A trio of McGillians ...John, Kevin and Jimmy
Up in this lofty, factory-chic studio at 7th and Callowhill, you can practically hear the echoes of the soulful Al Green and Patti Labelle, who once recorded here.
On this cool Saturday afteroon in January, a very different sound is blasting over the speakers in the Milkboy Recording control room. It’s soulful in its own way. It’s not “Tired of Being Alone” or “Somebody Loves You, Baby,” but “Pigeon on the Gate” and “Over the Moor to Maggie.” Not tenor saxophone and Fender bass, but two-row button accordion and uilleann pipes.
With apologies to the immortal Gamble and Huff, whose shoes we would not presume to fill, this is the sound of Irish Philadelphia. Call us nuts—you wouldn’t be the first—but we are attempting to capture as much of our own Quaker City Celtic musical talent as possible. (In 12 tracks or less, anyway.) We want to bring you tunes from great players who have never been recorded before, or from groupings of musicians who have played together countless times in their lives but whose performances were not preserved. We want to show the world what a treasure we have here.
None of this is turning out to be easy. There’s a raw, untamed, spontaneously beautiful quality to the music played in pubs and house parties; we’re trying to harness lightning in a bottle. Time will tell whether it can really be done.
If our first three tracks are any indication, we think we know the answer. In the control room, you could practically smell the ozone.
Over the next month or so, we’re going to record more local talent, and then we’re going to bring it all together in a CD, which we hope to begin selling in March to help support the work of irishphiladelphia.com. The effort has no name so far–for which reason we are calling it Project Gan Ainm. (That’s “no name” in the Irish language.)
We’ve gotten things going with our own funds, but we expect to launch a modest fund-raising effort soon so we can finish things up.
For now, let us whet your appetite with photos of the session and a video featuring the great Vince Gallagher, playing an accordion that once belonged to the beloved Tommy Moffit. And while we’re on it, let us extend our thanks to the local musicians who are donating their time and talent to bring this thing off. We’re thrilled; we think you will be, too.