By Nick Michalski

It was a blustery January Saturday as I hustled up the walk toward Milwaukee’s Irish Cultural & Heritage Center. The historic old church structure at 2133 W. Wisconsin Ave. — where the city’s Celtic heart now beats — is just west of downtown near the faded opulence of the Eagles Ballroom, a stairway to rock ‘n roll heaven. Not far away, Marquette University Jesuits and their student charges hunker low in their rooms, well out of the wind. 

I blow in on the breeze around 5:30 p.m., not knowing when I might borrow a Danú band member or two for a quick chat. The center was its typical bustle: people scurrying in and out of rooms as traffic rolled past the main entrance. 

Kids were meeting their parents outside and folks were beginning to show up for the night’s main event. Danú is a young band of Irish traditional musicians who add a trademark liveliness to centuries-old sounds. While walking around the place — with its pews, stage and Wisconsin’s largest pipe organ — looking for the ticket office, I noticed a sign pointing to a "Pub" in the basement. Could there be beer served in a Cultural & Heritage Center? Do the Irish drink inside what used to be a church? 

After hooking up with center manager John Maher, who told me that the band hadn’t shown up yet, I sat down to look over my notes. Danú had been on their current 2005 tour for almost two weeks by the time it came to Milwaukee, starting the latest Great American Adventure in Little Rock. With members from counties Waterford, Donegal, Kerry and Dublin, Danú is based in Co. Waterford and consists of seven traditional musicians. Others are invited to join in for live performances and other occasions. 

Danú has featured various line-ups throughout the years. The band, formed in 1994, has released five albums, with a live DVD and a new CD coming in March, 2005, on Shanachie Records. Danú won a 2004 BBC Folk Award for "Best Group," an honor they’d also received in 2001. In addition, they performed the song that won the 2004 BBC Folk Award for "Best Original Song," which was given to Tommy Sands for his County Down.

As people trickled in, I noticed that many visitors were strolling around with tasty beverages in their hands. It was true! A little poking around led to the discovery that there was not only one pub here, but three! Dia sa teach! God bless all in this house!

I decided to get a brimming cup of frothy Murphy’s stout and wait for the band to show up. After some hearty sipping, I shortly noticed some young gents entering the hall well-armed with cased musical instruments. Along with them was a tall, older man who looked as if he might be a manager-type. After introducing myself, the big fella revealed himself to be Des Dillon, an "imaginative visual artist" touring with Danú. 

He pointed me towards Benny McCarthy, Danú’s hot licks accordion player and one of the group’s two founding members. Hailing from the village of Deelish in West Waterford, McCarthy (born Brendan) also plays the melodeon and is a composer of note. Considering the party-like atmosphere that prevailed once the show started, I had a relatively peaceful chat with Himself before the show:

IAP: "How has the road trip been thus far?"

A: "Very good. Good times. Starting in Little Rock, Arkansas, we’ve been on tour for about two weeks."

IAP "What places did you enjoy the most so far?"

A: "Down South, Alabama, we did a show in Missouri, Little Rock, Eureka Springs, lot of new places. We had a great time down there, whatever new places we hadn’t played before."

IAP: "Did you find audiences very receptive in the South?"

A: "Yeah, they are of course. Fantastic, really nice. Amazing, lots of places were full to see the band. (They were) very into it, and know what’s going on with Irish music, Celtic music."

IAP: "Do you ever get tired of traveling?"

A: "Not really, we enjoy doing what we do. It’s our job. Next year, we’ll take a break from the big touring, besides a few things here and there. We’d like to take a break because some of us have children, wee families at home so it’s hard to be away for six weeks or more at a time."

IAP: "How do you travel then?"

A: "We drive ourselves, usually all in the same vehicle. We normally travel in a 12-passenger, (or) 15-passenger vehicle. All in one vehicle, sometimes two, depends. It’s a great way to see the country, too. For us it’s a less-expensive form of travel than an actual tour bus. We enjoy doing it, and that’s the way we’ve always done it."

IAP: "Did you run into any snowstorms?"

A: "Luckily enough on this tour we didn’t. Since we started to tour the U.S., I think we’ve only missed one concert due to a snowstorm. It was actually a concert we were prepared to travel to do, but the concert itself was canceled. So we’ve been very lucky weather-wise with our touring. One time, we were going through the Rocky Mountains in Canada and we hit these controlled avalanches, but we still made it through and did our concert."

IAP: "What do you do for entertainment when not driving or practicing?"

