Music

Love Songs Among the Stacks

Patrick Hughes introduces a tune.

Patrick Hughes introduces a tune.

It’s a muggy Thursday afternoon in Center City. Inside the refrigerated Borders at Broad and Chestnut, some of the patrons are casually picking their way through the stacks and trying to pretend that an angel, crowned with blonde curls and dressed in long flowing robes, has not just stepped inside from the superheated sidewalk.

They go on pretending as she begins to sing. They are a study in “seen-it-all-before” coolness as the singer is joined by yet another striking singer in flowing robes, and then two more, and, finally, by three handsome men in high-collared green vests and bright, white turtlenecks.

Soon, the store echoes with delicate, crystalline harmonies as the singers weave in and out of the aisles and eventually make their way back to audiobooks, where a few chairs have been set up in front of a little stage area.

And soon, I start to wonder which is weirder: The fact that members of the world-class Irish choral group Anúna are singing in a bookstore, or that a few pointedly blasé patrons are still trying to pretend that nothing out of the usual is going on.

On second thought, maybe after a week of Harry Potter-mania and grown men dressing like Dumbledore and Hagrid, it’s easy to be jaded.

Believe it or not, this was Anúna’s Philadelphia debut. The seven singers—a smaller subset of the larger choir that has thrilled audiences worldwide since 1987—were in town to promote their new CD, “Sensations,” and a September special to be aired locally on WHYY. (They’re also going to appear Oct. 12 at Penn’s Annenberg Theatre.)

“This is our seventh (Borders appearance),” said singer Patrick Hughes. “We started out in Boston.” From now through August 21, the troupe will sing in 31 Borders stores across the country.

Although Anúna hasn’t made a career of bookstore appearances, Hughes said it really wasn’t so unusual. “It marries well with our performance style,” he said. “It’s about interacting with the audience. That’s when music can touch people.”

For about 20 minutes, in the frenzied heart of the city on a miserably sticky day, Anúna provided a few precious moments of peace and cool, ethereal beauty. There was time for just a few pieces, unfortunately. There were two standout performances, though: “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” by founding member and chorus master Miriam Blennerhassett, and an old Bothy Band hit, the tongue-twisting “Fionnghuala,” by John McGlynn, leader of the touring group, featured soloist and production designer. (John’s brother Michael founded the group.)

If you couldn’t be there … no worries. We have a bit of video from the Center City Borders event. It will have to do until the September special (no firm date as yet) on WHYY.

August 2, 2007 by
People

R.I.P., Kathleen Gambon Erdei

Just posted on the Philadelphia Ceili Group Membership list:

Kathleen Gambon Erdei passed away Tuesday evening, July 31, after a two-week battle with what was diagnosed “raging cancer” at the Central Montgomery Medical Center in Lansdale, one month shy of her 72nd birthday. She had come down with Lyme disease two years earlier, and her system suffered greatly as a result.

Beloved in Philadelphia’s Irish-American community for her work toward peace in Northern Ireland since the 1970s, Kathleen turned on two generations of young folks to the music of Ireland, and often partied with people a third her age in places like Fergie’s or The Plough and the Stars. Her friend and Oak Lane neighbor Maryanne Devine said, “With the British troops beginning to leave Northern Ireland right now, Kathleen’s work here is done.”

Before his own death, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Jack McKinney once said of Kathleen, “Spending an afternoon with her is like stepping into a James Joyce novel – fascinating, deep, and layered with complicated characters”.

Raised on farmland in Camden County, NJ, Kathleen attended Camden Catholic High School, then explored California and the West Coast as a young woman, before settling down to raise a family in the 1960s.

A former parishioner of St. Genevieve’s Parish in Flourtown, PA, Kathleen’s home there overlooked the sheep farm of Fitz Eugene Dixon. She was a devout Catholic who never toed the party line, which was manifested in her many demonstrations against the Vietnam War, protests for clean air, water and lower utility fees for poor and working people, for peace in Northern Ireland, and against the closing of poor parishes in Philadelphia. She once participated in a public rite of exorcism in front of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul to root out, she said, “the corrupt practices of the Archdiocese’s policy regarding those parish closings.”

But her public persona belied her gentle touch with everyone she met. In her neighborhood of Philly’s Oak Lane, to which she moved in the 1980s, she helped organize neighbors in their Arbor Day celebrations and tree-plantings. She gathered local children to treat them to outings they might not otherwise afford, she volunteered at radio station WXPN, and was an exceptional afficionado of culture and literature.

