201107 July IMDA

July 1 Irish Music & 2011 Dance Association Iúil 29th Year, Issue No. 7 The mission of the Irish Music and Dance Association is to support, coordinate, encourage and promote high quality activities and programs in Irish music, dance, and other cultural traditions within the community and to insure the continuation of those traditions. Sounds of the Old Sod Inside this issue: From his heart to CD, O’Brien records the traditional Irish songs of his youth Tune of the Month 2 By Bill Stieger (Reprinted with permission from The Villager) Gaelic Corner 3 Name the Tea Room 4 Paddy O’Brien is one busy man. The Irish-born accordionist from Highland Park performed in May all across California and Oregon with his trio Chulrua. In March he toured greater Minnesota July Calendar 6-7 with Chulrua and his singer-wife Erin Hart. However, his main focus over the past few years has Cu Ceoil 8 been “The Sailor’s Cravat,” a new CD that he will release with a concert and party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at Celtic Junction, 836 N. Prior Ave. An Leabhragán 9 “The Sailor’s Cravat” comes on the heels of volume II of “The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection,” a Herculean labor at which O’Brien has been working since 1995. Volumes I and II of “The Paddy The Ceili Calendar 10 O’Brien Tune Collection” include 1,000 songs that O’Brien has recorded from memory—or about IMDA Picnic 12 one quarter of the traditional Irish songs that he says he knows by heart. “I started the recordings because, I thought, ‘What would happen if me memory went out?’” he said. “I learned ’em all by ear, playin’ for a lifetime. It came natural to me, like liftin’ a potato up by a fork and eatin’ it. But what if I started to forget?” “The Sailor’s Cravat” is a comparatively modest collection of 17 traditional Irish songs that O’Brien recorded with Hart on vocals, Tom Schaefer on fiddle and Paul Wehling on the Greek bouzouki. “The Greek bouzouki fits well into Irish music,” O’Brien said. O’Brien, 65, has earned an international reputation as an accordionist. He won the All- Ireland Senior Accordion Championship in 1975 and is a four-time regional accordion champion. “Paddy is just a monster of a musician,” said Gary Bartig, a fiddler and luthier who served as the sound engineer on O’Brien’s new CD. “His timing, feel, syncopation…it’s nearly perfect. And his fidelity to traditional Irish music is unshakeable. We’re very lucky to have him living in St. Paul. He’s a tremendously talented artist.” O’Brien taught himself how to play the accordion as a child by listening to the elder musicians in his native County Offaly. His style is old school in the best sense of the term. O’Brien was first captivated by traditional Irish music while listening to a radio show broadcast from Dublin. “The radio announcer would travel all over Ireland with a mobile recordin’ unit,” he said. “He’d find musicians and then play the recordings on the show. Sometimes, he’d bring the bands to Dublin and have them play live on his show. That’s how I was introduced to the traditional music.” O’Brien moved to the Twin Cities in 1983 and became part of its burgeoning Irish music scene. He plays in the traditional Irish musical trio Chulrua with Patrick Ourceau of Toronto and Eamon O’Leary of New York City. He also leads two traditional Irish ensembles based in the Twin Cities, the seven-piece O’Rourke’s Feast and the six-piece Doon Ceili Band. When asked about the more pop-oriented Irish music of recent years recorded by such artists as Enya, Celtic Woman and Riverdance, O’Brien said, “I’m reluctant to complain about that aspect of the music. Those musicians have feelings, too. It’s a sensitive business, that. But I must say there seems to be a certain intelligence missin’ there. I think they don’t know any better.” That is something O’Brien would like to change. Copies of the 23-CD “The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection” are available in the Library of Congress’ Archive of Folk Culture, the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts and by visiting www. paddyobrien.net. “It’s important to preserve the music,” O’Brien said. “And it’s important to record it rather than to have it written down. You don’t get the music from a sheet. The feelin’ and inflection are so important, and you can’t get that off of a sheet of paper.” O’Brien said he loves living in St. Paul, where Irish music is revered and funded. “I’ll be playin’ a festival in Madison, Wisconsin, in July,” he said. Later this summer, he will be teaching a workshop