrument.”

You’ll be forgiven if you don’t see it the same way.

October 10, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music

A Successful 39th Ceili Group Festival

Everyone had fun at the festival. Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur.

The seats were all taken for all the concerts, there was hustle and bustle in the vendor’s area, and dozens of people learned to sean nos dance, play the bodhran, and write like the Book of Kells monks at the workshops at the 39th annual Philadelphia Ceili Festival of Irish Music and Dance last weekend.

Acclaimed Sligo-style fiddler Tony DeMarco was the final concert headliner with his new group, Atlantic Wave, featuring singer Donie Carroll, All-Ireland fiddler Martin O’Connell and guitarist Sean Earnest, all of whom gave workshops on Saturday. Cherish the Ladies’s Joanie Madden along with Gabriel Donohue hosted the Friday night Rambling House featuring half a dozen local talents, including Matt Ward, Teresa Kane, Ellen Tepper, and Rosaleen McGill (who, along with Madden and Donohue, sang “The Rocks of Bawn,” with her father, Jim McGill, one of the founders of the annual traditional music festival). Popular musician, singer, and comic Gerry Timlin in his second year of hosting Singers Night, kept the packed audience laughing and tapping their feet.

We could tell you more, but we have more than 100 photos, and over 20 videos, that speak 1,000 words.

Check out Singers Night and the Rambling House.

Check out some of the workshops and kids’ activities from Saturday in this set by photographer Gwyneth MacArthur.

Saturday’s concerts and activities.

Singers Night Videos

Rambling House Videos

Saturday Night Finale Videos

September 20, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music, News

Philly Irish Rally for a Local Musician

On Thursday, September 12, Raymond Coleman’s day started at 4:30 AM with the sound of banging on his door in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. It was the police. The Tyrone-born musician’s van had been broken into and all of his equipment stolen. The guitars. The sound system. Even what he jokingly calls his “box of tricks,” his guitar leads and wires.

“It was awful, like taking my right arm off,” said Coleman, who has made a living as a musician since arriving the the US from Ardboe in Northern Ireland four years ago this week. “I was thinking of all the gigs I was going to have to cancel.” The father of one—daughter Branna just turned one–often does 25 or more a month.

He left a dismal post on his Facebook page later in the morning, and suddenly, his terrible, horrible no-good day took a turn. For the better.

“The next thing I knew, Frank Daly, got in touch with me,” Coleman said. Daly is the front man for Jamison Celtic Rock and co-founder of American Paddy LLC, which produced the Philadelphia Fleadh outdoor concert this past June. Daly wanted Coleman’s permission to launch a crowd-sourcing campaign on the website giveforward.com to help him replace his equipment. Coleman was reluctant. “I don’t want people to think I’m begging for money,” he said. But he agreed.

It took off. Donations, fueled by Facebook shares, didn’t just trickle in. They flooded in. Daly set a goal of $2,500 at the beginning of the day and by Friday morning there were 62 donations totaling more than $2,800, most from people Coleman didn’t know. “I can’t believe this,” he said. “I never met some of these people. It’s just amazing to me that there are so many people out there who would help out a stranger.”

Raymond Coleman

He got donations from several foundations, including The Claddagh Fund, founded by fellow musician Ken Casey of The Dropkick Murphys, and the Mimi Fishman Fund, affiliated with the group Phish, but most of the donations came from ordinary people who also left words of encouragement on the giveforward website.

“Best of luck. There’s a song in this somewhere. Swing,” wrote one donor.

Another, who gave the last $6 in her bank account, assured him that “it’s cool. I got cash to get me through till pay day.”

Another, clearly a fan, wrote, “Oh Ray, what an awful thing! How can I not help the man who serenades me with ‘Jersey Girl?’”

And, of course, there were the friends who know the traditional first step in Irish healing is a joke:

“I heard said it was a gang of American musicians who were tired of immigrants coming here and stealing their jobs! So, I heard.”

And, “Lock the doors next time.”

Coleman comes from a musical family. “I grew up surrounded by music. There were sessions up in my Granny’s house every Monday night. My sisters sing, my brothers sing. It’s just a mad outfit,” he laughs. In fact, his brother, Mickey Coleman, is a fixture in the New York music scene and a well-respected singer-songwriter. The two occasionally perform together.

And today he feels like he has a whole other family, starting with Frank Daly. “He is such a good fella, I swear to God, he’s a saint. I’m just sitting here, speechless, I don’t even know what to say, I’m just so grateful, I feel loved,” he said. “It started out an awful day, and the next thing this happens and there’s a change of thought completely. There are so many good people out there, you forget about the bad.”

