Chieftains, Cherish the Ladies, Eileen Ivers coming to Milwaukee

By: Elaine Schmidt

Perhaps it's the luck o' the Irish at work, but Milwaukee's St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year include three of Irish music's heavy hitters.

The musical festivities begin Friday, when The Chieftains play at the Pabst Theater. On March 14-16, Cherish the Ladies joins the Milwaukee Symphony, and on March 14-15, Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul play the Wilson Center in Brookfield.

It might sound like a lot of similar music to the uninitiated, but it's not — these are three quite different groups.

Joanie Madden, the Bronx-born pennywhistle and flute player who won the All-Ireland Championship for whistle at age 18 and formed the all-female Cherish the Ladies in 1985, called The Chieftains "very traditional," explaining that they paved the way for the Irish groups that exist today.

Formed in 1962 by Paddy Maloney, who still leads the group, The Chieftains remain a traditional instrumental band with a sound that often features the uilleann (pronounced ILL-en] pipes, the characteristic bagpipes of Ireland. Traditional, yes, but they've recorded with Sting, Mick Jagger and a host of other nontraditional musicians.

Cherish the Ladies, with a sound built around Madden's soulful whistle and flute playing, also is quite traditional.

The Milwaukee performance will feature vocalist and former Cherish the Ladies member Cathie Ryan.

"I have great respect for Paddy Maloney and The Chieftains," Madden said. "They paved the road for us and they helped us and guided us when we were starting out."

But Ivers, who won the All-Ireland Championship for fiddle nine times, was a founding member of Cherish the Ladies, played for a time with "Riverdance," and toured as a special guest with The Chieftains in 1999, takes tradition in a slightly different direction.

"We love, in our show, to do not just music from this little island preserved in a little time capsule, but the music of this amazing and resilient people in the way it's combined with roots music along the way."

Ivers traces Irish music as it appears in French Canada, Appalachia, Brittany and other places the Irish settled, with infusions of jazz and soul that had her Wilson Center audience standing with hands high, clapping along in rhythm the last time she played there.

One of the wonders of Irish music is that there is room for these three sounds as well as the grittier, pub-band sound of Gaelic Storm, the Irish-urban sound of Dropkick Murphys and a host of other takes on the music.

There also is "a wonderful camaraderie among Irish musicians," Madden explained.

Ivers' and Madden's camaraderie dates back a bit. Both daughters of Irish immigrants, the two grew up in the same Bronx neighborhood, went to the same grammar school and remain close friends today.

"We're all Irish traditional musicians," Ivers said of the three groups. "If we're lucky enough to have a night together, we tell stories, have a laugh, share a tune, and then we all go off on our next flight to wherever we're playing next."

Who: Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul

When: 8 p.m. March 14 and 15

Where: Wilson Center for the Arts, 19805 W. Capitol Drive, Brookfield

Tickets: $35-$65; call (262) 781-9520 or visit wilson-center.com.