in traditional Irish music in Arizona. “And in September, it’ll be back to Ireland where I’ll be tourin’ with a fine guitarist and singer named Tom O’Sullivan of County Kerry,” he said. “I’m also in the middle of writin’ me memoir.” If that isn’t enough, O’Brien may set to work on the third volume of his Irish tune collection. “I’ve got a few more thousand tunes up in me head,” he said. “It’d be a shame to put ’em to waste.” www.IMDAwww.IMDA----MN.orgMN.org Irish Music & 2 Dance Association The IMDA Board is : Tune of the Month by Amy Shaw President: Lisa Conway Treasurer: Mark Malone Here’s another grand old tune from Comb Your Hair and Curl It, the Secretary: Jan Casey CD released last year by Catherine McEvoy (flute), Caoimhín Ó Board Members: Suin Swann Raghallaigh (fiddle), and Micheál Ó Raghallaigh (concertina). Ruth McGlynn Various American tunes have been called the Virginia Reel because Patrick Cole they were played for a particular dance known by the same name. Editor: John Burns But this one is an Irish tune, named after the town of Virginia in Co. th IMDA Board Meetings are open to the membership. Cavan. The town, located near Lough Ramor, dates from the 17 - The Board meets regularly on the First Tuesday of each century Plantation of Ulster, during which land owned by Irish month at 6 pm at Perkins in HarMar. Members are encouraged to verify the time and location shortly before, chieftains was confiscated and essentially colonized by settlers from as meeting times and locations can change. Great Britain. Like the Virginia in America, it was named after Elizabeth I, England’s “Virgin Queen.” Today, the town of Virginia Contact Information produces dairy products that go into the making of Bailey’s Irish Write to: Cream and in the autumn it hosts Ireland’s only pumpkin festival! Irish Music and Dance Association 236 Norfolk Ave NW Elk River, MN 55330 An interesting feature of this D reel is that it begins on a G chord. Call: 612-990-3122 Garrett Barry (1847-1899), the renowned piper from Inagh, County E-mail: [email protected] Clare, customarily paired it with Garrett Barry’s Reel. Newsletter Submissions Usual disclaimers: Any transcription errors are my own. The We welcome our readers to submit articles of interest, news, and notices of events to be published in the newsletter. notation here is not meant to be a substitute for listening. It is The deadline is the 20th o f the preceding month. simply an aid to learning the tune. Send to: [email protected] www.IMDAwww.IMDA----MN.orgMN.org Irish Music & 3 Dance Association The Gaelic Corner By Will Kenny We have scheduled our annual summer weekend can see a series of interesting things, or "scenes," in an workshop (although in a new time, format, and location, amharclann , or "theater." more information below), and the Irish word for "workshop" is ceardlann . Rather than use the most While the word dia was once used to mean "day," it isn't common word for "work," obair , this term is built around used that way anymore. But we still refer to your dialann , ceard , or "artisan." your "collection of days," which is your "diary" or "journal." The suffix -lann indicates a And the Irish would understand why our collection or gathering of "Land of 10,000 Lakes" boasts such a something. Ceardlann , then, strong Scandinavian heritage. Their word implies some kind of bringing for a Scandinavian or "Norseman" (also together of artisans or for "marauder") is Lochlannach . (A Dubh craftspeople, a group of -Lochlannach , a "dark" one, would be a individuals who create something. Like its English Dane, and a Fionn-Lochlannach , a "fair" one, would be a counterpart, it no doubt began as a reference to the more Norwegian!) The heart of that word, lochlann , would refer physical workshops where things are made, and has come to a place where many lakes ( loch ) are to be found. No to be used more broadly. wonder they liked it here! There are many interesting -lann words, some of which As mentioned, we have scheduled the Bernie Morgan are quite straightforward, some of which are slightly less Memorial Workshop for Saturday and Sunday, July 30-31 , so. Bring books ( leabhar ) together, and you get a at St. John's University in Collegeville. (Bernie was a leabharlann , which is a "library." And you may have wonderfully enthusiastic student and volunteer with encountered a cultúrlann on a trip to Ireland, a "cultural Gaeltacht Minnesota who passed away at the beginning of center." If you like to gamble, keep your díslí in your the year).

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