Green Goddess is a salad dressing with long-ago origins in France, created by a chef who wanted to top the dish of green eel he was preparing with an equally green topping (still with me?). The Green Goddess, Danú, is a figure of long-ago Irish mythology, associated with fertility, wisdom, and the land. Danú is also the name of the Irish troupe who put on a lively concert in our small town on Tuesday night.
It seemed entirely fitting to hear a live performance of Irish music on St. Patrick’s Day. I grabbed a couple of good seats the moment this offering popped up on the calendar several months ago. As it turned out, Danú’s was the brand of lively Irish jigging you’d typically find in the streets and bars of Dublin. More of the instrumental and less of the singing. More of the fast and less of the slow. And when there was singing it was mostly in Gaelic, with a few words about the story of the song beforehand. We had a grand time of it.
Danú’s musical instruments (and the remarkable talent behind them) were as alluring as the music itself. I mean, who wouldn’t be drawn to a concert of tin whistle, fiddle, button accordion, bouzouki, and Irish pipes? The pipes, also called the uillleann, is a device played sitting down, where the bellows is compressed between the arm and the body to generate the air, producing a wail that sounds decidedly Irish (because were I to say “decidedly Scottish” the Irish wouldn’t be happy about it).
My wife is one-quarter Irish, which may explain why we’re drawn to the music of “her country”. Danú is just the latest in a series of performances of Irish music we’ve enjoyed over the years. Our initial foray into the genre was years ago in Colorado, when we first saw the group Celtic Thunder.
If you seen their show, you know Celtic Thunder is as much about the stage show as it is about the music. Like Danú their lyrics are a nod to Irish mythology, but their sounds are decidedly more modern. Celtic Thunder came together just twenty years ago, but in that time they’ve recorded a dozen albums, toured the world, and spun off several solo acts. If Celtic Thunder comes to your town, drop everything you’re doing and go see them.
One of the Thunder’s spin-off soloists is a favorite of ours to this day. Emmet Cahill is an Irish tenor whose success includes a #1 album on the Billboard charts and performances in venues like Carnegie Hall and with the Tabernacle Choir. Cahill has the voice (and the accent) where it doesn’t really matter what he sings; it’s all captivating. Even better, Cahill performs the lion’s share of his concerts in churches, where the acoustics allow for largely a cappella singing, not even needing a microphone. We’ve seen Emmet Cahill perform several times. You should too.
Finally (as if to top each performer with the next) we found another brand of Irish music on her western shores – literally atop the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher. We joined a bus tour from Dublin, which cut all the way across the country (in just two hours) and headed south to the Cliffs. According to the locals we were fortunate to visit the Cliffs on a sunny day, but I’d say we were really fortunate to find Tina Mulrooney performing right there in the out-of-doors. Tina is an accomplished harpist, with soprano voice deserving of her instrument. She was just parked alone on the cliffs, sitting, singing, and playing her harp. It was magical music, befitting of what you’d hear from the ladies of Celtic Woman.
If Danú ever comes back to our fair city we’ll probably leave the seats to someone else. Not that we didn’t enjoy ourselves on Tuesday night, but one night of “dancing in our chairs” was probably enough. Now then, should Emmet Cahill or Tina Mulrooney choose to pass through? Then you’ll find us front and center, hoping for just one more rendition of Danny Boy.
Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
Life In A Word 