A: "Actually, we’re pretty busy all the time. At the moment, we’ve got a DVD and a new album, which will come out in the next few weeks. But on the road, a lot of us have laptops and computers so while we’re on the road, we’ve been working on cover design and cover notes and website design; we’re putting a new website together. Everyone’s doing bits and pieces on the road."

IAP: "Are you sick of the road food?"

A: "It’s hard to find something decent to eat off the highway, ya know? All the chains. Once in a while it’s fine, but every day…it’s like that film the guy made about McDonald’s, ya know, Super Size Me. We always manage to eat well, though. We try to find places where you can get a decent bite to eat and we do that as much as we can. Everybody in the band likes to eat well."

IAP: "So you’ve got the new CD coming out?"

A: "We have a brand new album coming out with Shanachie Records. It’s called When All is Said and Done. We have a live DVD coming out in the next few weeks also. That’s called One Night Stand. It’s a concert taken from one night at a great venue in Dublin, Vicker Street, one of the finest venues in Ireland, ya know. That was good fun. That also includes about an hour of extra footage from on the road and interviews with the band in Ireland, taken from their homes. 

"And there’s some special guests. Now on this tour we have a special guest, a friend of ours, called Des Dillon, a very renowned Irish artist. He appears on the DVD with a piece of his art, which you’ll see later on. He’s on the DVD comparing Irish art to Irish music in a very interesting, very funny and unusual way. There’s a good few guests on the album, including John Sheahan from The Dubliners. Sharon Shannon turns up. Phil Cunningham was around too. That was cool, yeah. That’s also on Shanachie Records."

IAP: "How did you like playing at Milwaukee Irish Fest?"

A: "Fantastic. Amazing. We played it twice. It was definitely, the band would agree, our favorite Irish festival. It was a great time, a fantastic event. The urbanization of it, the way they put it together. The audience reaction was just second to none, just amazing. We’d play a concert in the day-time and go back to the hotel and stay up playing music all night. 

"And, you know, the line-up and everything, I’ve had some amazing sessions. I had a session at the hotel one night with Eileen Ivers and others; it’s not very often that, and it’s the same with other bands, between all the running around and that, to have all the best musicians and bands in the same place for one weekend is fantastic. It is a holiday."

(Danú will be playing at the 2005 Milwaukee Irish Fest, the event’s 25th anniversary Celtic blowout from Aug. 18-21.)

IAP: "What do you think of Milwaukee?"

A: "To be honest, we didn’t get much of a chance to see Milwaukee. There’s some beautiful old buildings; I’d love to come here and have a few days to have a look around."

IAP: "What did you think of the Irish Fest grounds?"

A: "Brilliant. Amazing, second to none. We stayed at the Park East (Hotel)."

IAP: "Where is your recording studio?"

A: "Except for the new album, we recorded at Liam Clancy’s studio in Ireland. For this album, we tried out another studio in Co. Meath, called Grouse Lodge, one of the finest in the country. We booked it for a week. The result, we think, is amazing. We tried it out because we’re a large group and it’s difficult to get everyone together to record. More or less it was recorded live, every track went down with everyone playing. We recorded and mixed this new album in one week. A lot of work was put into it. We feel it’s going to be our best CD. We’re performing about 50% of the album in our live shows."

IAP: "How does the group come up with and work on new stuff?"

A: "Everyone contributes. Obviously, on songs, Muireann (Nic Amhlaoibh) would be the focus, because she’s the singer. She chooses songs that suit her. Everyone has a suggestion to make for tunes. We talk about it, and listen to each other’s ideas. It’s really a joint effort. It is a good democratic situation. It’s worked fine and that’s the way we’ve always done it. We spent a bit of time rehearsing this album so we were well-versed. Plus, some of the material we’d been performing all year."

IAP: "What was it like to win the 2004 BBC Folk Award for "Best Group"?"

A: "That was amazing. We won it before in 2001. This time, we were involved with two awards: one was the band award, and the other was the song we recorded, County Down. Tommy Sands won an award for "Best Original Song," that we’d performed. We performed it on the night, on the TV broadcast. Joan Baez was there, it was really superb. An amazing event. It was really exciting to be there and be recognized. We do a lot of work and a lot of touring in England and it’s nice to get an award like that, the recognition. It was good, we really enjoyed it. And the BBC is known all over the world so it’s an award that’s very much recognized by the rest of the world. It was fantastic."

IAP: "I heard you were the unofficial manager of the band."

