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Concerts

Music

A Little Bit of Holiday Cheer

Sean nos dancer Brian Cunningham has flying feet.

Sean nos dancer Brian Cunningham has flying feet.

A couple of weeks ago, ticket sales were as sluggish as the Stock Market for Teada’s “Irish Christmas in America” show, a Philadelphia Ceili Group production scheduled for December 9 at Philadelphia’s Irish Center. But by that evening, there was a rally, and hundreds of people filled the vast ballroom for a little taste of Celtic Christmas–a full house to hear traditional Irish tunes and learn a little about Celtic traditions.

Karan Casey, a founding member of the group, Solas, was the featured soloist, and she wowed the crowd with everything from Irish carols to her paean to Barack Obama, the Nina Simone tune, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free.” “Barack Obama,” she explained, “was like an early Christmas gift to the world.”

Also on the bill: uillean piper Tommy Martin, harper Grainne Hambley, and the remarkable, 23-year-old sean nos (old style) dancer, Brian Cunningham. And, of course, Teada itself: founder and the show’s producer, Oisin Mac Diarmada, an All-Ireland fiddler from Sligo; Damien Stenson, also a Sligo native, who plays flute; guitarist Sean McIElwain, and Dublin’s own Tristan Rosenstock, who plays bodhran and was the night’s narrator and stand-up comic.

If you couldn’t be there and would love to hear some of the performance, Marianne MacDonald will be playing some cuts from the “Irish Christmas in America” CD on her radio show on Sunday, December 14, at noon. Tune in to WTMR-800 AM, right after the Vince Gallagher Irish Radio Show. You can hear it on the web at www.wtmrradio.com.

Music

Finbar Furey in Concert

Fiddler Mary Malone came because, when she was a young mother, someone once gave her a homemade tape of Irish folk legends, The Fureys, a group of Dublin brothers that helped put Irish traditional music on the map.

Will Hill came because, as a teenager, he first heard the uillean pipes played by Finbar Furey on two now-collectible LPs, when Furey was young and still had a head of curly hair. Hill brought those albums with him to The Shanachie Pub in Ambler on Monday night to have them signed by Furey, who made a stop in the Philadelphia area while touring the east coast to promote his new CD, “No Farewells, No Goodbyes.” He was accompanied by performer Brian Gaffney.

And the actor, singer, poet, songwriter didn’t disappoint—not in any way. He signed the albums, performed the songs that first endeared the Fureys to American audiences, mesmerized the crowd with his intricate piping, and made everyone laugh with his stories. Like the one about how, as a young man, he asked famed ‘60s folksinger Tom Paxton if he would mind if he altered one of Paxton’s songs a bit. “I was cheeky back then,” he confessed. “Tom Paxton looked at me with his cold blue eyes and said, ‘What are you going to do with it?’”

He was going to rewrite it for banjo, Furey explained. Oh, and change the words a little.

There was a long, deadly gap in the conversation, Furey recalled. Then Paxton said, “Oh, go for it.”

So Furey did. And the Fureys recorded Paxton’s  “I Will Love You,” catapulting it to number one on the Irish charts. “Then one night I get a phone call. ‘Finbar?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘This is Tom Paxton, Finbar.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Bastard! I’ve been singing that song for years and nobody’s hardly heard it!’” Furey roared almost as hard as the audience, who began singing with him at the first song and to the last.

Music

A Musical Two-Fer

Glen Hansard and Fergus O'Farrell in a duet at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby.

Glen Hansard and Fergus O'Farrell in a duet at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby.

About a year ago, you could have seen Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova at the Tin Angel, a tiny 100-seat venue upstairs from the Serrano Restaurant on Second Street in Philadelphia. You could have spoken to them after the show. Maybe bought Glen a drink. (At 19, Marketa is too young to drink here.)

That was before the two won an Oscar for their passionate ballad, “Falling Slowly,” from the low-budget Irish movie, “Once,” an almost-love story that, in the parlance of Hollywood, captured America’s heart. The fact that the two stars captured each other’s hearts hasn’t hurt either. They are the proverbial unlikely and cute couple.

In the last few months, as The Swell Season, Hansard and Irglova and their band played to sold-out crowds all across the country, including Radio City Music Hall and, this week, the Tower Theater in Upper Darby. This time, there was no mingling and when the two were out on the wet streets this Delco town, Hansard kept his hat pulled down low over his curly red hair so he wouldn’t be recognized. Fat chance.

Today, they not only attract attention, they inspire adulation. At the Tower, I met two young men who spent the last three weeks following the duo around the country, paying scalper prices for tickets and saving some bucks on lodging by couch surfing—flopping on the livingroom sofas of people who sign up to host visitors from far-off lands or the city next door. Kind of like what crashing was in the 60s and 70s, only incorporated.

