Radio Rebel Gael: Best of 2006

Radio Rebel Gael

As we conclude this year and look forward to a new Era with a new Celtic Dawn in the New Year, I felt it imperative to list the top ten Irish Rebel, Paddy Punk and Celtic Rock albums of the year, as well as the top ten singles of 2006 !

Erin Go Bragh!

DJ Rory Dubhdara

Radio Rebel Gael

Top Ten Albums of 2006:


1. Neck "Here's Mud In Yer Eye" CD

http://www.neck.ie

2. The Killigans "Brown Bottle Hymnal" CD

http://www.thekilligans.com

3. The Tossers " The Valley of the Shadow of Death" CD


http://www.thetossers.com/


4. Blood or Whiskey " Cashed Out On Culture" CD

http://www.bloodorwhiskey.com/

5. The Larkin Brigade "Paddy Keys for Mayor" CD

http://www.thelarkinbrigade.com/


6. Greenland Whalefishers " Down & Out" CD

http://www.g-w-f.com/

7. The Wages of Sin "Custom of the Sea" CD


http://www.thewages.com/

8. Sharky Doyles "Back Of The Yards" CD

http://www.sharkydoyles.com/

9. Ray Collins "As I Roved Back" CD

http://www.raycollinsmusic.com/


10. J.D & The Longfellows " Confessions" CD

http://www.jdandthelongfellows.com/

Top Ten Singles of 2006:

1. "Mise Eire" Seanchai & The Unity Squad

http://www.seanchai.com/

2. "Here's Mud In Yer Eye" Neck

http://www.neck.ie/

3. "A Criminal of Me" The Tossers

http://www.thetossers.com/

4. "Final Transmission" Street Dogs

http://www.street-dogs.com/

5. "Saturday Saints" The Wages of Sin

http://www.thewages.com/

6. "Freedom's Sons" Sharky Doyles

http://www.sharkydoyles.com/

7. "Down & Out" Greenland Whalefishers

http://www.g-w-f.com/

8. "Story of Tom Mathine" The Killigans

http://www.thekilligans.com/

9. "The Banshee Went to Outer Space" The Larkin Brigade

http://www.thelarkinbrigade.com/

10. "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" Dropkick Murphys

http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/

Ancient Irish Music

From A History of Irish Music

by William H. Grattan Flood

MUSIC is a universal language, appealing to the very soul of man, and is the outpouring of the heart, whether to express joy or sorrow, to rouse to battle or soothe to sleep, to give expression or jubilation for the living or of wailing for the dead, to manifest sympathy with society or devotion to the Deity. It is, as Thomas Davis writes, "the first faculty of the Irish." He goes on as follows:--

"No enemy speaks slightingly of Irish Music, and no friend need fear to boast of it. It is without a rival Its antique war-tunes, such as those of O'Byrne, O'Donnell, MacAlistrum and Brian Boru, stream and crash upon the ear like the warriors of a hundred glens meeting; and you are borne with them to battle, and they and you charge and struggle amid cries and battle-axes and stinging arrows. Did ever a wail make man's marrow quiver and fill his nostrils with the breath of the grave, like the ululu of the North or the wirrasthrue [A Muire ir Truag] of Munster?"

In ancient Ireland the systems of law, medicine, poetry, and music, according to Keating, "were set to music, being poetical compositions." Vallancey tells us that the bards, specially selected from amongst noble youths of conspicuous stature and beauty, "had a distinctive dress of five colours, and wore a white mantle and a blue cap ornamented with a gold crescent." The curriculum for an ollamh (bard) extended to twelve years and more, at the expiration of which he was given the doctor's cap, that is, the barréd, and the title of ollamh.