September 13, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music

A Salute to the Batalion de San Patricio

We’re very pleased to debut the first music video released by the Philadelphia-based , award-winning group, RUNA today, September 12, the official day of commemoration of the soldiers of the Batallón de San Patricio, a group of Irish immigrants who fought in the Mexican Army against the US in the Mexican-American War in the mid-1800s.

RUNA performs their version of Gerry O’Bierne’s song, “The Holy Ground,” which was filmed on location at The Grand Canyon.

RUNA’s lead singer, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, explained that the song tells the story of “an Irish immigrant who moves from Cork (“The Holy Ground”), Ireland to the United States and down to Mexico. He becomes a soldier and joins the San Patricio Battalion in the Mexican Army. The song tells the story of his love for his countries, old and new, and his fight for freedom in Mexico.”

The Grand Canyon was “a perfect setting to tell their story,” says Lambert-Ryan.

The other members of RUNA are Fionan de Barra, Cheryl Prashker, David Curley, and Maggie Estes.

Shannon Lambert-Ryan and Fionan de Barra of RUNA.

September 12, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music

Interview: Nuala Kennedy

Nuala Kennedy

Flutist and singer Nuala Kennedy, whose energetic and inventive spin on traditional music has earned her fans around the world, seemed destined to become a musician.

Growing up in Dundalk in Ireland’s County Louth, Kennedy lived in a household where music was ever-present. While not everyone who is raised in a house full of singers necessarily goes on to sing or play or perform, Kennedy was bit by the bug, which would grow to become a successful career, at a very early age. She never had formal lessons, but her mother sang, all of her father’s family sang, and her brother and sister also sang.

“Apparently I commented on my mum’s singing more or less as soon as I could talk,” Kennedy says. “That’s when they thought, ‘we must have someone here who is interested in music,’ and they gave me a whistle, and there was a piano in the house. I’d pick out a few songs on those instruments myself, and later started lessons on whistle and piano around age 7.”

When she was 12, her parents encouraged her to join a local ceili band, Ceoltoiri Oga Oghrialla, playing piano and flute. In the early going, Kennedy admits, she couldn’t play flute all that well. That changed quickly.

“I was just teaching myself, learning by osmosis from the other musicians in the band. I can recall the moment I could feel the flute vibrating, and I knew I was playing it – it was very exciting to finally be able to play. I was quite addicted. As an older teenager I learned so many tunes, as well as all the ceili band tunes, I used to take home tapes from the library and learn every single tune on them.”

In the ’90s, Kennedy moved to Edinburgh to expand her range beyond Irish music, to absorb what Scottish traditional music had to offer. She found the experience exhilarating.

“The pub sessions in Edinburgh is where I first experienced Scottish music and musicians, and in the mid-nineties it seemed quite a liberating musical scene compared to the one I came from, though that perception could also have been due to the simultaneous change from living in a town to living in a cosmopolitan city. There were a lot of people of different ages all playing together, and there was a great spirit of fun and camaraderie. You’d get little bits of crossover with musicians from different musical backgrounds. There’s a performance style in Scotland which is quite driving and group-orientated; there are lots of musicians who are versatile and can adapt to enhance the music, so the sound is greater than the sum of its parts, and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”

Fast forward a few years. Kennedy was teaching in a local primary school, but by that point in her life she had become thoroughly immersed in the Irish musical tradition, with more eclectic influences picked up along the way. She had become a master of the wooden flute and whistles. She had studied classical piano at the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin. Her singing–once described as “high, clear and beautiful measured”–had matured into something exquisitely beautiful, a sound all her own. Her songbook had expanded dramatically to pull in both Irish and Scottish influences, as well as contemporary accents. Performing was starting to pay the bills, so she made a decision.

“It came to a crunch: Trying to combine all the music I wanted to do with a full time job was too challenging, so I thought I’d try going full-time at the music for a while. That was more than ten years ago now.”

Her musical career took off, once again, in Scotland, where she formed one-third of the trio Fine Friday, with singer-guitarist Kris Drever and Anna-Wendy Stevenson on fiddle. Two hugely admired albums followed. A year after Fine Friday disbanded, Kennedy went into the studio to record “The New Shoes,” a sparkling debut.

Kennedy had arrived–far from where she started out, and yet still not all that far distant from her roots.

You can hear Nuala Kennedy, together with Eamon O’Leary next Saturday night in the closing concert of the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival. The concert starts at 7, with Tony DeMarco’s Atlantic on stage first. Tickets and other info here.

September 6, 2013 by Jeff Meade

Music

Her Remarkable Career

Joanie and CTL

She’s been described as “irrepressible,” “a force of nature.”

