From Shore to Shore; Retrospective Reels
- Okay. Thank you.
- Thank you.
- [Tom] Thank you so much.
- Go, right, right there!
- It's wonderful to go to a flock show. It's wonderful to go to a feis. It's wonderful to go to an outdoor concert or an indoor concert and see the response of people who are uninitiated, who have never heard this music before to hear the feet tapping in time to the musician's feet, to see people moving, swaying to the music and getting involved in it. I think the initial attraction for any non-musician in this music, and I can speak for myself and personal experience, is that you fall in love with this music. You know, it's honest music. It doesn't pretend to be something that it's not.
- [Speaker] Well done.
- Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to "Women in Irish Music and Song."
- [Speaker] One, two.
- [Speaker] Whew! Whew, whew!
- [Speaker] I'll be there.
- Is that how you do the ending there? That's not the ending. I can do the other.
- This one is one you leave till the very end.
- All right. Is that right?
- Well, I thought of doing it like that.
- [Speaker] There's Mrs. Potter.
- You come on in right here. Right there. Right there, right there. Yeah. Try it on, try, just do one on your own. Now put it in the tune.
- Most of the Irish sounds are very sorrowful. They're tragic songs or sad love stories about the girl going off or the father going off. This particular song is about the boy going off to war and leaving the girl at home and she is singing the song as to why are you going off to war and leaving me here?
- From Mountcharles in County Donegal, and one of the few gentlemen who can still play the single row accordion, the melodion, in a way that defies description, please welcome Tom Doherty. And sitting to Tom's left is one of the finest Irish fiddlers ever, from County Longford, a member of the New York Ceilidh Band, just absolute brilliant musician, please welcome Paddy Reynolds. And performing yeoman's service here tonight, as I mentioned to him backstage, once more on the keyboards, Felix Dolan. So please give a warm welcome to Maureen Doherty, Tom Doherty, Paddy Reynolds, and Felix Dolan.
- A plain old set dance, I'd like to play this as a tribute to Lad O'Beirne. I learned this particular tune off him. It's known as "Planxty Maggie Browne."
- Oi.
- I almost blew it.
- I'm gonna wind up here with one more song. There was one recurring theme just about everywhere I traveled, which puzzled me at first, but finally, I decided to have a little fun with it. And this is the result. Now if you can pick up on the chorus of this, if you feel like singing along here, help me out a little bit, I'd like to hear you, okay.
♪ When first I came to the U.S.A. with my guitar in hand ♪
♪ I was told that I could get a job ♪
♪ Singing songs from Ireland ♪
♪ So I headed up to Boston, I was sure to be alright ♪
♪ But the very first night I got on the stage ♪
♪ I was in for a big surprise ♪
♪ They said, you're not Irish, you can't be Irish ♪
♪ You don't know Danny Boy ♪
♪ Or Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral or even Irish Eyes ♪
♪ You've got the hell of a nerve to say ♪
♪ You came from Ireland ♪
♪ So cut out all the nonsense and sing MacNamara's Band ♪
That was the chorus.
♪ To tell the truth, I got quite a shock ♪
♪ And I didn't know what to say ♪
♪ So I sang a song in Gaelic ♪
♪ I thought that might win the day ♪
♪ But they looked at me suspiciously ♪
♪ And I didn't know what was wrong ♪
♪ Then all of a sudden they started to shout ♪
♪ Now sing a real Irish song ♪
♪ Oh, you're not Irish, you can't be Irish ♪
♪ You don't know Danny Boy ♪
♪ Or Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral or even Irish Eyes ♪
♪ You've got the hell of a nerve to say ♪
♪ You came from Ireland ♪
♪ So cut out all the nonsense and sing MacNamara's Band ♪
♪ Well, I've traveled all round the country ♪
♪ But it's always been the same ♪
♪ From L.A. to Philadelphia and from Washington to Maine ♪
♪ Sometimes now I wonder if it's a secret society ♪
♪ And it doesn't matter wherever I go ♪
♪ They'll be waiting there for me ♪
♪ Saying, you're not Irish, you can't be Irish ♪
♪ You don't know Danny Boy ♪
♪ Or Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral or even Irish Eyes ♪
♪ You've got the hell of a nerve to say ♪
♪ You came from Ireland ♪
♪ So cut out all the nonsense and sing MacNamara's Band ♪
♪ Yah da da, dah ♪
♪ Da da, da da, dah ♪
♪ Ya da da, dah, da da, da da, da da ♪
Thank you very much. Thank you.
- [Caller] Go around your partner once. Left hand to your corner. Right hand back to your partner. Go around your partner one and a half times. Left hand to your opposite and back to your partner.
