Strung Out Episode 38 CHICAGO SAVED IRISH MUSIC

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On this episode of Strung Out we interview two great Chicago Irish musicians, Jackie Moran on bodhran (the Irish drum) and Seán Cleland (fiddle) both of whom teach at The Irish Music School of Chicago (irishmusicschool.org) and were part of the legendary band The Drovers during the mid-late 1980's, when Chicago was at the forefront of a renaissance of Irish music, dance and culture.  

But Chicago had an amazing role in the preservation and propagation of Irish music that predates such bands as The Drovers, Midnight Court, The Wailin' Banshees to name a few of the day.  About 80 years earlier, one Chicago policeman, Chief Francis O'Neil, took it upon himself to save all the tunes that were rapidly being dispersed and lost due to the great famine and immigration.  O'Neil went about hunting down Irish musicians and with the help of colleague James O'Neil, meticulously recorded note for note the melodies that each musician had in his or her recollection.  This became the standard "bible" of Irish melodies and it can be argued that this single action, created in the Windy City, was responsible for maintaining the rich level of Irish music we enjoy today. 

Fast forward to the 1980's again, and the rise of such stars as Michael Flatley, a Chicago-plumber-flautist-dancer and schools like the Trinity School of Irish Stepdancing lead another wave of Chicago infused Irish music and dance.  With amazing traditional players on the scene from the old country as well as new Windy City stars like Liz Carroll, John Williams, Jimmy Keane, Martin Hayes and many others, Chicago becomes the hotbed of Irish music.  Rising through this rich soil of Midwestern Celtic Sound comes the Big Shouldered energy of bands that delivered a driving, devil-may-care, hammer swinging energy that was uniquely Chicago. That sound thrived throughout the 80's and well into the early 2000's when that era slowly ebbed away.  What it was replaced with is up to debate.  Which is the reason for the podcast.

Martin McCormack joins Jackie and Seán as they play some of the signature sounds captured by  Chief O'Neil and talk about Chicago Irish Music, where it has been and where it is heading. 

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