A reason to believe in Santa Claus - kids affected by Hurricane Sandy give hope

Santa Mike, flanked by his two daughters Annie and Maura.

I remember the day I no longer believed in Santa.

The cheapness of the suit probably had something to do with it -- not so much a Santa suit but more like a red plastic garbage bag that ol' St. Nick might wear to an Occupy Wall Street rally.  

He tried gamely at a jolly laugh, but after I smelled his favorite Velamints that wafted from the gauzy white beard and looked into those familiar, kind, rheumy eyes, I knew then and there that I was staring my dear old Uncle Buddy in the face.

I was heartbroken. I just stared at the feet in my Batman pajamas, scarcely able to play along for the sake of my toddler brother.

Buddy shrugged his shoulders, winked, and hobbled down the stairs. The whole experience left me putting two and two together.

So, what else had my parents lied about? Easter Bunny? Tooth Fairy? Farrah Fawcett Majors was waiting to be Farrah Farragher if only I did my homework?

The holiday was curdling like buttermilk into the Christmas of contempt.

That moment probably gave birth to the Super Santa that I am today, and I say a prayer for the kind soul of Uncle Buddy as I fit the elastic straps of the white beard around my ears for a photo shoot with the newest member of my family.

You gonna stop believing in something because you saw a faux St. Nick phoning it in? Not on my watch!

This is my favorite season because it's a time when being happy and fat like me work to your full advantage. And let me tell you, I put my back into being Santa, people!

I need less and less padding nowadays to fill the big red suit, which, by the way, cost me hundreds of dollars. My red cheeks match the cottony beard perfectly, though I pack rouge just in case.

I won't work a room until I've cased it first, looking for the most dramatic entry and exit points. Naughty and nice lists along with the present request form should be sent to my secretary no less than a week in advance so that I can speak to Juniors Mints highlights and low-lights for the year. Heck, I even pack Snickers and Raisinets that get spread on the front step to simulate reindeer poop.

My Ho Ho Hos shake the walls! If your kid gets freaked out by the volume, tough luck! Santa tones it down for no one!

For every kid that loses it on my lap, there are a dozen that look at me with that dewey-eyed holiday wonderment that only a child can do. It melts my heart every time.

Those are the ones that make it all worthwhile. They believe in the myth.

They believe in Santa, and I owe it to them to be a full frontal Santa. When a child is cocooned on your red velvet lap and pulling on your pillowy beard, they reveal themselves in new ways.

Sure, they ask for the hot toy of the year. But now, they ask you for some other things ever since Hurricane Sandy hit.

They ask to be moved out of the hotel room they've been calling home for the last few weeks, ever since the storm claimed their home.

They ask for a replacement of the comic book collection that got washed out to sea.

They ask for your help to stop the arguing between Mom and Dad, whose nerves are frayed by the pressures of their newfound homelessness.

They ask for simple things -- hats, coats, gloves, shoes, a roof, access to their first floor, blankets, sanity, normalcy, hope.

This Santa just nods and assures the child that things will get better. Santa doesn't BS the child, mind you.

Santa knows that he has a column in the Irish Voice and on our sister website Irish Central, and can appeal to our generous readers to donate their prayers and pennies to the folks that lost so much.

Let's give those kids a reason to believe in Santa. God bless.

Some Christmas CD cheer - Ashley Davis, Damien Dempsey and more

Celtic Woman

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, which must mean a fresh new assortment of Irish holiday music is heading for your stockings (as long as you’re not deserving a fresh delivery of coal)!

The lasses from Celtic Woman have recorded a new collection of holiday goodies called Home for Christmas. After selling over six million albums there is little incentive to change the formula, and there is little in the way of artistic growth from A Christmas Celebration, their last holiday collection, that was released in 2006.

Of course, going to Celtic Woman for culture is like going for a meal at Olive Garden when you’re strolling through Little Italy, yet there is something heartwarming about how the voices of Chloë Agnew, Lisa Lambe and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha coalesce with the violin stylings of Máiréad Nesbitt to warm the heart.

