By Earle Hitchner

In my list of the best Irish traditional albums for 1999, I took a little flak over my No. 10 selection, Tim O’Brien’s "The Crossing" (Alula). Some criticized me for sneaking in bluegrass and old-timey music under the guise of an Irish/Celtic connection.

But what Tim O’Brien explored so innovatively and respectfully in "The Crossing" was the common ground of Irish traditional, Appalachian, bluegrass, and folk music. On the album were such Irish performers as Frankie Gavin, Seamus Egan, Ronan Browne, Maura O’Connell, Paul Brady, and Altan members Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Ciaran Tourish, Dermot Byrne, Ciaran Curran, and Dáithí Sproule. Their presence merely ratified the appeal and significance of O’Brien’s visioon and music, which is neithe hybrid nor hodgepodge, the downfall of so many so-called cross-pollinating projects in the past. Instead, it is a careful, creative delineation of genres bearing a legitimate relation to each other.

I wasn’t alone in this reaction. Eileen Carson, artistic director of Footworks, one of America’s most talented percussive dance ensembles, was so impressed by "The Crossing" that she wanted to collaborate with O’Brien in a stage presentation of his music with original choreography that would entail stepdancing, set and céilí dancing, clogging, flatfooting, hoofing, hamboning, and tap.

Last March in Maryland, they premiered the show. Both a popular and critical triumph, it featured nine musicians (including O’Brien, Dirk Powell, Russ Barenberg, Mark Schatz, Mollie O’Brien, Irish fiddler Liz Carroll, and Irish accordion/concertina player John Williams), 12 dancers (including Kristin Andrews, Maureen Berry, New York’s own Megan Downes, and Matthew Olwell, son of wooden-flute maker Patrick Olwell), and two guest dancers (Sduduzo Ka-mbili, formerly of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, and Robert Michalski of the Ballet Theatre of Maryland).

On Saturday night, Aug. 18, "The Crossing" comes to Maryland again, and it’s just too special a show for fans of roots/traditional music and dance, both Irish and American, to pass up. Reprising their roles on stage will be Footworks, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, Liz Carroll, John Williams, Mark Schatz, Russ Barenberg, Jon Glik, and guests Robert Michalski and Sduduzo Ka-mbili.

It will take place at 8 p.m. in the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, 801 Chase St., Annapolis ([410] 263-5544, www.mdhallarts.org). For further information about this Aug. 18 concert, call Footworks at (410) 923-3523 or go to their website: www.footworks.org.

O’Brian’s followup

On Sept. 25, Tim O’Brien will release "Two Journeys" (Howdy Skies), his eagerly awaited follow-up to "The Crossing."

Like that previous album, "Two Journeys" offers a wealth of top-drawe Irish musical talent: fiddler Kevin Burke, singer Karan Casey, flute/low whistle player Michael McGoldrick, keyboardist Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, singer Paul Brady, concertinist Niall Vallely, harper Laoise Kelly, guitarist Steve Cooney, singer Maura O’Connell, and John Williams displaying his versatility on accordion, flute, low whistle, and piano.

Founder and leader of the brilliant bluegrass band Hot Rize (1978-1990), Tim O’Brien is Irish American. His great-grandfather, Thomas, immigrated to the United States from Co. Cavan in 1851, shortly after the Great Famine, and settled in Wheeling, W. Va., where he eventually rose to lieutenant governor and where Tim himself was born in 1954.

Recorded in Nashville and Co. Kildare, "Two Journeys" is another outstanding effort by Tim. His visits to Ireland (Clare and Cork in particular) have certainly paid off in such original songs as "The Holy Well," "Me and Dirk’s Trip to Ireland," and "The Tide Flows Into Miltown," a canny tribute to Willie Clancy Week.

Brock-McGuire Band to tour

With the lamented demise of Moving Cloud, one of Ireland’s finest all-instrumental groups, founding members Paul Brock on button accordion and Manus McGuire on fiddle have put together a new band bearing their names. The two Clare residents lead a quartet featuring young Galway sensation Enda Scahill, a five-time All-Ireland champion on tenor banjo and a senior All-Ireland champion on mandolin, and Denis Morrison, an Aberdeen-based pianist who accompanied Manus McGuire last year on his sparkling solo debut, "Saffron and Blue" (Green Linnet).

Already creating a stir in Ireland, the Brock-McGuire Band will be making their first U.S. tour in August. Here’s their itinerary: Aug. 20, the Burren, Somerville, Mass. ([617] 776-6896); Aug. 21, Center for Cultural Exchange, Portland, Maine ([207] 761-1545); Aug. 22, the Playwright, Hamden, Conn. ([203] 256-8453); Aug. 23, Levitt Pavilion, Westport, Conn. ([203] 226-7600); Aug. 24-26, Cleveland Celtic Festival, Cleveland ([440] 684-0450); Aug. 27, Nighttown Restaurant, Cleveland Heights, Ohio ([216] 795-0550); Aug. 28, Muse at the Grey Goose, Londonderry, N.H. ([603] 437-6085); Aug. 29, Irish Times, Worcester, Mass. ([508] 797-9599), and Aug. 30, Katharine Cornell Theater, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

The Brock-McGuire Band finish their stateside tour over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-3, at the Guinness Galway Bay Oyster Festival, Fish Pier, Boston ([617] 361-7000). Also performing at this waterfront festival will be Cherish the Ladies, button accordionist Sharon Shannon, Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac, and Irish rock band the Prodigals.