The guys weren’t disappointed. Hansard, who hits notes only reachable by choir boys and eunuchs, is such an intense performer that he has strummed a giant ragged hole in the soundboard of his acoustic guitar. (At first, I thought it was a pick guard. Instead, it’s a testament to the importance of a pick guard.) The moment he walked out on stage—the very edge of the stage, alone, strumming that same guitar—he engaged the audience as if he were still a busker, playing for loose change. He’s charming and boyish, funny and passionate. After years of playing with the band, The Frames, his rocker’s wildness is tempered by Irglova, who has a calming presence and an angelic voice. Their duets are so poignant and sweet they almost hurt.

Hansard, a dues-paying, 20-year “overnight” sensation, did a little payback while giving fans in New York and Philly a bonus: A chance to hear a group called Interference, which opened for The Swell Season in the two cities. Presided over by Hansard’s friend, singer-songwriter Fergus O’Farrell, Interference is a collection of European musicians, many classically trained, who are virtually unknown in the US but enormously influential in Ireland and Europe, although they’ve never had a record contract. Hansard calls O’Farrell one of his major influences and once told an interviewer that “we used to go to the attic where they played and just watch in awe. We were always learning from them.”

O’Farrell’s haunting voice, unforgettable melodies, and poetic lyrics caught the crowd’s attention, especially when he reprised his performance of the song, “Gold,” from the movie, “Once,” with Hansard and Interference guitarist Paul Tiernan providing tight harmony.

I spent some time with O’Farrell this week—he’s a remarkable man as well as a major talent—and I’ll post that story next week, with photos from his performance.

Music

Review: The Chieftains at the Kimmel Center

There are some who say the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall is shaped like a giant cello.

An untrained eye would make that kind of mistake. But anyone who attended the Chieftains concert at Philadelphia’s world-class concert hall could tell you: It’s a big Irish fiddle—obviously.

In a stellar Saturday afternoon show, the band managed to turn the city’s premier symphonic concert hall into an intimate Irish house party. Certainly, it had most of the required elements—whoops, foot stomping, sing-alongs and even, at the end, a bit of dancing. Indeed, our photographer Gwyneth MacArthur, in her first visit to the Kimmel, wound up—with a gaggle of other delighted audience members—dancing a kind of “hora” on stage with the show’s rubber-legged dancers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke, Cara Butler, and a whole troupe of Shirley Temple-wigged dancers from the Ryan School of Irish Dance. (Shyness was never Gwyneth’s problem.)

The show actually began on a bit of a disconcerting note. On their flight into Philly, the airline lost the band’s luggage—including the uilleann pipes played by Chieftain-in-chief Paddy Moloney. (Something similar happened fairly recently to a treasured banjo owned by Solas leader Seamus Egan, I believe. There are certain things you should just not check in.)

But this is a band of long experience and struggles, and they soldiered on, serving up a couple of hours of brilliant, often breath-taking, Irish music. All of it was clearly rooted in Irish musical tradition, but there were the usual departures, including such tunes as “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” from the Chieftains’ 10th album. Bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs did the vocal honors on the album, but the Chieftains’ bodhran player and singer Kevin Conneff filled in more than ably.

As promised, the Chieftains also dabbled a bit in music from Scotland. Alyth McCormack, from a little island called Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, has a high, clear voice (marred somewhat by intermittent feedback). She dazzled the crowd with a display of that peculiar act of Scottish lyrical tongue-twisting known as mouth music. “You’ll see why they call it that,” she said before she sang. And, yes, we did see.

Introducing McCormack was a piper who played a lovely, haunting version of the standard pipe band tune, “The Rowan Tree.” The Chieftains blended in along the way with Matt Molloy’s flute, Paddy’s chirping tin whistle and Seane Keane’s fiddle. It wasn’t the first or the last time that night that Gwyneth’s eyes misted over.

No Chieftains show is complete without some dancing pyrotechnics from the Pilatzkes. They joined with Cara Butler for one of the most peculiar—and, at the same time, inspired—dance routines you’ll ever see, performed entirely while seated on chairs. Most of us were falling out of our chairs at the end.

Harper Triona Marshall and Irish singer Carmel Conway also joined the show in Philly. Conway performed an achingly beautiful version of the “The Foggy Dew,” and Marshall pretty much set the stage on fire with her version of “Carolan’s Concerto.” Before the concert, Paddy mentioned that it was the best version of the piece he’d ever heard. I wouldn’t argue.

The Chieftains clearly relish playing in the Kimmel—and who could blame them? It’s not really St. Patrick’s Day in Philadelphia until the Chieftains play there, in that lovely place. I wish we didn’t have to wait ‘til next St. Patrick’s Day to hear them there again.

People

Do You Hear Singing in the Library?