If you’ve seen Joanie Madden in concert, whether as the founder and leader of Cherish the Ladies, a gifted musical collaborator, or as a solo artist, you know it’s all true, and then some.

You’re not alone. In fact, some real heavy hitters also recognize the inexhaustible creativity of champion flute and whistle virtuoso Joanie Madden.

Let’s start with the United States Artists. In 2012, the nonprofit awarded Madden a $50,000 USA Artist Fellowship grant in recognition of her artistry. She’s the first Irish traditional musician to have been so honored.

In 2011, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, also because of her contributions to music and to Irish culture in the United States.

Madden, who will join Gabriel Donohue next Friday night for a largely informal Rambling House at the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival, takes it all in stride. Not that she doesn’t feel honored, but she’s so busy doing the very thing that brought her to the attention of those prestigious institutions in the first place: playing her music, seemingly everywhere and all the time.

“I did have a great year, winning the USA Fellowship. That was a big one,” Madden says. “It’s great to have it, and it does make all the hard work worthwhile, but I’d be doing this whether I got the trophy or not.”

Thank goodness for that. Take a look at Madden’s recent musical resume, and it’s clear she has no intention of slowing down, or doing the things that keep the creative juices flowing.

Already a Grammy winner and featured on the final “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack, more recently she contributed to the soundtrack of the BBC America series “Copper.”

Madden has always been in demand as a collaborator on projects outside of her duties with Cherish the Ladies. In 2008, she was featured on the TV show and CD “Absolutely Irish,” which featured a who’s who of Irish musical talent, including Mick Moloney, Seamus Egan, John Doyle, Liz Carroll, and many more. In 2009 she performed on “Pride of New York,” a gem of an Irish traditional recording also featuring Brian Conway on fiddle, Brendan Dolan on keyboards, and accordionist Billy McComiskey.

Probably her most treasured recent collaboration was with her own father, button accordion player Joe Madden, on 2011’s inspiring “A Galway Afternoon.” Also on the CD: Madden’s brother John on drums, pianist Charlie Lennon .. and our own Gabriel Donohue on guitar.

“Galway Afternoon” was easily one of the best CD recordings of Irish that year, and possibly any year. It was another notable triumph.
Of course, what made the album so memorable was the playing of Joe Madden, who was essentially ambushed by his daughter and coaxed into recording, which is not something he ever wanted to do. And what made it so poignant was that Joe Madden’s gift was captured just a few months before he died following a fall in his home.

Madden still feels the loss, but she too is extremely pleased that she was able to capture such an amazing performance, sharing that particular honor with her reluctant dad. “I was just so thrilled that we got it. That’s why you live today and you grab today. He was very happy he made that album, without a doubt.”

With a force like Joe Madden around, it’s not surprising that the family’s Bronx home was a gathering place for many of the best Irish traditional musicians. Still, nothing could have prepared her for her remarkable career.

“When I started out as a musician, the only Irish band that was really making it was The Chieftains,” Madden recalls. “The last thing my parents wanted me to do was to go into the music, except on weekends. I never knew I’d be happy doing that. But I practiced day and night. I just loved it.”

The came a point where Madden knew what truly made her happy, and she made her decision. “I said to my father, ‘I’m going to travel and play my music around the world.’ He said, ‘You’re out of your mind.'”

Later on, of course, Joe Madden came around, she says. “He was just thrilled.”

Collaborations aside, no discussion of Joanie Madden would be complete without mention of Cherish the Ladies, one of the first and most inventive Irish traditional supergroups. Aft 27 years of touring and recording, it’s Cherish the Ladies that continues to dominate her life. Happily, of course.

“My first commitment is a hundred percent to the band,” Madden says.”We’re all great friends, even today. You’re on the road with these guys for so many years, you get to become great, great friends–even like sisters. They’re always there when you need them.”

Which brings us back to where we started. When you think about a Cherish the Ladies concert, there’s no getting past Madden’s incredible humor and her intuitive rapport with the audience. It probably seems like second nature … but it wasn’t always that way. “I got over my shyness on the stage. I realized somebody had to do it. I remember going to see a show with the “Cars,” and they didn’t say anything all night.”

It’s that legendary ebullience, along with her undeniable talents, that have made her who she is today. For that, Madden continues to be grateful, even when the going gets tough.

“Some of our travel days are just torture,” Madden admits. “You get off a plane, and then you have to drive two or three hours. But as soon as you get on the stage, the adrenaline kicks in. I mean, I’m able to out food in the table for blowing the penny whistle. Come on.”

Tickets are still on sale for the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival. Details and schedule here.

September 5, 2013 by Jeff Meade

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