Keating assures us that Cormac Mac Art, Ard Righ [Head King] of Ireland (A.D. 254-277), had in his court ten persons in constant attendance:--1, A Prince for companion; 2, a Brehon; 3, a Druid; 4, a Chief Physician; 5, an Ollamh;, 6, an Ard File [head poet]; 7, an Ollamh re ceoil "with a band of music [oirfideadh] to soften his pillow and solace him in times of relaxation:" 8, three stewards of the household. The ollamh, or ollav, be it understood, was the Chief Bard, whilst the oirfideacha were the instrumental musicians. Cormac himself was styled "Ceolach," or the Musical.

Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his monumental Literary History of Ireland, gives by far the clearest and most succinct account of the bardic classifications. The real poet was the file (of which profession there were seven grades), to whom the bard was the merest second fiddle. The Bards were divided into the Saor or patrician class, and Daor or plebeians--with eight grades in each class. They were poets, not musicians--a fact which has not unfrequently been overlooked by writers on this subject.

It is now absolutely certain that the Irish were a literary people long before the coming of St. Patrick; and we have Ogham stones yet preserved which date from the third century, The codices of St. Gall and Bobbio--valuable as they are--must yield supremacy to the oghams, which undoubtedly furnish us with specimens of Gaelic grammar earlier than any known writings. The Irish alphabetic inscriptions in ogham which have survived the hurly-burly of seventeen centuries are mostly on stone, though they were also written on rings, wooden tablets, ivory, bone, gold, silver, lead, crystals, twigs, etc. So far, that is up to the present year (1904), about 340 oghams have been discovered; and whilst some of them are decidedly Christian, the greater number are pagan. Moreover, the deciphering of these quasi-cryptic oghams has been a veritable triumph for the authenticity of ancient Irish history and tradition.

Sixty years ago the savants sneeringly asserted that our ogham inscriptions were "mere tricks of the middle ages, and founded on the Roman alphabet."

Now, however, owing to the researches of Brash, Ferguson, Graves, Rhys, Barry, Power, Macalister and others, the reading of the mystic strokes is almost an exact science.

The very word ogham suggests at once a musical signification, and, therefore, it is of the very highest importance to claim for Ireland the earliest form of musical tablature.

In MacFirbis's MS. Book of Genealogies, there is mention of the three great Tuatha de Danann musicians, viz., Music, Sweet, and Sweet-String, i.e., CEOL, BIND, and TETBIND, whilst the chief harper was named Uathne, or Harmony. Our most ancient writers agree that the Milesians, in their first expedition to Ireland, were accompanied by a harper. The Dinn Seanchus, compiled by Amergin MacAmalgaid (MacAwley), circ. A.D. 544, relates that "in the time of Geide, monarch of Ireland, A. M. 3143, the people deemed each other's voices sweeter than the warblings of a melodious harp; such peace and concord reigned among them that no music could delight them more than the sound of each other's voice." In the same ancient tract there is mention made of music, in the Vision of Cahir Mor, King of Ireland. However, passing over the ages that may be regarded as quasi-fabulous, we come to the close of the third century, when we are on fairly solid historical ground. At this early period the number of Irish minstrels was very great; and there is a record of nine different musical instruments in use.

Heccataeus, the great geographer quoted by Diodorus, is the first who mentions the name Celt, and he describes the Celts of Ireland, five hundred years before Christ, as singing songs in praise of Apollo, and playing melodiously on the harp. The Galatians, who spoke Celtic in the time of St. Jerome, sang sweetly.

There is scarcely any room for doubt that the pre-Christian inhabitants of Ireland had the use of letters, the ogham scale, and the ogham music tablature. The Bressay inscription furnishes an early example of music scoring; and it is quite apparent that the inscriber regarded the ogham and the quaint tablature employed as one and the same--in fact, three of the mystic strokes are identical with three musical signs.

Inasmuch, therefore, as there are genuine ogham inscriptions dating from the third century, we are forced to believe that the music tablature also co-existed at the same early period. Not a little remarkable is it that the very name of ogham writing, namely, Bethluisnin, or Birch Alder tree, is derivable from a tree or branch; and the Irish letters--sixteen in number--are perfectly unique of their kind. Moreover, the trees were called after the letters, and not, as some have alleged, the letters after the trees.