“Kathleen knew the lyrics to 100-year old operettas, to songs of the Great Depression, folk tunes from here to Europe and South Africa. Her mind was all-encompassing, and she never stopped learning. And as big as her brain was, her heart was even bigger. She read several newspapers daily, and listened to people with their problems the whole world over, whether face-to-face, on the BBC or NPR”, said close friend Marybeth Phillips.

For the past dozen years, Kathleen lived in Center City Philadelphia (Wash-West), and rode a bike all over town while working for PennPIRG, the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group. With them, she found a career already in line with her causes, and fought hard from Philly’s City Council to Harrisburg to D.C.

She often had her bicycle stolen when she parked it at a train station, but taking a Zen approach to everything, refused to worry.
She would find it on another occasion and steal it back. She was an avid urban gardener, planting in every inch of soil she could find on Lombard or South Streets, and once turned down a week’s vacation in Florida so as “not to miss anything that begins to bud in Philly”.

In addition to PennPIRG, Kathleen also worked for the Dominican Sisters in Elkins Park, helping sick nuns recover or pass through to the next life, at St. Katherine’s Hall.

Ms. Erdei is survived by her former husband Abdon Erdei, daughter Stephanie Scintilla, and sons A. Andrew, Daniel, and James, and her first grandchild, Daphne Erdei.

In her always-altruistic fashion, Kathleen donated her body to Jefferson Medical College. A memorial service is scheduled for her at The Irish Center/Commodore Barry Club, Carpenter Lane and Emlen Streets, Philadelphia, on Saturday, September 15, at 5 p.m. Donations in her memory may be sent to the non-profit Heart of Camden Housing Corporation, Broadway and Ferry, Camden, NJ 08104.

For more information, please call daughter Stephanie Erdei Scintilla at 215-350-5412, or Marybeth Phillips at 610-436-4134.

July 30, 2007 by
Music

The Kane Sisters in Concert at the Philadelphia Irish Center

The sisters share a laugh.

The sisters share a laugh.

The first time somebody told me the Kane Sisters were coming to the Irish Center, my 56-year-old hearing failed me.

“You mean the Haynes Sisters, from ‘White Christmas?’ The ones with the brother known as ‘Freckle-Faced Haynes, the Dog-Faced Boy?”

I was incredulous. (I didn’t believe it, either.)

It didn’t take me long to sort things out. OK, maybe a day or two. And of course, I went to their recent concert at the Philadelphia Irish Center.  Why? Let’s just say I did it for an old friend in the Army.

Seriously? I went because Liz and Yvonne Kane are outstanding practitioners of the light, ornamented South Sligo style, and they were all but guaranteed to put on a superb show. I wasn’t disappointed.

Drummer that I am, I couldn’t help but love the light-speed reels. But I was more or less equally entranced by just about everything else they played.

What’s most notable about a Kane Sisters performance, though, is the smooth and seamless synchronicity of their playing. They race through complex triplets and rolls, bows sawing up and down the strings in precise, virtually identical patterns. One is the virtual mirror image of the other. To have one fiddler who plays so masterfully is one thing; to have two, side by side, so evenly matched in every respect, can be breath-taking.

The traditional music fans who weren’t down the Shore on the night of the show also received a pretty cool bonus. Jon and Nathan Pilatzke, the crazy-legged Ottawa Valley step dancers who have toured with the Chieftains, among others, made an unexpected guest appearance.

The concert took place in the Irish Center’s Fireside Room. There’s no stage there, as such, and therefore, no off-stage. So when it was time for them to make their appearance, the boys popped out of the nearby ladies room. They wasted no time or effort in pounding what I imagine were huge dents in the floor, drawing whoops and hollers from the appreciative fans in the room and at the bar.

If you didn’t make it, check out our photos.

July 29, 2007 by
Music

Old Blind Dogs Still Putting the Pedal to the Metal

The CD features three new live tracks.

The CD features three new live tracks.

The Old Blind Dogs have been around, in one form or another, since 1990. With “Four on the Floor” (Compass), the band loses nothing of the creative energy that has made it one of the most popular traditional ensembles.

Of course, no traditional band blessed with so much inventiveness can play it straight all the time. On “Four on the Floor,” probably the best example of this spirit of invention is the band’s updated treatment of the old Scottish standard “Braw Sailin’.” Lots of artists and bands have performed the tune—including Kris Drever, on his recent CD (also from Compass), “Black Water.”

