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Help Three Talented Kids Get to Ireland

Haley Richardson isn't shy about performing.

Saturday probably won’t be much of a beach day. The weather man predicts thunderstorms.

Looking for a way to salvage the first half of your all-too-short weekend? Head on over to the MacSwiney Club in Jenkintown, slip into your dancing shoes and create a little thunder of your own.

The Irish music and culture group Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (just say COAL-tus for short, and you’ll be close enough) is going to pound out Irish tunes from 7 to 11 at its Summer Social Evening, and you can dance till your feet cry “uncle.” Best of all, your ten bucks will also help support three of CCE’s youngest and most talented members as they prepare to compete in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil (music festival) in County Cavan in August.

CCE’s Cass Tinney, who is helping to organize the night of music, dance, food and fun, says two of the kids—fiddlers Haley Richardson and Alexander Weir—will be in North Carolina at a kind of fiddle camp as a tune-up for the Fleadh, so they won’t be able to attend. Haley won for solo fiddle and Alexander, for slow airs, in the 6- to 12-year-old group at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Fleadh in Pearl River, N.Y. However, harper Emily Safko—who won solo harp in the 6-12 group—will be there to pluck out some tunes.

“We usually have our social in the spring,” says Tinney. “But every date we picked out, something else came up. So we decided to do it in the summer, and then we thought: Why not do it for the kids?”

Why not, indeed. John Shields will be spinning the tunes (do we say “spin” anymore?) and presiding over the dancing. If John Shields can’t get you off your tush, no one can. CCE will also be providing snacks, but is asking folks to bring some of their own. You can also sidle up to the bar, or teetotal along with coffee and tea.

Tinney recognizes that a summer night can hold many other attractions. And lately, the weather has been challenging. But she hopes that people won’t pass up the opportunity to help out three nice kids.

“It can be a bad time of year,” she says. “It’s ungodly hot. People are on vacation. We’re just going to hold it and hope for the best.”

The MacSwiney Club is at Greenwood Avenue and Walnut Street in Jenkintown. Come and dance, Tinney says. Or sing, if you’ve a mind to. But by all means, come out and support the future of Irish music in the Delaware Valley.

July 8, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Dance, Music, People

A Flood of Generosity for Flood Victims

Rath deHouth and Ann McGee sold tickets for some beautiful baskets.

An evening of music and dancing at the Irish Center last week raised more than $2,000 for the people of Kingston Springs, Tennessee, who lost their local elementary school in the floods that wreaked havoc on Nashville and the entire Cumberland River area in May.

It was a gesture of thanks from a group of 52 Irish Philadelphians who found themselves in Kingston Springs after last May’s flooding turned back their tour bus which was taking them to Memphis for a visit to Graceland.

When the group holed up at a BP station, the tour band—local musicians Fintan Malone, Luke Jardel, and Pat Kildea—set up their instruments and started to play. Many of the Philly tourists were dancers, so an impromptu ceili went into full swing—and it was recorded for YouTube by a Texas tourist who was also stranded.

A nearby merchant sent sandwiches and cases of water to the dancers and some of the local residents joined in the fun, dancing and singing as the rain fell.

To repay the kindness, tour coordinator Marianne MacDonald and musician Luke Jardel planned a benefit (“The Gas Pump Ceili Benefit”) at last Thursday’s Rambling House event at the Irish Center.

The people of Kingston Springs responded when photos from the benefit were posted to the city’s Facebook page. Here are a few examples:

“Fabulous!! We heard so much about your visit, yet no one could really tell us who you were or where you came from! Thanks so much for your positive approach during the flood and leaving a positive memory behind. Thanks for entertaining the stranded.”—Laurie Cooper, City Manager

“Thank you… I wish the flood didn’t happen but it was wonderful for us all to come together. Seems like things stopped ( everyday worries) and people came together like they should. What beautiful hearts you have!”—Jennifer Baer Reese

“Thank you all so much for your generosity, kindness and those much needed smiles your created May 2!”—Marie Spafford

We have photos from the benefit. Click on the photo at upper right to view a photo essay.

