Music

Review: “Friends for Life,” The High Kings

The High Kings

The High Kings

“Johnny Leave Her” is a moldy oldie, but The High Kings might make you forget its age.

On the new album, “Friends for Life,” due out in early February, the ensemble’s four singers do what they clearly do best: harmonies. I’m a sucker for good harmonies—it’s one of the reasons I love bluegrass—but this a capella version is particularly memorable, a lovely update.

There’s a lot to like about this album, although not all of the 12 tunes are up to that same lofty standard. If you’re a diehard fan of the High Kings—and let’s face it, they’re one of the hottest groups in Ireland, if not the entire planet at the moment—you probably won’t be disappointed. Although I should say that the first few listener reviews on Amazon are mixed.

Still, fan or not, give it a listen. There’s much to like.

The manager of the phenomenally successful Celtic Woman assembled The High Kings in 2008, arguably capitalizing on a trend started by Riverdance. Groups like that are more brand than band. But you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, and there’s simply no getting around that the four possess undeniable gifts. Wikipedia will tell you that, together, they play 13 instruments. And they play them on a particularly high level. And their singing is ridiculously flawless. And, as more than one traditional Irish musician has told me, you don’t have to play a tune the way it was played at the crossroads a hundred years ago. Music is about invention.

And if you’re looking for a pedigree, you can’t do much better than Finnbarr Clancy, son of The Clancy Brothers’ Bobby. Martin Furey is the son of traditional singer, raconteur and multi-instrumentalist Finbar Furey, and we flat-out love him. Brian Dunphy is a veteran of Riverdance and one-time member of the Three Irish Tenors, but he’s also the son of renowned show band performer Sean Dunphy. Darren Holden likewise did a stint in Riverdance.

So, on to the music.

The Kings’ first tune, “Oh Maggie,” sets the tone for most of what follows. The boys perform the first verse without instrumental accompaniment, and once again, their tight harmonies are flawless, leading into a kicky little rock jig performed on traditional instruments. Eminently listenable. Also dance-able, if you’re of a mind to.

A little later on, we hear the aforementioned “Johnny Leave Her.” As I say, one of the highlights.

The band puts a kind of syncopated country and western spin on “Health to the Company.” Depending on your orientation, you’ll see it as entirely acceptable or an outright violation. It certainly won’t make you forget the song as Kevin Conneff performed it with the Chieftains on “The Wide World Over,” but I liked it. I’ll admit it: I sang along. My harmonies are flawless, too, of course. (As in: In my dreams.)

“Galway Girl” was a sparking surprise. I’ve heard it a million times, but this version is performed as zydeco. I’ve always wondered why anyone would re-make a classic, if they can’t make it better. And whatever tune it is, it almost always fails to live up to the original. Let’s start with almost any remake by the smarmy Michael Bolton. In this case, the re-make is better. One of my hands-down faves on this album.

You might also recognize a grand old ballad by the name of “Peggy Gordon.” Very nice, but I must say, I’ve heard it better. And so have you, if you’ve ever heard our Karen, John and Michael Boyce sing it.

A few of the tunes seem to me like fillers. There’s a tune called “Gucci.” I can’t be bothered to care. You’ll probably skip past it. And I have to say, the title tune—the last one on the album—bores me almost to the point of lifelessness. Their version of Dominic Behan’s “MacAlpine’s Fusiliers” simply lacks soul. If you’d heard a local bar band play it, you’d get into it. In this case, it’s way too slick and overproduced.

Some of you might say that the entire thing is slick and overproduced. OK, I won’t lie to you, they’re not The Pogues. Frankly, on one or two tunes, they remind me of The Corrs. You know—if The Corrs were guys. Perish the thought.

But that’s not what The High Kings are about. So let’s be fair and open-minded about this business. Take them for what they are, and what they are is very talented.

January 24, 2014 by
Music

A Celebration of Robert Burns

Terry Kane and Don Simon

Where Irish meets Scottish … Terry Kane and Don Simon

The famed Scottish bard Robert Burns has a birthday on January 25. At least he would have had, if he hadn’t expired more than 250 years ago.

No matter. Last Sunday, the Abington Library celebrated early.

And as the centerpiece of that celebration: a great little group featuring four well-known local Celtic musicians. Two of them are best known for their performance of Irish tunes. That would be harper Ellen Tepper and singer-mandolin player Terry Kane, collectively known as the Jameson Sisters.

Joining them in the cozy downstairs auditorium were the kilted, sporran-sporting, ghillie brogues-wearing singer-guitarist Don Simon and his wife Susan on the small pipes. If you’ve never heard small pipes before, suffice to say they’re the baby brother of the bagpipes you’re used to hearing, and they’re really quite lovely.