The Dogs take the old tune (first recorded around 1930, according to the Traditional Ballad Index) and teach it some new tricks, sailing it a few thousand miles southwest of Scotland to Jamaica. It works, mon.

I’m also a big fan of the CD’s second track, “Harris Dance,” which features some finger-twisting playing by Rory Campbell on the Scottish border pipes, propelled along with some furious percussion by Fraser Stone.

The band also provides a rare treat in the form of three live tracks, featuring tunes and sets previously recorded by the Dogs in previous incarnations.

The hottest track of the three is Aird Tanters/Branle, a strathspey that gives way to a Middle Eastern-tinged Scots folks dance tune—again, a tightly contained (but only just) ball of energy.

You can catch the band at the Tin Angel on Sept. 27, and Sept. 28, 29 and 30 at the Bethlehem Celtic Classic.

July 28, 2007 by
News

She’ll Walk More Miles In Her Shoes

That's Team Ratty Shoes Captain Patti Byrd sandwiched between Blackthorn's Michael Callahan and John Boyce in the center.

That's Team Ratty Shoes Captain Patti Byrd sandwiched between Blackthorn's Michael Callahan and John Boyce in the center.

With a successful fundraiser behind her, the captain of Team Ratty Shoes, Patti Byrd, promised to walk an additional 20 miles at the next Multiple Sclerosis Society Challenge Walk (October 13-14, 2007, weaving its way through the Brandywine Valley with stops in Longwood Gardens and Winterthur) if the team raises $11,000 by September. Co-captain Christopher Burden will accompany her, stretching their 30-mile walk to a 50-mile hike.

“With the outpouring of help from the community and the sponsorship of Blackthorn, we can surely meet and maybe exceed this goal,” said Byrd, who founded the team four years ago and named it for one of her favorite CDs by the local Celtic rock band, Blackthorn. “One dollar for every person in the Delaware Valley living with multiple sclerosis is our new goal for Team Ratty Shoes.”

The volunteers held a fundraiser on July 15 at Brittingham’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Lafayette Hill, featuring musical performances by Random Blonde, Allison Barber, Raymond McGroary, and Mike Brill. Blackthorn surprised the crowd with a performance (that’s right, singing “Ratty Shoes.”)

And the Delaware County-based group is contributing another way. They’re sponsoring a raffle whose grand prize is an Irish Weekend Getaway package – hotel accommodations and festival passes for four for the 2007 festival, September 21-23, in Wildwood, NJ. First prize is a Blackthorn Prize Package containing CDs and other merchandise. Raffle tickets will be available at the benefit, as well as at all Blackthorn shows from July 11 through August 11, 2007, when the drawing will be held at The Bolero in Wildwood, NJ.

All proceeds from the event benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the Greater Delaware Valley. For more information about the MS Challenge Walk, visit www.walk4ms.org. For more information about Team Ratty Shoes, contact team captain, Patti Byrd at Teamrattyshoes@gmail.com or 215-442-0131.

July 27, 2007 by
Music

Support Your Local Trad Musician

Caitlin Finley, center, with friends Emma Hinesly and Sean Earnest.

Caitlin Finley, center, with friends Emma Hinesly and Sean Earnest.

What do you do when your fiddle teachers are heading out of town a few weeks before you’re scheduled to compete in the all-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the largest Irish music competition in the world, attracting more than 11,000 musicians?

If you’re Caitlin Finley, you get nervous. “Yeeessss, I’m really nervous right now,” says Caitlin, an incoming junior at Lower Merion High School. “I just picked my tunes and now I’ll have to do all the preparation on my own.”

Imagine Rocky without Mickey, Helen Keller without Annie Sullivan, the Notre Dame team without Knute Rockne. Caitlin is losing her teachers and coaches, New York fiddler Brian Conway, considered one of the best fiddlers in the US and an All-Ireland fiddle winner, and his sister, Rose Flanagan, a former member of the popular group, Cherish the Ladies. You’d be nervous too.

But there will be one thing she won’t need to worry about after Sunday–whether her fellow competitors in New York will be able to afford the trip. Electrifying fiddler Eileen Ivers and singer-instrumentalist Gabe Donohue will be headlining an all-star benefit on Sunday, August 5, from 1 PM to midnight at Rory Dolan’s,
890 Mclean Avenue, in Yonkers, NY.