June 25, 2010 by Denise Foley

Music

Blackthorn Does a Freebie in Collegeville

A young listener gets into the act. Photo by Brian Mengini. (Click on the photo for more.)

One of the great things about summertime in the Delaware Valley are the free concerts where you can bring your blanket and your baby and occasionally your bucket of beer, to steal a line from James Taylor.

Blackthorn played a freebie this week in Collegeville (look for them July 7 at Central Park in Doylestown and July 8 at Prospect Park’s Park Square Summer Concert series). Fortunately, photographer Brian Mengini was there and captured these moments.

Click on the photo at right to see Brian’s excellent photo essay.

June 17, 2010 by Denise Foley

Music

Review: “The Ravishing Genius of Bones” by Brian Finnegan

Brian Finnegan’s new solo CD is not so much a departure from his other gig—as the whistle and flute front man for the modern trad ensemble Flook—as a huge, breathtaking elaboration on many of the unique and daring themes he has explored with that band over the years.

On “The Ravishing Genius of Bones”—an obscure reference to an accompanying poem about an old accordion player—Finnegan is joined by two of his Flook bandmates, bodhránist John Joe Kelly and Ed Boyd on guitars. You might be tempted to look upon this recording as just a variation on a theme—a kind of “Flook Not Flook.” That would be a mistake.

“The Ravishing Genius of Bones” is Finnegan’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” a musical epic with a cast of thousands. Well, maybe not thousands—but well over 20 world-class musicians representing a variety of genres. In addition to Kelly and Boyd, members of Finnegan’s other band KAN (Aidan O’Rourke on fiddle and guitarist Ian Stephenson) form part of the large, rotating cast of players, along with co-producer Leon Hunt on banjo and dobro (he’s a former student of Bela Fleck), alternative bluegrass band Crooked Still and the St. Petersburg Strings.

Virtuoso mandolin player Rex Preston, part of The Scoville Units with Boyd and Hunt, sits in for a couple of numbers, and banjo player Damien O’Kane (he played on Flook’s “Haven,” and John Joe Kelly accompanied him on his solo album “Spring Hill”) drops in as well.

With so much cross-pollination going on (heck, even steel drums make an appearance), “Bones” was bound to defy easy categorization. Is it Celtic? Jazz? Bluegrass? Indie? Pop? Symphonic? Answer: Yes. It’s all that and more, which is probably just how Finnegan likes it.

There are just nine tracks on the album. Most of the compositions are Finnegan’s own—including my favorite, an evocative air called “Last of the Starrs,” with Finnegan on flute and accompanied by the St. Petersburg Strings. It floats along with gravity-defying lightness and beauty.

The second set features Hunt shifting back and forth on banjo and dobro, accompanying Finnegan on tunes that probably will remind you of some Flook numbers. I’ll tell you the titles—“Lunchtime Boredom,” “Bok-Espok,” “Rusty Gully” and “Superfly”—but I’m not sure they’ll mean anything to you. (They didn’t mean anything to me.) But … no matter. The set starts out slow, syncopated and jazzy—a kind of easy shuffling rhythm. It all ends up scary fast, even more scarily syncopated and jazzy. (Is that helpful?) Anyway, all this bluegrass-tinged Celto-jazz is some of the cleverest work on the album.

Boyd and Kelly charge into the “Back to Belfast” set (with Lucy Wright twanging away on mouth harp), Finnegan jumps in on whistle, and before you know it, we’re all motoring along at, oh, say, 85 mph. Call it a reel set, but most dancers would be dead of heart attacks by the end.

There are other barn-burners on the recording, including “Castlerock,” a Damien O’Kane tune in the sixth set, the appropriately titled “Joy.” It too features some rapid-fire percussion by John Joe Kelly, with Leon Hunt on banjo.

What most stands out about this album is Finnegan’s attention to every detail. “Bones” is not a collection of sets and tunes that merely go together–it’s a complete and unified vision, a kind of giant wall mural of musical ideas and themes.

