Traditional Irish Singer, Aoife Clancy

Reviews of Silvery Moon

A New generation of Clancys embrace folk

The Clancys are at it again.

More than 40 years ago, Patrick, Tom and Liam Clancy, later joined by Bobby, became world famous as the Clancy Brothers. The group did more than any other ensemble to ignite the still-thriving revival of Irish music.

Today, a new generation from Erin's first family of folk is on the front lines of Celtic music, including Massachusetts based singer Aoife Clancy, Bobby's daughter. She is staking out a solo career after a successful tenure with the popular ensemble Cherish the Ladies. With a beautiful, smart, and warm-hearted new CD, "Silvery Moon" (Appleseed), the 35 year-old mezzo sounds as if she is coming into her own-in no small part because she finally seems comfortable with the Clancy mantle she has often worn uncomfortably, if not unwillingly. Clancy said her stint with Cherish the Ladies helped reconcile her struggles with the family legacy. Audiences loved to hear her sing familiar old ballads, whether or not they were part of the Clancy songbag. She also learned how effective a performer she is; whether it gets dubbed the Clancy charm or the Aoife allure, she is an irresistibly amiable entertainer. Now, she says, she eagerly pores through the songs her father taught her, and the hundreds he collected in his travels throught Ireland before joining his brothers' group, and is planning a CD devoted to those songs. She could not embrace the Clancy legancy more directly-which, she says, is just the point.

"As ive gotten older, I've realized how much my father has given me and how much he still has to offer", she says. "He's influenced me so much, whether I've noticed it or not. The songs he gives me, now that I've started asking for them, are always ones that are suited to the way I sing. I'm so lucky to have that, I really, really am. I know that now".

In the fog of memory, the Clancy Brothers are often falsely blamed for popularizing the faux-Irish pop songs ( often called stage-Irish) that actually originated in American vaudeville and came to be accepted by many Irish-Americans as genuinely Irish. Aoife Clancy says that, in fact, her uncles and father restuffed the Irish-American songbag with the real folk music of Erin.

"They showed the world what real Irish folk songs sounded like, and opened the door for other musicians who wanted to play authentic Irish music. Even for those who might say what they did isin't their style, they opened the door for them as well"
--SCOTT ALARIK