“A Galway Afternoon” would be a priceless gift to Irish music listeners under any circumstances, filled as it is with tunes that encapsulate and preserve so many examples of box player Joe Madden’s boundless energy and the apparently limitless joy he took in playing.
Joined and supported by his famous daughter Joanie on flute and whistle on 13 of the 14 tracks, Joe Madden packs a sound that seems to well up from some deep place to expand and fill the room, sucking up every last ounce of oxygen. Joe Madden is a commanding presence, and “A Galway Afternoon” is very much his own.
What makes the release of this CD (at Catskills Irish Arts Week) so poignant and precious is the fact that Joe Madden is no longer with us. All the tracks on which he is featured are the result of Joanie’s crafty plan to pull him into Charlie Lennon’s Cuan Recording Studio in Spiddal, County Galway, in June, 2008. At the time, he was just shy of 70.
Like a lot of traditional players, Madden apparently was not the type to leap at an opportunity to record. That he was lured into the studio for such an all-encompassing exposition of his powerful skills was an act of providence. In November of that year, Madden fell down the stairs in his home, resulting in spinal cord damage and paralysis. Those mighty hands were stilled. Shortly thereafter, he died.
The Irish music community was left to cope with grief over Madden’s loss. But at the same time, it also was left with something wondrous to remember him by.
To be sure, Joanie Madden makes her presence known on “A Galway Afternoon,” setting her usual blistering pace on the reels and jigs and painting a lush, vibrant musical mural on the slow air “Sliabh geal gCua.”
But mostly, she seems content to play a supporting role, and the passion and energy of Joe Madden takes center stage. From one set of tunes to the next, it is Joe Madden’s playing that commands your attention. Maybe “demands” is a better word.
“A Galway Afternoon” is jammed with well-worn old tunes with colorful names like “Sault’s Own Hornpipe,” “The Little Thatched Cabin,” “Pussy Got the Measles” and “The Spike Island Lassies.” Madden obviously was one of those players who had forgotten more tunes than most of us will ever know.
There’s absolutely nothing fancy or fussy about how Madden plays. It’s just straight-ahead dance music, played with a sure hand. There’s a purity there, along with razor-sharp precision.
Also joining the supporting cast are Charlie Lennon on piano, John Madden on drums (he’s flat-out wonderful) and Gabriel Donohue on guitar.
On the final track—a set of reels, including “Dinny O’Brien’s and “Sean Sa Che”—we’re treated to a glimpse of Joe Madden’s sparkling personality. After the music ends, we hear his laughing voice echoing in the recording studio: “The hell with the last couple of notes. That’s it.”
No, Joe. As long as we have this recording, that’ll never be it.