The music pupils in pre-Christian Irish schools had their music staves; and O'Curry describes for us the Headless Staves of the Poets, i.e., squared staves, used for walking (or purposes of defence), when closed, and for writing on, when open, in the shape of fans. And, regarding the advanced state of our ancient bardic poetry, Constantine Nigra writes:

--"The first certain examples of rhyme are found on Celtic soil and amongst Celtic nations, in songs made by poets, who are either of Celtic origin themselves or had long resided among the Celtic races. . . . Final assonance, or rhyme, can have been derived solely from the laws of Celtic philology."

Archbishop Healy tells us that St. Patrick "taught the sons of the bards how to chant the Psalms of David, and sing together the sweet music of the Church's hymns." He adds: "They might keep their harps and sing the songs of Erin's heroic youth, as in the days of old. But the great saint taught them how to tune their harps to loftier strains than those of the banquet hall or the battle-march."

Apropos of the Psalms of David, Biblical commentators agree that the music of the Apostolic age was derived from the Jewish psalmody. The Apostles themselves "adapted" the psalm tunes of the Temple, but, as the Hebrews had no musical notation, the Synagogal chants and melodies, which must have been simple, were handed down traditionally. Very little is actually known of even the shape of the Jewish instruments, as not a single bas relief exists by which we can accurately judge. However, in regard to the vocal department, we can assume that a monotonous recitative gradually developed into occasional modulations, and, in process of time, worked up to an ambitious form of roulade. An irregular form of chant, designated cantillation, was the primitive system of psalm-singing; and it is worthy of note that the modern Arabs recite the Koran in this manner.

Many elaborate essays have been written on Hebrew accents, but, unfortunately, it seems that these accents expressed both the interval, or movement of the voice, and also the melodic succession of notes, with an array of embellishment. Moreover, as Sir John Stainer says, "some of the vowel accents of Hebrew became tonal accents if placed in a particular place with regard to the letters forming the words," which, of course, increases our difficulty in attempting any translation. As is well known, the Hebrews utilized poetry and music as a sort of medium for religious worship, whereas the Greeks cultivated music and the kindred arts solely for arts sake--and thereby evolved an ideal mythological world.

Most musicians are now agreed that the early Christian musical system was not altogether founded on the Greek modes, as, apart from other arguments, the ecclesiastical modes could in no wise be accommodated to Pythagorean tonality. Moreover, for over three hundred years, the early Christians, that is, the Christians of the Catacombs, could not possibly have any ornate form of service; and the music of that period must needs have been of a primitive nature.

Dr. W. H. Cummings, one of the most eminent living English musicians, thus writes:

"I believe the Irish had the diatonic scale as we have it to-day. It was the advent of the Church scales which supplanted that beautiful scale." More recently, Father Bewerunge, Professor of Ecclesiastical Chant in Maynooth College, expresses his conviction as follows:--

"It is thought that the old Irish melodies contain within them the germ that may be developed into a fresh luxuriant growth of Irish music. Now, the Irish melodies belong to a stage of musical development very much anterior to that of Gregorian chant. Being based fundamentally on a pentatonic scale, they reach back to a period altogether previous to the dawn of musical history."

On Easter Sunday, 433, Duththach (Duffy) MacLugair, chief bard of Ireland, gave his adhesion to the tenets of Christianity, as propounded by St. Patrick; and soon after, the Irish minstrels, almost to a man, imitated his noble example. However, so far from the ecclesiastical chant introduced by St. Patrick in aught affecting the music of ancient Erin, it was exactly vice versa. O'Curry, Dr. Sullivan, Archbishop Healy, and others are in error when they assert that Gregorian chant coloured much of the music in Ireland from the fifth to the eighth century. As a matter of fact, "Gregorian" music only dates from the year 593; and it was the Gallic (some say Ambrosian) chant which St. Patrick taught. Even assuming that the plain song of St. Gregory reached Ireland about the year 620, which is improbable, Irish psalmody and hymnody were distinctly Celtic in the first half of the seventh century, and were mainly "adaptations" of the old Irish pre-Christian melodies.

