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Waving the Terrible Towel & Singing the National Anthem at Heinz Field

I'm really excited for this coming weekend, Sunday, December 9th, and the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the Pittsburg Steelers vs. San. Diego Chargers, 1 pm, football game! I am also especially grateful that all my family, including my Mom and Dad and brothers, John and Kenny will be with me! Being an American kid from Irish parents gives me the prospect of representing both cultures and fills me with a lot of pride! My parents, who are Irish immigrants, dont even carry their Irish citizenship anymore! For them, it is a testament of how proud they are to be American and how much they appreciate what an extraordinary opportunity it is to throve in a country like America.

I have a house full of boys here and I grew up with two brothers, so Sunday football has always a tradition in my family. Although the fan base in my family ranges from Giants to Cowboys, to Jets and last but not least, Steelers, I know they will all be rooting hard this Sunday! Pittsburg is a very Irish town with loyal fans and I am excited to wave that Terrible Towel in the air when I finish my last note!!

Cross your fingers for me and I hope I make you proud!! Check out our new website, when you get a chance, www.celticcross.com!
Cheers- Kathleen

Guest Host for WFUV, Sunday July 25th

Performing live in the WFUV studio has always been a thrill, but when Liz Noonan, the producer of Ceol na nGael, asked me to come up this Sunday, July 25th, and be their guest host and have Celtic Cross perform live, I was beyond excited! What an honor to be their first guest host and put together the program's play list of all my favorite Irish songs and artists. August 8th, Eileen Ivers will also be hosting the program and hopefully play something live in the studio with her awesome band, Immigrant Soul!

If your house was like mine, WFUV would be blaring from the kitchen radio every Sunday morning as breakfast was being made! My Mom would take it upon herself to give "dance lessons" around the kitchen as one of her favorite songs would be played! I have often wondered how I learned the words of so many Irish songs and it had to be from hearing them every week on Ceol na nGael. I can also remember the first time Celtic Cross was played on the radio. My phone rang off the hook with friends and family calling to let us know we were on. I remember turning up the volume and standing around the radio with my brothers, John and Kenny, listening, as if we had never heard the song before! :)

So this Sunday, July 25th, be sure to keep the tradition alive and tune into 90.7 fm, from 12 noon-4 pm. Celtic Cross will be performing live around 2:00.

WFUV Press Release...

Kathleen Fee and Eileen Ivers Guest Host WFUV's Ceol na nGael

New York, NY-Kathleen Fee and Eileen Ivers will co-host WFUV's Irish music and news show Ceol na nGael this summer, covering for Ireland-bound host Colleen Taylor. As guest hosts, the two celebrated Irish musicians will join host Kerri Gallagher to treat listeners to the songs they like to listen to at home and talk about all their favorite artists. Celtic Cross lead vocalist Kathleen Fee will guest host on Sunday, July 25^th, while fiddler Eileen Ivers fills in on Sunday, August 8^th. As a special bonus, Celtic Cross will perform live on the July 25th show, as will fiddler Martin Hayes.

"Who better to have guest host than Kathleen and Eileen?" said Ceol na nGaelproducer Liz Noonan. "Their love of Irish music is palpable and I'm looking forward to being turned on to some music I've never heard before."

Ceol na nGael began as the brainchild of Fordham University students Gerry Murphy and Mary McGuire in 1974. The program quickly evolved into a radio haven for New York's Irish music lovers, many of whom regularly dedicate songs to one another and keep abreast of Irish community events through Ceol na nGael's "bulletin boards." Other program highlights include weekly news and sports reports from Ireland.

WFUV is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station, licensed to Fordham University for over 60 years. Serving the New York area as well as an international audience on the web, and a leader in contemporary music radio, WFUV is Rock & Roots Radio, offering an eclectic mix of rock, singer-songwriters, blues, world and other music, plus headlines from National Public Radio and local news.

Thirteen Irish Songs That Need To Be Retired

Don't take this too seriously folks...

As we head into the high-holy season of March... Paddy's Month, I dare a controversial topic that will almost certainly draw hate-blogmail. But I need to get this off my chest...

I specifically reach out to all my fellow Irish music players and singers out there. I know many of you have these thoughts too...

