Thanks.

"Irish in America" was a logical "next step" after Folk-Legacy's "Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea" CD which came out in 1998.

I've been finding songs - great songs - since 1980 that are about the Irish-American experience. The oldest one on the CD dates from the Revolutionary War and is about a battle (skirmish) which takes place at King's Bridge, the only land access between the island of Manhattan and the mainland of North America for centuries. The Irish troops in that ballad fight on the British side against the Colonial Army. That same King's Bridge gave its name to the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

When I recorded the song, "The Sons of Liberty" I wanted 2 Bronxite friends of mine to play on it: All-Ireland Champion fiddler, Brian Conway, and Joanie Madden of "Cherish the Ladies." Joanie was unable to make the session at the last minute and was leading the "Ladies" on a 3-week cruise starting the next morning. Brendan Dolan, one of the country's top Irish flute and piano players and a grandson of the Bronx, was able to fill in and we went ahead with the session, adding U.S. National Guitar Flatpicking Chapion, Orrin Star, on guitar. All did a lovely job in my opinion.

As you can gather, I'm not the only one on the CD. We have a total of 5 All-Ireland Champions on the recording including Billy McComiskey (accordion) and Patrick Mangan (fiddle), both of Brooklyn, Jim McFarland, a great ballad singer from Derry, and stepdancer Niall O'Leary of Dublin, a Riverdance alumnus. Two Mudcatters, Lisa Null and Dick Swain, and two members of The Johnson Girls - Bonnie & Deirdre - are among the chorus singers. My singing partner, Bob Conroy, sings 5 songs (I sing 9). There are 4 traditional Irish dance tunes.

Given the fact that there was a 200 year song timeframe and because I had so much great talent to work with, we were able to get a lot of different textures on the CD while, I believe, remaining true to the music. Someone who listens to the FOLK-LEGACY SOUND CLIP will be able to understand what I mean. The sound clip, by the way, plays very well on recent Windows Media Player programming.

As Sandy mentioned above, the CD just came out. I'll be looking forward to more comments from Mudcatters as they hear it.

All the best,
Dan Milner