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Musical history to be made at Catskills Irish Arts Week

PAUL KEATING

Catskills Irish Arts Week Artistic Director

Published Thursday, July 9, 2009, 10:44 AM

Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:36 PM

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Read more: Culture and Lifestyle, Irish Culture, Catskill Mountains, Irish Ancestry, Andy McGann, Paddy O'Brien, Brendan Dolan, Joe Madden, Entertainment, Music

Gavins listening room session at the CIAW

Photo by Timothy Raab

GIRSA

Out of that milieu springs a young teenage band of Irish American women named GIRSA (Young Girls) who parlayed their individual talents into a self-titled CD this past March that has had the greater New York community abuzz and busting its buttons over their solid and soulful approach to Irish music.

Since many of the GIRSA girls enhanced their skills at the CIAW over the summers, it is wholly appropriate that the week will draw to a close on Friday night with their very own CD launch in the Catskill Mountains, adding yet more footnotes to the continuing saga of Irish music in the Mountains.

As we look to the future of Irish music in the Catskills, it is important to glean some perspective on the past and why it has been such a dominating influence in Irish American history.

Brendan Dolan

As talented academically as he is musically, Brendan Dolan of New York University will enlighten us with a dedicated lecture on Irish America and the Catskills also at week’s end on Friday afternoon at the Weldon House (4 p.m.) which will give us all further insight on what was so valuable to us in the past, in hopes that it will remain so in the future.

One of the extremely important aspects of the CIAW is the sense of community that is shared by those who attend it who have a greater awareness of the larger community who inspired it.

Tribute to Joe Madden

The week will draw to a close with two concerts dedicated to men who symbolized all that was great about Irish music in New York. The Friday night concert is a tribute to the late Joe Madden, who passed away last November after a tragic fall just a few months after he made memorable visit and appearance in a Galway night concert last year in the Catskills.

Joe was the heart of soul of that Galway/New York influential sphere that has predominated traditional Irish music in this region. His fidelity to the music will be celebrated in a most historic concert that Friday night as the CIAW summer school ends.

The spirit of Andy McGann

On Saturday, a day long celebration takes place on the Quill Festival Grounds where the spirit of Andy McGann lives on in the festival named in honor of him. His passing in a New York hospice while the 2004 CIAW was underway sent tears and memories flooding around East Durham as people reflected on his own influence and mastery of the Sligo New York style carried on very much today because of people like him.

The CIAW is no ordinarily summer school, and East Durham is more a state of mind when this annual convocation occurs. All those memories that come with the lessons are priceless, and it is why history is not just a thing of the past in the Irish Catskills.

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Irish folk music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland. Collections of Irish folk music date from the 18th century, but ballad printers were not established in Dublin until the 19th century. By the mid-20th century, Irish folk music had fallen out fashion. Festivals such as the Fleadh Cheoil exposed people to folk. The English folk music scene also gave Irish musicians the chance to find new audiences. With the success of the Clancy Brothers in the US in 1959, it became trendy again to listen to Irish music. Later, the international success of the Chieftains made the folk music of Ireland a global brand. In the 1980s, the Pogues helped fuse Irish folk with punk rock, giving a whole new audience a chance to listen to songs influenced by the folk tradition. Enya achieved international success with New Age/Celtic fusions. Irish music also contributed a subgenre of folk metal known as Celtic metal with exponents of the genre including Cruachan, Geasa and Waylander. Audiences do not just listen to Irish music in concert halls or arenas, but in much more informal settings as well. In recent decades, patrons can listen to Irish folk musicians at pub sessions. Many fans don’t just listen to Irish music &emdash; they dance to it at weddings and saint’s days. When you listen to Irish folk music, one instrument you are likely to hear is the fiddle. The fiddling tradition of Sligo is perhaps most recognizable to outsiders, due to the popularity of American-based performers like Lad O'Beirne, Michael Coleman, John McGrath, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran. Other instruments to listen for include the flute, tin whistle and Uilleann pipes.

Musical history to be made at Catskills Irish Arts Week

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