Pioneers: Cherish the Ladies and "The Back Door"

One of the earliest Celtic bands that I listened to is, ironically, one of the trailblazing bands of Irish music.  And in a way, that's a shame, but in a way it's cool.  Irish music had long been the realm of the masculine when Mick Maloney, Irish musician and scholar, put together a concert series showcasing the finest Celtic female musicians, and created the group Cherish the Ladies.  Women of course have been a long staple of Irish music but for the longest time, all male groups dominated the Irish music scene.  For my money, however, women have provided some of the most compelling moments of Irish and Celtic music both traditional and contemporary, and with some exceptions I have found myself more attracted to Irish music where females have the primary roles or at least where they are a huge portion of the music.  In other words, a female just doing a vocal for an all-male band doesn't cut it for me.

I don't know why this is the case for me.  Perhaps it's just because I like the subtle differences that women bring to the music.  Perhaps I like the vocals because I like female voices with accents.  I just like it.  I cannot hear a Cathie Ryan or a Karen Matheson sing without paying attention.  I can't hear a fiddle by an Eileen Ivers or a Natalie MacMaster without paying extra attention.  The fact that there may have been extremely talented Celtic musicians overlooked by the music industry before them is incredibly sad, and makes groups like Cherish the Ladies all the more remarkable.

Cherish the Ladies was formed in 1985 to highlight the best female Irish/Celtic musicians in what was a male dominated genre. Led by Joanie Madden, an all-Ireland champion on flute and tin whistle, the band sold out their initial 1985 concert series. Since then, they've received international acclaim and have been the launching pad for many important Irish musicians including Eileen Ivers, Winifred Horan, Cathie Ryan, Heidi Talbot, Liz Knowles, Aoife Clancy and Deirdre Connolly. Originally made up of all Irish-American musicians, the current lineup consists of a mix of Irish-American and Irish musicians. They've released sixteen albums. The Back Door, vocalized by Cathie Ryan, is a song about undocumented Irish immigrants to the United States who come through "the back door," and could be easily refer to undocumented immigrants from all countries.  It can be found on their 1992 album of the same name.  The video is from a performance they did on an Irish variety show.