To read more:

http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishMusic/I.php

Samhain Salutations

Happy Halloween
















from RADIO REBEL GAEL :

http://www.live365.com/stations/bronxgael

Our new Samhain-Halloween Playlist Is Now Online:

http://www.live365.com/stations/bronxgael

Featuring new music by:

Sharky Doyles
Saint Bushmills Choir
Ray Collins
Eire Og
Larkin
Blood Or Whiskey
Nogoodnix
Wages of Sin
Siobhan
Ballydowse
Cruachan
Greenland Whalefishers
Flatfoot 56
Zydepunks
Junkman's Choir
JD & the Longfellows



And more great music by:

The Battering Ram
The Irish Swingin' Bobs
Athenrye
Flogging Molly
The Tossers
Wilderness 1916
Dropkick Murphys
The Dubliners
The Wolfe Tones
One Way System
The Spectres
All Torn Up
The Hillbilly Hellcats
The King Drapes
The Mahones
The Skels
The Electrics
Neck
Seanchai
Angelic Upstarts
New Model Army
The Popes
Luther Wright & The Wrongs
Lotta Red
The Tin Cans
The House Wreckers
Justice
Christy Moore
Johnny Cash

and much more!

Samhain Salutations, Happy Halloween and All Saint's Day Blessings to you all...This Halloween Playlist is up now and will have a limited run from today, Friday October 27th, through October 31st, Hallow's Eve....

Samhain (pronounced 'Sow-in') - known to modern Americans as Halloween - known as All Saints Day or All Hallows Eve by Irish Catholics ---

To us here at Radio Rebel Gael it has the same spiritual meaning as our ancient Gaelic ancestors -

A time to honor those who have gone before -

To our dearly departed, lost loved ones, to our ancestral dead

To our forefathers

And all those Irish martyrs and heroes who sacrificed their lives for unmitigated Irish freedom and an Irish Republic (and not the so-called "Free State" that presides in the halls of corruption in Dublin)

And Samhain is also to be remembered as a time when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead becomes very thin - so thin that it may be possible for the dead to walk amongst us ---

For the spirit of our ancestors and the spirit of the Irish heroes and heroines to be present - for their immortal spirits to join with us in our celebrations, in our prayers, in our thoughts and dreams - and be a guiding light through the darkness....

Other cultures, have similiar traditions --- in Mexico, the Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, is a festive day when the people parade in costumes with elaborate masks and sugar skulls towards the graveyard to leave candies, flowers and wreathes upon the grave sites of their loved ones. Like the ancient Gaels (and many of our modern day Celts) they also believe that the spirits of the ancestors and their lost loved ones -- are present --- that their immortal spirits are paying a visit to the Land of the Living....

Our ancient pre-Christian Gaelic holiday of Samhain was brought here to the USA by Irish exiles - to become that popular holiday we all know and love as Halloween -

Thanks to Irish-Americans who cared about their roots and the need to preserve Irish traditions for future generations we can celebrate on this happy holiday - Old folks, married couples, children, young couples, hell, even singles and the family cat, dog, or barnyard owl hooting at the moon, while us Bronx City Billies yee-howl like Blue tic hounds from the remotest hollers of Appalachia at the sounds of Irish Rebel rhythm, Celtic Rock, Paddy Punk, Pub Rock & Roll or old school Rockabilly boogie :)

This Halloween let us remember our lost loved ones, those who have gone before, to our ancestors, to those who languish in prison cells because of their loyalty to the Cause, and to those who paid the ultimate price -

Who gave their lives for a United Ireland -

Remember their deeds and their sacrifice -

Because Ireland unfree
Will never be at peace ....

