By Brad Balfour
Once Irish music promoter Maggie Cadden realized that her passion for Irish music was something she could commit her life to, she set about making it happen. Over a couple of decades she learned about working with Irish music and what makes that job a little different from promoting other musics. As she explained, “The promotion of Irish music depends upon the existence of Irish diaspora. This is why so many Irish songs speak of a longing for home. One of the best eras for Irish music in America was in the ’80s and ‘90s when there was a substantial population of young Irish immigrants who — prior to the Celtic Tiger — who had left Ireland for employment in the US.
“They added the sense of contemporary Ireland to the Irish American community. Such a community does not exist, at least not in New York for the other Celtic nations including the Scots or the Welsh.”
And in turn she was also a part of the Irish diaspora since her grandparents on both sides had immigrated to Glasgow from Birr and Dublin. Born and raised in Scotland, she emigrated to Australia with her family as a teenager. Then, five years later, the family returned to Scotland, and Cadden relocated to London where she moved in Irish circles, becoming a member of the Irish Club and was introduced to the very active traditional Irish music scene.
After four years there, she left and moved to New York, where she worked with the information attaché at the Australian Consulate’s library. But Cadden continued to pursue her interest in Irish traditional music and became a founding member of the Irish Arts Center. At music sessions, she became acquainted with Dan Collins, who along with Richard Nevins, was establishing the Shanachie Records label.
Shortly after their meeting Maggie left to live in Dublin for a little over a year. In the meantime, the label became a powerhouse for traditional musics of all sort but Irish in particular. Specializing in fiddle music initially, the duo began releasing recordings of Celtic groups such as Planxty and Clannad. They eventually expanded into other world music genres including Latin American, African, soul, country, reggae and ska. In 1989, the label acquired Yazoo Records from Nick Perls which allowed them to explore vintage jazz and blues adding another imprint, Shanachie Jazz. In 1992 the company began releasing folk singer-songwriter CDS, including those by Richard Shindell, Dolores Keane, John Stewart, Rod MacDonald, Richard Meyer, Karan Casey, Sue Foley, Four Bitchin’ Babes, Kevin Gordon, and others.
Upon returning to New York, Cadden went to work for Shanachie as their sole employee. There she learned music production and the distribution business from the ground up. While Shanachie was releasing albums by Irish traditional musicians, they would tour in support of their releases. Maggie worked at setting up tours, arranging visas and producing “House Concerts” for these musicians that were held at Shanachie.
In the early ‘80s, Cadden left to go independent, producing her first concert, a sold-out show at Manhattan’s Town Hall. Irish super group, De Dannan headlined with vocalists, Mary Black and Dolores Keane on the bill. She then launched The Maggie Agency and began booking tours, arranging concerts for Irish artists and handling all the problem incumbent to international artists and particular to this from Ireland. One of her first shows on her own was for The Dubliners at the Bottom Line. Though no surprise, that night set the all-time record for that famous club’s bar sales.
As a result of that experience, Cadden has had some of the best musical moments of her life. “One of my great musical moments was when Mary Black sang “Annachie Gordon” with DeDannan at Town Hall. Another outstanding moment was when DeDannan played with noted multi-instrumentalist Andy Statman’s Klezmer band — a really fabulous combination of musical styles at. Town Hall. An amazing event for me was at a sold-out Carnegie Hall booking where Finbar Furey played an instrumental solo on Uilean pipes and then played “The Lonesome Boatman” — his famous Instrumental steel whistle composition — with his brothers, Eddie, George and Paul on guitar, mandolin and accordion, who added a bird-like counterpart to the deep resonant sound of Finbar’s whistle which represents the boatman.
“One more memory of my best musical moments was when the 21-year-old Tommy Fleming, guest starred with Phil Coulter in a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall. He literally blew the roof off Carnegie Hall with his rendition of The Old Triangle and received a 5 minute standing ovation in the middle of the concert.”
Meanwhile, the afore-mentioned Mary Black launched a solo career and asked Maggie to represent her in the US. From then on, she booked a series of tours for Black and presented her in concert throughout the United States for a number of years. At the same time Mary had a record company in Ireland named Dara Records, a subsidiary of Dolphin Discs, which released her recordings there. It was agreed that Maggie would launch an American label, also named Dara Records, to press and distribute Black’s albums in North America.