- [Speaker] Penguin, lift up the leg! Hold your down, right foot.
- [Speaker] I'm gonna try some in four. Whew!
- The last one is "Kipeen Scanlon's Reel."
- [Becky] So you hear tunes and you write them all down?
- Well anymore, I do have to do that, because I have trouble in remembering things. It just keeps it for myself, like.
- [Becky] And why do you do it in pencil rather than pen?
- It might be wrong. And then you'd have a mess .
- [Becky] And so you hear the tune and you can remember it well enough to write it down?
- [Martin] Ah no, I record it on my own little tape recorder. It's a painful business then.
- [Becky] Do you think you've written down every single tune you know?
- Ah no, it's only the ones that I don't know. The ones that I know from way back, like I learned them when I was young so I will never forget them, you know. Did you ever hear a tune called "The Loch On The Strand." It's a-
- I think so.
- It's an awful strange kind of a jig. Coleman had it on a record too, but that is, because it doesn't have the ending where it should have.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh, you know that.
- No, no, I'm reading it, but it sounds familiar.
- Oh, oh sure, you just read it like that.
- So tonight is also a special occasion, because it's a very important musical event to have Andy and Brian here playing together with Peter Solan as the pianist, the finest piano accompanist in Irish music around here. But for right now, give a good welcome to Andy McGann, Brian Conway, and Peter Solan.
- Can you do the extra part?
- Thank you.
- [Interviewer] Did you have to work real hard to learn the music note for note or did it come more or less naturally?
- I think it came more or less naturally to me. I never, I can't remember having much difficulty with picking a tune up either by ear or by note. In fact, in fact, I probably knew most about, I probably picked up most of my music by ear after hearing it a few times, and especially if I like the tune, it will stick in my head.
- [Person In Audience] Play it again!
- I used to watch my father play, and I didn't think it was strange. I didn't stare at him or say that chording's amazing or that tune is amazing. It was just always around, and it was always there. I didn't think twice about it. It was just there, you know. I learned tunes from my dad, I think later on in life, when I started to appreciate him more. I took for granted the tunes that were played in the house And as you get older you say these tunes may not be around for so much longer and they may not be played by him for too much longer, so I started to appreciate him more and say, "Dad, let's sit down, teach me this tune." My dad plays a lot of the older-style tunes which I think a lot of people really don't have. And if they do, they don't play them that much anymore. He was born in Donegal and he picked up a lot of mazurkas, lot of dance tunes. They're simple tunes, but just the way he plays them just gives him that much life.
- It's hard to explain the state. You see, you do more with the ballast, this, when you work on the ballast in and out, than they do with the ordinary accordion. I'll just play a little piece of this tune and see what I mean. Do you see what I mean?
- Yeah.
- See the way I have shake. You'll mark it, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Why did you come to the United States?
- For the same reason that the first Irishman came in 1840, economic reasons. I came here to make a living. I couldn't get no nothing to do or no work back in the old country. There was nothing there for me. Every Irishman I ever knew, and myself included, would give the world that we could have done in Ireland for ourselves and our families what we did here. We owe this country a lot, but it is sad that we all have to come over here to do it, that we couldn't do it, where we came from.
- You have two fine, upstanding characters in state here. They're sitting down now, which I suppose, uilleann pipers and accordion players have to do in order to back them up yourself. And so, and on the uilleann pipes Jerry O'Sullivan and the accordion James Keane, give them a welcome.
- [Speaker] You saying it's rolling?
- [Interviewer] It's rolling, okay. Hi guys, how you doing tonight?
- Good.
- [Interviewer] I just wondering why you're here. Why are you here.
- Ah, 'cause we're Irish.
- Yeah, we're Irish.
- [Interviewer] All three of you are Irish?
- We're proud to be Irish.
- Yeah.
- Irish and I'm proud of it.
- We're gonna teach some simple steps to you guys out there, so Ha, back out your left, out. Ha, back out your right, out, and back, back four and one, two, three, four. And hop one, two, three, go, and then out and back and hop, one, two, three, four. Out, hop back. Now right, out, and left, out, and back right and out. Hop back, hop one, two, then left, hop, hop back and hop one, two, three, four. And then out. Then up, hop back and then out, hop back, out, hop back. Left leg, kick it out. Then up, then back and then one, two, three, four, then up. Out, then back again, out. Out, then back. Out, then back. Out, then back and out, then back and out, then back and one, two, three, four. Yay, thanks.
- [Announcer] Maureen Glynn, Buddy Connolly, and Peter Mancuso.