Tiochfaidh ar la!

And Gods Bless....

Rory Dubhdara, Radio Rebel Gael

http://www.live365.com/stations/bronxgael

Thanks to Bad Mama Jamma for this cool pumpkin photo :)

Rebel Gael Anthems for Summer 2006

Fenian Exile

Top Ten of Summer 2006

1. "Boy from Tamlaghtduff" Christy Moore :

http://www.christymoore.com/

2. "Boys of the Old Brigade" Bluestack: http://www.bluestackmusic.com/

3. "In Belfast" The Wolfe Tones :

http://www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com/

4. "Mise Eire" Seanchai & The Unity Squad :

http://www.seanchai.com/

5. "Hyland Paddy" The Wolfe Tones :

http://www.myspace.com/wolfetones

6. "Back Home in Derry" Blue Stack :

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bluestack

7. "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" Eire Og :

http://www.myspace.com/eireog

8. "I've Pursued Nothing" The Tossers :

http://www.thetossers.com/

9. "Your Spirit's Alive" Dropkick Murphys :

http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/

10. "Walk All The Days" Black 47

:

http://www.black47.com/

Top Ten Albums of 2006


1. "Rebels and Heroes" The Wolfe Tones :

http://www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com/

2. "No Irish Need Apply" Bluestack :

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bluestack2

3. "The Last Set of the Night" Bluestack :

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bluestack

4. "As I Roved Back" Ray Collins :

http://www.raycollinsmusic.com/

5. "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" The Tossers :

http://www.myspace.com/thetossers

6. "Whiskey On A Sunday" Flogging Molly:

http://www.floggingmolly.com/

7. "The Warrior's Code" Dropkick Murphys:

http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/

8. "Sod 'Em & Begorrah" Neck:

http://www.neck.ie/

9. "Custom of the Sea" Wages of Sin:

http://www.thewages.com/

10. "Back of the Yards" The Sharky Doyles:

http://www.sharkydoyles.com/

Coming Soon:

Radio Rebel Gael :

The Musical Voice of the Fenian Exile

Listen Up To the Rebel Yell of the Rebel Gael -

http://www.live365.com/stations/bronxgael

Online Radio Program dedicated to Irish Rebel music, Paddy Rock, Celtic Punk, Irish trad., Street Punk, Rockabilly, Outlaw Country, Political Folk music and any forms of music that sing the song of Freedom and breathe the spirit of Rebellion.....

Inspired by forerunners such as Paddy Rock Radio , Shite n' Onions, Radio Free Eireann, and Radio Caroline of Irish exile, Ronan O'Rahilly, as well as many others of the Pirate Radio movement and Underground Radio DJs who have provided working class people an alternative to corporate controlled consumerist radio stations....

Radio Rebel Gael

Is coming to rock you with Irish Rebel rhythm, Street Punk, Rockabilly, Irish traditional, Political Folk, and wake you out of your somnambulence so that you can have the musical inspiration of Unmitigated Freedom.....

Rory Dubhdara

http://www.live365.com/stations/bronxgael

Getting It Right

What exactly is authentic Irish music?

By Earle Hitchner, The Irish Echo
www.irishecho.com

ehitchner@irishecho.com

"Get your genuine facsimile. Don't be fooled by the real thing." A rock critic who's a friend of mine laughed as he said that in reaction to a new rock album purporting to be authentic in its genre.

That made me wonder: what is authentic Irish music?

Those who admire the Clancy Brothers and the Dubliners might sneer at the notion of ascribing Irish authenticity to "Toora Loora Loora," "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," and "MacNamara's Band," staples of early 20th century Irish Americana, or to Bing Crosby, who had popular hits with those songs.