Scottish culture, of the course, was the order of the day, featuring mildly baudy Burns anecdotes to Robbie’s original version of “Auld Lang Syne—somewhat different from the Guy Lombardo version. Don Simon faithfully recited the lines with a decided burr:

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin’ auld lang syne.

And yes, we know Burns is Scottish, not Irish, but he’s a Celt, and that’s close enough.

We have photos of the performance. Check ‘em out.

January 24, 2014 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur

Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur


This Sunday, the Derry Society is sponsoring a Mass to commemorate Bloody Sunday, an incident on January 30, 1972 in which 26 people involved in a peace march were shot by British soldiers in the Bogside area of Derry in Northern Ireland. The Mass takes place at 2 PM at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Philadelphia.

The Luna Theater’s production of Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman” continues at the Luna Theater, 620 S. 8th Street.

Slainte is performing at Paddy Whacks Pub on Roosevelt Boulevard on Saturday afternoon, then rejoining their fellow musicians with Jamison at Curran’s Tacony on Saturday night.

On Monday night, Inis Nua Theatre Company’s production of “High Noon in Grays Ferry, Twilight on Falls Road” by Tom Reing will take place at the Off-Broad Street Theatre at First Baptist Church at 1636 Sansom Street.

Harpist Maeve Gilchrist and dancer Nic Gareiss will be doing a house concert together in Center City Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Seating is limited, so contact concert hosts Marian Makins and Gabriel Donohue at barnstarconcerts@gmail.com to make your reservation.

Got a head filled with useless information? Then Trivia Night, a fundraiser for the Cummins School of Irish Music on Friday night, is for you. It will cost you $25—that covers beer, wine and food—and you can be part of a team competing for money and prizes at the VFW North Penn Post 676 on Jenkintown Road in Glenside.

Check our calendar for all the details.

January 23, 2014 by
Arts

A Tale of Two Cities

The poster for Inis Nua's latest play.

The poster for Inis Nua’s latest play.

Tom Reing was education director for InterAct Theater Company in 2002 when, as part of a fellowship, he started working with a group of Catholic school kids in Gray’s Ferry, a traditionally Irish enclave in South Philadelphia that regularly ignited with racial violence because of its proximity to a low-income housing project known as the Tasker homes.

“A lot of my work involved using theater to teach conflict resolution skills. We would rehearse a confrontation and how to get out of it,” recalled Reing, now artistic director of the nonprofit Inis Nua Theater Company, in a phone interview this week. “The kids were dealing with feeling threatened by the African-American neighborhood surrounding them. We would create improv out of what they did during the day, I would record them, and then sculpt it into a scene. The Gray’s Ferry neighborhood is very territorial. You can tell you’re on an Irish block by the lace curtains and leprechaun Hummels in the windows. One of the great lines that came up was from one of the African American students who told an Irish student, ‘Your block is not a continent,’ meaning that it doesn’t drop off once you pass 29th street.”

In 2003, in Belfast, Ireland—also part of his fellowship project—he worked with a group of teens who were similarly living with daily violence, though sectarian rather than racial. “Of course at the end of the day, they were both groups that didn’t like one another, fearful because they didn’t know each other and didn’t want to know each other and both living with the fear they weren’t going to make it out,” he says.

He took those scenes he recorded—gritty dialogue and high drama—and turned it into a play. “High Noon in Gray’s Ferry, Twilight on Falls Road,” will debut on Monday at Inis Nua as five actors do a staged reading, each playing characters from both communities “so the same actor plays two parts with two different accents,” explains Reing. “It was a way to compare and contrast the two groups, with the same lines repeated in both worlds.”

The trip to Ireland—his first—produced more than a play. It sowed the seeds for what has become the Inis Nua Theatre Company, which produces plays by contemporary Irish and UK playwrights at the Off Broad Street Theater at First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. “I flew into Dublin and saw some theater while I was there. I saw some theater in Belfast too, and I really liked the work. I wanted it to come to America, but it never did,” says Reing.

There was no venue in the US for contemporary plays by Irish and UK playwrights, except for a few—the big ones, like Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson. “The usual route for an Irish play was to go to the West End (in London), then to Broadway, then the regionals would take it,” says Reing, who got his MA in theater at Villanova and now teaches at Temple. “I went to other artistic directors and asked if they would do one of these plays and they said, ‘It’s not really in our mission.’ So I did it myself.”

Ten years ago, he founded Inis Nua to produce the kind of provocative new plays he now sees in Ireland, Scotland, and the UK on his far more frequent trips.

