It’s just a brace of reels, a smattering of hornpipes, a few jigs, a set of marches, and an air. But that’s like saying the Empire State Building is just a steel skeleton and a stack of bricks.
Like the famous Fifth Avenue landmark, the new CD, “Pride of New York,” is a towering achievement in its own right.
Just consider the musicians who make up this killer ceili band: Joanie Madden on flute and whistle, Brian Conway on fiddle, Billy McComiskey on button accordion, and Brendan Dolan on piano. Toss in essays by Catskills Irish Arts Week artistic director Paul Keating, journalist Earle Hitchner and Baltimore Singers Club director Peter Brice, with tune notes by the percusssionist Myron Bretholtz. It all adds up to a memorable, very nearly flawless Irish traditional recording that is not only one of the best of the year, but probably one of the best of any year.
“Pride of New York” is pure dance music. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be dance music. But not all modern American Irish music invites people to put down their beers, get up out of their chairs and dance. But with Brendan Dolan laying down the delicate rhythms, it’s all too easy to envision folks whirling about the hardwood floor, feet stamping, whoops of unbridled joy.
Each of the artists is well-known individually, but here they come together as a solid, perfectly harmonious group. There’s a cohesiveness that is possible only when individual motivations are set aside and the music moves to the fore. Again, it all sounds blindingly obvious, but there’s a world of difference between a mere assemblage of prodigies and a band. Make no mistake: this is a band.
Which is not to say that there are not standout individual performances. Not to emphasize one contribution over all the others, but Dolan’s sure and confident hand is what makes “Pride of New York” a ceili band. His entry on one set of jigs, Happy Days/Boys of the Lough Gowna/The Knights of St. Patrick, and again on the introduction to a set of slip jigs, Redican’s Mother (The Barony)/The Bridal/Humours of Whiskey, shows him at his best, setting not a merely metronomic cadence but playing with great expression—light, airy and musical.
Joanie, who plays flute on most of the tunes, offers up a memorable tin whistle performance of the haunting air Slán le Máigh. She makes a dime store instrument sound symphonic. You’ll tap your feet to McComiskey’s accordion on a brisk set of reels, Mulhaire’s #9/Grandpa Tommy’s Ceili Band. Conway sets a masterful pace on a set of hornpipes, The Stage/The Fiddler’s Contest/The High Level.
I’m not a fan of waltzes generally—to me, they have too much of a “man on the flying trapeze” quality to them—but the band’s performance of Sean McGlynn’s Waltz shows “Pride of New York” at its most impressive. There’s a gentle lift to this tune, contrasted with some seriously complex but deftly played melody. I promise I didn’t think about the circus, even once.
Though it seems unfair that the Big Apple should play host to so many monuments, you can add this recording to New York’s trove of treasures.
