Cathie Ryan in Concert: A Review
The beauty of a venue like the Bragg Auditorium is, as Cathie Ryan said herself, that she gets to perform songs she just can’t do at festivals. Like the lament, Caoineadh na dTrí Muire, which was one of the highlights of a performance that mesmerized Thursday’s crowd.
Another highlight was John Spillane’s The Wild Flowers, which Cathie told us hearing Spillane sing it in Dundalk made her aware that not only must she sing it herself, but that she was ready to record a new album.
That album became The Farthest Wave, and Ryan regards The Wild Flowers as the central song from the collection. In truth such was the quality of her singing that picking highlights from the MVFS presented gig is impossible. The Spillane track, though, like the lament, was one of the most powerful.
But this concert was far from a heavy, serious affair; Ryan is a highly-skilled teller of stories and much of the performance was actually Cathie talking. This is no bad thing at all, continuing the tradition of placing songs in contexts, and giving us a greater picture of where Cathie Ryan herself fits into Irish music.
And actually she’s so good at story-telling that much of it is of the standard you’d hear from a quality stand-up: dead-pan telling with impeccably timed twists and punchlines, and often multiple punchlines. Then again sometimes they were just stories, real and emotional, with no punchlines. I could’ve listened all night.
But of course those of us who were there went for her singing, and absolutely flawless it was. Personally I prefer her voice on the slower darker tracks, even if they do have some hope in them, but Cathie gifted us a song called Rathlin Island to show Irish traditional love songs could be happy affairs. Of course, as she explained, she had to write it herself.
And not every song was Irish, with the Scottish song Follow The Heron, and American songs like Somewhere Along the Road by Rick Kemp, and Home Sweet Home included.
Ryan told us her mother insisted she sing Follow The Heron when she heard it on the radio, only the title she gave her daughter was Follow The Herrings so it took Cathie a while to track it down.
Songs of home like A Mháithrín, A Ligfidh Tú Chun Aonaigh Me? and Home by Bearna were mixed in seamlessly with her own compositions like The Farthest Wave and Sheáin Bháin.
You may more likely know A Mháithrín, A Ligfidh Tú Chun Aonaigh Me? as Beidh aonach amárach i gContae an Chláir - which is a song I forgot to include on my list of songs I learned in school. And it took Cathie to make me realize that it was about a George Clooney type of cobbler.
And the stories went on. Of her last time in Kansas City when she returned to her hotel to find a bat in her room, and proclaimed the episode that ensued as - implausibly - the most fun she ever had in a hotel room.
And especially of her family. Of her mother from Kerry, and her father from Tipperary. And in particular of the grandmother she was named after. The six-foot seven grandfather, a story-teller himself, gave her memories from which she blended tunes together into a composition she calls Dance The Baby.
It really is such a treat to hear such beautiful singing and have great fun at the same time. You get the impression Cathie Ryan is going to have fun at her gig whether or not you even turn up. Because what is very clear from the first moments you hear her sing, is that she absolutely loves each of the songs she is singing. Much like the women she champions in Grace O’Malley and You and I in the One Bed Lie, Cathie Ryan is a force to enjoy.
It’s also impossible not to enjoy somebody who drinks tea throughout an entire concert.
Sara Milonovich played fiddle and sang along lovingly to every song. And for a couple of tunes she played keboards. Dónal Clancy, stepping in this November for Greg Anderson, played guitar exclusively and fabulously.
Because of the legend that his father Liam is, it’s practically impossible not to mention Dónal’s lineage, but such is the quality of Clancy’s guitar playing that I implore you to avail of whatever chance you get to listen to it.
In the second half Sarah and Dónal performed a couple of quick tunes for us while Cathie put down her bodhrán and went off, presumably to make a pot of tea.
It was a relatively quiet night in the Bragg Auditorium, the quiet of lovers comfortable in each other’s company, as too many people opted for the midwestern trait of not going out on a school night despite it being only a 7:30 to 9:30 gig. This wonderful performance should have been seen by a sell-out crowd. Honestly people, is there even an ‘Irish community’ in Kansas City? And if so, what does it mean?
The organization was great, and the venue wonderful. And the sound was impeccable; indeed I think the gig would’ve worked without any sound system.
But finally it had to end, and the crowd singing So Here’s To You, Cathie’s take on The Parting Glass, was a fitting way. Then an encore of Slán Abhaile saw us all leave and safely drive (or cycle) home.
Thank you MVFS and the Cathie Ryan Band. Well done.
Links:
• Close to Home by Dónal Clancy
• Forward in All Directions by Sara Milonovich and Greg Anderson
• The Farthest Wave by Cathie Ryan
Note:
This article has also been published in the Midwest Irish Focus
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