She need not have worried. With the addition of Dylan Foley on fiddle and flute, sisters Lindsay Buteux on concertina and Sarah Buteux on fiddle, and Erin Loughran on fiddle, the musically tight-knit members of Girsa put together a ceili band who won the senior category, edging out Baltimore’s formidable Old Bay Ceili Band. They also took first place in senior grupa ceoil (instrumental group). That qualified them to compete at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann this past Aug. 16-23 in Tullamore, Offaly, where they performed well even though they didn’t place. Nevertheless, Sarah Buteux, an auxiliary member of Girsa, placed second in the All-Ireland fiddle competition for the age 12-15 category.
Stateside, Girsa has been busier than ever. Even with many of the members heading back to school (this fall’s college freshmen include Bernadette Flanagan at Fordham, Blaithin Loughran at Iona, and Margaret Dudasik at Pace), their commitment to the band remains strong.
“I could see us staying together because we have so much fun together,” singer, fiddler, whistle player, and stepdancer Margaret Dudasik said. “A year ago we could not have imagined that Girsa would turn into something like this.”
The band’s self-titled, self-issued, 16-track debut recording this year has already sold out its first print run and is halfway though its second print run. At Ellis Island on July 4, they also shot a video for the album-opening song, “Immigrant Eyes,” now posted on YouTube and accessible through the band’s website, www.girsamusic.com. It is a well-done video showcasing the multiple talents of Girsa, whose future as an ensemble seems brighter than ever. Singing with impressive poise on the video are Deirdre Brennan, Margaret Dudasik, Emily McShane, and Pamela Geraghty, Pat’s daughter.
“I just picked it up,” Pamela Geraghty said of her singing. She received some vocal coaching from Julee Glaub and Louise Walsh, and also took button accordion lessons from Patty Furlong and guitar lessons from Cherish the Ladies’ Mary Coogan. “I love to sing songs in other genres too.”
When I saw seven members of Girsa perform on Mother’s Day at Christy’s, a pub owned by Galway-born Mike Moynihan in Pearl River, Pamela sang lead on Sara Evans’s country hit “Suds in the Bucket” and John Denver’s ballad “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Her renditions of those songs were neither camp nor cute. She treated them with the same seriousness as her Irish songs. “I am absolutely in love with the songs and singing of Paul Brady,” Pamela also admitted.
Joining Pamela in Patty Furlong’s button accordion class was another future Girsa member, Blaithin Loughran, daughter of whistle and flute player and instructor Margie Mulvihill, who steadfastly encouraged her. Blaithin also counts such box masters as Martin Mulhaire, Billy McComiskey, John Nolan, John Redmond, and the late Joe Madden as strong influences on her music, so it’s no shock that her solo accordion playing on “Paddy’s Ryan’s Dream / Blue Britches / Gan Aimn” is a Girsa album highlight.
“When we play together,” Blaithin explained, “it’s as if all eight of us are putting our styles, plus our teachers’ styles, plus their teachers’ styles into one big mix. As kids, we started out trying to play exactly like our teachers, so we all reflect a New York style in some way. I didn’t think that people would enjoy listening to our music as much as we enjoy playing it.”
In the past, Blaithin’s mother, Margie Mulvihill, took the girls several times to West Limerick, where on their first visit they won a busking competition. She has believed in the band from the beginning. “I remember hearing them recently,” Margie said, “and for the first time since they’ve been together, I thought, this is the sound I used to pay money to run and listen to.”
Patty Furlong put it bluntly: “Girsa is extremely talented, motivated, and energetic, so their success so far doesn’t surprise me.”
Called Girsa’s “mammager” by Cherish the Ladies’ leader Joanie Madden, Pat Geraghty said, “I had always thought it was a good idea that they should start a group. Girsa had their first gig in July 2004 at a Gaelic Athletic Association function in Yonkers. On the basis of that, the band was invited to perform at an Irish festival in Fairfield, Connecticut.”
Pondering the progress made by Girsa since then, Mary (nee O’Brien) Dudasik, Margaret’s mother, has no regrets about the lengthy drive from their home in Nutley, N.J., to Pearl River for her daughter’s lessons. “She began on classical violin at age three, but Rose Flanagan got her ‘declassified’ in her Irish fiddle classes,” Mary recalled with a laugh. (Rose Flanagan’s impeccable reputation as an Irish fiddle instructor accounts for the large number of students, nearly 50, she now teaches in Pearl River.) “Margaret loves Irish music and got into it through stepdancing, but she is also a Nickel Creek fan and loves Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Rosemary Clooney.”
When I asked Girsa member and SUNY Binghamton nursing major Deirdre Brennan what she was listening to on her iPod, she mentioned singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne and British alternative-rock band Elbow. “I buy the music I listen to,” she also emphasized. “I believe in the musicians.”
This diversity of musical interests among Girsa members, who are all still teenagers, shows a healthy curiosity about other genres and styles, including what’s currently popular, and the band has the taste and smarts to select what works for them and to reject what doesn’t.
“I go to school [Stonehill College] in Boston, where the music scene is very different,” fiddle and whistle player Maeve Flanagan noted, “so I can attest to the distinct New York style of music that Girsa has. The sense of family between us is definitely evident in our music.”
Upcoming performance dates for Girsa include Sept. 5-6 at Blackthorne Resort’s Celtic Festival, 348 Sunshine Rd., East Durham, N.Y.; Sept. 12 at the Boston Irish Festival; Sept. 13, 2 p.m., at the Rockland (County) Folk Festival in N.Y.; Sept. 13, 4-8 p.m., at Thatcher McGee’s, Pompton Lakes, N.J.; Sept. 20, 7-10 p.m., at Christy’s, 87 N. Middletown Rd., Pearl River, N.Y.; Oct. 4, 5-8 p.m., at Rory Dolan’s, Yonkers, N.Y.; and Oct. 9-11, at the Banjo Burke Festival, East Durham, N.Y.
Visit www.girsamusic.com for more information about this band on the run and rise.