How it’s New York: At the Irish Arts Center in New York City
How it’s Irish: RTÉ Folk Award Winners Ye Vagabonds
The sellout crowd at the Irish Arts Center this past Saturday was eagerly anticipating the first New York appearance by the acclaimed brothers Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn collectively known as Ye Vagabonds.
Hailing from Carlow, with a mother from Aranmore Island, in Donegal, they are richly steeped in the musical tradition of the area. Both, multi-instrumentalists, the show featured both of them switching back and forth on a full compliment of strings, including bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and harmonium.
They started off with a version of The Foggy Dew
that Brían learned from Mick O’Grady in Dublin. A very different song from the rebel song version, a dark story of a mysterious lovers tryst.
Next was a song in Irish Dá mBeinn i mo Bhádóir, learned from the singing of Róise Rua of Aranmore Island. This song highlighted the dexterity and brotherly harmony that sets these two apart as incredible innovators in modern traditional music. Both of these songs feature on their new album of traditional songs The Hare’s Lament, and they also played their rousing rendition of this at the end of the show, which features a lively Macedonian mandolin tune at the end of it called Ocogovka Oro.
The rest of the program featured many other songs from around Ireland, and some gorgeous originals, from their eponymous first album, all of which focused on their intricate harmonies and rapid-fire instrumentation.
There were songs mentioning Carlow, gypsies, love and loss, interspersed with their witty banter. They even ventured across the sea to Scotland with a brace of Scots songs including an hilarious song about staying away from the Bothy Lads and the heartfelt tale of Willie O’Winsbury
They are truly a delight to listen to and watch. Not only are there harmonies delicious, they are also adept lilters, and Brían can even play the harmonium with his heel. They still have a few dates left on their tour, they played Monday February 3rd with The Murphy Beds in Brooklyn and you can see the rest of the schedule here: Shows
And you can find their CDs here online: Buy CDs
These will definitely make for hours of enduring musical pleasure. Here’s hoping they come back our way again soon!
