What do you do for relaxation when you've just finished a three-week tour of America with a highly successful Christ-mas show when you are America's leading lady in Irish traditional music?
Well, you come home off the road and prepare to throw a much anticipated Christmas party session in your own place while scrambling to contact as many of your friends and family as you can muster on short notice!
Most welcome the chance to visit the Yonkers home of Joanie Madden, who has always known that the Christmas-New Year's interlude are all about sharing good times with those close to heart.
When you spend as much time on the road as she and her Cherish the Ladies troupe, you appreciate being home for the holidays, though it doesn't mean that the instruments are put away.
Born into a large Irish-American family sired by Galwegian box legend Joe Madden and Helen Madden from the music-mad Miltown Malbay area of Clare, Joanie readily embraced traditional Irish music and endeared herself to the old guard like Jack Coen, Mike Rafferty, Mike Preston, Sean McGlynn, Mattie Connolly and so many more watching and listening intently as they played music in an era when there wasn't a hope of making money at it.
But she learned a valuable lesson that their music came from their heart, and their greatest pleasure came from sharing it among friends in social rather than commercial settings. That is part of the tradition that she is determined to uphold, and watching her pull it all together on an annual basis is still a marvel to behold and a thoroughly enjoyable one at that.
A very astute businessperson as well as a performer, Joanie learned the value of real estate and invested in a Yonkers home over 11 years ago. With the enormous assistance of her father's construction skills, she created a magnificent home on a community-minded street that welcomes her after her grueling road trips.
The centerpiece of the home is the kitchen area opening into a large 22' high family room where a piano awaits invitingly in the far corner, ideally placed to spark a music session at any time. So well conceived was this room that the Cherish the Ladies album On Christmas Night was recorded here several years ago, helping to christen it as one of those very Irish houses where the music thrives.
And so it does on those annual Yuletide gatherings where the indomitable woman of the house seems to invite the world of Irish music into the Yonkers redoubt where even the Mayor of Yonkers, Phil Amicone, makes a social appearance as a nod to the unofficial mayoress of her adopted city less than a mile where Joanie began her music in Woodlawn.
The recipe is pretty simple for a great night, especially when you can call on Momma Madden and close family friend Peggy Naughton to oversee the wide array of food, including a turkey.
Coax Papa Madden, ahem, to gather some of his favorite musicians like Mike Rafferty, Mattie Connolly, Felix Dolan and Martin Mulhaire around in a circle alongside the piano and deliver tune after tune in the fluid style that has defined Irish traditional music in New York for decades.
Throw in the occasional song from Dan Milner, Mattie Connolly or Guss Hayes to help display the wealth of talent in the room this night, which included many of the finest traditional musicians in the New York area who were even joined by some top talent from Ireland in Beoga musicians Damian McKee and Liam Bradley. The timber floor and gorgeous music proved too much of a temptation for an eager set of dancers itching to do a few figures of the Caledonian.
The familiar expression "round the house and mind the dresser" came to mind as a few pieces of crystal - including Joanie's Hall of Fame trophy she received last February - had to be secured from the wall unit.
Underscoring the significance of occasions like this, a scene unfolded before my eyes early on in the musical session that went on till the early hours. Grandpa Mike Rafferty sat across from his daughter Mary and her husband Donal Clancy, all playing feverishly with the entourage, while their two young children (Liadan, age two and Colm, six months) were at their feet taking it in all in.
Roll back the clock a few decades when Mary and Joanie were young and smitten in similar holiday music sessions and you understand the vital and essential link of traditional Irish music. Think of the Clancy family tradition and think about what great music lies in store for those young children.
Entwining family and friends in a musical knot has always been one of Joanie's most extraordinary contributions, and with her open house welcome and hospitality she carries on the tradition with the great generosity and spirit that she is her hallmark.
It is just another way that she ensures that her own devotion to the music of her forebears continues a healthy and prosperous New Year and well beyond. You go girl!
Further evidence for Miss Madden's madness for the music is her upcoming re-appearance with her New York contemporaries, Brian Conway, Billy McComiskey and Brendan Dolan, whom I dubbed the Pride of New York Ceili Band a couple of years ago in the Catskills.
They are appearing Saturday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the East Haven Irish American Community Center (www.iacc-ct.com) outside of New Haven after a triumphant concert there early last year that packed the house. It was part of very successful traditional music series organized by Pat Stratton (203-248-8396), John O'Donovan and Mary Chesley who present these concerts in a homely atmosphere that should be an example for any Irish-American center.
The PNYCB momentum has been building to the point where there is serious talk about them finding the time to get into a recording studio to document their brand of solid trad playing that has established them as the premier link between the immigrant Irish musicians who inspired and taught them and the ranks of Irish American musicians.
Outstanding musicians in their respective solo endeavors, when they appear together on the rare times when their paths intersect always bring a special sense of exuberance and heightened performance, usually to the delight of an audience who knows what they are witnessing.