The lasses will be taking a break from their Celtic Christmas Symphony tour to perform songs from Home for Christmas on QVC on December 5 at noon.  They will offer an exclusive bundle of their holiday album with a special six-track bonus CD.

If your record collection won’t be complete without yet another version of “Winter Wonderland,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and the Christmas classic “Silent Night,” then this is the collection for you!

Ashley Davis

If you’re looking for a Celtic woman that is less airbrushed and more earthy, Ashley Davis is your girl.  She has a great disc called Songs of the Celtic Winter.

“Lean into me gently/So I might remember/How this dance felt love/Until next our next winter,” Davis sings on “Winter Jig,” and truer words were never spoken.

I was high on this album when I reviewed it earlier this year and forgot about it until I was unpacking the Christmas decorations from the attic and found it in a box. I’ve been playing it around the house ever since.

Davis made it a point to emphasize that this was not a Christmas album when I spoke with her upon the album’s release, which explains why there are no overt references to Santa or his suit.

There are, however, plenty of chilled imagery in her beautiful poetry, which is set atop a warm blanket of Celtic harp, acoustic instruments and brushed percussion.

“Winter is the time of the year when nature takes her rest and we have our shortest days,” she explained during our interview on the album release. “I tried to bring this sense of quiet with the anticipation of rebirth on the horizon to this album.

“Certainly in many of the Celtic regions there were areas that were quite isolated once winter set in and the nights grew longer. This is when the stories and songs of the Celtic culture became a necessity to pass these dark times. Many long nights were spent around the fire with the promise of spring around the corner.”
For more information on Ashley Davis, visit www.daisyrings.com.  Davis lends her song “Nollaig Moon” to Together For Christmas: A Contemporary Celtic Christmas Collection, a compilation assembled by promoter Anita Daly.

Daly has worked with everyone from the Pogues to Black 47 and opened her little black book to create an unparalleled look at contemporary Celtic sounds.

If your tastes veer toward the traditional, you will delight at the sounds of the “Deck the Halls” Christmas melody from Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies.  The Celtic Tenors offer a spine-tingling read of “Silent Night,” while tough guy Damien Dempsey offers a surprisingly touching rendition of “Oh, Holy Night.”

The voices of Irish women are well represented here with the neo-operatic Emma Kate Tobia covering the song “Walking in the Air,” from the movie The Snowman. Born in Scotland, Tobia is a classically trained soprano who melds her pure lyrical voice with the timeless melodies of her Irish heritage.

Her debut CD is Aisling na nGael (An Irish Dream). The CD is a combination of classical and traditional tunes sung “as Gaeilge” or in Gaelic.

You even have a sparkling rendition of “Fairytale of New York” – our generation’s, “White Christmas”  after a wicked hangover in the drunk tank– performed by Tobia and George Murphy, an Irish musician who hails from the north Dublin suburb of Beaumont.

Murphy had never performed as a singer before his audition and subsequent rise to fame on the Irish TV show You’re a Star, chosen as a stand out by Irish composer Phil Coulter. He is definitely one of those young voices you want to be paying attention to as the years go on--he has that X factor!

Dave Browne’s Temple Bar Band pulls no punches on their cover of the Pretenders “2000 Miles,” adding an Irish choir and a fury of flutes and fiddles for some Dublin-esque trimmings to this modern rock classic.

Ashley Davis joins Black 47’s Larry Kirwan for a John Lennon remake.

“I can’t even remember why I recorded John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over)’ – probably to protest the Iraq invasion,” Kirwan explains.

“Well, thankfully, that war is history, but the song and its treatment add a little something different to a Christmas collection.”

Daly’s collection is so much more than a run-through of shopworn classics. It is a showcase for new voices with new things to say about the holidays. 

It has arrived in one magnificent, eclectic bundle, showcasing the many sides of Celtic music. Celtic rock is represented with the first tune, “Christmas Day” by the Elders, along with Kyf Brewer of Barleyjuice singing his original “Whiskey for Christmas.”

