By Meaghan Ziemba

"My father was a wonderful tenor, and my grandmother was a great singer as well," noted musician Cathie Ryan reminisced during a mid-March Milwaukee layover. The singer, performing the second show of the spring concert series in the Hallamór at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center (ICHC), took out a few minutes from a busy schedule to happily chat about her musical growing up years.

"My songwriting and love of telling stories comes from my grandfather. He had such a gift at telling stories, and I got my love of writing and telling stories from him," she explained.

While Ryan’s mother did not sing or play an instrument, she was a musician at heart — passionate about different types of music and playing them within the home. Yet even such heritage, Ryan had to overcome a few hurdles when launching her career.

"Initially, I did not have the support of my parents about becoming a musician, especially my father. He really did not want me to pursue it, but they support me now," Ryan explained. 

For her Milwaukee show, Ryan was accompanied by fiddler Matt Mancuso and Patsy O’Brien on guitar. The Curtis Crossroads Band opened the show with lively Irish music, setting the mood.

Born 1959 in Detroit, Ryan’s parents came to the States from Ireland only two years previously, in 1957. Her mother is from Co. Kerry and her father is from Co. Tipperary. Ryan has an older sister and a younger brother, and stories of her childhood accompanied some of her songs that she performed at the ICHC. 

In 1985, Joanie Madden and Eileen Ivers asked Ryan to join Cherish of the Ladies, the fabled Irish women’s traditional performance group. In 1987, the group became a touring ensemble and a decade later Ryan decided to leave to pursue her solo career. The group reunited in 2007 at Milwaukee’s Irish Fest. 

Recently, Ryan moved to Ireland because it was time for a change in her life. She has a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins that live around her, so she feels right at home. Her parents still live in Michigan, but they visit when they can. Her son, Patrick, lives in New York and is a certified financial planner and regularly attends her shows.

Many songs that Ryan performed at the Hallamór were emotive and spirited. As such, the audience understood and appreciated her heartfelt connection, filling them in on her childhood memories of her grandparents, telling humorous stories about Irish men and women and discussing her happy songs about love.

Ryan stepped on the stage wearing a sparkly shirt explaining, "I wanted to look like a stained glass window," making reference to the ICHC beautiful stained glass windows that were reminders that building was originally a church. Although she experienced sound problems with the first song, Ryan was not shy, conversing with her audience until the technical tweaking was successful. Telling jokes to pass the time, Ryan quickly got into her grove, continued the show as if the brief interruption never occurred. 

During the show’s second set, Ryan handed the stage over to Mancuso and O’Brien so they could introduce their own material, including a jazzed up version of the ballad, "Star of the County Down." During the song, the fiddle spoke to the audience, encouraging them to tap their feet and clap their hands, making a great addition to the performance. 

Ryan returned to the stage to begin her goodbye songs, pointing out that "the Irish say goodbye, but they never leave," a comment bringing laughs from the crowd. The trio ended with "Johnny Be Fair," which tells a story of a young lass who cannot marry any of the men in her town, because her father was father to all of them. When the girl complains to her mother, the older woman replies that she can marry any of the men she likes because her father is not really her father. 

"My first three records came from a lot of traditional influences that I channeled. With age, I have become less traditional. I have grown away from those songs and started to put in my own life experiences, but still keeping the folk influences that I have known all my life," Ryan said about her music. 

In addition to music, Ryan enjoys spending time with her son, gardening and being a homemaker. She claimed that she was the happiest when she is singing. "I feel joy, single minded and I am so happy," she emphasized . 

Ryan was appreciative of her fans and related how important they are to her success. "I want them to have a good time when they are at my shows, and I want them to be moved by the songs. I want them to be taken to another place and be moved spiritually," Ryan explained. 

The night at the Hallamór she did just that. The audience became part of her stories, memories and part of her life.