‘Together we have something special’
All-female Celtic super group Cherish the Ladies are headed to Hawk’s Well Theatre, for a special celebratory show that will see the Irish-American act look back over 35 years in music. Taking place on Friday 17 th January, the performance comes as part of a six-date Irish tour.
The band is led by the ebullient, All-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden. Born in New York of Irish parents and raised in a musical household, her mother hails from Miltown Malbay, County Clare and her father Joe, an All-Ireland Champion accordion player was a native of Portumna, County Galway. At a very early age, Joanie was exposed to the finest Irish traditional music listening to her father and his friends play music at family gatherings and social events.
In 1984, Joanie became the first American to win the Senior All Ireland Championship on the whistle.
Joanie is joined in the band by fellow New York native, Mary Coogan on guitar, All-Ireland Accordion Champion Mirella Murray from Connemara, Glasgow-born Kathleen Boyle on piano, and West Cork’s Nollaig Casey on fiddle. She told The Sligo Champion: “We come to Sligo regularly enough. I think this is our tenth year in a row. This time is extra special because we just celebrated our 35 th anniversary. So we’re going to bring a gang to the Hawk’s Well. It’s always great playing in Sligo.”
The group are no strangers to Sligo, performing in Hawk’s Well Theatre regularly along with a number of different venues.
“Marie O’Byrne in the Hawk’s Well is great with us. One year she’ ll be like ‘we’ ll give it a miss next year’ and I’m like ‘cool’ and then people ask for us and she says ‘ they want you back’. It’s a really great venue. It’s very intimate.”
She reflected on 35 years of performing with the group: “We’ve travelled the globe. It was all started by Mick Molony. We’d all won All Ireland Championships at the time so he said we should celebrate this. We got together and the shows all sold out and we recorded an album and here we are now.
“We’ve recorded 17 albums. It’s great that people saw something in us that they liked. I’ve been lucky. It was my idea to call the band ‘Cherish The Ladies’. Never did I think we’d stick with it, if I did I would’ve come up with something better!”
Joanie splits her time between Ireland and the US, but she also fits in some touring during her busy schedule.
“My parents are from Ireland, so this house came up. And it was just meant to be. When I was cleaning the house I found an 8x10 picture of myself. So I’ve been spending a little more time in Ireland. It always has a calming effect on me. I like in Yonkers now where there’s a lot of Irish people.”
She has had a successful career in her own right, not just as part of the group. But there’s been a lot hard work to ensure that she can make a living from music.
That does involve a huge amount of travelling, whether it’s around the States or in Europe.
She also runs ‘Joanie Madden Folk ‘N Irish Cruise’ where 900 people embark on a cruise ship with her.
“I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve sold half a million records as a soloist, I’ve worked on many projects, movies and lots of different things. I’ve turned down a lot of things like Riverdance to tour.
“It’s like the plumber, sick and tired of the water but it’s what you have to do to make a living. You have to be on the road. I just love making people laugh and getting people singing along and dancing.
“My father once said to me ‘Jesus Christ you have to keep making music’. N ever in my wildest dreams did I think we would still be going with this.”
“I do love it. I was born in the Bronx and I make a living play Irish music.”
Joanie promises a great night at Hawk’s Well Theatre for their 35 th anniversary celebration concert.
“Together with Cherish The Ladies we have something special. This show will be a mixture of dance songs and the more traditional ones. There will be something for everyone.”
Tickets, priced €25/€12.50 u18s (plus €1 booking fee) are available from www.hawkswell.com or call 0719161518.