- Maureen Glynn's great, fabulous teacher, you know. Rally good I just saw one of her kids last week, and I said, "who's your teacher?" I don't generally ask that, but it was Maureen's, great old way of playing. Good old traditional style. Lot of good musicians she's taught around here. I don't even know what the kid's name is. I think the kid's name is Connolly, a little 13 year old kid, but she had a great old way of, like an old farmer. She was only 13.
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay ♪
♪ Oh, ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
♪ Well, the Saint, he gave her such a shove ♪
♪ Right down to the base of the river. ♪
♪ But no more of the Saint is now here ♪
♪ For he died of the cold water shivers ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay, hey ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
♪ Well, there is a moral to all of this tale ♪
♪ And I thought that I might now hear mention ♪
♪ It can never be right to do wrong ♪
♪ No matter how good the intention ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
♪ Ri fol di dol, lol di de lay ♪
♪ Ah, ri fol di dol, lol di de laddy ♪
Thank you.
- Lovely.
- Well, that was rough and ready. Thank you.
- You mentioned earlier about whether the music will flourish, whether it'll survive, and I think that a lot will have to do with how well the festivals that have cropped up in the last 10, 15 years do. For instance, the one we're at here today, Snug Harbor is doing very well. We've got a lot of dedicated people who are keeping the music in this area alive. This is a central location where people can come and listen to the music. I look forward to coming to these festivals whether I'm asked to play formally or not, because it's a reunion of people. And everybody comes here every summer. People bring their tape recorders. They listen, they learn tunes, they pick up tunes, and it's like Ireland.
- [Announcer] Again, that was Josephine McNamara. Take a bow there. Music by Brian Connolly and Bruno Canstiff.
- [Interviewer] Tell us about your dad, Michael Coleman. He's like this legendary figure in all of our minds.
- Well, he was very talented and very special, but I just took for granted. He's there and he plays, and it's great and all the musicians came and it was wonderful, but you didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary, really.
- [Interviewer] So do you think your dad was aware of how important his records were, like in Ireland and in the United States?
- I'm sure he was, but he never made much out of himself. He was very not proud. I know he was pretty sure of himself, and I used to love to see when he played the violin when I was little, and he'd always look at me and kind of give me that smile. Like boy, look at me, you know. And he knew he was good but he was never a flaunter or a person to make a big deal out of anything.
- I took violin lessons, and I had a few little tunes. Later on when I met Lad, I played "Miss McCloud's Reel" with him, and when I heard him playing, I put down the violin and I never took it up after that. And in those days he really was great. There's no two ways about it.
- [Interviewer] Did he ever talk to you about his music?
- That's all we ever talked about was music because we lived so close to one another in Ireland, when there'd be a dance in my mother's and father's house, I would be sent down the road to invite his father and him up to play at the dance in our house, which was about five, ten minutes between two houses. So that's all we ever talked about was music. Our parties on New Year's Eve in the Bronx were just-
- Oh yes.
- Last all night long.
- [Interviewer] What did you guys do during these?
- Generally in the kitchen, making tea.
- Making tea and making sandwiches.
- Soda bread-
- Making a drink! Or make a new drink, right.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's kind of what you did-
- We were always busy in the kitchen a long time ago.
- [Mary] Well.
- Hm.
- [Interviewer] So tell me about the dance parties that you used to have at your home in Cambridge.
- Well, we used to have a parties for birthdays and people would come over and play music.
- [Interviewer] So what'd you do during these parties?
- During these parties I would say I probably danced in a corner, and I listened to the music. I loved the music, especially the fiddles. The fiddles, boy, when they take them out of the cases and tuned them up, it drove me crazy. It drove me to dance . I was very involved in the dancing. I was a really good dancer and I loved to dance.
- [Interviewer] Did you ever win?
- I used to win quite a bit. I was very good, but I didn't dance because I wanted to win. Every little kid wants to win, but I wasn't too disappointed if I didn't win, because I just loved to dance so much. In fact, there was no trophies when I was little. So you didn't win for the trophy. You just danced because you love to dance and you love the music. I felt that it was the most important part of my life. Like, I always wanted to dance, and this was my outlet for dancing. Also the relationship with my father. We had a great relationship and there was a real friendship going there. And I suppose it's because the music and the dance.
- [Interviewer] And why do you keep playing Irish music? What's, what's?
- I keep playing Irish music because I have a deep love for the music. And for the same reason it brings me back to my childhood and my past. And I truly love the old, traditional music I always did.
- [Interviewer] Are people looking for something when it comes to learning Irish music?
- They're looking for an identity of themselves. Like, Irish music is my identity. I feel that that's what I am.
- [Speaker] That's the first time.
- [Speaker] There you go, Rory.
- [Speaker] Thank you.