“I was naïve, but I would talk to playwrights and say, ‘would you be okay with me doing this play in America and if it isn’t too much trouble, can I get a script?’ I was working at the Abbey Theater one summer doing a theater-in-education program, saw a play, met the playwright, and the next day the script was waiting for me. At that point, we had a company that didn’t have two dimes to rub together and we maybe had a website. I was oblivious to the fact that they really want their plays done in America. We do a lot of American premiers of new plays. The last show we did was ‘Blink’ by Phil Porter, an English playwright. He emailed me last week to tell me that a production of ‘Blink’ was coming to New York, and we beat them to it.”

The success of Inis Nua surprised even Reing, who thought the best he was going to be able to do was bring one new play a year to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. “I never though we’d get to 10 years with a three-show season in a permanent home,” he admits. “Right now I’m talking to you from living room surrounded by all my own furniture,” he says laughing, “not the bed from [the play] ‘Bedbound’ and the other stage props I didn’t want to spend the money to store somewhere. Now we have a rehearsal room, office space, and a place in the basement to build sets and store them.”

See a staged reading of “High Noon in Gray’s Ferry, Twilight on Falls Road” on Monday, January 27, at 7 PM, at the Off-Broad Street Theater at First Baptist Church, 1636 Sansom Street in Philadelphia.

“Trousers,” a play by Paul Meade and David Parnell, is set for a run of 16 performances starting on February 5. It’s a story about the friendship between two Dubliners—one a mailman, the other unemployed–who reminisce about the summer they spent in New York when they were in college.

To order tickets, go to the Inis Nua website.

January 23, 2014 by
People

Remembering Ed Gallagher

Ed Gallagher

Ed Gallagher

If you were with Ed Gallagher, you were in for a good time. His sense of humor was legendary. He made everyone feel like they were included in the fun.

A retired federal law officer, the longtime pillar of the Philadelphia Irish community, member of Ancient Order of Hibernians Joseph E. Montgomery Division 65 in Upper Darby, and member of the executive committee of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association passed away January 2.

The Irish community will go on, and certainly the parade will go on, but Ed’s passing leaves a hole in peoples’ lives. We spoke to a few of Ed’s acquaintances from the parade committee, who shared their remembrances.

Walter Garvin, Jr.

Executive Committee

I knew him very well for the past say 15 years. And, omigod, yes, he was hysterical. He lit up a room—he was the life of the party. He was a guy who held nothing back. He would tell you what he was thinking, and make you enjoy it. He was a very people-loving person. He invariably included people that he never met before and treated them like they were very old friends.

He was a gentle man who loved people, and he loved his family. He saw the fun in everything. He was just a pleasure to be around and to be part of his life.

We recently had a meeting of the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association. It was happy because we knew Ed, and sad because we weren’t going to be seeing him again.

At his viewing, I was with some of his cohorts, and everybody talked about what a good guy he was, and how much fun he was. He spread it around. He didn’t keep it to himself.

Michael Bradley

Parade Director and Past President

I’ve known him since 1990. The very first time I flew to Ireland, he was on the same trip I was on. He and his friend Jack McNamee. It was like a party in the plane. Everyone was singing.

Twenty years later, I got involved in the parade, and I ended up on the board with them. I hadn’t seen them (Gallagher and McNamee) them in 20 years, but they remembered the tip and they brought it to my attention. I didn’t remember.

He was a good guy. The only motion he would ever make was the motion to adjourn to the social hour.

I think he gave the air about himself that he really didn’t care about the board meeting—let’s go to the bar and get a drink. But he was really more complicated than that. He was getting out, and he was going to enjoy himself, but deep down to the core, he was one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met.

He really was devoted to his wife daughters and grandchildren. He was always talking about them. He was a real character. He’ll be missed, I guarantee you that. We’ll miss his humor desperately.

Kathy McGee Burns

Board Member, Recording Secretary and Past President

He was a very dapper gentleman. He wore a derby hat all the time, and he wore tweed jackets. He would always have a pocket handkerchief. He loved that feeling about himself, that style.

He always made the motion to adjourn. At the last meeting, we just suspended making the motion because it had been Ed’s for so long.

He and his wife Emily, who is the loveliest woman, attended every event the parade had. They always celebrated every event.

You could describe him as a hail fellow well met. James Joyce used that phrase in “Ulysses.” It means you behavior is hearty and congenial. I’d say that about Eddie Gallagher.

January 17, 2014 by
Music

Sunday Afternoon at St. Declan’s Well

Hall of Famers Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo

Hall of Famers Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo

If you want to hear live Irish music in the Philadelphia area, you have plenty of options. You can go to concerts, of course. They’re usually pretty polished.

