Marian Makins, singing at the monthly Singer's Circle at the Irish Center.
The first time I heard Marian Makins sing was at singer’s night at the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual Irish music festival. This slim young woman with a cap of close-cropped dark hair came up from the audience, took the stage, and launched into one of those great, deedle-sum Celtic songs that make you tap your feet and deedle-dum a little yourself about midway through the tune.
She has a voice that seems to have been predestined to sing Gaelic songs. (One listener described it as “a voice that could melt packed ice.”) But Makins, who will be performing with guitarist Gabriel Donohue and Caitlin Warbelow on Sunday at the Irish Center in a show called “Once Upon a Winter’s Night,” didn’t come by it naturally.
She’s only tangentially Irish: Her Scottish ancestors spent several generations in County Donegal and she’s English and Welsh as well. She didn’t grow up hearing Gaelic—either the Scottish or Irish variety—and her background is in the classics, not jigs and reels.
But she’s always been a singer. The DC-born Makins, currently a grad student in classical studies at Penn, sang in the chorus in high school ( hello, “Glee”!) and as part of a small concert chorale group whose director had perfect pitch. “Imagine singing for him. Anyone is even slightly off and he’s in pain. But he was so good and so demanding that I learned so much,” she says. She was also a member of the Columbia University Glee Club and did a little recording while in college (background vocals for a fake group with a real album called Kill Lizzy, a Christian hip-hop album that was never released, and a demo for an Applebee’s commercial).
“That all happened because I was dating a music producer,” she confesses with a laugh. “but he is really talented and is now working with Dionne Warwick.”
The Celtic music happened because a friend dragged her to three sessions in New York—all in one night—culminating in the Tony DeMarco jam at the 11th Street Bar. DeMarco’s fractional Irishness (both sides of his family are Irish-Italian) translates into stylish and authentic Sligo fiddle playing and he’s considered one of the finest folk fiddlers in the country.
“That’s where I met Gabriel Donohue,” says Makins. “We walked into the 11th Street Bar and Tony introduced me to this guitar player and he said, ‘I hear you’re a great singer, what do you sing?’”
She named one of the handful of tunes she sings in Gaelic (she does songs in both Irish and Scot’s Gaelic, though she doesn’t speak “this beautiful, strange language”). “And he says, ‘Oh, this one, and starts playing and I had to start singing. I didn’t even have my coat off. When the song was over, Tony said, ‘Gabe, let her get her coat off and get her a drink.’ We became friends and decided to work together.”
Donohue, who is Irish-born but now lives in North Jersey, has played both guitar and piano for the likes of Eileen Ivers, Cherish the Ladies, and the Chieftans, including six gigs at Carnegie Hall and one at the Clinton White House, celebrating the Good Friday Peace Accord. He introduced Makins to his friend, Caitlin Warbelow, who comes from Fairbanks, Alaska, and is a champion blue grass fiddler who is a regular at all the New York sessions.
“They invited me to sit in with them in some gigs during Irish Weekend in Wildwood this year,” Makins says, and the trio was born.
“I love how musically omnivorous they are,” she says. “They can both play in so many different styles. They’re very dynamic. They can both turn on a dime and it’s fun to see where they take things.”
Their concert this Sunday at the Irish Center will be, she promises, “a wintry mix,” a combination of winter-themed Irish traditional tunes, Christmas carols, Irish Christmas carols (get ready all you “Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake” fans) and then just some tunes they feel like singing. There’s a session afterwards, so musicians should bring their instruments and sit in.
Since the weather forecasters are also predicting a little “wintry mix” this weekend—possibly the first seasonal weather we’ve had for months—it sounds like a romantic and traditional way to start off the Celtic Christmas season.
Doors open at 4 PM and the concert starts at 5 PM. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children.