Waterford-born, Massachusetts resident Robbie O'Connell, who toured and recorded with the Clancy Brothers (his uncles), wrote "You're Not Irish" as a response to his first foray as an Irish singer in America. The song contains this chorus: "You're not Irish, you can't be Irish, you don't know 'Danny Boy' / Or 'Toora Loora Loora' or even 'Irish Eyes' / You've got a hell of a nerve to say you came from Ireland / So cut out all the nonsense and sing 'MacNamara's Band.'"

Those who admire ceili bands, Planxty, and the Bothy Band might scorn the notion of ascribing Irish authenticity to "The Unicorn Song," a huge hit for the Irish Rovers in 1968 that was composed by cartoonist and well-known children's book author Shel Silverstein.

Song provenance aside, some staunch traditionalists might turn ashen at the notion of hearing yet another rendition of "Whiskey, You're the Devil," "Leaving of Liverpool," and "Wild Colonial Boy," popular staples in the 1950s and 1960s that are often slotted loosely in the come-all-ye bailiwick of balladry.

Those who admire many of the previously mentioned songs might blanch at the notion of ascribing Irish authenticity to "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn," "Bottle of Smoke," and "Fairytale of New York," written or co-written by Shane MacGowan and recorded by the Pogues.

Those who admire the Pogues might recoil from the rock-like acoustic rhythm of the Bothy Band a decade earlier or the anthemic rock purveyed by U2 a decade later.

Rebel songs from the Wolfe Tones and music from Irish showbands have their own devotees (patriotic, fun) and detractors (jingoistic, kitsch).

When I visited the southern New Jersey shore earlier this month, I was greeted with the tagline "authentic Irish music" in an ad for what was a mediocre rock band in a bar where only the $3 Coors Light special went down smoothly.

The ad for an Atlantic City casino pub self-described as "the real flavour of Ireland" sported nubile women in short skirts shaking their booties under this quote attributed to Eamon De Valera: "Comely maidens dancing at the crossroads." Uh-huh.

At another Atlantic City Irish bar-restaurant, a musician performing on "Celtic Sunday" made this remark to a reporter from the Atlantic City Weekly newspaper: "There's a difference between what most Americans perceive as Irish music and what really is Irish music. I think many Americans got exposed to authentic Irish sounds for the first time with the arrival of 'Riverdance.'"

Are the soprano sax, gadulka, kaval, tom-toms, dumbek, cantaor, and palmas heard in "Riverdance" among these "authentic Irish sounds"?

Nearly a decade ago, I suffered my only abject case of in-print embarrassment at the Irish Echo over a lengthy profile/interview article I wrote about Gaelic Storm. You'll recall this Santa Monica-based pub group was cast as the party band in the steerage scene of the blockbuster movie "Titanic" and had been hired for the film precisely because they were bad. The title I submitted for my article was the admittedly prosaic "Irish Dance Band on the 'Titanic.'" I did everything I could not to inject my own opinion of Gaelic Storm but to let others describe them. The title that actually ran in large bold type across my two-page article was this: "Hey, You Guys Really Stink." I was mortified, and Gaelic Storm was livid. Obviously that newspaper clip didn't make it into the band's media kit, nor is it in my own portfolio.

Are the hard-touring (more than 125 dates a year), incontestably popular Gaelic Storm, who have now released six commercially successful albums in the wake of "Titanic," providing authentic Irish music, no matter how clumsily performed? I'd argue, after taking a long, deep breath and donning a flameproof suit, yes.

In the first act of Noel Coward's play "Private Lives," a character utters this line: "Strange how potent cheap music is." I suppose we all harbor deep, dark secret favorites from overtly commercial and arguably superficial or sappy "cheap music." Let me be the first to come clean: I still enjoy some of John Klemmer's Echoplex-inflected sax music, even though I can't defend it on jazz aesthetic grounds. The late Johnny Cunningham, founding fiddler of Silly Wizard and Relativity, once admitted to me how profoundly Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," a No. 1 pop hit in 1984, affected him. Stunned, I understood.