One last thought. I rarely take note of CD artwork—it always seems to be four or five guys standing in a field with mountains in the background. Inevitably, the guys are holding their fiddles and button accordions, as if a concert is about to begin in the middle of Killarney National Park. “Bones” boasts perhaps the loveliest artwork I’ve seen on an album cover in a long time. It’s all misty twilight blues, an enchanting firefly-lit dreamscape with koi swimming in the grass and fantastical birds sprouting translucent insect wings. Credit Germano Ovani, an Italian illustrator of children’s literature who lives in Edinburgh, for this enchanting vision.

Clearly, Brian Finnegan left not one detail to chance—not even the cover. These “Bones” are fully and exquisitely fleshed out.

June 10, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

Review: “Seanchas” by Danú

“When All is Said and Done,” the 2005 CD by the always thrilling Irish traditional group Danú, exploded out of the gate with a room-rocking set of reels. With the possible exception of lead singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s soulful rendition of “Cailin Deas ag Crúite na mBo,” the rest of the largely bright, uptempo recording followed suit.

The new, self-produced “Seanchas” (pronounced: “shan-ahas”) shows a more reflective but no less passionate side of the band. There are some foot-stompers in the mix, to be sure—a breathtaking set of polkas on the second track (“Glenn Cottage,” “John Brosnan’s” and “Peata an Mhaoir”) springs to mind. There’s also a pretty set of jigs (“Snug in the Blanket” and “Patsy Geary’s”) at track 4, and a playful pairing of “Murphy’s Hornpipe” and “Lord Gordon’s Reel” at track 6. But “Seanchas” in the Irish language refers to folklore and mythos, and this Celtic concept album is seriously, and at times soberly, rooted in the historical and the traditional. Maybe it’s just more balanced than the last CD.

Consider Nic Amhlaoibh’s interpretation of two standards, “Mollai na gCuach Ni Chuilleanain” and “The Boys of Barr na Sráide,” both of them often recorded. In Nic Amhlaoibh’s capable and caring hands, both are presented with a kind of aching tenderness.

For those who have followed Danú since 1995, there is a special treat. Tenor Ciarán O Gealbháin, who was the band’s lead singer back in the day, joins Nic Amhlaoibh on “Cailín na nUrla Donn” (The Girl of the Brown Locks), a tune typically sung in a mishmosh of Irish and English. (The literal translation includes this gem, “Your waist and bones are nicely situated,” which has to be one of the worst pickup lines of all time.) It’s a sensitive, restrained performance that showcases both singers’ evident talents.

On the instrumental front, of course, Danú has lost nothing, even as some members seem to come and go. (And come back again.) A particular favorite is a pair of tunes, “Clancy’s Farewell to Whiskey” (written by guitarist Dónal Clancy) and the Breton piece, “An Dro des Petitis Bateaux.” Clancy, a founding member of the band, sets the tone for both pieces and turns in a delicate, enchanting performance. It’s the guitar-playing equivalent of diamond cutting. (By the way, the CD is dedicated to the memory of his father, the legendary Liam Clancy.)

As I say, things do liven up with some frequency, especially on the instrumentals. Box player Benny McCarthy is his usual rock-solid wondrous—especially on the aforementioned set of reels, and again on a later jig-reel combination, “Fiona’s Arrival” (written and also played beautifully by fiddler Oisín McAuley) into yet another standard, “O’Connell’s Trip to Parliament.” On bouzouki, Eamon Doorley provides solid backing throughout.

Besides O Gealbháin, other Danú-ites show up on several tracks, including Donnchadh Gough on bodhrán (but, sadly, not on uilleann pipes), and Tom Doorley on flute. Martin O’Neill contributes piano for “The Boys of Barr na Sráide.”

All told, a lovely and memorable piece of work—and perhaps their most musically mature outing to date.

June 3, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

A Weekend of Great Irish Tunes

John Brennan and John McGillian

When it comes to hearing great Irish music, some weeks it is a very good thing indeed to be in Philadelphia. Last weekend was one of those times.

On Friday, May 21, the Philadelphia Ceili Group brought together some of the best musicians around for the Festival Benefit Concert at the Irish Center.

