February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Earle Hitchner
24TH ANNUAL WASHINGTON IRISH FESTIVAL, Montgomery County Fairgrounds, Gaithersburg, Md., Sept. 2-3.
In private, one musician mentioned that this festival seemed to be cursed meteorologically, that rain or its threat had plagued the event for more years than he cared to admit. Despite an overcast sky all weekend long and an actual downpour that came late Sunday afternoon, the 24th annual Washington Irish Festival remained rain-free enough that patrons could move freely from one stage to another to enjoy the smorgasbord of sound that is the hallmark of this event, probably the best-conceived, best-run Irish festival in America.
Making their second consecutive appearance at the festival was the Irish all-instrumental quintet Lúnasa, who have come a long way in the short time they’ve been together, just three years. They brought even more gusto and grit to their performances this year than last year, when they took the site by storm before lightning and cloudbursts literally did.
Newest member Cillian Vallely played uilleann pipes and low whistle with the confidence and comfort of someone now fully adjusted to the intricate arrangements and sinuously propulsive style of Seán Smyth on fiddle and tin whistle, Trevor Hutchinson on bass, Donogh Hennessy on guitar, and Kevin Crawford on flute, tin whistle, and bodhrán. Vallely was especially outstanding on a Galician tune he introduced to the band.
Hutchinson and Hennessy put down a driving beat on "First of Never/Windbroke" and proved again why they may be the best rhythm tandem in all of Irish music today. In a medley featuring the tune "Splendid Isolation," Crawford on flute and Smyth on fiddle were in almost synaptic harmony, creating something more than just the union of two different instruments. Moreover, Crawford’s fun-loving banter on stage lent another dimension to Lúnasa: a low-key showmanship suggesting the band members may take their music very seriously but not themselves.
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There was plenty of fun and fine music to be savored in the performances of Cherish the Ladies as well. On Saturday night, the sextet were in great form, rousing the crowd with well-executed dance tunes and leaving them laughing when CTL leader Joanie Madden donned a string headband and imitated the bravado style of stepdancing associated with Michael Flatley. (This lampoon is getting a little too familiar, however, as Madden included the bit at last year’s festival.) Singing by Deirdre Connolly was impressive, with her rendition of "The Rocks of Bawn" both masterly and moving.
On the non-band front, no performance eclipsed the brilliance of Dublin-born fiddler James Kelly, ably backed by Altan guitarist Dáithí Sproule, early Saturday afternoon. The apparent ease with which Kelly played the fiddle masked an astonishing level of virtuosity. His ornamentation always served the melody, lending a near-pointillist touch to tunes through idea-rich phrasing and an unerring tempo. He knows the difference between finesse and flash, preferring to elicit the structural soul of a tune rather than "sell" it superficially through an overheated technique.
In a conversation with this writer, fellow festival fiddler Paddy Glackin lamented that today’s audiences, so enamored of bands and the "bigger" sound they deliver, may be losing their appreciation of solo or duo instrumentalists and even regard their concerts as "too intense."
James Kelly was certainly "intense," but in a way any true music lover would welcome and wish for, again and again. Kelly’s playing over the weekend conveyed the absolute essence of Irish traditional fiddling and Irish traditional music together.
Other festival performances of notable achievement came from Glackin and County Down uilleann piper Robbie Hannan; Waterford-based band Danú; Cape Breton fiddler Howie MacDonald, guitarist Dave MacIsaac, keyboardist Tracey Dares, piper Paul O’Neill, and dancer Harvey Beaton; Antrim-born singer Len Graham; Northumberland’s Kathryn Tickell Band; Brooklyn’s Patrick Mangan, whose future in fiddling seems unlimited; uilleann piper Mattie Connolly (father of Deirdre), button accordionist Joe Madden (Joanie’s dad), concertinist Fr. Charlie Coen, and keyboardist Felix Dolan; Armagh-born fiddling legend Brendan McGlinchey, and the Baltimore All-Stars Céilí Band, led by button accordionist Billy McComiskey.
Power and precision were amply evident in the Irish stepdancing of John Timm, Heather Donovan, Deirdre Goulding, Billy Woods, Joe Dwyer, Kevin Broesler, Eileen Golden, and Cara Butler. (At one point, McComiskey greeted Butler on stage with the quip, "Boy, could I use a cup of coffee right now . . . Folger’s coffee," referring to the ubiquitous TV commercial she had made.) And highlighting a medley by Lúnasa was an unscheduled slice of synchronized clogging, flatfooting, and tap from some members of the Maryland-based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, featuring New York’s Megan Downes.
Expertly organized by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, this festival was crammed with the kind of performances no amount of cloudiness or rain could distract from.