Concert Preview—

Expect Some Magic When The Vallely Boys And John Doyle

Perform Traditional Irish Music At Newtown Meeting House

By Andrew Carey

2002 was a good year for County Armagh in the North of Ireland. Armagh’s Gaelic football team won their first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, and Niall and Cillian Vallely released Callan Bridge, their critically acclaimed duo CD. The Vallely family has been a driving force behind Irish traditional music in Armagh and the wider world for decades, and Callan Bridge offered a unique combination of beloved session tunes which the brothers learned as children, rare music taken from old manuscripts, and Niall’s own compositions. 

On Friday, February 18, at 8 pm, Fairfield County’s Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society (STIMS) will bring a taste of Armagh’s good fortune to Newtown Meeting House, presenting Niall and Cillian Vallely on concertina and uillean pipes with John Doyle on guitar and vocals for the latest show in their popular concert series.

John Doyle has played the meeting house to sell-out crowds on several occasions with Chicago Irish fiddler Liz Carroll. For the Vallely brothers, on the other hand, this will be their first appearance in Newtown, although both have played successful STIMS-sponsored concerts in our area before.

The sympathetic accompaniments heard on the 13 tracks of Callan Bridge were provided by a number of prominent Irish musicians, including the Dublin-born John Doyle, now a resident of North Carolina, on guitar and bouzouki. Niall Vallely’s American tour with the band Buille opened up the possibility for the  brothers to team up with Mr Doyle and revisit the repertory and spirit of Callan Bridge for a series of live concerts along the East Coast.

“As a matter of fact,” Cillian Vallely said, “myself and Niall haven’t played that much together, as just a duet, since maybe 2004, so we thought we would revive it again for a while.”

The brothers’ parents, Brian and Eithne Vallely, founders of the influential Armagh Pipers’ Club, play uillean pipes (the Irish bellows-driven bagpipes) and fiddle. Niall and Cillian both learned their father’s instrument in boyhood, and Cillian continued on this path, growing into one of our era’s great pipers. He lives in New York today, and is perhaps best known for his work with the popular five-piece band Lúnasa.

Niall, on the other hand, gave up the pipes in favor of the concertina, an instrument usually associated with County Clare, far to the south of Ireland, and made it his own. He has lived in Cork City, Ireland, since the late 1980s, and was a founding member of the band Nomos. Today he plays most frequently with Karan Casey, his partner in both life and music, and also with  Buille, a band which he founded with brother Caoimhín Vallely, one of Irish music’s top piano players, and the guitarist Paul Meehan.

Both brothers have worked with a wide range of musical collaborators, including the Irish classical composer-pianist Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and the American old time mandolinist, singer and banjo-player Tim O’Brien.

John Doyle also comes from a family prominent in Irish traditional music. His father, Sean Doyle, is a respected traditional singer with a large repertory of unusual songs.  John Doyle himself began playing guitar professionally at age 16 and has made himself a reputation as one of  Irish traditional music’s most sought-after guitar players.

He moved to New York in the 1980s and made his mark with the Irish-American supergroup Solas before starting a thriving solo career. He has toured and recorded with American folk legend Joan Baez, with his former Solas bandmate Karan Casey, and with many other well-known musicians and singers both in and outside Irish music.

When asked how playing with his brother and Mr Doyle differs from his work with Lúnasa, Cillian told me: “Lúnasa is a five-piece, and it’s all very arranged, and we all play parts... I suppose when myself and Niall play it tends to be more straightforward tunes, and it’s probably a bit freer.

“We let it happen a wee bit more, and I think the same with John’s style, it’s a bit more improvised, more on the spot,” he continued. “When you play in a three-piece, just two people playing the tunes and one accompanist, there’s a bit more room to try stuff, you can play the tunes more times if you feel like it and let go.” 

Magical things happen when players like the Vallelys and John Doyle “let go” and “try stuff,” so the signs are clear for another great show.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for children. For reservations call 203-256-8453 or email tmquinn@optonline.net. STIMS concerts in the Meeting House have a history of selling out, so reservations are strongly recommended.