Paddy O’Neill played slow airs! And sang! John Brennan performed some gorgeous tunes that he’s composed. Caitlin Finley played Sligo fiddle tunes. John McGillian and his accordion were brilliant. Tim Hill got to pipe. Judy Brennan accompanied on the keyboard. And Paraic Keane closed the evening with unforgettable fiddling.

And there’s a little town called Coatesville, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia—perhaps an hour and a half, should you make a wrong turn or two—where Frank Dalton lures some of the biggest names to play for the Coatesville Traditional Irish Music Series, at the Coatesville Cultural Society. Last Sunday, Kevin Burke and Cal Scott filled Frank’s cozy concert hall with the kind of music that makes your heart smile and your feet dance.

His initial goal was to sell 50 tickets to be able to offer the concert; he far surpassed that number. What’s that? You weren’t able to make it to either of those events, but now you really wish you had? It is a lucky day, indeed then, for the Irish, because irishphiladelphia.com has some videos for you!

Here they are (and there are a lot):

May 26, 2010 by Lori Lander Murphy

Music, People

They’re Coming Home

Shannon Lambert-Ryan with RUNA.

For Shannon Lambert-Ryan, each scuff on the dance floor at Philadelphia’s Irish Center represents a happy memory. A few of them might be hers.

“I took step dancing classes there for years,” says the young singer-actress with the group, Runa. “My mom, Julie Lambert, started to go to the ceilis over there when she was 16 and 17, and when I was born we went to the festivals and music events. I took a hiatus for a while then wound up going back to the ballroom for the swing dancing. It’s one of those places where, when you’re there once or twice a week, feels like your second home.”

Karen Boyce McCollum thought it was her second home. The youngest of the six children of Carmel and Barney Boyce of County Donegal, longtime members of the Irish Center Board, Karen is a former singer with the group Causeway. “One of my first memories is of going up there with my mom and dad to the Donegal meetings. They were on a Sunday and we would go to church then head up there. While they were in their meeting, we had the full run of the place, and we’d usually meet up with some of the other kids and get into some fun and a little bit of trouble.”

So it seemed fitting that Shannon and her group and Karen and brothers Michael and John (of Blackthorn) will provide the music at Sunday’s Inspirational Irish Women Awards. The event honors 11 Delaware Valley Irish and Irish-American women who embody the Irish spirit and is a fundraiser for the Center, which, like many organizations, has experienced some recent financial difficulties.

“I had to do it,” says Shannon. “It’s important to keep it afloat. The Irish Center allows for quite a lot to happen. Just to coordinate it elsewhere would take quite a bit of effort.”

Along with ceilis, dance lessons, and concerts, the Center houses most of the county associations and hosts most of the annual county balls. “We went to all the Balls—Donegal, Mayo, Cavan,” recalls Karen, who eventually wore two crowns: Miss Mayo and the 2006 Rose of Tralee. “When I was little I remembering wishing I didn’t have a dress on so I could really spin around on the dance floor.” She laughs.

Later, she began taking fiddle lessons at the Center. Her family held her bridal shower there; her sister Colleen’s reception was held at the Center, as was her brother, Brian’s. She sang and danced in the ballroom and on the Fireside Room stage, most recently with her brothers at the Center’s Rambling House entertainment events, produced by Irish radio host Marianne MacDonald.

Karen Boyce McCollum and brothers Mike and John.

“As time went on I started to love it more,” says Karen. “I don’t think there’s a place that cozier than or more appealing on winter’s night than the Fireside Room with a fire going, having a beer. Some of the memories I have are of the people I met there—people who are gone now, like Tommy Moffit and Jim Kilgallen and a man who became like a grandfather to me, Tom Finnegan. He was a widower with no children and my parents met him through the Donegal Society. They would drive him here and there on weekends, and finally they said ‘Why don’t you stay here?’ So for 10 years, he stayed at our house Thursdays to Mondays. Every time I’m at the Irish Center I think of how Tom used to get up a dance. He had these moves he did.” She laughs. “One drink and he was kicking his feet up, cute as button.”