A: "We all have our jobs to keep things going. I look after what I can, and it’s been working well for us. We’re always in contact with one another to make decisions."

After speaking with McCarthy, there was growing excitement about Danú’s pending performance. Fans excitedly mingled, stood in line for beer or checked out the band’s souvenir material up for sale. Despite the buzz, other folks still relaxed in the smoking lounge and the pub. But most in the crowd had already taken their seats. The opening band, a local Milwaukee trio called Cé (including former members of Anam Rí), had just finished its set. The members of Danú then busily set up for their rehearsal and performance, so I grabbed a seat and thought that I’d try to hook them during intermission. 

At the break, however, the band was preoccupied, seated at a round table seriously talking between themselves and I figured that I wouldn’t bother them . So, I went in to take my seat for the second half of the performance. which began with an appearance by artist Dillon. He bounced out on stage with a puppet of a little baby to perform a funny, crowd-pleasing routine with Benny McCarthy. Later in the show, Dillon returned to the stage, this time with a life-size puppet of an old woman, with whom he danced around the stage. 

The music and Dillon’s enthusiastic dipping and diving with the old-woman-puppet evoked Celtic themes of enjoying life with the spirit of the young, even when one is very old. The "old woman" flew around the stage, kicking high in glee at just the right moments. This playfulness and humor was exhibited in many of the songs that Danú performed, as well. The crowd laughed heartily, roaring approval.

After the show, I approached a few of the other members of Danú, who were walking around, chatting with people, and generally enjoying themselves. The scene was spontaneous, with the band members mingling casually and unpretentiously with the ebb-and-flow crowd. Despite the chaos, I still managed to pull aside guitarist Dónal Clancy. The son of famous Irish musician Liam Clancy, Dónal is the unofficial "leader" of the band. He hails from from An Rinn on the western shores of Co. Waterford’s Dungarvan Bay in the heart of An Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking area of Ireland. 

IAP: "How has the road trip been so far?"

A: "It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of hard traveling."

IAP: "Have you run into any severe weather?"

A: "No, we just missed a big storm that came down south after we left. It was really nice down there in Alabama."

IAP: "What do you do when not performing, traveling or rehearsing?"

A: "On this trip, that’s pretty much taken up all our time to get from "A" to "B." We haven’t had too much time to sit down except to practice and warm up before shows. It’s pretty much been get a few hours of sleep, drive, get checked into the hotel, get to the venue, set up, perform and then move on to the next gig. We’ve even had to drive for a few hours after some of the gigs."

IAP: "Do you ever get sick of all the travel?"

A: "Sometimes, some of us get a bit cranky."

IAP: "What have your experiences been like performing with your dad, uncles and other family members?"

A: "I’m kind of awestruck at their stage presence and at what good performers they are. It just comes so naturally to them, whereas for me it doesn’t come so naturally. I don’t like the limelight as much, I kind of like to melt into the background. But I enjoy it, nonetheless." 

IAP: "Who wrote the pieces for the new album (When All is Said and Done)?"

A: "Most of the stuff is traditional. There’s a Bob Dylan song that we’re covering and a Paul Brady song. We arrange it all ourselves, and we produced it ourselves."

IAP: "What’s the Bob Dylan cover called?"

A: "It’s called "Farewell Angelina." Bob Dylan never recorded the song himself or performed it himself; Joan Baez recorded it. The melody is an old traditional melody, a Scottish melody. He changed it slightly and obviously wrote lyrics for it."

IAP: "Have you found that you’ve picked up a lot of your skills from watching family members, like your dad, or did you discover your own style of playing?"

A: "Well, he certainly had a huge record collection and I’d go through that. We heard him play but he doesn’t really push us in any way, to follow in his footsteps. And that’s fine. I got more interested in the traditional Irish stuff, as opposed to the ballads."

IAP: "What do you remember about playing at Milwaukee Irish Fest?"

A: "I remember having a lot of fun. I remember having good sessions up on the roof of the hotel afterwards. Staying up until five or six in the morning with a bottle of whiskey. I’ve had some good times the few times I was there."

IAP: "Were you surprised by the size of the festival?"

A: "Yeah, the thing I love about the festival is that they’re a head-and- shoulders above the rest of the Irish festivals. They go to the trouble of getting the real hardcore traditional musicians there, as well. They get musicians that nobody in Ireland knows about, how they get them I don’t know. It’s great that they bring those guys out here and let people see that. That’s part of the tradition. And, you know, they have all the green beer and shamrocks and all that. And the Celtic rock bands. The festival goes to lengths to bring the unknown people over, people who are really masters of their art."

