They Aren't Orphans And They Don't Scream... But They Are Good!

By Gwen Orel

The Screaming Orphans don't scream and they aren't orphans. Just ask the Chieftains, Black 47, Sinead O'Connor, Joni Mitchell and the hordes of fans who love their blend of original rock and trad (including pub standards like "Black Velvet Band" and "Whiskey in the Jar") in four-part harmony.

These days, lots of their fans come from Festivals - they've been invited to the Milwaukee Irish Fest for the third straight summer. On Labor Day they're splitting their time between the Newport Waterfront Irish Festival and the Kansas City Irish Fest.

New Yorkers had better hurry to Tir Na nÓg on 8th Avenue and 33rd Street on Saturday night (May 22nd) if they want to see them live - except for an appearance at the Coney Island at the Great Irish Fair of New York, the girls will be out on the road until October (check tour dates at www.screamingorphans.com).

You might get to see them on PBS, playing in Dublin, Ohio (the Dublin Irish Festival) when the second part of the documentary 'Music of Ireland: Welcome Home,' hosted by Moya Brennan, airs this summer (my interview with Moya about the documentary appeared here in the Irish Examiner on March 9).

I love seeing them play at to Tir Na nÓg. It's where I first saw them, in 2006 - I had some time to kill before my train, and wandered into the atmospheric restaurant/pub right across from Penn Station. Had a shot at the bar. Was feeling sorry for myself about something (OK, some guy). Then I noticed the whole place was singing, and I turned around. A few people were dancing. Who were these girls?

Joan began singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene," and the crowd sang along. They kept singing when Joan went into "Liar," one of their own songs. This was something special.

After checking that it wasn't the whiskey talking by seeing them again at Ulysses on Stone Street, I hired them for one of the concerts I programmed at the Folk Project, New Jersey.

After I announced it, the phone rang off the hook. People drove down from Connecticut. Their fans follow them even further than that - all the way to Ireland. The girls led their first bus tour in February. They went to Bundoran, their home town in Donegal, as well as Galway and Dublin.

Bundoran is a surfing town, and they first covered Red Hot Chili Peppers, country songs, the Bangles. "We used to surf, but then we got scared to break bones. And we lost interest in surfers. We wanted men with jobs!" Joan says.

People often compare them to the Cranberries - they sound a bit like that on Circles - but it sounds a bit "too rock," says Joan. Their real sound is something in between country, pop, rock. And trad. These days, they listen to the Carter family, Mick Moloney, and tapes of old singers in the van.

At Tir Na nÓg they play a stripped down, acoustic set, that reflects some of the Country and Western and trad music they loved growing up.

"Tony at Tir Na nÓg was one of the first people to give us a gig," says Joan, the pretty blonde drummer and lead singer.

It was also through Tir Na nÓg that they ended up playing regularly at Dwyer's in Fort Meyers, Florida - Jim Dwyer's family saw them there and brought them down to the huge castle/restaurant/club, as Joan describes it, until the pub was sold.

But when they first came over, "We knew nobody, we were disillusioned by the music scene in London. We took our suitcases and came over, landed at JFK. We trailed around in subways - we didn't have a car. We played in the Queens pubs."

In Europe, they had been signed to Warner records. Touring with Sinead O'Connor, they had a crew looking after them.

After coming to New York, "We grew dependent on each other. It made us stronger," Joan says.

Joan leads the band and plays drums; Angela plays bass and fiddle; Gráinne plays guitar, and Marie Thérèse plays accordion and keyboards. They all sing, and they post their favorite foods and trivia on their website, like the old days when the Beatles listed their favorite colors.

The sisters not only work together; like the '70s cartoons of the Jackson 5 and the Beatles, they live together too.

And the cartoon reference is no coincidence - Joan and Grainne are blonde; Marie Thérèse and Angela brunette.

Sometimes people don't believe they really are sisters - the blondes talk a mile (particularly Gráinne, who once stopped a show with her story of a neighbor found dead in the apartment; somehow even the morbid is hilarious when she tells it); the brunettes are more quiet (Marie Thérèse might sing a ballad, but rarely tell a story). But they are. What will happen when one of them gets married?

"Our dad will have a massive party!" Joan laughs. "He'll be saying 'Thanks be to God, one of them's gone!'" She adds, "I pity the man who comes into this situation, having to go through all of us. They usually get fed up halfway through."

Their long-awaited follow-up to 2005's 'Circles' is called 'East 12th Street'' - named for the East Village, where they live.

On it are many of the songs that their regulars have been singing for years - like 'Scream a little Louder' (no screaming, just some rage) and 'Sunny Days.'

Though the girls are still mixing the vocals, you can get a demo version now at their gigs and at cdbaby.com (go to www.screamingorphans.com for info and for tour dates).

You can also get their new album of Irish traditional music, 'Belle's Isle', which, like 'East 12th Street', they recorded last year.

Making 'Belle's Isle' was a direct result of their American experience - they didn't think of themselves so much as an Irish band at home.

In Ireland, Joan says, the Festivals are divided by genre. The open-mindedness of the American music Festivals here is one of the things she loves.

At Milwaukee Irish Fest, she says, you can hear world music, the Tulla Céilí Band, Rock Irish, people like Gaelic Storm-something for everyone (this year, Liz Carroll, Cherish the Ladies, Celtic Tenors and Green Fields of America are playing! See www.irishfest.com). And of course, "Ireland doesn't have the weather, we're outside in the muck!"

The Irish-Americans that are so proud of their heritage inspired them to make the Irish music album, 'Belle's Isle'. Fans were always asking for it.

But Irish music was in their background. Their mother was a singer - long before they were the Screaming Orphans, they were the Diver Sisters, backing up mum in local hotels.

Their father loved music, but didn't play or sing. It was their Uncle Richie who taught them to play traditional music, and they would play sessions every Friday.

Meanwhile all the girls studied music "at school with the nuns." Gráinne studied music theory and maths at Trinity College, Marie Thérèse did the college of music in London and Dublin, Angela did business and practical violin at the college of music in Dublin and "I was the black sheep, I did German and French at Trinity! Which will not come in handy," Joan laughs. Not even on tour? "Maybe, but I can't remember anything."

They hooked up with Sinead O'Connor through Luka Bloom, who had invited them to sing acoustically at a church in Kildare.

"We said we would certainly, but we were also a band ourselves! We hadn't even five songs written," Joan admits.

They picked "Screaming Orphans" (actually, a friend came up with it) because "it was not girly, nothing Irish, you either love it or hate it, but you always remember it. People always have a comment."

And yes, people expect death metal from the name. But not for long. Once they open their mouths, and strum the guitar (and hit the accordion and fiddle), people know the Screaming Orphans sing when they scream and shout.