February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The more than 60 tunes he’s written are so structurally and lyrically inviting that some have dubbed them “melodic miracles,” and almost all have been thoroughly absorbed into the Irish tradition.
Imagine, then, the thrill of being invited by this revered septuagenarian to perform his own tunes with him at a televised event. That’s what happened on a Saturday night in November 2001 to Liz and Yvonne Kane, two young fiddling sisters from Letterfrack, a small village not far from Clifden in West Galway. Fahy, who first met the Kane sisters several years earlier at a county fleadh in Ballinasloe, was so taken with their skill and style that he asked them to join him when he came out to play as “composer of the year” during the National Music Awards concert broadcast by TG4 from the Cork Opera House.
“It was truly a great honor for us,” 28-year-old Liz Kane acknowledged from her home in Letterfrack. “We had tapes of Paddy’s music from friends long before we actually met him, and we immediately fell in love with his tunes. He’s our main influence, and we’ve been meeting and playing with him, off and on, ever since the fleadh in Ballinasloe.”
Fahy isn’t the only performer who has shaped the music of Liz Kane and her sister Yvonne, who’s five years younger. Jimmy Mullen, their grandfather, “is touching 80 and still plays the fiddle two or three nights a week in Clifden,” Liz said with admiration. “He’s had a huge impact on us.”
Also leaving a lasting imprint on the Kane sisters was Mary Finn McCrudden, originally from Ballymote, Co, Sligo, who had moved to Renvyle in West Galway about 15 years ago. She taught music in the National School and gave private lessons at home. “We had her maybe twice a week,” Liz recalled.
Though their parents didn’t play an instrument, they still encouraged Liz and Yvonne to pursue music. “Both my parents love music,” Liz said, “and Dad has a great ear for tunes. He’d be able to tell you if a tune is new, old, or quare, and he’s a good critic too.”
Among the Kane siblings, only brother James doesn’t play an instrument. Sisters Ita and Natalie play concertina and piano accordion, while brother Mark plays button accordion. The Kane musical wellspring runs even deeper: their maternal grandmother, Bessie Mullen, used to sing, and their paternal grandmother, Annie Kane, played accordion.
What’s so refreshing about Liz and Yvonne Kane is their unabashed enthusiasm and profound respect for the music of their elders. It may explain why the latter have been, in turn, so receptive to the two sisters’ music.
“We met Martin Wynne [South Sligo fiddler-composer who died at age 84 in 1998] at the Fleadh Cheoil in Sligo, where he was being honored, and it was something we’ll never forget,” Liz said. “We also met Andy McGann in New York. I couldn’t believe I was playing beside the man whose music was on the first tape I got. I just love his fiddling.”
Another fiddler the Kanes admire is Kathleen Collins, the first U.S. competitor ever to win the All-Ireland senior fiddle title. They also drew inspiration from Ireland’s traveling Rainey family, whom they heard on recordings, and from the tunes of County Cavan’s Ed Reavy [1898-1988], the 20th century’s most prolific composer in the Irish traditional style.
“I got a copy of Reavy’s tune book and went through the lot,” Liz said. “Then I heard [Clare fiddler] James Cullinan play ‘In Memory of Coleman,’ a Reavy reel, and I fell in love with that altogether. Then I just went rooting for his tunes and got a tape of Liz Carroll playing them unaccompanied.”
Hyde Doodles to Woodchoppers
The rapidly developing ability of Liz Kane became apparent to all as she started to pile up competitive championships. She won the Fiddler of Dooney title in Sligo in 1992, the All-Ireland senior fiddle title in Kerry and the Fiddler of Oriel championship in Monaghan in 1995, and repeated her Fiddler of Oriel victory in 1996.
Her sister Yvonne essentially shunned competitions. “She didn’t like the scene,” Liz said.
The two sisters performed in a band called the Hydle Doodles, a name inspired by the sound of lilting. “We didn’t do an awful lot of playing together,” Liz said, “but it was great craic.”
Then came the Woodchoppers, a septet button accordionist Sharon Shannon formed in the late 1990s. “We were flatmates in Galway with Sharon for about three or four months and we did a few gigs with her before she asked us to join the group,” Liz said. “It was the first real touring band Yvonne and I were in.”
Before the Woodchoppers’ last concert, in September 2001 in Boston, they had recorded “The Diamond Mountain Sessions” that year with guests John Prine, Jackson Browne, the Hothouse Flowers, Carlos N_