For Shannon, it was the dancers. “I think about Frank Malley, who just passed away about a year ago. He was somebody who my mom used to dance with at the ceili when she was much younger and they met later on. He became a friend of ours and his partner, Connie Koppe, is still a friend. He was always so gentle and warm. He would take you under his wing and my mom said he was one of the best dancers.”

She also remembers “waltzing with Eugene O’Donnell,” the legendary five-time All-Ireland step dancing champ and master fiddler from Derry who was a fixture at the Irish Center. “This is really where music became the love of my life forever,” she says.

For both singers, Sunday’s performances are a labor of love. “There are people who go to the Center and love it, and go back all the time. I think their spirits are there,” says Karen. “They say that the older a chair gets, the more comfortable is is. That’s the way I feel about the Irish Center. When the lights are low and there’s a good band playing, there’s nothing like it. It feels like home.”

May 20, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

Calling on the Local Talent

For regular attendees of trad sessions around Philly, the playing of Paddy O’Neill, John Brennan and John McGillian is a highly regarded and well-anticipated event… to have the three of them, along with Caitlin Finley and Paraic Keane, come together to support The Philadelphia Ceili Group’s 2010 festival, is a guarantee of an evening of music worth listening to.

“People who pay attention to the local music have heard all these people playing before, but you don’t get a chance to hear everyone individually in a session,” Tom O’ Malley, PCG board member and organizer of the event, explained. “And all these guys are as good as anyone out there playing today.”

The Festival Benefit Concert is this Saturday, May 22, beginning at 8 p.m. at The Irish Center. Workshops are being offered for Northern Tunes on Flute, Guitar Accompaniment, Button Accordion from 4 to 6PM. There are no tickets to purchase, but there is a requested donation of $15 for the concert, or a combined donation of $25 for entry to both the workshop and the concert.

All the musicians are offering their talents free for the benefit. The PCG festival has been going strong since Tipperary singer Robbie O’Connell and Limerick’s Mick Moloney began the tradition in 1975. This year, Liz Carroll and Daithi Sproule are set to play the 2010 festival, September 11-13th. The PCG is hoping to be able to bring Dezi Donnelly and Dermot Byrne to the festival as well, and the upcoming benefit concert could help achieve that goal.

The players are looking forward to the concert themselves… Paddy O’Neill, flute player from Derry City, is known for his jigs and reels, but this Saturday he will be performing tunes which are more especially associated with the music and musicians of the North of Ireland.

“I think that sessions in the North tended to have a more varied repertoire than sessions I encountered in the rest of Ireland. You would get not only the usual jigs, reels and hornpipes, but also barndances, polkas, Germans, waltzes, marches and highlands. Expect to hear more of the latter than jigs and reels. Singers were a prominent feature of the northern sessions I attended, so I might even chance a song. There is, of course, the Orange fifing and drumming tradition in the North, and a fifing march or two might be appropriate,” O’Neill said.

John Brennan, on the fiddle and guitar, will be featuring his own original music, including several tunes that have been recorded by Liz Knowles and Bob McQuillen.

“John has some tunes, like ‘Owen G,’ that he dedicated to his nephew, that are just gorgeous,” O’Malley said. “Another great one is ‘The Couple That Married Themselves.’”

“John McGillian’s going to be playing some of his favorite stuff. His hornpipes, they’re gorgeous, he plays them so well. ‘The Sweeps’ and ‘Lad O’Byrne’s are two that he plays.”

In addition, Caitlin Finley will be playing fiddle tunes from Andy McGann. “Caitlin’s been under the tutelage of Brian Conway, the Sligo-style fiddler up in New York, and he learned directly from Andy McGann… she does them really beautifully.”

Fiddler Paraic Keane, son of The Chieftains Sean Keane, is going to include some of his father’s songs in the evening. “There’s a set of his dad’s reels, that Sean and Matt Molloy recorded, ‘Sword in Hand,’ ‘The Providence’ and ‘The Old Bush,’ and Paraic really kills that set… he really sounds like his old man.”

An open session will follow the concert.

More information on The PCG Festival Benefit Concert can be found on the group Web site: http://www.philadelphiaceiligroup.org/

May 20, 2010 by Lori Lander Murphy

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