Fair Sean: Cathy Ryan with "Sheáin Bháin"

The randomizer gave us a double shot of Irish music over the last two days. Cathie Ryan, an Irish-American native of Detroit, Michigan, brings us today's random tune. Ryan was exposed early to Irish musicians such as Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers as well as American musicians such as Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves and Hank Williams. In her childhood she idolized her father, a tenor, who taught her how to interpret and honor songs by knowing their histories and contexts. She was also exposed to the music of Appalachia from neighbors who had migrated to Michigan to work in the auto factories and gained an appreciation for the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, as well as the local music out of Motown. Moving to New York, she learned more about traditional Irish music from her then husband singer-songwriter Dermot Henry and mentor Joe Heaney. After graduating from CUNY with a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, she began teaching at Lehmann College in the Bronx, but left the classroom behind as her singing career began to blossom. She still continues to teach workshops in traditional Irish singing and Irish mythology and folklore. She was a member of the all female Celtic group Cherish the Ladies. This song, Sheáin Bháin, can be found on her 1997 debut album Cathie Ryan. The song is a dialogue between two lovers named Sean and Mary.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathie_Ryan

Oh My Little Boat: Cathie Ryan and "Óró Mo Bháidín"

Cathie Ryan, an Irish-American native of Detroit, Michigan, brings us today's random tune. Ryan was exposed early to Irish musicians such as Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers as well as American musicians such as Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves and Hank Williams. In her childhood she idolized her father, a tenor, who taught her how to interpret and honor songs by knowing their histories and contexts. She was also exposed to the music of Appalachia from neighbors who had migrated to Michigan to work in the auto factories and gained an appreciation for the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, as well as the local music out of Motown. Moving to New York, she learned more about traditional Irish music from her then husband singer-songwriter Dermot Henry and mentor Joe Heaney. After graduating from CUNY with a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, she began teaching at Lehmann College in the Bronx, but left the classroom behind as her singing career began to blossom. She still continues to teach workshops in traditional Irish singing and Irish mythology and folklore. She was a member of the all female Celtic group Cherish the Ladies. This song, Óró Mo Bháidín, can be found on her 1997 debut album Cathie Ryan.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Shimabukuro; http://jakeshimabukuro.com/

The Rain is Coming: Regina Carter and "Kothbiro"

Today's random tune is by Detroit-born jazz violinist Regina Carter, who reinterprets an African song called Kothbiro that was composed and sung by Kenyan musician and nyatiti lyre player Ayub Ogada in 1993. Regina Carter began studying the violin along with piano when she was four years old. In high school she took master classes with Itzhak Perlman and Yehudi Menuhin and eventually studied classical music at the New England Conservatory of Music. However, she switched to jazz during her classical studies and finished out her education at Oakland University in Michigan. After graduation, she did a stint teaching music in the Detroit Public Schools, but needing a break and a new direction, she moved to Germany for two years. When she came back in the late 1980s, she joined the all-female quintet Straight Ahead, which did pop and jazz and earned kudos from Branford Marsalis. She went solo in 1991 and has released ten solo albums since 1995, and has played on another seventeen albums in collaboration with a wide variety of musicians such as Kenny Barron, Anthony Davis, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Jackson and Eddie Palmieri. Kothbiro can be found on her 2010 album Reverse Thread. She records the song as an instrumental - the original has lyrics and is about the coming of rain.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Carter

Affairs at the Fair: Cathie Ryan and "A Mhaithrin, A'Leigfea 'Un An Aonaigh Me?"

Our tune for today is by Cathie Ryan, an Irish-American native of Detroit, Michigan who was exposed early to Irish musicians such as Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, as well as American musicians such as Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves and Hank Williams. In her childhood she idolized her father, a tenor, who taught her how to interpret and honor songs by knowing their histories and contexts. She was also exposed to the music of Appalachia from neighbors who had migrated to Michigan to work in the auto factories and she gained an appreciation for the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, as well as the local music out of Motown. Moving to New York, she learned more about traditional Irish music from her then husband singer-songwriter Dermot Henry and mentor Joe Heaney. After graduating from CUNY with a degree in English Literature and Secondary Education, she began teaching at Lehmann College in the Bronx, but left the classroom behind as her singing career began to blossom. She still continues to teach workshops in traditional Irish singing and Irish mythology and folklore. This song, A Mhaithrin, A'Leigfea 'Un An Aonaigh Me?, can be found on her 1998 album The Music of What Happens. The song is the plea of a young girl to her mother, begging her mother to let her go to the fair so that she can see her love, the shoemaker, and the mother denying the girl's request.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.