A Triumph For The Ladies, A Triumph For The Season

By David McGee

A STAR IN THE EAST
Cherish the Ladies
Big Mammy Records
Released: 2010

Named after a traditional Irish jig, Cherish the Ladies, the heralded all-female Irish-American band formed in New York City 26 years ago by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Joannie Madden, brings to its second Christmas album all the musical gifts that have endeared the band to audiences around the world, no matter the season. Released on the band’s own Big Mammy Records label last year, A Star In the East (its title drawn from a line in the Afro-American spiritual “Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow,” to which the Ladies add a new melody, two new verses and a shambling, folksy, Irish-Cajun-tinged arrangement--Mirella Murray on accordion has a field day--behind Ms. Madden’s sturdy vocal) dips into centuries past for traditional carols to put its own spin on but also throws in some new songs that the band then entwines in vintage reels and jigs. This strategy works to spectacular effect: straight-ahead carols such as “The First Noel,” with Michelle Burke’s soft, sensitive vocal, and the other Ladies’ empathetic instrumental support (buttressed by a string section recruited for the project), is a moment of inestimable beauty and profound reverence; a high-stepping treatment of “Deck the Halls” is delightful enough on its own, but it’s only the start of a spirited instrumental journey that also includes a polka by John Clifford (husband of one of Ireland’s famed fiddlers, Kerry’s Julia Clifford), which segues into a hearty polka arrangement of “Jingle Bells,” led by Kathleen Boyle’s sprinting piano solo; alternating between quiet piano and vocal passages and sumptuous stirrings of strings and woodwinds, “Christ Child’s Lullabye,” which dates from the mid-1800s, advances an affecting interpretation of the Virgin Mary’s first thoughts upon gazing at baby Jesus as voiced in wondrous terms by Ms. Burke; Ms. Boyle’s piano and Roisin Dillon’s fiddle lead the measured way into “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” which begins to add some glide to its stride when Ms. Madden (whistle) and then Ms. Murray (piano) make their entrances, and suddenly we’re into a jig version of “Greensleeves,” which in turn paves the way for continued Irish revelry in the jigs “The Tongs By the Fire” and “The Frost Is All Over.”

From A Star In The East, Cherish the Ladies perform ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ in accompanying Joanie Madden’s reading of Irish poet Patrick Kavanaugh’s childhood memories. Ms. Madden is on whistle; Mary Coogan, guitar; Roisin Dillon, fiddle; Mirella Murray, accordion; Kathleen Boyle, piano. Though she does not perform on this number, lead vocalist Michelle Burke is seated at right.

From A Star In The East, ‘Rise Up, Shepherd, And Follow,’ a Civil War-era African-American spiritual. Joanie Madden, lead vocal.

Two new songs stand out as well. Don Stiffe, a friend of the band’s hailing from Headford in Country Galway, offers “Home on Time for Christmas,” a jubilant, fiddle- and accordion-fired, Irish-flavored country song celebrating family togetherness on the day in question with a hopeful final verse that “the ones that couldn’t make it/Might make it home next year.” Ms. Burke’s bright, soulful lead vocal is going to remind some listeners of the way young Judy Collins ennobled the human spirit of the protagonist in “The Fisherman Song.” Homecoming of another sort animates pianist Kathleen Boyle’s original instrumental titled, indeed, “The Homecoming.” Composed in honor of her parents’ return home to their native Donegal after a half-century in Glasgow, Scotland, Ms. Boyle’s lilting, lovely melody is imbued with equal measures of joy and poignancy, evoking the complex feelings ensuing upon leaving a place called home to dwell again, and at last, on your true native soil; Ms. Madden’s evocative, keening whistle and a nuanced string arrangement serve to heighten the momentousness of the occasion, which Ms. Boyle underscores in the resolve of her steady, determined piano parts.

From A Star In The East, ‘The First Noel,’ Michelle Burke, lead vocal

From A Star In The East, pianist Kathleen Boyle’s original instrumental, ‘The Homecoming.’ Composed in honor of her parents’ return home to their native Donegal after a half-century in Glasgow, Scotland, Ms. Boyle’s lilting, lovely melody is imbued with equal measures of joy and poignancy that evoke the complex feelings ensuing upon leaving a place called home to dwell again, and at last, on your true native soil.

Beginning on Christmas morn (with an instrumental medley comprised of Ms. Madden’s brisk “A Dash for the Presents,” a frisky “Joy to the World” and the rollicking “Parnell’s March,” a uilleann pipes tune dating from the mid-1930s) and winding up with Boo Hewerdine’s reflective ballad, “New Year’s Eve” (a vow of renewal and self-affirmation as precious and piercing as a Kate McGarrigle song; come to think of it, as the pipes and whistle rise in a heartfelt cry around her, Ms. Burke’s tenderly assertive vocal betrays a debt to Ms. McGarrigle), A Star In the East is a full-on journey—of the heart, of the spirit, of the ties that bind family, friends, lovers and spiritual pilgrims alike. Its triumph is twofold: for Cherish the Ladies, and for the season.

Cherish the Ladies’ A Star In The East is available at the band’s website