“Last year everyone got a huge amount of money toward the trip which paid for a lot of the kids’ airfare,” says Caitlin, who will be traveling to Ireland with her parents. (This is her second trip to the Fleadh; last year, her ceili band, The Pride of Moyvane, earned the right to compete, which requires that you come in either first or second in the local Fleadh, held each year in Pearl River, NY.)

Caitlin and her current group (including flutist Emma Hinesly and guitarist Sean Earnest) have been burning up the local trad scene for more than a year: playing for the Irish ambassador Noel Fahy; entertaining at the Philadelphia Flower Show and at Kildare’s; sitting in with Mick Moloney and Tommy Sands at St. Malachy’s annual fundraising concert, and opening for premier button accordionist James Keane. You can also find Caitlin at sessions from here to Reading: Fergie’s, The Plough and the Stars; The Shanachie; Tir na NOg, and the Irish Center, where she often leads. 

Though she’s been playing fiddle for 8 years, she doesn’t think it will become a career. Most Irish trad musicians don’t make enough to quit their day jobs. “And I don’t want it to be my job,” she says. “I want it to be something that I love forever.”

July 27, 2007 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to be Irish in Philly This Week

This is an easy one. There’s plenty of music to remind you that you couldn’t afford to go back to Ireland this year (there’s always next year).

Stoke that homesickness starting on Thursday, July 26, when the Irish group, Anuna (think choirs of heavenly angels, think Riverdance, think, wow, how do they hit those notes and where did they find that many good-looking people who can do that?), appears at two area Borders to perform (for free) and sign copies of their new CD, “Sensations.” They’ll be accompanied by reps from WHYY which will air an Anuna special in September. At 12:30 PM, you can catch a glimpse, take a listen, buy a CD, and get it signed at Borders at 1 Broad Street, Avenue of the Arts, in Philadelphia. At 7:30 PM, they’ll be at the Borders in the Springfield Square Shopping Center, 1001 Baltimore Pike, Springfield, PA, in Delaware County.

On Saturday, July 28, you can catch the equally lovely and talented Kane Sisters (Liz and Yvonne), fiddlers extraordinaire from Galway (originally from Letterfrack, Connemara) who will be performing at 8 PM at The Irish Center, Commodore Barry Club, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119. The Kanes recently released their second album, “Under the Diamond,” on the heels of their first, The Well-Tempered Bow,” chosen one of the top traditional albums of 2003 by the Irish Echo newspaper. For more information, go to www.philadelphiaceiligroup.org.

If you haven’t sated your appetite for a slip jig or chantey, on Sunday you can hear the sibling group, the Barra MacNeils, at the Sellersville Theater, Main and Temple Streets, Sellersville, PA 18960, starting at 7:30 PM. Called “Canada’s Celtic ambassadors,” the Barra MacNeils grew up in Sydney Mines on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (a hotbed of Celtic music) and have been featured on NPR and PBS. For tickets, call 215-257-5808 or go to www.st94.com

July 21, 2007 by
News

Helping the Hungry

By Tom Slattery

On Saturday, July 14 over 80 people including about 20 under 16 years of age turned out at Conwell-Egan High School in Lower Bucks County to pack dinners as part of the Hibernian Hunger Project (www.hibernianhungerproject.org), a proggram established and supported by the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

In a 3 ½ hour session over 6,000 dinner trays were filled, covered, labeled, packed and loaded into a refrigerated truck donated by the Teamsters. These were then sent to the lockers of Aid for Friends for distribution to those in need.

I have noticed over the past two or three years, that these “packing sessions” in Philadelphia and Bucks Counties are drawing more and more youngsters. It is very rewarding to see these kids working along with not only their parents, but also their grandparents. They are learning the pleasures derived from helping those less fortunate, as well as getting a “taste” of their heritage. In addition to earning the respect of their elders, they are also learning that volunteer work and learning can be fun. At Saturday’s session, the Bucks County spokesman called a “timeout” to tell the kids about those unfortunates who would be the benefactors of their work.

The “work force” included two politicians, who were not there for photo ops, but who put in a days work. Congressman Pat Murphy worked one of the packing tables, while Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley was out in the kitchen cleaning trays.

The final lesson the kids learned was “clean up after”. Yes, it was impressive to watch the “cleanup operation, which restored the Conwell-Egan cafeteria to its pristine state.

Congratulations to Bucks County AOH Division 1, the Teamsters, and all the volunteers who spent a summer Saturday helping those less fortunate.

July 12, 2007 by