IAP: "Are you going to take a break after this tour?"

A: "Yeah, after this tour we’re not doing anything until May. We’ll be in the UK in May and June. And then we’re back over here in August, doing some festivals, in St. Paul and Canada, and Milwaukee Irish Fest."

IAP: "What was it like to win the BBC Folk Award?"

A: "It was great fun. It was like being at the Oscars or something like that. We performed the song, and there were some really well-known musicians there. That was in London."

IAP: "So (bodhrán player/piper) Donnchadh Gough isn’t with you?"

A: "He’s got a new little baby, so he’s back home taking care of the family. They’ve got a bar as well, so they’ve been looking after the business and minding the baby and that."

After speaking with Dónal Clancy, I asked Oisín MacAuley a few questions. Oisín plays the fiddle, violin/viola and does backing vocals for Danú. I chatted with him for a few minutes in the smoking lounge of the Cultural Center.

IAP: "So, you haven’t run into snow or anything like that?"

A: "No, we’ve been very lucky."

IAP: "What has been the best city to play so far this tour?"

A: "Milwaukee has beaten any place so far. It’s been just over a week. We had a very good reception in East Lansing, Michigan, as well. Milwaukee’s special for us, you know, because of the Irish Fest. People know us here, and they know the stuff very well. It’s nice to have people come up to you and ask for certain numbers off the albums. People here actually know what you’ve been up to, they buy the CDs and listen to them."

IAP: "Do you ever get tired of all the travel?"

A: "You get tired of it on a day-to-day basis, but not overall."

IAP: "Do you ever get any leisure time?"

A: "It’s very hard. You generally don’t get a lot of time between concerts. There’s a lot of driving time. You generally arrive at a place, check into a hotel and hopefully have some time to get settled. Then you do a sound check and the gig. But the gig’s the gig, you know. Sometimes you get to stay in a place for three or four days, when there’s no gig, and that’s the best time to practice and rehearse."

IAP: "What do you like about Milwaukee Irish Fest?"

A: "This year will be my first time. It will be Muireann’s first time too. The band just love it. For me, it will mean a lot, to the extent that I’ve been touring with the band for three years, and Irish Fest is the biggest gathering of Irish people in the U.S. For me, that will be a big thing. I’m really looking forward to it. I know the guys are really looking forward to it. It will be a big occasion for us."

IAP: "How long have you been with the band?"

A: "About three years. Muireann joined us last year. It was a big change and it’s a testament to Muireann that she did so well in so little time. She learned the material in a very short amount of time."

IAP: "How do you come up with new stuff?"

A: "We sit down together. We usually differentiate between an accordion set and a pipe set. It’s turned out to be a good way for us to work. We don’t like to have two reed instruments together because it produces a kind of squawking sound. We try to get everyone’s tunes out. We sit down and try to figure out what tunes people like, it’s kind of a consensus, everything is democratic. We go ‘that’s cool, that’s nice,’ you know. And especially if someone has composed a tune, we try to get that out."

IAP: "What was it like to win the BBC Folk Award?"

A: "That was really weird. We went to the event and we thought, you know, we’d won it before and we wouldn’t get the same award twice. We had a big meal and were treated very well. We were going up against The Waifs, a folk singer-songwriter kind of group that we’re big fans of and we know them. We were sure they were going to win it. And the announcer suddenly goes "From God’s own country, Danú!" We were literally shocked, we didn’t expect it."

IAP: "Do you play the viola or is it a violin?"

A: "They call it a violin or viola, it’s a five-string. The best ones are made in the U.S. at the moment. Mine was hand-made in China. It gives me room on songs to go up and down through the octaves. So, the band will be playing in the same octave and I can move up and down, it gives me more range." 

IAP: "So you’re looking forward to playing Milwaukee Irish Fest?"

A: "Yeah, I’m really excited. The second-largest Irish festival is in Dublin, Ohio. I’ve played that twice now and I’m really raring to see what Milwaukee has to offer."

Clearly, much more can be written about Danú. The other members of the band were caught up in conversation when I left, six hours after I’d arrived. The musicians likely chatted and celebrated well after the midnight hour. Their vigor and vitality certainly juiced up their music as well as their social relations. 

A sense of Irish mirth could be felt in their presence. Hey, who could ask for more than a warm feeling in the belly and in the heart on a cold, snowy, January night in Milwaukee.