08/19/2007

Clancy rides 'Silvery Moon' on concert tour

Irish folk singer slates four shows

By Garret Ellison

gellison@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Boston-based Irish folk singer Aoife Clancy is touring northern Michigan this week with an iconic surname and a voice that would "melt packed ice with its warmth and richness,” according to critics.

Aoife (pronounced "Eefa”), daughter of the late Bobby Clancy of the Clancy Brothers fame, makes her first stop Tuesday at the Elk Rapids Town Hall.

She follows on Wednesday at Lake Street Studios in Glen Arbor, Thursday at Union Street Station in Traverse City and Friday at Rhonda's Wharfside in Frankfort.

Her last album, "Silvery Moon,” in 2002, marked a return to solo work after spending much of the '90s as lead vocalist of the Irish female sextet Cherish the Ladies.

Clancy said the break from the group was friendly and she still plays the odd gig but, "I just really wanted to do more material that wouldn't have fit into the style of the band.” Clancy sang on six albums and released a solo during her time with Cherish. She'd been torn over joining the group in 1994, a time when her solo career was just taking off.

"But I joined the band and had a great time — absolutely fantastic,” she said. "I got exposure in front of a lot of people, more than I had been used to, 3,000 to 5,000 people or more at some gigs and that was good for me.”

She came to the United States 16 years ago, not intending to stay more than a few weeks. Clancy hails from the small Irish town of Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary.

A friend of her father heard her sing on a cruise and lined up some American gigs and a place to stay. The appetite for Irish music in America kept her with steady work. Venues in Ireland, she said, are hard to come by.

She said the public appetite for Irish music hit a lull in the early part of this decade after the 9/11 attacks.

"I know, myself, the work kind of dissipated a little bit, the funding that went into the arts, of course a lot of it went toward the war,” she said. "That did hurt for a while and people didn't seem to be coming out.” But she said the pendulum has swung back and acknowledges her famous surname has opened a few doors.

"People see me as a performer and go, 'Oh, I expected you to do a lot of the Clancy Brothers stuff, but we actually liked the material that you did,'” she said. "At this stage, I think I've established myself as a performer.”

But it was her father who stuck a banjo in her hands as a young lass, and then a guitar, and then the recordings of Peter Paul and Mary and the McGarrigle Sisters, saying, "experience everything and then you choose what you want to do.” The song, "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” on "Silvery Moon” is a song that she and her dad used to perform together. She is writing a song for him on her next album, which she will begin recording in October.

"What I love to do is get an old traditional song that hasn't been done for a while and do a new arrangement to it,” she said.

She likes the audience to walk away with at least one song that really touched them. "There Is Hope” is such a song.

"If you've touched them in some way with your performance and they've had a good night and enjoyed themselves, if you achieve that, then that's good enough for me.”

All shows begin at 8 p.m., except for Union Street Station, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for Elk Rapids and Traverse City are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. They are $12 in advance, $15 at the door in Glen Arbor and Frankfort.

Visit www.aoifeclancy.com for more details.