“I like the ringing bells and the spirits as well as any Christian can/my love says she’s given up whiskey for Christmas/my favorite thing about whiskey for Christmas is finding someone to give it away,” sneers Brewer over a slippery burlesque arrangement with fiddling accoutrements. It calls to mind the quirky pop of mid-1960s Kinks, delivered by a Barleyjuice-dipped deviled egg!

Tara O’Grady ends the collection on a jazzy note, with a flirty fiddle dancing with her during a sultry read of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

I’ve come to know Tara in my association with the Irish American Writers and Artists group, and she is a tour de force of talent.

Daly is hosting a CD launch party at Connolly's Klub 45 (121 West 45th Street, New York), on Thursday, December 13.

Doors open 8:30 p.m., with $20 admission at the door going to  benefit Hurricane Sandy relief. Visit
www.togetherforchristmas.com/about.html. The CD is available on iTunes and directly on the album’s website.

A Phil Coulter Christmas at the Irish Rep Theater - “Songs I Loved So Well”

Phil Coulter

Phil Coulter is giving his New York fans a special treat for the holidays with a run of concerts he has called The Songs I Love So Well at the Irish Repertory Theater on West 22nd Street which begin on Thursday, November 29.

Of course, the songs he has written are ones we love so well. "My Boy," "Home from the Sea," "The Man from God Knows Where," "Keep a Candle in the Window," and his signature  "The Town I Loved So Well" will be woven into the show, along with holiday songs “as that time draws nearer,” according to the man himself. 

This legendary musician and producer is seeing a career resurgence, thanks to the runaway success of the Celtic Thunder and its series of shows.  While his tenure as musical director has ended with the troupe, he takes it in stride and asserts that the show was just one stop in a career spanning four decades that includes work with everyone from Elvis Presley to Sinead O’Connor.

Always one to be looking forward instead of in reverse, Coulter seems most excited about the upcoming shows at the venerable Irish Rep, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

“This is a new experience for me,” he says of the Irish Rep residency.

“At this advanced stage of my career, it’s very exciting to look forward to something you’ve never done. The great thing about a one man show is that it’s not scripted. No two nights are going to be the same. The range of material is pretty wide. For my own sake, I’ll keep it varied.”

The most exciting thing about the shows, which stretch until December 30, has nothing to do with the music.

“I taught my kids that they’re as entitled to their piece of the pie as anyone else and that has now bitten me on the rear end,” says Coulter with a laugh during our Skype chat. 

“I have one in Australia, I have an officer of Shell out to sea, another with a soccer scholarship in Tennessee who is loving every minute of it down there, and one in New York. What really makes this time in New York City special is that we will have five out of the six of them in town and celebrating Christmas with us, so I am very excited. There’s no better place to go for the holidays than New York!”

Coulter sees pros and cons with the “one man show” format.

“When I first toured America I toured with a 20 piece orchestra,” he explains. “With an orchestra, it’s like changing course of the QE2 every time you want to add a number. You have to rehearse, change the scores, etc.

“On the flip side, there is no light show, no dancing girls, it’s just me. If I lay an egg, it’s all on me. But I think that’s great because it gives you your edge -- you can’t go on autopilot or let an orchestra carry the water for you, and you have to be up for the challenge.”

Coulter looks forward to mixing up the set list with a variety of songs from his 45-year career. Will it be in a fan’s best interest to go to the show on multiple nights?

“If they’re gluttons for punishment, so be it. I welcome repeat offenders,” he replies with a laugh.
Coulter will be keeping busy into the New Year, with a plans for a PBS special with former Celtic Thunder singer and future son-in-law Paul Byrom. Leaving the success of that show was a brave thing for Byrom to do, Coulter asserts.

“He is putting a lot of mileage in to find his own audience.  Damian McGinty will be guesting as well,” says Coulter of one of Celtic Thunder’s breakout stars who had a starring role on several episodes of Glee.

He transforms into a proud father figure when talk turns to McGinty, who rose to even bigger fame after he parted ways with Celtic Thunder to star in Glee. 

“I was in Chicago being honored at the IBAN festival,” Coulter explains. “Damian flew in from LA to join in on the celebration of ‘Uncle Phil’ that weekend. It’s great to see him remember the impact I had on his career.