But if you prefer a bit more spontaneity in your music—even if, and maybe especially if it’s just a little bit rough around the edges—then what you’re looking for is a real traditional Irish music session. And there are plenty of those, too.

One of the newest is at St. Declan’s Well, a beautiful pub just on the fringes of the Penn Campus, 3131 Walnut Street. If you know World Cafe Live, St. Declan’s is just a couple of blocks away. We visited one recent Sunday (the session is from 4 to 7 p.m.) to see what the St. Declan’s session is like.

And what it’s like is very good, but a bit looser than some of the more established sessions in the area. Indeed, many of the musicians who crowded into a corner of the well-appointed dining room were all-too-familiar faces, like Fintan Malone, Allyn Miner, and soon-to-be Mid-Atlantic Region Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Hall of Famers Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo. There were also a couple of the kids who play in the Next Generation young peoples’ Irish group, which Dennis and Kathy lead, together with Chris Brennan Hagy. The food’s great, the beer’s great, and the music is maybe even a little better. Catch it if you can.

January 17, 2014 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

They're heeeere!

They’re heeeere!

Expect a wild weekend in Philly: The Celtic supporters are here!

Fans of the Celtic Football Club of Glasgow are descending on the city for a series of events, many of them at The Plough and the Stars on Chestnut Street, home of the 2nd Street Plough Bhoys Celtic Supporters Club. They’ll be watching a game—Celtic Vs. Motherwell—and holding a sing-song in front of the Plough’s fireplace afterwards. A couple of Tyrone guys—Patsy Ward and Raymond Coleman—will be performing, as well as members of the Irish Thunder Pipe Band. Check the calendar for a list of events.

On Saturday, get your tux out and head to the Sheraton Downtown for The Hair O’ The Dog black-tie party which this year benefits The Claddagh Fund, founded by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys. The Fund supports underfunded nonprofits in Boston and Philadelphia.

If you’re in Upper Darby this weekend—and it’s not a bad idea—head to Cawley’s Tavern on West Chester Pike to help this popular Irish pub celebrate its 40th anniversary with specials and music through Sunday night. The food is good and you may see someone you know there (I always do).

Paddy Whacks Pub has live Irish music almost every weekend, and this Saturday you can catch the Shantys with fiddler Paraic Keane at the Roosevelt Boulvard sports bar.

Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic play—does he do anything else?—“The Pillowman” debuts at Luna Theater in Philadelphia on Saturday. It’s the story of an author of grisly short stories who becomes the suspect in a rash of child murders that bear an uncanny resemblance to those in his works. It runs through February 8. Check our calendar for a schedule of dates and times.

On Sunday, tune in at noon to 800AM, WTMR, to call in your pledge to Marianne MacDonald’s “Come West Along the Road” Irish radio show. Marianne works tirelessly (in her spare time) to produce the show and relies on pledges to keep it going. You can win tickets to hear Clannad, Solas, the John Byrne Band, and Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, as well as CDs, DVDs, and gift cards to local Irish shops. Tune in online at www.wtmrradio.com and/or call in your pledge at 856-962-8178. Let’s keep Irish music on the air, and Marianne out of trouble.

On Wednesday, performer Billy McGovern will be doing an acoustic show at the AOH Div. 61 Clubhouse at Rhawn and Frankford in Philadelphia. Stop by for a pint even if you’re not a Hibernian.

A head’s up for the coming weeks:

A Mass to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday will take place at the Irish Center on Sunday, January 26.

The Inis Nua Theater Company is doing a staged reading of director Tom Reing’s “High Noon in Grays Ferry, Twilight on Falls Road,” about the lives of teens in Philadelphia and Belfast, on Monday, January 27, at the Off Broad Street Theater at First Baptist Church on Sansom Street in Philadelphia.

Ever seen sand dancing? You can, done by dancer Nic Gareiss, who will be performing with harpist Maeve Gilchrist, in a house concert in Philadelphia on Wednesday, January 29. Gareiss, a Michigan native, has perofmed with The Chieftains, Dervish, Beoga, Teada, Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll and more. Gilchrist, who is from Scotland, has shared the stage with everyone from Alasdair Fraser to Kathy Mattea. Here’s your chance to share a livingroom with two great performers. Since it’s a house concert—and there needs to be room for sand dancing—space is limited. To reserve your spot, email barnstarconcerts@gmail.com.

January 17, 2014 by
News, People

The Irish Guy Behind “Hair O’ The Dog’

DJ Dan Cronin with his wife, Maria.

