Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in music

Storytellers in music: that is what Cherish the Ladies have been since they began with what was meant to be a one off concert in New York twenty seven years ago. The story they’ve told, through traveling the world, through comings and goings of band members, through night after night of concerts and conversation, has been that of the vibrancy of Irish culture, and the variety and professionalism and creativity of women in Irish music.

Part of that creativity has been shown across the years in their recordings. Two (update, now three) of those are seasonal winter holiday albums -- fine ones to prepare for Advent, to enjoy for Christmas, or indeed to hear any time of year.

-->Update 2021: All three Cherish Christmas albums Including the newest one Christmas in Irleand) are availble as one 40 track compilation called Cherish the ladies: Ultimate Christmas Mix, from Bandcamp. You are also able to audition and purchase individual tracks there. You may also wish to know that on one Friday every month, Bandcamp waives fees to artists so all income from sales goes to creators, something to look out for...

Star in the East finds the band focusing on the celebratory side of the holiday season while adding a touch of reflection here and there. The Dash for the Presents set, opening with an original tune by bandleader Joanie Madden sets the tone. It is followed by Michelle Lee Burke handling lead singing on a fine retelling of the Christmas tale written by Robbie O’Connell called All On a Christmas Morning. There are carols and hymns, reels and tunes, Madden reading a reflective poem by Patrick Kavanagh which is well paired with the music of In the Bleak Midwinter, and Burke taking lead again on the rollicking traveling song song Home on Time for Christmas.

On Christmas Night is the band’s earlier Christmas album, one which timeless and engaging nearly ten years on from its first release. There are tune sets which include versions of traditional carols and hymns with perhaps less well known pieces of Irish music, such as Ding Dong Merrily On High / The Cordial Jig / Old Apples in Winter / Con Cassidy’s. Heidi Talbot is the lead singer on this recording, offering inspired versions of Silent Night, which she sings in English and Irish, trading lead with other members of the band on The Holly and the Ivy, and bringing a gentle, graceful take on The Castle of Dromore.

Mary Coogan, who with Madden is a founding member of Cherish the Ladies, plays guitar in this video. She also has a seasonal album out, called Christmas.

As I write this the band is preparing a holiday tour in December as well, with original band member Cathie Ryan returning for some dates as guest singer. Catch them live if you can.

Photograph of Cherish the Ladies at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall with guest Alison Brown during the Celtic Connections Festival (to which they will be returning for their twentieth anniversary appearance in January). It was made with the permission of the artists, the festival, and the venue, and is copyrighted, Thank you for respecting this.

You may also wish to see
Galway Afternoon: Joanie Madden
The Last Star: Heidi Talbot
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
Cherish the Ladies web site and tour schedule

If you enjoy what you are reading here, check out my newsletter at Substack for more stories about music, the people who make it, and the places which inspire it.

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

You can also

Second week in advent: listen

The second week in Advent is a time when we are called to consider God’s word, both as a source of challenge and as a source of comfort.

God speaks in as many ways and through as many ways as we will let him, I’ve often thought. Through the sound of the wind, gentle or rough, and the sound of waters, likewise at times quiet and at times crashing. In the written word, through he voices of stranger and of friends. In the quiet of the heart. And of course, through music.

The work of winter draws in, this second week of Advent. Part of that work is to listen.

Music to go along with these ideas

Music Road: 6 of the best Christmas Songs
Music Road: Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Saint Bridgid's day: music & legend

Fire, poetry, healing wells, and highlands -- that’s a good group of things to be involved with. Saint Bridgid of Ireland, whose feast we celebrate on 1 and 2 February, is said to have influence over all of those. Many stories which have grown up around the biography of the fifth century saint are likely later additions, and it's likely that attributes of the pagan goddess Brigid have been added to the saint’s reputation. She is, whatever you think about all that, a figure of power and source of solace through Irish history, and a woman who was known for both her common sense and her holiness during her lifetime. Her feast day is also marked as the day to start looking for the first stirrings of spring in Ireland, which considering the nature of Irish weather, is often more in promise than in fact.

She is known as Bridgid of Kildare, for the most prominent abbey she founded there. Bridgid was born, though, in Louth, a place where the landscape lends itself to legend and mystery. There are schools, churches, pipe bands, football teams, and children named in her honor from Australia to Alberta. Next time you visit the National Museum of History in Dublin, you might keep an eye out for the pair of Bridgid’s shoes they have there.

Gabhaim Molta Brighde is a hymn of thanks to the saint which has come down through the centuries. in honor of Saint Bridgid’s feast, I invite you to take a look at the work of these musicians

Mary Black: 25 years 25 songs

Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

reflections with Maura O'Connell

Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Liz Carroll & John Doyle: Double Play

A way to support: you could

If you enjoy what you are reading here, check out my newsletter at Substack for more stories about music, the people who make it, and the places which inspire it.

Creative practice: listening

The band Better Than Ezra is coming out with a single called Just One More Day, arising from band members’ times of losing loved ones and wishing for more time to say things to them.

Though I've not yet heard the song, I tend to look in a different direction. In such a circumstance, I’d rather listen. Sometimes, I’ve been granted the grace to do so.

Some of both, I suppose, might be a good answer. What do you think?

music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: creative practice: healing

Music Road: creative practice: winter thoughts

Music Road: listening through the changes

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Patrick season: thinking about Celtic spirituality

Irishman John O’Donoghue was a thinker, philosopher, poet, and spiritual teacher who died in January while still in his early fifties. On of the last recorded interviews he did was with Krista Tippett. host of the American Public Radio program Speaking of Faith. It’s a wide ranging conversation, as Tippett’s interviews always are, covering topics such as the nature of God, the nature of beauty, what life is all about, what’s unique about Celtic spirituality, and also what it means to be in service to a calling. One of the examples they get into with the latter is music. You may hear the hour long radio program here.

One of O’Donoghue’s best known books is Anam Cara, which is Irish for soul friend. Life, death, and love through the places where Celtic mysticism and Christian understanding meet are the topics.

Music to go along with this:
Caroline Herring: Twilight Her music is of the American folk tradition rather than immediately Celtic, but she definitely knows how to write about spiritual questions, framed in the life of the American South

Cathie Ryan: The Music of What Happens If you’ve traveled along the Music Road before, you've likely met Ryan’s work. Here she offers songs about motherhood, faith, leaving, returning, and change, among other things.

The Music of What Happens

If you’re up for a up for a bit more contemplation and a few more music ideas. you may want to see this post.