As an Irish musicianer for years and years now, I have played every conceivable Irish song... you name it, and me and my band mates have played it 100s of times. Different places, different crowds, they always seem to love all of them unquestioningly.

And I too have loved them all to some degree at some point... but I confess there are several that all the love is gone. Really gone. And now I cringe at the thought of the requests that will come over the next few weeks, the puzzled looks on the stage as we make the inevitable uncomfortable concession.

It is time we all dare to change...

So I offer a list of songs to all musicianers everywhere this Paddy's season. I plead with my brothers and sisters to resist the urge to further drive these into the ground. It is time to put them away on the shelf for a few years, several years. There are hundreds of better songs to replace them... learn them and let these go. I dare you to say no to the requests, the pleading, and the $20 tips...

Thirteen Irish Songs That Need To Be Retired

1. Fields of Athenrye... fast or slow, it doesn't matter. Just let that damn ship sail and never come back.

2. Dirty Old Town... unless Shane is singing it... it is like a paper cut.

3. Wild Rover... I don't buy the story to begin with, do you?

4. 5. Danny Boy & Galway Bay (tie)... death songs are downers... save them for the funerals.

6. Whiskey In The Jar... let Metallica just have it OK?

7. The Unicorn... its wrong on so many levels. It should be limited to Sesame Street on Paddy's Day (is that show still on?).

8. Celtic Symphony... it is the equivalent of a Kesha song for Irish drunk guys...

9. Galway Girl... this one got on the list in record time... but does every man, woman, band, etc. have to sing it three times in every set? I am sure Steve Earle would be mortified about how his song is getting trashed in Irish ginmills everywhere.

10. Streets of New York... great great song, perfectly done by the Wolfetones, and one I am sure I will love again. We all try to do it justice, and everyone knows every word... but I don't think people listen to the real story in there anymore.. Maybe after a few years of absence they might.

11. Black Velvet Band... songs about hot chicks that steal should be eternal hits... but I don't think anyone really listens to the words on this one either anymore.

These two are particular to Celtic Cross...

12. Celtic Bob... was before my time with CC and not necessarily ever popular, nor do we ever ever play it... but is here on principle and to tweak my current and preceding band mates.

13. All Around My Hat... I know many of you CC fans love it & it may come off my retirement list one day... but not this year.

I feel so much better now that I have gotten this out in the public. I will say no to the requests now with more dignity, and avoid the lies about being out of time, or no one knows the words.

So, what are the Irish songs that you think should be retired? Please click on the comments button below and add your thoughts to get them off your chest. You too will feel better...

Slainte...

Making Music with Black 47

I've been meaning to write about recording with Larry Kirwan since December, and finally after receiving so many nice emails, I'm happy to congratulate Larry and Black 47 on their new CD, Bankers and Gangsters! Although I do not fall into the category of a banker or a gangster, I was flattered that, over a pint of Guinness, at Blackthorn in East Durham, Larry asked me to sing a duet with him on their new CD!

"I'm looking for a sultry, sassy performance, with lots of attitude," Larry said, as we chatted away in the beer garden! Well, he knew I could pull off the sassy part, but I'm not so sure about the rest! So, after the weekend, we got together to work on "Wedding Reel" and were in the recording studio in Connecticut a few weeks later!

"Wedding Reel" is not your typical Irish love ballad, but more of a real life song about a couple who have been together for many years and the romance has gone a bit stale, to say the least! "I'll find myself a young fella to keep me occupied, someone I can turn to in the middle of the night," she threatens in some of the spicy exchange between the pair! Her man is clearly more interested in watching the Late, Late Show and sippin' on his pint, and hasn't even noticed the new highlights in her hair! Can you imagine the nerve of the fella?! HA!

We had a lot of fun with the ending of the track where we ad libbed the "banter" between us! There were many laughs and it was a great experience working with Larry in the recording studio!! It is a day I will always cherish! Thanks Larry!

Thanks also to JGats, FSullivan and Bill Murphy for your emails about hearing "Wedding Reel" on Larry's Celtic Crush show on Sirius Radio, last week. I haven't had a chance to listen to Bankers and Gangsters yet, but it is available in stores on March 2nd and online through www.black47.com! So be sure to download it!! I'm looking forward to hearing all of the new CD and as always, wish my friend Larry Kirwan and Black 47 much success!