DJ Dan Cronin with his wife, Maria.

Dan Cronin was a party thrower from way back. So way back his first parties were, well, illegal.

“Throwing parties is a natural thing for me,” says Cronin of Mount Laurel, NJ, who heads a technology consulting firm and is the mastermind behind the black-tie do known as “Hair O’ The Dog” that every year draws out Philly’s hippest for a New Year’s Eve-style frolic.

HOD, as it’s known, takes place tomorrow night (for the 20th year in a row) at the Philadelphia Sheraton Downtown. While the theme is Gatsby, the beneficiary of its largesse—it’s part fundraiser—is The Claddagh Fund, founded by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy’s which raises money for underfunded nonprofits in Boston and Philadelphia.

Cronin, who looks like the Irish version of TV chef Guy Fieri, grew up in the Bronx and North Jersey, the grandson of Irish immigrants from Cork and Donegal. He attended Dusquesne University in Pittsburgh, one of the top Catholic colleges in the US. “I was a DJ in college,” he says. “And I took my DJ money, converted the basement of the house where I was living into a bar, with a dance floor and lights, and I would pay police to make sure there was no trouble. . .I was running a speakeasy, basically. I didn’t have a license, no one was of age. . . .”

He laughs. In 1995, now a law-abiding citizen, Cronin called on his party-making skills again to “accelerate the growth” of his new Philly-based business (Chorus Communications, which he founded with childhood friend Robert Molinari) by inviting local telephone engineers and union guys who, he reasoned, would then feel kindly toward this little tech company and steer business their way. “We figured if we had parties we could get these guys tuxed up, get them a little drunk and befriend them,” says Cronin. “Well they loved it, and they helped us for quite a few years.”

Don’t get Cronin wrong. That first HOD wasn’t just a cynical ploy to get business. He had fun too—he was single then, and there were well-dressed, successful women–and he made friendships as well as deals. “To this day I still have relationships with some of the guys I met at those early parties,” he says.

That first year, 75 people paid $40 to get into the Circa Restaurant and Nightclub, now closed, at 15th and Walnut. Since then, the guest list has grown to 1,000 or more, all fun lovers who want to get dressed up and party without fighting the New Year’s Eve amateur crowd. “Actually, back in 1985 when we decided to dot his, people said, ‘Dude, you’re out of your mind. Not way is this going to be successful, Everybody blows their whole wad on New Year’s. They don’t want to go to another party and they don’t have the money,’” recalls Cronin. “But there’s always a way to get done what you want to get done financially, and everybody likes a good party.”

HOD has become a Philly institution and, in 1996, Cronin, influenced by motivational guru Anthony Robbins, added the “give back” aspect to his party—and to his life. “By then we had a pretty nice business and I heard my inner self knocking on the door saying, ‘You promised that if you became successful you’d give back,’’ Cronin recalls. “I became a Big Brother and sponsored a little kid and we added the charity aspect to HOD.”

Every year, HOD raises money for a different charity, from AIDS research and 9/11 survivors to, with a nod to Cronin’s Irish roots, Habitat for Humanity in Belfast and, this year, The Claddagh Fund, which recently expanded into the Delaware Valley where it financially supports organizations that serve children, veterans, and recovering substance abusers. “We probably give anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 to our charities every year,” says Cronin, who serves on the board of the Irish American Business Chamber and Network in Philadelphia.

An event firm now throws the party and Cronin isn’t the only DJ spinning records. The lineup this year includes popular Australian DJ Havana Brown whose “We Run the Night” with Pit Bull hit number one on the worldwide charts; DJ Bizz; the band The Business, a Philly fave; Bryan O’Boyle, late of Mr. Greengenes, another long-running favorite Philly band; and performer Jade Starling of Pretty Poison.

Despite running a successful business–and an equally successful event–he’s  out there DJing on the side, often for Irish crowds. He did his thing at the Philadelphia Fleadh, a showcase for Irish and Irish-American music produced by American Paddy’s Productions, last June in Pennypack Park, and was the DJ at American Paddy’s “American Celtic Christmas” event this December in Bensalem.

“I’m very diverse and have an unparalleled range as a DJ,” says Cronin, who grew up in a family that played Irish music (and who does a more than passable Irish accent, thanks to his Cork cousins). “If someone wants to hear ‘The Town I Loved So Well,’ I know to ask if they want the Phil Coulter version or the Shane McGowan version.”

So don’t think of Cronin, now married and the father of three, as someone who relegates his fun to one night a year. “I have a reputation as a party guy and I’m still a party guy,” he laughs. And  now he’s available for your party too.

January 17, 2014 by