Brothers in tune

Cassidys sing from Memory

by Don Fluckinger

You might mistakenly assume that the Cassidys play modernized, electric versions of traditional Irish tunes. A perception that may be fostered if your first dose of the group, born in County Donegal, is from their US debut, Singing from Memory.

But they're more traditional, and the electric guitars and pounding drums found on Memory are a departure from their usual fare.

In fact, when the five brothers -- accompanied on their current American tour by an all-Ireland champion step-dancer -- come to Doherty High School next Friday, they'll play in the all-acoustic tradition that made them platinum sellers in Ireland, popular particularly for their close harmonies and folk instruments like boudrán, fiddle, tin whistles, and pipes.

Their father was a music teacher and still serves as a church choirmaster in Dublin; he instilled in them a love for their land's Gaelic culture and music, a regional culture quickly being steamrolled by the English-speaking mainstream. The Cassidy kids spoke only Irish Gaelic until they started school, a rarity even in Ireland.

The songs on Singing from Memory, released at home as Oró Na Casaídígh --Songs of Our Childhood, are well-known in Ireland, old tunes the brothers sang while learning how to sing together and to play their instruments. In preparing the arrangements and recording the tunes for a television show broadcast by Ireland's National Radio and Television Network (RTE), the brothers decided to "rock them up" a little, according to Aongus Cassidy, the group's leader, because they'd been recorded many times previously by other folk artists with fiddles and pipes. Although now they've opened the door to using electric instruments, he says it's likely that "unplugged" will be the way they'll go on future releases.

"We're basically a folk band, and that's what we do best," Cassidy says. "I started playing fiddle when I was four years of age, and . . . I suppose what you grow up with is what you do best. I'm not a rock musician. Our next album will have rock influences, but maybe not as obvious as this album."

Rock influences have pervaded popular Celtic music for years, from Van Morrison to U2, whose lead singer Bono claims to be influenced by old folk melodies from County Donegal. Loving Celtic music "is very much part and parcel of being Irish -- you can't avoid it in Ireland," Cassidy says, and although the Celtic culture may be fading, the musical tradition will be respected long into the future. But like many country-dwellers, the Cassidy family later moved to Dublin, joining the urban set.

After moving, the Cassidy brothers finished school and joined separate bands. But it was a late-'70s invitation to a folk festival in France, far both culturally and distance-wise from Ireland, that inspired them to get together and work up some formal arrangements of songs to perform. Ciarán Cassidy plays with the band on some tours, but for the Worcester show there will be five Cassidys: Odhrán, Feargus, Seathrún, Fionntán, and Aongus.

Since that folk festival in Brittany, the Cassidys have toured North America and Europe for two decades. In the United States they've played several high-profile gigs including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, as well as the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Their current tour is the Cassidys' deepest foray into America, taking them coast to coast, even into the hinterlands of Minnesota, from which Aongus called for his interview. Despite the grind of playing four or five times a week and getting to the next place overnight and schlepping all those instruments around, they're much happier now that they have a CD available to help establish a beachhead among American fans of Celtic music.

The Cassidys play at 8 p.m. on March 12 at Doherty High School. Tickets are $20. Call 853-7587.