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Irish
Music Magazine, October 2006
IRELAND
IN AMERICA:
Around the World and Mind the Dresser
by Tom Clancy
Tom
Clancy catches up with The Doon Céilí Band, who are based
in Minnesota and have released a new album on Shanachie Records.
Stanley
Crouch, the American jazz critic, explains how musical
quality endures with this phrase: “If it ever was good, it always will
be
good.” That probably sums up Paddy O’Brien’s thinking about
céilí bands as one
part of the great panoply of Irish traditional music. O’Brien is the
driving
force behind The Doon Céilí Band that is thriving in the
somewhat unlikely
setting of the Twin Cities–Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota. The
band’s
new album, Around the World for Sport, has just been released
on
Shanachie Records (Shanachie 23001) and it’s a delightful and faithful
homage
to the classic céilí band sound.
A
quiet revival of the céilí band tradition seems to have
been
underway for a number of years now spurred no doubt by the
corresponding
resurgence of interest in Irish dancing in the wake of Riverdance.
Céilí
dancing has taken root in a big way in the Twin Cities and it’s not
unheard of
for people to travel from the larger centers of Milwaukee or Chicago
for
dances.
I
asked Paddy O’Brien about his musical influences. A big one,
he acknowledges, was the Castle Céilí Band. He was a
member for a number of
years. The band included many luminaries in the field of Irish
traditional
music, past and present: John Kelly, Michael Tubridy, Joe Ryan, Bridie
Lafferty, Mick O’Connor, John Dwyer and Sean Keane. O’Brien recalls
that the
band featured a number of Leitrim and Sligo flute tunes.
The
Doon Céilí Band was formed in 2003 in Saint Paul which
has
been home to O’Brien for twenty years. The legendary accordion player
and tune
collector from Co Offaly, O’Brien was impressed with the quality of
local
musicians and their enthusiasm for the older music. The band actually
came
together over a number of years as O’Brien identified musicians who
could play
some of the older, neglected melodies.
One
of O’Brien’s issues with some of the older céilí bands
who
pumped out the reels and jigs, is that “… the melody can pass you by.”
He was
determined to avoid this with The Doon Céilí Band. “The
Doon was kind of an
experiment, really, to see if young Americans could play the old tunes
with the
right kind of feeling and expression. I think our experience has proven
that
they can.”
O'Brien's
vision was for a céilí band based on the classic
fiddle and flute combination. So they began with three flutes and two
fiddles.
Then a piano was added to enhance the rhythm. Paddy also selected a
repertoire
based on his passionate and extensive study of the music. There is a
distinctive Clare influence to many of the tunes, with Mrs. Crotty and
Micho
Russell as tune sources.
Jode
Dowling, one of the fiddle players in the band, told me
that he and his wife Kate (who plays flutes and whistles in the band)
were also
looking for opportunities to play with O’Brien who was not very active
in the
local sessions at that time. Dowling said that Saint Paul had a
tight-knit
Irish community going back to the 1950s. “Martin McHugh from Roscommon
was a
well-known player and teacher who was the link between that era and the
current
Irish musicians in the city.” Dáithí Sproule and
Seán O’Driscoll also settled
in the area and helped to build up the interest in Irish music and
culture.
 Dowling said that the band was
composed of individuals and combinations that had played together in
other
groups and this allowed the band to come together quickly and produce a
unified
and rhythmic sound. I asked Jode how they worked on playing tunes in
unison
when the band was forming? “It’s hard work. We practiced a lot in the
early
stages, at least once a week, just getting all the notes straight.”
O’Brien has
a famously exact memory for melodies and a repository of tapes and old
recordings
to make sure that tunes are note-perfect.
Dowling
was born in the US of Irish parents and started playing
Irish music at a young age. His mother Betty is from the fiddling
homeland of
Gurteen, Co. Sligo. His father is from a musical family in Tullamore,
Co.
Offaly. Growing up in Milwaukee, he was exposed to some great musicians
who
came to play at the annual Irish music festival. Dowling is also a
fiddle
instructor and organiser of the Center for Irish Music, a music school
with
more than 50 students under age 21. “It’s our effort to support the
next
generation of Irish musicians,” Dowling said.
The
other fiddler in the band is Django Amerson who also had
the good fortune of growing up next to the annual Festival of American
Fiddle
Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington. There he got his first lessons at a
young
age from fiddle gurus such as Liz Carroll, Dale Russ and Brendan
Mulvihill.
The
flute and whistle section includes Laura MacKenzie who
began playing traditional music at céilís within the
Saint Paul Irish-American
community. Kate Dowling, originally from Chicago, has dedicated over 20
years
to the whistle and in the last few years, has also started playing the
flute.
Last but not least on the flutes is Brian Miller who became interested
in
playing Irish music as a high-schooler up in Bemidji, Minnesota. Miller
has
performed extensively throughout the region as well as acting as an
on-call
guitar player for a number of top Irish musicians who have passed
through the
Twin Cities.
Sean
Egan plays piano in the band. He first began playing Irish
music with Noel Rice and Sean Cleland in the seminal Chicago Irish band
Baal
Tinne, while studying music at DePaul University. Sean is a
multi-instrumentalist
who plays in a variety of groups and settings.
The
selections on the album show the finely-tuned ear that
O’Brien brings to all his musical endevours. Many of the melodies are
unusual
or rarely recorded. For those who like to play Spot the Tune keep an
ear open
for a variation on Poll Ha’penny
and the old Clannad song, Teidher
Abhaile Riu.
A
few tracks really stand out for me on the album. The Dew on
the Grass, a rarely heard Carolan composition, gets a fine
treatment with the
sound built up slowly and sweetly. This track and a few others show off
the
individual talents of players to great effect, something that is not
always
associated with céilí bands. The Portuguese Waltz, a whistle and
accordion-based version of that great march, The Battle of Aughrim, and
two
rollicking polkas are also worth a mention. And, of course, there are
plenty of
hard-driving but precisely delivered reels to shake a leg at in the
generous
19-track recording.
Above
all, the music bears the stamp of Paddy himself, and it’s
accentuated by the contribution of styles and energies of the other
players in
the band. O’Brien contributes the notes on the tunes and they are
masterly
descriptions of sources and influences.
O’Brien
has lived and worked in the Far North for many years
now, up among the Lutherans and Scandinavians. And, if I can borrow a
favouite
phrase from Garrison Keillor—that
great chronicler of Minnesota life on the
radio show A Prarie Home Companion—give
a listen to The Doon Céilí Band where all
the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the tunes
are above
average.
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