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The Green Fields of America is an ensemble that performs and promotes Irish traditional music in the United States. It was formed in 1977 in Philadelphia, led by musician and folklorist Mick Moloney. They perform Irish and Irish-American culture with American musicians and dancers. [1]
As a student in Philadelphia, Moloney met the director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, who encouraged him to gather a set of performers for the 1976 festival. [2] This received a positive response, and Moloney decided to form an ensemble that would bring together Irish vocal, instrumental, and dance traditions at concerts and festivals. [3] Moloney cofounded the Green Fields of America in 1977. [4]
The critically acclaimed album The Green Fields of America Live in Concert in 1989 subtitled "Irish Music, Song and Dance in America" credited Mick Moloney, Robbie O'Connell, Jimmy Keane (all three members of the famous Moloney, O'Connell & Keane trio) and Eileen Ivers, Séamus Egan, Donny Golden and Eileen Golden. Many had their performing starts with The Green Fields, including Egan, Ivers, Golden, Marie Reilly, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley.
Playing such venues as Carnegie Hall, Wolf Trap, the Smithsonian Institution, the Festival of American Folklife (now the Smithsonian Folklife Festival), the Milwaukee Irish Fest, and The National Folk Festival, the five members of the band at the time – Liz Carroll, Jack Coen, Michael Flatley, Donny Golden and Mick Moloney – have all received National Heritage Awards. Radio Telefís Éireann, Ireland’s national broadcaster, commemorated the twentieth-anniversary of the group on St. Patrick's Day, 1999.
A nationally televised documentary on their history and cultural contributions was presented. Among the musicians joining Mick Moloney for the performance at Re-Imagining Ireland, were singer-songwriter Robbie O'Connell, Jerry O'Sullivan (uilleann pipes), and the dancers Donny Golden and Sinead Lawlor. Old-time fiddler, guitarist, banjoist, and singer Bruce Molsky and singer-composer Tommy Sands were also guest appearances.
As of 2018, membership in the group consisted of Moloney, O'Connell, long-time associate Billy McComiskey (button-accordion), Athena Tergis (fiddle), Liz Hanley (fiddle and vocals), Brenda Castles (concertina and vocals), Brendan Dolan (keyboards) and Niall O'Leary (Irish dance and spoons).
Michael Ryan Flatley is an Irish-American dancer. He became known for creating and performing in Irish dance shows Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, Celtic Tiger Live and Michael Flatley's Christmas Dance Spectacular. Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries and have grossed more than $1 billion. His career also includes work as an actor, writer, director, producer, and philanthropist.
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the United States are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. This article will focus on the music of these communities and discuss its roots in countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, excluding only Native American music, indigenous and immigrant Latinos, Puerto Rican music, Hawaiian music and African American music. The music of Irish- and Scottish-Americans will be a special focus, due to their extreme influence on Appalachian folk music and other genres. These sorts of music are often sustained and promoted by a variety of ethnic organizations.
De Dannan is an Irish folk music group. It was formed 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn, Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band. The fiddler Mickey Finn (1951–1987) is also acknowledged to have been a founder member.
Green Linnet Records was an American independent record label that specialized in Celtic music. Founded by Lisa Null and Patrick Sky as Innisfree Records in 1973, the label was initially based in Null's house in New Canaan, Connecticut. In 1975 the label became Innisfree/Green Linnet and Wendy Newton joined Null and Sky as operating officer. In 1976 Newton took over control of the now Green Linnet label and moved it to Danbury, Connecticut in 1985. Newton became sole owner in 1978. Newton's love of Irish music had been sparked during a visit to Ireland where she heard traditional music for the first time in a small pub in County Clare.
The Long Black Veil is an album by the traditional Irish folk band The Chieftains. Released in 1995, it is one of the most popular and best-selling albums by the band. It reached number 17 in the album charts. The band teamed up with well-known musicians such as Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison. The album went gold in the U.S. and Australia, and Double-Platinum in Ireland. One of the tracks, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?", sung and written by Van Morrison, won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1996.
Cherish the Ladies is an American female super group that plays Celtic music. The band began as a concert series in New York in January 1985. It was the brainchild of Mick Moloney who wanted to showcase the brightest female musicians in America in what had been a male-dominated scene. The group took its name from a traditional Irish jig called "Cherish the Ladies", and the series opened to sold-out concerts. Their leader Joanie Madden plays flute and tin whistle. The other members of the group play a wide variety of instruments. Their albums contain both tunes and songs.
Séamus Egan is an Irish-American musician.
Eileen Ivers is an American fiddler.
Jerry O'Sullivan is an American musician.
Michael Moloney was an Irish-born American musician and scholar. He was the artistic director of several major arts tours and co-founded Green Fields of America.
Seán Keane was an Irish fiddler, teacher and member of The Chieftains. He was a member of Ceoltóirí Chualann in the 1960s, before joining The Chieftains in 1968. He had a unique style, especially in his use of ornamentation, perhaps influenced by the music of the uilleann pipes.
Liz Carroll is an American fiddler and composer. She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship Award. Carroll and collaborator Irish guitarist John Doyle were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010. She is considered one of the greatest contemporary Irish fiddlers.
James Keane is an Irish traditional musician and accordion player. The Italian Castagnari company issued and continues a line of signature instruments called keanebox in his honor.
Tommy Sands is a Northern Irish folk singer, songwriter, radio broadcaster, and political activist. He performs with his three siblings as The Sands Family; solo as Tommy Sands; and with his son and daughter as Tommy Sands with Moya and Fionán Sands. Tommy was the prime songwriter for The Sands Family, one of Ireland's most influential folk groups of the 1960s and '70s.
Winifred Horan is an American violinist/fiddler of Irish descent. After classical training, she played with the all-female Celtic music ensemble Cherish the Ladies before becoming an original member of the Irish traditional music group Solas.
Martin Mulvihill was an Irish traditional musician, composer, teacher, and author. He composed roughly 25 tunes in the Irish traditional style.
Joanie Madden is an Irish-American flute and whistle player of Irish traditional music. She is best known as leader of the all-female group Cherish the Ladies, but has also recorded and performed with numerous other musicians, and as a solo artist. She also teaches master classes and workshops.
Robbie O'Connell is an Irish singer songwriter who performs solo, as well as with The Green Fields of America. He also appears with Dónal Clancy (cousin), Dan Milner, and fiddler Rose Clancy. O'Connell has also toured and recorded with The Clancy Brothers, being their nephew. For over 20 years, he has conducted small cultural tours to Ireland with Celtica Music & Tours and, for more than ten years, WGBH Learning Tours. Married with four grown children, he now spends his time between Bristol, Rhode Island and Waterford.
Jimmy Keane is a London-born English musician of Irish origin and a specialist piano accordion player. In addition to his solo career, in the 1980s he was part of the folk trio Moloney, O'Connell & Keane, then in ensemble Green Fields of America. In the 1990s, he was in Aengus and formed the group bohola with Pat Broaders and Seán Cleland. He has recorded and produced a number of albums.
Moloney, O'Connell & Keane is an early 1980s folk trio of traditional Irish music made up of guitarist and singer-songwriter Robbie O'Connell, banjoist and singer Mick Moloney and piano accordion virtuoso Jimmy Keane. The trio released two critically acclaimed albums: There Were Roses in 1985 and the album Kilkelly in 1987 including O'Connell's signature song "Killkelly".
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