“I am not only proud of him for what he achieved with Glee,  but also how he has kept his feet on the ground. He is a credit to his family. Someone asked me, ‘How do you prevent Damian from being a prima donna?’ It’s too late by the time I get him. It was his parents that taught him to be appreciative. Good solid Derry stock is where he comes from.”

Coulter will take Byrom and McGinty on his annual Tranquility Cruise in January (check out details at www.travelconcepts.com), so make sure you visit with this busy man during his stay at the Irish Repertory Theatre before he waves bon voyage to dry land!

Performance Schedule:
Coulter’s Irish Rep show plays from November 29 through December 30 with the following schedule -- Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Visit www.irishrep.org for more information.

‘Fairytale of New York’ a Christmas song that works all year round

Shane McGowan

So here’s something you don’t do every day -- I was interviewed by BBC Radio as part of a retrospective on the Pogues tune “Fairytale of New York” that will include musings from band
members, producers and industry types like myself.

To add street cred to the interview piece, we did the interview in front of the Roseland Ballroom on
Broadway. The producer waved her hand to the skyline and asked me what significance the song had for the city.

“Can you identify with the song?”

“No,” says I.  “I never found myself in the drunk tank on Christmas Eve, but the season is young!”

Yet there is a significance on the song and it resonates today. Our sister website Irish Central reported recently that British music body PPL officially named “Fairytale” the most played Christmas song of the 21st century.

Its calculations include plays on the radio, TV, and as background music in shops, bars, gyms and restaurants. They began their calculations in 2000.

For me the song is a mere jukebox novelty, but for the majority of folks it’s a significant cultural touchstone, especially to forty-something Irish immigrants who took shelter in the Manhattan skyline during an Irish economic downturn three decades ago.

I would imagine if you found yourself working on a scaffold in the city and you’re longing for Christmas with the folks from home, the imagery of the fictitious NYPD choir singing “Galway Bay” and snippets of the old Irish drinking ballad “The Rare Old Mountain Dew” added salt to the wound of an aching immigrant heart.  I’ve seen many a hardened middle-aged man cry when the tune plays in a bar.

Joe Cleary, a lecturer in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, said that the song told the story of the reality of Irish emigration and what lay behind the American Dream.

He wrote, “With the exception of Joyce's The Dead or Patrick Kavanagh's Advent, no work of the 20th-century Irish imagination has managed to illuminate a particular sense of Christmas so well as that song has done … It is at once a twisted love song, an emigrant ballad, and an anthem to the capital city of the 20th century. And it is perhaps for that reason that it is the only ‘Christmas classic’ that one can hear without wincing in July."

He hit the nail on the head. The lyrics are brilliant, drunken, and angry poetry, not the stuff of Christmas tunes. When Shane sings “yer an auld slut on junk,” it doesn’t make sugar plum fairies dance in your head!

This holiday season, a few Irish musicians will take a stab at the rock classic. Barleyjuice's Kyf Brewer and his wife Kay had been joking for years about what a kick it would be to record their own version of “Fairytale,” and this year seemed to be the perfect time.

It became a Brewer joint after daughter Scotlyn joined in on bass. The "beautiful" factor was covered nicely by the Juice's Shelley Weiss on violins and violas, and Mary Bryson from the Divine Hand Ensemble on harp.

Brewer's version is not presently available anywhere until it appears on iTunes after the holidays. Fans can get a free mp3 of it this holiday season by going to http://corporatemohawk.net/holiday-sale and buying some holiday Barley gear.

Lilting Irish soprano Emma Kate Tobia joins with the soulful traditional Irish vocalist George Murphy for a version that is on iTunes already.  Tobia is a classically trained soprano whose debut solo release, Aisling na nGael (An Irish Dream) received critical acclaim here.

Murphy is known initially for being a runner up in the Irish TV show You’re a Star, where he sang traditional Irish songs in his very large and gritty style at only age 17.  His first solo CD was produced by Phil Coulter, and his debut, The Ballads of Archie Thompson, was on our “best of” list this year!

Give these new versions a spin and have yourself a Merry Christmas!