Concert Review—

Young Irish Duo Left Their Musical Mark At Meeting House

By Andrew Carey

Fresh from teaching fiddle at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, N.Y., sisters Liz and Yvonne Kane made their way to Newtown Meeting House from their lodgings in Boston on Friday, August 3, for a concert performance that was sponsored by The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society (STIMS).

Born and raised in Letterfrack, County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, the Kane Sisters have spent the last few years making their mark as one of the hottest young duos in Irish music. Having learned the fiddle in childhood from their grandfather, Jimmy Mullen, a noted Connemara musician, they began their professional career with accordionist Sharon Shannon’s band, The Woodchoppers, and have since released two successful albums together: The Well Tempered Bow (2002) and Under the Diamond (2004).

Friday’s concert began with a set of jigs, “An Seanduine Dóite (The Burnt Old Man),” a tune with deep roots in the tradition, and “The Sport Jig,” composed by Peadar Ó Ríada. This was followed with a set of reels, “Paddy Fahey’s,” “Mullingar Lea” and “Paddy Fahey’s.” (The first and last tunes, one must hasten to add, are completely different; Paddy Fahey, one of the most prominent living composers in Irish traditional music, refuses to name any of his tunes.)

The next set comprised a pair of hornpipes, the swinging 4/4 tunes which might be called the third major variety of Irish dance music, (another) “Paddy Fahey’s” and “The Acrobat.”

Mr Fahey’s tunes, compelling in their combination of unusual keys with an essential fidelity to the tradition, make up a sizeable part of the Kanes’ repertory, to the point that some fans have mistakenly come to believe that Mr Fahey was, in fact, their grandfather.

Jigs and hornpipes and reels will drive a dance or a session in the back room of a pub all night, but the pace of a concert needs an occasional song or slow air for respite. “Seán Ó Duibhir a’ Gleanna (Seán Dwyer of the Glen),” the air of a sean nós (“old style”) song sung for many generations in Galway, was an ideal choice for this role.

Another set of jigs smoothly combined old and new tunes: “The Girl from the Big House,” taken from Captain Richard Francis O’Neill’s classic collection Music of Ireland; “Trá na mBán  (Beach of the Women),” written by Liz Kane (herself a composer with a growing store of lovely tunes), and “Thank God We’re Surrounded by Water,” an anonymous traditional tune which the Kanes learned from Paddy Fahey.

The audience was sent off to the break with a set of reels including “The Nervous Man,” presented as a jocular warning to accordionist Damian Connolly, a Clare-born All-Ireland Champion now resident in Fairfield County and one of the Kanes’ fellow teachers at the Catskills Irish Arts Week, that he would be expected to come up and join the sisters on stage.

A set of reels began the second half, followed by “A Jig for Jimmy,” written by Liz Kane for their grandfather, and the jig “Betsy’s Delight,” for their grandmother. The hornpipe “Galway Bay” was matched

with “The Policeman’s Request,” by Paddy “Offaly” O’Brien and a tune associated with the (unrelated) Eileen O’Brien, daughter of Paddy “Nenagh” O’Brien.

“The Valley of Knockanure” and “The Woods of Rosslea,” a pair of slow airs, represented a departure from the usual clear unison playing of the sisters, an interesting deviation from the strict Irish tradition that nonetheless complemented the music in every respect. The harmony played by Yvonne Kane beneath her sister’s lead rather reminded me of the Swedish “rough and shiny” style of twin fiddling.

The jigs “Preacher’s Mary” and “The Threepenny Bit” were played for young Clare, a student of Yvonne Kane’s during the Catskills Irish Arts Week, who sat in the front row with her father. A set of reels featured first Yvonne Kane on “Red Tom of the Hills,” followed by Liz Kane’s solo take on “Farewell to Milltown Malbay,” and ending with a duet on “Hugh’s Hat.”

Damian Connolly was convinced to bring his accordion up to the stage for a final set, starting with “The Shoemaker’s Daughter.” But of course the “last” was destined to be only the set before the encore, and all three returned to the stage for the reels “Down the Broom” and “The Gatehouse Maid.”