How it’s New York: Childsplay will perform at Symphony Space, a fantastic place to see folk.
How it’s Irish: This is a folk fiddle orchestra. It’s completely unique. Karan Casey and Aoife O’Donovan both perform.
Childsplay are performing in NYC on Friday, Nov. 22. This is their final tour, and it’s not to be missed. I’ve been a fan of this group for a long, long time: a folk fiddle orchestra, all playing instruments made by luthier Bob Childs. Tickets available here.
They have started a Kickstarter campaign to make a film about what they do and write, “please consider contributing to our Kickstarter Campaign if you haven’t already. For every $1 you give, we get $2 in addition.. There is nothing cynical or commercial about Childsplay, it is all about the human need to connect through music and to create community both within the band and with our audiences. I believe this is what the world needs more of, now more than ever. Anyone who donates $250 or more also gets a tax exemption letter recognizing your donation to our 501(c)3 nonprofit.”
Now for my review, first published in Irish Music Magazine, of “The Bloom of Youth,” an outstanding CD that came out last year.
Childsplay: The Bloom of Youth with special guest Karan Casey
13 tracks. 61 minutes. Childsplay Records
“The Bloom of Youth” is what made you love Irish music in the first place. Songstress Karan Casey has never sounded so pert, perfect and lively as she does when she sings with the string orchestra put together by fiddlemaker Bob Childs. Childsplay, named for Bob Childs, has long been one of the great somewhat hidden gems of Irish/Scottish music. I’m constantly baffled that they don’t routinely sell out large arenas.
I write “put together,” because as Casey writes in an essay, not one person leads the orchestra. Different people lead different numbers. She has played and toured with the group for awhile, and writes
Many groups in Irish music are family groups, or started that way: Clannad. The Black family. Bob Childs’ instruments are like siblings playing together. The strings sound related.
This 13-track recording is uplifting and gorgeous.
The musicians who play with Childsplay, arrange for them and some who are on this 
record are names you’ll know: Hanneke Cassel. Shannon Heaton. Sheila Falls-Keohane. Sam Amidon. Bonnie Bewick. The orchestra is made up of 12 fiddles, one viola, two cellos, one bass, one flute, two pennywhistles, one guitar, one banjo, one bouzouki, one bodhran, one harp, one piano, and one singer. We’ve heard orchestras do traditional music before, of course; what has always marked Childsplay is that all the musicians in it are traditional musicians first. So when they play together it’s like a grand and disciplined session from Heaven. A session: because it sounds like they are having way too much fun.
There is a strong Northeast/Scottish sound, since the orchestra is based in Massachusetts. One of the standout tracks is the “Buddy’s Strathspey,” by Hanneke Cassel, which then goes into “The Wooden Whale” by Alasdair Fraser, and the traditional “The Farmer’s Daughter.” Cassel takes the solo, then is joined by the orchestra. It’s jaunty and exciting.
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LISTEN: PODCAST WITH BOB CHILDS
READ: CHILDSPLAY WITH KARAN CASEY
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The cover of the late Scottish singer Andy M. Stewart’s “Where Are You Tonight I Wonder?” is lovely, with a gorgeous introduction, and a forward motion that puts Casey’s vocals first, and never drags (always a danger with sad ballads). The counterpoint and harmony (Cassel did the arrangement) underneath from the strings gives the song a lovely lilt. Similarly Casey’s voice on the famine song “Sailing Off to Yankeeland” is clear and fine, and the upbeat tempo makes the song sadder (Keith Murphy and Casey arranged). There’s also an insertion of gypsy jazz with “Turka” by Oleg Ponomarev, arranged by Bewick, who solos. It’s hard to keep still while listening as she and the others zoom up and down the scales while cellos keep the beat. Bewick writes (arrangers and soloists write liner notes per song): “you could say it has been played by Childsplay members late into the night upon occasion.” That’s followed by the stately, sad tempo of Bonnie Bewick’s arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s (yes, you read that right) “The Fiddle and the Drum,” an antiwar song and a lament for America.
The CD ends with the swaying, “One to One” waltz by Tommie Cunniffe, arranged by Falls-Keohane.
The packaging of the CD is also a treat, with a generous booklet and liner notes, and essays by Childs, Casey and dancer Kieran Jordan. “Childsplay,” Casey writes, “makes the world a better place.”
They do, and so does this album.
**
And Click here to hear the hour-long retrospective on Childsplay through the years WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan did on the group last Saturday.