The beautiful Sarah Agnew making beautiful music.

The beautiful Sarah Agnew making beautiful music.

By Gwyneth MacArthur

On October 13, 2007, Sarah Agnew and some talented companions performed a benefit concert for the Bucks County Celtic Library. Organized and MCed by the library’s Tom Slattery, who did a wonderful storytelling performance, this annual event was held in the beautiful auditorium of Bucks County Community College.

The audience was treated to a reception afterwards that featured foods from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

On display were plentiful books, CDs, and videos from the Celtic Library’s collection, covering such things as cooking, art, poetry and history. Many looked so interesting that, lacking my library card, this photographer was caught by a lady librarian actually photographing pages of Irish poetry! (Don’t tell my kids!)

The entire collection is cataloged online and everything is available through interlibrary loan. Meaning that if you see something you like, you don’t have to make a trip to get it. It will be delivered right to your own local library! Although I suspect that the trip is well worth the effort, just for the chance to put your hands on so many interesting treasures in one place.

Music

Anúna’s Lush Harmonies Come to Annenberg

The superb Irish choral group Anúna.

The superb Irish choral group Anúna.

Picture long, flowing robes and long, flowing pre-Raphaelite hair. (Except for the guys.) Envision silken-voiced sopranos hitting notes so high, dogs two states away stop dead in their tracks and say, “Hey, what the heck was that?”

Yup. That’s Anúna.

Even though the group has been around 20 years—exactly the same age as its youngest member—it only just made its Philadelphia debut on Friday at Penn’s Annenberg Center.

It was not a full house (unfortunately), but director John McGlynn and his band of singers made the best of it.

Anúna is currently flacking a new CD and DVD, “Celtic Origins,” and PBS stations all over the country are promoting the heck out of that performance for fund-raising purposes. No complaints there. Anything that gets the local PBS programmers off the odious André Reieu can only be a good thing.

Anúna’s live performance turns out to as thrilling as what you see on the PBS special. It’s better, actually. In live performance, Anúna takes full advantage of the whole theatre. At the show’s beginning, voices come at the audience out of the dark from all directions, rising and falling, filling the hall with superb, complex harmonies. Eventually, after a bit of mystical meandering, all the singers do wind up on stage, and pretty much remain there for the duration of the show.

In Philadelphia, the group performed several cuts form the new CD and DVD, including “Greensleeves,” “Scarborough Fair” and “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” the latter performed beautifully by the smoky alto Miriam Blennerhassett, the group’s choral mistress and a founding member of Anúna.

There were also some tunes from previous CDs, including the wonder “Winter Fire and Snow,” “Dúlamán,” “Riu Riu,” “Siuil A Ruin” and the haunting “Piè Jesu.”

Small though the audience was, it was hugely appreciative, rewarding the group with a standing ovation. Anúna returned the gesture with a blazing performance of the tongue-twisting “Fionnghuala.” (If you think saying it is hard, try singing it.) If you have no idea what “Fionnghuala” is or what it sounds like, head on over to our YouTube channel for a video I recorded (not a very good one, I’m afraid) during the group’s summer promotional tour at the Center City Borders.

And, if and when Anúna shows up in your neck of the woods again, catch this very polished and memorable act.

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.

Music

Kevin Burke and Cal Scott in Concert

Cal Scott gave the guitarists in the audience lots to think about.

Cal Scott gave the guitarists in the audience lots to think about.

It was a concert. It was a master class.

It was both of those things, and more, as famed fiddler Kevin Burke and guitarist-composer Cal Scott brought many of the tunes from their new CD—and several others besides—to the Philadelphia Irish Center Friday night.

The Center’s Fireplace Room was filled near to bursting with enthusiastic fans, who evidently came prepared to be dazzled.

Scott and Burke didn’t disappoint. Their nearly two-hour concert was an uninterrupted display of smooth virtuosity.

The concert began with “The Surround” and “The Red Stockings,” both of which constitute the opening set on their just-released recording, “The Black River.” I wasn’t sure how well those tunes, and many other tunes from the CD, would hold up. Those two guys can easily fill a room with sound. However, on most of the tunes on the CD they’re accompanied by two or three other musicians. It’s an energetic, full sound.

I needn’t have been concerned. Even on “The Long Set,” which consists of five reels back to back, it held up just fine. The set includes quite a bit of accompaniment on the CD, including some rollicking Cajun-style accordion play, particularly toward the end, but Scott and Burke played with so much energy and passion, it sounded like there were more than two instruments on stage.

The night ended with a well-deserved standing ovation. Burke rewarded loyal fans with a solo performance of “Itzikel,” a haunting tune in the Yiddish “frailach” folk dance tradition. Then Cal rejoined him for a blast of reels that once again had fans on their feet.

We offer you a few photo memories of the night.