Bludgeoned over the years by countless bad pub singers, Scottish-born, Australia-naturalized Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" remains a brilliant, vivid, vital narrative song. It always gets to me, including the Pogues' rendition on their 1985 album "Rum Sodomy & the Lash." Some critics found that version too plodding. To me, that's what makes it interesting. The weariness conveyed in MacGowan's voice mirrors the weariness conveyed in the lyrics. Whether intended or not, that is part of its impact for me.

The Pogues, of course, were a lightning rod for trad and punk-rock critics. A number of punk-rock critics thought the Pogues were the most important band during the 1980s. A number of trad critics were mystified at how punk-rock critics with little or no knowledge of Irish trad could champion much of the band's instrumental melee.

In rock, attitude trumps aptitude, and the Pogues had attitude to spare. By a landslide, I'd take vintage Pogues then over Gaelic Storm now -- and not just because of Shane MacGowan's powerful songwriting. Despite the instrumental shortcomings of the Pogues, the sum was far greater than the parts, and critic Andy Whitman recently praised the band's "belligerent caterwaul" that helped to prove "Celtic Punk was not an oxymoron."

Whitman, however, strayed off the path of plausible argument with this silly comment: "As a general rule, fans of Celtic music are not a demonstrative lot." That's rubbish. Ask Altan, Lunasa, Danu, Solas, Dervish, and Christy Moore fans, who at times can make metalheads, Parrot Heads, and E Streeters sound like a tame crowd.

But back to the overarching question: what is authentic Irish music? It's a moving target, hard to hit definitively, and that's not a critical copout. Geography is less significant in this age when a profusion of home recordings and Internet access enables people around the world to develop their avocational or vocational interest in Irish music. Fiddlers Dana Lyn and Patrick Ourceau are just two examples of Irish traditional musicians who neither are Irish nor have a strong Irish trad childhood to draw on. They are among a growing global population of Irish trad music autodidacts: nonnative individuals who fall in love with the music and learn to perform it as intensely as the son or daughter of a fiddle master in Miltown Malbay or Sliabh Luachra.

As a critic, I've been described by fusionists as too indulgent of hard-core trad performers and by hard-core trad performers as too indulgent of fusionists. Fans of the Afro Celts, Kila, Frankie Gavin, and John Doyle have all wanted my scalp at one time or another.

Yet I've always believed that tradition cannot survive without innovation. "The Bucks of Oranmore" and "The Morning Dew" reels, for example, were new and fresh when first heard. Long since detached from their composers, these two traditional tunes flourished because they passed the test of posterity, separating the durably beautiful from the merely fashionable.

Just posing the question -- what is authentic Irish music? -- is itself part of a continuous cultural winnowing. For the survival of the fittest Irish music, chaff should be chucked. It's a process that forces all of us to re-examine our most cherished criteria in the spirit of intelligent accommodation rather than weak-kneed compromise. Cape Breton tunes are seeping into the Irish repertoire, and vice versa: it's not a matter of why but why not? Why shouldn't "Brenda Stubbert's" reel, composed by Jerry Holland, sit comfortably beside "Breen's Reel," an Irish trad tune, in the fourth track of Altan's "The Red Crow" album?

There is no such thing as right or wrong Irish music. Irish music is well done or badly done. That is all. (Apologies to Dublin-born Oscar Wilde for adapting lines from "The Picture of Dorian Gray.")

Authentic Irish music? Let's just say I'll be tucking the first Bothy Band album, the first Moving Hearts album, the first Planxty album, the Pogues' "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" album, U2's "Joshua Tree" album, and the Tulla Ceili Band's "Echoes of Erin" album into my desert-island kit bag.

And if there's room, I'll sneak in John Klemmer's "Touch" album.

This story appeared in the issue of Irish Echo August 23 - 29, 2006

http://www.irishecho.com

The Wolfe Tones: Fenian Balladeers of Yore Come to New York !!!