Conway solo CD on horizon

The eagerly anticipated debut solo recording by Bronx-born fiddler Brian Conway, a 1986 All-Ireland senior champion now residing in White Plains, N.Y., is near completion. "First Through the Gate," a title taken from a line in William Butler Yeats’s poem "The Fiddler of Dooney," features Brian with Felix Dolan on piano, John Doyle and Mark Simos on guitars, Pat Kilbride on cittern, and Myron Bretholz on bodhrán and bones.

Two other guests on the album are Harlem-born fiddler Andy McGann, who took tips from the great Michael Coleman himself and has, in turn, acted as a mentor to Brian, and Brooklyn’s Pat Mangan, one of Conway’s most talented fiddle pupils. McGann, Conway, and Mangan represent a Sligo-style generational fiddling nexus from Coleman forward, and the three play on two tracks. Separately, McGann and Mangan join Conway on one other track each.

If all this sounds inspired, it is. A listen to a CD copy of the mastered recording confirms that Brian Conway has made a solo album well worth the wait, full of choice tunes, consummate technique, and undeniable passion.

Concerts coming up

On Sunday, Aug. 5, beginning at noon, there will be a Castle Island céilí in south Boston, Mass., with fiddlers Séamus Connolly, Larry Reynolds, and Brendan Bulger, button accordionist Joe Derrane, and other musicians. Proceeds will support St. Augustine’s food pantry. Phone: (617) 268-1320.

The Afro Celt Sound System, a popular fusion band featuring West Cork sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, play the Supper Club, 240 W. 47th St., NYC, this Monday night, Aug. 6. Ticket information: (212) 777-6800 or (212) 307-7171.

Cherish the Ladies will be giving a free concert this Tuesday, Aug. 7, from 6-8 p.m. outside lower Manhattan’s World Trade Center. On Friday, Aug. 24, at 9 p.m., they will be returning to the Towne Crier Cafe, 130 Rte. 22, Pawling, N.Y. ([845] 855-1300).

Lúnasa wrap up their summer tour of America with a free outdoor concert on Tuesday, Aug. 28, from 6-8 p.m. in front of lower Manhattan’s World Trade Center. With singer Susan McKeown, the band also recently recorded the score for "By the Bog of Cats . . . ," a play by Ireland’s Marina Carr that will star Oscar-winning actress Holly Hunter this Sept.6 through Oct. 7 at California’s San Jose Repertory Theatre ([408] 367-7255).

Notable new releases

Three recent recordings of Irish traditional music by high-profile duos are sure to garner a lot of attention. Fiddler Paddy Glackin and guitarist/singer Mícheál Ó Domhnaill issued "Athchuairt" (Gael-Linn), uilleann piper Davy Spillane and fiddler Kevin Glackin made "Forgotten Days" (Burrenstone), and flutist Michael McGoldrick and uilleann piper John McSherry collaborated on "At First Light" (Vertical).

Born of Irish parents in Bedford, England, fiddler Mick Conneely perhaps has a lower profile than the musicians named above. His reputation in America took shape in the mid-1980s when he filled in for an ailing Frankie Gavin on a De Dannan tour here. Since then, Conneely has toured Europe with Mary Bergin, Tony MacMahon, and the late Micho Russell, as well as toured and recorded with Errislannan, a quartet named after his father’s hometown in Galway. Now Mick has issued his first solo album, "Selkie" (Cló Iar-Chonnachta), playing both fiddle and bouzouki. Fiddler Mick Conneely Sr., his father, and bouzouki player Niall Ó Callanáin also lend their talents to the CD.

Dublin uilleann piper Ronan Browne, who has previously recorded with Peadar O’Loughlin, the Afro Celt Sound System, and Cran (of which he’s a member), has released a solo album, "The Wynd You Know" (Claddagh). Joining him on the CD are Kevin Glackin on fiddle and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill on harmonium.

De Dannan fiddler and founding member Frankie Gavin has come out with a solo recording entitled, intriguinglyy enough, "Fierce Traditional (Tara). Accompanying him on keyboards is De Dannan bandmate Brian McGrath, a veteran of both Four Men and a Dog and At the Racket. Perhaps this is Gavin’s riposte to all those critics, myself included, who panned last year’s "Welcome to the Hotel Connemara" (Hummingbird), De Dannan’s instrumental covers of rock and pop songs.