The Irish song tradition is a vital component in keeping the mother lode of our Irish heritage and collective memory alive from generation to generation.

As part of the folk culture it is very important to have sympathetic stewards who carefully tend to it in their own time and willingly share their gifts and repertoire with those who have an ear and a “gra” (love) for it.

That oral tradition is being well served today by many modern-day interpreters, and coming up this September are some marvelous opportunities to observe the folk process in action from older musician to younger sustaining this very important aspect of the Irish music continuum.

The Irish Arts Center in Manhattan begins its autumn season with one of its strongest initiatives in its long historic tenure as the home for Irish culture in Hell’s Kitchen, once known for less savory Irish activity in bygone eras. 

The second edition of its innovative Masters in Collaboration series takes up residence when Andy Irvine Meets John Doyle at the center for a week long exploration of one another’s music culminating in three shows over the weekend of September 11-13.

This series got underway back in February 2008 thanks to the suggestion of Dr. Mick Moloney of New York University, who felt that the Irish Arts Center offered a creative space to have a more seasoned musical artist engage someone from a younger generation and perspective and see what they could produce together.  Paul Brady and Nashville singer/songwriter Sarah Siskind were the first ones to marry their musical endeavors and the format proved a notable success.  

The current pairing of Irvine, 67, and Doyle, 38, seems a more inspired choice and potentially one that could really be seismic by the time the week concludes. 

Both Irvine and Doyle have been key cogs in Irish music revolutions, with Irvine’s role in the music of the 1970s in Ireland and since then helping to inspire Doyle’s own significant contributions to a similar modernization of Irish traditional music in America from the mid-1990s shortly after arriving in New York from his native Dublin.

Given the level of musicianship, a shared respect for the Irish song tradition and the extraordinary ability to complement the music of their respective musical partners over the years, this matchup is destined to offer more heavenly treats from the Hell’s Kitchen venue and validate Moloney’s original concept.  

Irvine hails from London, originally born to a mother from Antrim and father from Glasgow. Smitten by Woody Guthrie as a teenager, his road to folk music led him to the halcyon days in Dublin in 1960s when O’Donoghue and Slattery pubs became training grounds for so many musicians, particularly singers.

Irvine built a solid career into four decades with seminal groups like Sweeney’s Men, Planxty, Paul Brady, Patrick’s Street and Mozaik as a principal collaborator with an equally talented peer group, while still maintaining a formidable and influential presence as a solo performer and singer songwriter.

By phone from his Fermanagh home, Irvine told me he is looking forward to the week of work and play with Doyle, whom he really doesn’t know very well. 

Last summer when Irvine was on an extended U.S. tour he had a chance to see Doyle and Liz Carroll perform as a tandem at a few festivals. He says he was “mightily impressed with him as a singer and a guitarist, and we have a similar attitude to playing music and to working with each other pulling in the same direction musically and personality-wise.”

Irvine, thankfully doesn’t act his age and hasn’t veered from his quintessential folk roots and since the Planxty reunion of 2004. He has even picked up a number of younger fans in Ireland who didn’t see him first time round.

To the young Doyle, growing up in Dublin with song roots from his dad, Sean, Irvine’s work along with his mates Donal Lunny, Christy Moore, Johnny Moynihan and Paul Brady were formative influences.   His guitar skills and infectious enthusiasm were evident from the moment he arrived in New York and performed with Susan McKeown in Chanting House (later with Eileen Ivers). 

As a founding member of the 1995 supernova Solas, he sparked a serious sea-change in how Irish American trad groups were perceived, as his driving guitar work helped rock bandmates Seamus Egan, Winnie Horan, John Williams and Karan Casey to new heights.

After leaving Solas he looked for new challenges as he continued to provide innovative rhythm guitar work from Nashville to New York and Dublin to Glasgow with countless artists seemingly with inexhaustible energy and creativity.

The past few years have seen a magical tandem with Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll, with whom he lit up the Irish Arts Center stage a couple of years ago for the PBS production of "Absolutely Irish" filmed there playing sideman to host of the top Irish American artists produced by Dr. Moloney. 

While still touring with Carroll, his principal occupation these days is as the musical director and guitarist for folk legend Joan Baez.  

For Doyle, Irvine’s music has great complexity, and Andy’s singing and sense of harmony are things that he hopes to tap into in New York. “We both love traditional music, songs and to mix them up and put them to different melodies. We have the same sensibilities because in all honesty, I’ve learned a lot from people like him, Lunny, Brady and Ewan MacColl” Doyle told me from the road with Baez.

Irvine and Doyle will have plenty to say and share with one another during the week long collaboration, and because of the unique nature of this format the public will be able to peek in midweek as both sit down for an evening interview on Wednesday, September 9 at 8 p.m. conducted by Moloney. 

He is a peerless interviewer because not only does he possess primary source material as a contemporary collaborator of both gentleman, but he also has the keen journalistic and historic insight to ask questions that many in the audience have a yen to know as well. (The interview will be free for premium ticket purchasers and center members, and just $10 for any others on the Wednesday night).

But it is the three weekend performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. in the Donaghy Theatre at the Irish Arts Center (553 West 51st Street) that will have tongues wagging for months if not longer.  

Because the theater only holds a hundred people for each show, these will be (or should be) hot tickets to procure. Premium tickets are available for $75 and general admission is $50 on a first come first served basis through Smartix at 212-868-4444 or www.smartix.com.