Fenian Bards :
THE WOLFE TONES:
Came to New York City to Rouse the Rebels

Friday, June 30th, 2006, Connolly's Pub, East 47th, NY, NY
To see the glorious Wolfe Tones, was inspirational, and not only because it was the first time that I was blessed to see this legendary Irish Rebel band, but also because it was a great and rousing gig ! The audience participation was phenonemal, with people of all ages singing and dancing along, and a strong camaraderie between the band and the crowd, Noel Nagle, lead banjo player and vocalist is a great seanachaí -- he's a storyteller, with a very theatrical stage charisma, and using that old Irish charm generously between each tune, to introduce each song with a short joke or story. Noel Nagle rouses the audience with cheers, laughter and brotherly camaraderie between each song that really creates an atmosphere that ensures that the night will be a great time for all....

Flutist and vocalist Tommy Byrne also sings some of the most powerful and storming Irish rebel tunes in tribute to the Irish heroes, heroines and martyrs --- And it must be said that any review of the mighty Wolfe Tones playing live would not be complete without mentioning one of the longest standing members of the band --- Brian Warfield, lead guitarist and vocalist, whose contribution to the band is impossible to forget. He really has a remarkable singing voice that is unrivalled in the world of Irish Rebel music, and he really commands an impressive stage presence that reminds me of the booming Gaelic voices of Brendan Behan, Christy Moore, Tommy Makem, Luke Kelly, the legendary Amergin, and any of the wandering bards of Gaelic lore....

Additionally, a new bass player whom I had never seen or heard of before was playing with the band....My praise to this new bassist for playing a thundering bass that would even please Ronnie Drew or Terry Woods .....

The Wolfe Tones began their musical maelstrom with "Bloody Sunday", a stirring and powerful tune of remembrance of that fateful Sunday in the Bogside of Derry on January 30th, 1972...

Inspirational songs that they also played that caused the crowd to dance, sing-a-long and shout in jubilation include "The Big Strong Man (My Brother Sylveste)" about a famed Irish boxer of the early 1900's who is to fight Jack Dempsey, "A Nation Once Again", "You'll Never Beat The Irish", "Kevin Barry" about the Irish Republican martyr --- tortured by the Brits and hung at Mountjoy Prison on November 1st, 1920, "The United Men", traditional tunes "The Devil is Dead", "God Save Ireland", and Irish Rebel anthems "Get out ye Black and Tans","Padraic Pearse", "The Foggy Dew", "Boys of the Old Brigade", "Down by the Glenside", "Merry Ploughboy", "Grace", "James Connolly", "Sean South of Garryowen", "Black Broad Brimmer", "Joe McDonnell" ; a tribute to the fifth Republican to die in the 1981 Hunger Strikes at the H Block, "Rock on Rockall" (always a big crowd pleaser!), "The Helicopter Song" (about the daring prison escape from Mountjoy in October 1973, via helicopter, wherein Volunteers Seamus Twomey, J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon were airlifted from the prison yard one autumn afternoon), and other sterling tunes to compliment an enlivening and spirited concert such as "In Belfast", "On the One Road", "Boston Rose", "The Streets of New York", "Botany Bay", "Ireland, My Ireland", of course the legendary Glasgow Celtic anthem, "Celtic Symphony" and many other classics...

It goes without saying that the very dynamic audience was inspirational proof that the Wolfe Tones are indeed an all ages Irish Rebel band --- as I watched grandparents, grandkids, a mother and her adolescent daughter dance and sing together to Wolfe Tones anthems, as well as a large throng of Irishmen up near the band stage, ranging from the ages of teenager to early 20s to 30s, sing along in unison to their favorite songs, and even some foxy college lasses dancing like wild Banshees in the back.....

Rebels and Heroes, tis truly who the Wolfe Tones are to me:

Warrior-Bards of the Modern Age !

Rory Dubhdara, Radio Rebel Gael