Everyone had Frank Malley on their mind. Standing alongside the photo is his daughter Courtney.
“This is like having a big night in your own living room,” said singer and publican Gerry Timlin as he looked out on the crowd gathered in the Philadelphia Irish Center for Singers’ Night at the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival.
It was hard not to think of the Fireside Room as Frank Malley’s living room. Frank was, for many years, the driving force behind the Ceili Group Festival. He died of cancer last July. Singers’ night was dedicated to him. In fact, a large colorful portrait of a smiling Frank Malley was propped on an easel just to the right of the stage.
Standing alongside the portrait, Frank’s daughter Courtney said she was sure her father would have approved of this year’s Singers’ Night. “He would have been thrilled,” she said. “My dad was a singer, and there were so many other singers he enjoyed. He loved all of these singers.” Courtney, a well-known singer herself, confessed to also being partial to Singers’ Night. “For me, this is my favorite night of the festival,” she said.
It was evidently a favorite of many other Irish music fans. Most of the chairs in the Fireside Room—and at the nearby bar, of course—were filled. Surely no one could have been disappointed by the showing of singers, starting with Gerry Timlin himself, who also threw in a funny little story about what would have to be the ultimate handyman, Dixon from Dungallen. (Ask him to recite it. It’s a hoot.) And he shared memories of some of the greats who have gone before, including the late musician and radio host Tommy Moffit, who died in May.
There were several superb singing performances from the likes of Marian Makins, Rosaleen McGill and Karen, John and Michael Boyce. If you came hoping for the old standards, you couldn’t have been disappointed by Karen Boyce’s tender rendering of “Skibbereen” or all the Boyces’ superb harmonies on “Peggy Gordon.” Marian Makins sang a lovely version of “Green Grows the Laurel,” and everyone loved Rosie’s take on “The Emigrant’s Farewell.”
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