Dara expanded to become a major Irish music distributor in the States, importing product from all of Ireland’s major labels. It also distributed Irish product of such major American labels as Sony, Universal, RCA and WEA. The company also purchased from independent labels, including Shanachie and directly from independent artists including Black 47, Cherish the Ladies, Seven Nations and the NYPD Pipe Band to name a few. Dara also became the dominant distributor of Irish music with over 500 accounts.
Meanwhile the Maggie Cadden Agency continued to represent artists and produce concerts for performers including Mary Black, De Dannan, Dolores Keane, Maura O’Connell, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, Finbar Wright and Cherish the Ladies. And while all this was happening she was also attending college, graduating this year with her BA in History and Psychology from Hunter College at CUNY with a 3.8 GPA.
In the late 80’s Phil Coulter, who already had a successful career as a songwriter and producer, launched a new career as a performer and recording artist with his series of “Tranquility” albums. This Derry, Northern Ireland, musician, songwriter and record producer later was awarded the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors’ Gold Badge in October 2009. Coulter has amassed 23 platinum discs, 39 gold discs, 52 silver discs, two Grand Prix Eurovision awards; five Ivor Novello Awards, which includes Songwriter of the Year; three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards; a Grammy Nomination; a Meteor Award, a National Entertainment Award and a Rose d’or d’Antibes.
Phil wanted to tour in the USA and Canada and asked Maggie to be his North American agent. Maggie set up tours, produced and presented concerts for Phil for more than a decade in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall and the Chicago Theatre. She also produced concerts for Phil in Long Island, New Jersey, St Louis, Milwaukee and Florida. And throughout it all, he became one of the biggest record sellers in his native land.
That didn’t mean it was always easy. One of the most difficult moments promoting Irish music came while working with Coulter. Ahh, the most difficult moment… I had booked a 20 city tour for Phil. The first date was at Carnegie Hall with President Clinton to attend. Two days before the concerts their visas had not been approved I called Senator Edward Kennedy’s office for help. He put me in touch with Senator Leahy because the Visa processing was in Vermont.
The Senator had his secretary go directly to the INS office in Vermont, take the papers off the shelf and bring them to the INS official for approval. We got the visas the day of the concert. Phil and his band arrived around 4pm and came straight to the Hall.”
Although there were many memorable events during this period the one Maggie remembers best was a sold out St. Patrick’s Day concert with James Galway and Phil Coulter at Carnegie Hall.
In the mid ’90s, Cadden began her association with The Fureys, who were already Irish superstars with number one hits including “Sweet Sixteen,” “Green Fields of France” and “Red Rose Café.” They were complete professionals, a dream to work with and terrific company on the road. In addition to being their agent and producing their concerts, she also acted as their road manager during their many North American tours. She also produced sold-out concerts for them in both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and prestigious venues across the US and Canada. Most memorable for her was their sold out performance at Carnegie Hall with Dolores Keane as the guest star.
In ’97, the Irish Government requested that she produce a commemoration concert for the 150th Anniversary of Great Irish Famine. The concert — “Flight from the Hungry Land” — was a suite composed by Charlie Lennon which featured music song and dance. She produced this concert at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center and hired The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, traditional musicians from Ireland and featured vocalists, Tommy Makem and Cathie Ryan. In recent years Maggie has worked with one of Ireland’s brightest new stars, Tommy Fleming, presenting concerts at Town Hall and Symphony Space.
But her proudest achievement is that through all the turmoil of show business was that she has remained close friends with all of them. Yet she still has a few goals left to accomplish. throughout her long and substantial career, Cadden still feels, “I would love to pair Finbar Furey and Frankie Gavin in concert. And I want to spend more time at my home in the South of France.”
And with all this in mind, she came to understand why the think the Celtic experience gives life to this sound. You mean our sounds… that’s the point, that it connects with the people, in fact, all people. Historically, traditional Irish music was played to accompany the dance. With its thousands of tunes it is always a very uplifting and a very exciting sound that brings out the joy in people from that motivation.”
So when asked, what is the secret of a making a successful Irish band, she confidently answered, “Mutual respect for the musical abilities of one another. A desire to please their audience and of course a hit song.”