Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley

The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra's FIRST CD is finished and released and available NOW on CDBaby and iTunes.  Entitled Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley, it features a great selection of traditional tunes and songs, many from the Golden Age of Irish-American music-making in the 1920s and ’30s.


Paul Keating of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper gave our CD a very favorable review on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. The Irish Central website carried Paul's review on Friday, March 11.  Please click HERE to check out the wonderful picture of our group as well as the lovely things Paul has to say about our music.

The WSHSO has been talking about the CD all week in our various St. Patrick's season performances.  We've even sold a few copies!  However, we will officially launch our CD tonight in the Blarney Star concert series at New York University's Glucksman Ireland House. There will be food beforehand, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the post-concert partying spills over into a nearby pub.

Since receiving my copy of the CD about a week ago, I've listened to it numerous times. I am so very pleased with it. We all are! The songs offer a view of life as lived by everyday people of another era. The instrumental music is exuberant and glorious and will make you dance around the house. The last set of reels is pure joy. I know I'm anything but impartial, but I believe you definitely will want to own a copy of this CD!!

To illustrate why, here's a sample track: a song called Arrah, come in out of the rain, Barney McShane. "Arrah" is a Gaelic expression indicating mild surprise. Apparently it was part of the slang of the 1920's. The song is sung by Donie Carroll, accompanied by the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. Kate Bowerman supplies a delightful piccolo accompaniment, another throwback to the 1920's when piccolos were common in the bands used in vaudeville shows and in Irish dance halls. So listen, enjoy... then hop on over to CDBaby and order your very own copy today!





© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
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