In the first of what we hope will be a sometimes-series of music performances taped exclusively for Nashville Public Television, NPT CAMERA ONE, Irish musician folklorist Mick Moloney shared with us “There’s A Typical Tipperary Over Here,” from his new CD project If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews. The song is from a collection of tunes from New York’s Tin Pan Alley days; the performance was recorded in Nashville at Compass Records’ studios.
Moloney is the author of “Far From the Shamrock Shore: The story of Irish American History Through Song” released by Crown Publications in February of 2002 with an accompanying CD on Shanachie Records. He holds a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught ethnomusicology, folklore and Irish studies courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, and Villanova Universities, and currently teaches at New York University in the Irish Studies program.
Moloney has recorded and produced over forty albums of traditional music and acted as adviser for scores of festivals and concerts all over America. He also served as the artistic director for several major arts tours including The Green Fields of America, an ensemble of Irish musicians, singers and dancers which toured across the United States on several occasions.
He has hosted three nationally syndicated series of folk music on American Public Television; was a consultant, performer and interviewee on the Irish Television special “Bringing It All Back Home”; a participant, consultant and music arranger of the PBS documentary film “Out of Ireland”; and a performer on the PBS special “The Irish in America: Long Journey Home.” In 1999 he was awarded the National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts — the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States.
