About
Baltimore’s Old Bay Ceili Band is one of the best traditional dance bands that have been mainstays of Irish-American music in the cities of the East Coast and Great Lakes. Céilí bands reinvented traditional Irish music as lively dance music, with piano and drums anchoring the beat. The word céilí (KAY-lee) itself refers to just such a dance, gatherings where Irish set dancing—with couples dancing within groups of various formations, similar to square or contra dance—is common. Nowhere have these dances been as spirited as in Maryland.
In the wake of the folk revival, many baby-boomer Irish-Americans went looking for their own music roots and found them in kitchen “seisuns” and parish-hall dances of their parents’ generation. Maryland gave birth to two of the best baby-boomer groups: the Irish Tradition and Celtic Thunder. Now a third generation of Irish-Americans have formed the Old Bay Ceili Band, led by Sean McComiskey, playing the button accordion just like his father, the Irish Tradition’s legendary Billy McComiskey.
“It transcends generations,” claims the younger McComiskey. “If I play a tune that I learned from my dad that he learned from Sean McGlynn that Sean learned from Paddy O’Brien, it’s amazing to me that it has remained the same over generations. So many things—pop music, clothes, cars—are here for a few months or years and then they’re gone. To know that something endures is priceless.”
The band is filled out by more of Billy’s protégés: fiddlers Jim Eagan and Danny Noveck, flutists Laura Byrne and Brendan Bell, banjoist Bob Smith, pianist Matt Mulqueen and drummer Josh Dukes. The group’s name is a pun not only on the famous New York group, the Kips Bay Ceili Band, but also on the Chesapeake’s famous spice, Old Bay Seasoning.
Accompanying the band will be noted Irish dancer and teacher Rebecca McGowan of Lexington, Massachusetts. Rebecca will be joined by frequent collaborator Jackie Riley, plus several students, and also call céilí dances.