An Irish Halloween

Did you ever notice how pitch dark in gets in Ireland? It's the perfect setting for a scary Halloween. The Celts were the first to celebrate Halloween to mark the end of the summer and the start of the winter months. Celtic Druids believed that Halloween was the one night when the living and the dead were the closest. They were the first to dress up as witches, goblins and devils to disguise themselves in the event they would encounter real witches, goblins or devils. They feared they would be taken away at the end of the night.

The tradition of carving Jack O'Lanterns can also be traced back to Ireland. Legend has it that during the eighteenth century, an Irish blacksmith, Jack O'Lantern tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree. Once the Devil climbed the tree, Jack placed crosses around the trunk of the tree so that the Devil was unable to get down. The Devil threw a burning coal ember at Jack that he placed inside a turnip that he had gouged out. The Devil condemned Jack to wander the earth for eternity. When the Irish immigrated to America during the famine, they discovered that pumpkins were more plentiful and easier to carve, so they used pumpkins to make their Jack O'Lanterns instead of turnips.

I spent one Halloween in Ireland when I was 8. I can remember being dressed up in my little witch costume and heading over to my grandparents house in Drumlish, Longford. The house was filled with my cousins, who were bobbing for apples, eat some barnbrack cake and feasting on all the sweets we collected trick or treating.

Barnbrack cake never made it out to America, probably because it tasts...well almost as bad as Irish fruitcake! :) Barnbrack is like Irish fortune cookie cake. What makes it so special is that the cake is baked with a number of trinkets that represents different things. The trinkets include a ring, which predicts love or marriage, a coin, which predicts wealth and a piece of a rag for misfortune. The cake is sliced up and passed out and eaten very carefully! HA!

What would Halloween be like without some scary ghost stories? My Grandfather would hold court by the fire as he puffed away on his woodbine cigarettes. He was an incredible storyteller and loved to scare the be-jesus out of us! I can remember one story that he told about this fella who rode his bicycle past the graveyard on Halloween night and was never seen again. The man's bicycle was found leaning up against the graveyard fence. Then came the dare! Who would be brave enough to walk up the dark lane to the main road? "Go on...ya 'ol coward ya," my Mom would tease! No way!!!!

So Happy Halloween to you. Have fun carving those Jack O'Lanterns and beware of all the little ghosts and goblins! If you're looking for a good Halloween song to listen to while you carve your pumpkins, download Richard Shindell, "Are You Happy Now."

Cheers-Kathleen

Saints and Sinners... great work by the Young Dubliners

Very impressed by this record our colleagues from LA put out this summer... Saints and Sinners by the Young Dubliners. Always a sucker for well played, well written Ceili-pop... this is state of the art, and as colorful as the slick CD cover featuring a shifty young boy with the brightest red hair you've ever seen.

There are a lot of influences on this that I hear... DMB, Duran Duran, ELO, Madness, Modern English to name a few. Add great Uillean pipes, whistle and fiddle and you have their sound.

Not one bad track on this. Some very catchy lyric writing here... Backseat Driver & Rosie are standout tracks for me. Love these lyrics from the chorus of Rosie...

Rosie, sweet rosie

money dont grow on trees

if I thought for just one second it did

i'd be down on my bended knee...

Oh can't you hear Larry Kirwan from Black 47 singing that...

Another standout for me is (Dont Think I'll) Love Anymore, a well done duet with Dead Rock West lead singer Cindy Wasserman. There were two additional tracks on the iTunes download version... and one called Unreel... a bonus live instrumental featuring nifty edgy guitar trad work.

But my favorite track is the last track entitled Chance... with a DMB/Stefan Lessard bass line bringing in a very hip dance tune that Afro-Celt fans will love. A great piece of studio production... love love love it...

Not sure there are too many better records put out in our scene this year... I am torn between Saints and Sinners and the sure to be classic Gutter Anthems from Enter The Haggis as my favorite Celtic rock release in 2009. I play them both constantly...

Anyway, I missed the Young Dubs recent NYC show... we had a studio session unfortunately that night. I will not let them get by us here again on the east coast without catching them live...

So in the meantime, pick it up, download it, order it... totally totally worth it.

Note: Been meaning to write this for a few months now, this record has been out since February, but better late than never...