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Four to the Bar was an influential and popular Irish band in New York City during the early- to mid-1990s. Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ...
A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ...
The words Celt and Celtic can have a variety of meanings. ...
Bob Dylans folk-rock album, Blonde on Blonde Folk-rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. ...
Celtic Fusion is a broad umbrella term for modern music which incorporates traditional Celtic influences, or Celtic Music which incorporates modern music. ...
Folk can refer to a number of different things: It can be short for folk music, or, for folksong, or, for folklore; it may be a word for a specific people, tribe, or nation, especially one of the Germanic peoples; it might even be a calque on the related German...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
An Irish band playing in the Hetzel Union Building, Penn State University. ...
Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ...
From its beginnings as one more hard-drinking pub band from the boroughs, through a brief yet remarkable career, it matured into one of the region's premier Celtic acts as it ventured into a neotraditional fusion of pop, rock, and Irish and American folk.
More than a decade after dissolving, Four to the Bar remains a reference point in any discussion of New York's Irish music scene in the last decade of the 20th century.
Band History
The Early Days: 1991-1992 Four to the Bar was formed in the working-class/immigrant Irish community of Woodside, NY, in 1991. The initial lineup was Martin Kelleher (from Cork) on bass guitar, David Yeates (from Dunboyne, Co. Meath) on vocals and flute, David Livingstone (from Co. Monaghan) on mandolin, and an unknown fourth member on guitar. Woodside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. ...
Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ...
For other uses of Cork, see Cork (disambiguation). ...
Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case. ...
Dunboyne (Dún Búinne in Irish) is a town in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland. ...
The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...
WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...
Carved and round backed mandolins (front) A mandolin is a small, plucked, stringed musical instrument, descended from the mandora. ...
Classical and Bass Guitar The guitar is a musical instrument, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and is also widely known as a solo classical instrument. ...
That August, Kelleher switched to guitar and the band placed a classified ad for a bass player in the Irish Voice newspaper. Patrick Clifford (from New York City) answered the ad, was hired, and completed the Kelleher-Yeates-Clifford nucleus that would hold for the remainder of the band's existence. Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ...
Four to the Bar immediately began to solidify its reputation (for both trad music and prodigious alcohol consumption) throughout New York, and to tour regionally. It was during this time that the band gave a surprisingly capable performance as the opening act for then-rising star Sharon Shannon at the Bog in Jamaica Plain, MA, which brought immediate attention. Annika Johanssons promotional photo of Sharon Shannon captures the spirit of her lively accordion performances. ...
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. ...
In 1992, Livingstone abruptly left the band and returned to Ireland. For a number of months, the lead-instrument slot was filled by various fiddlers and mandolin players--most notably Chris Murphy and John Farrell (later of the Prodigals and Fathom).
The Heydays: 1993-1994 In early 1993, Four to the Bar found and retained Keith O'Neill (from New York City), the 1985 All-Ireland fiddle champion. O'Neill's athletic musicianship would quickly become a mainstay of the band's sound. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Fleadh. ...
Soon after this, the band completed its first commercial recording, a four-song EP produced and engineered by Henry Gorman and titled simply Four to the Bar (1993). This was available only on cassette.
During the next 12 months, the band would begin to build its name on the New York scene, sharing the marquee with acts as diverse as Frank Patterson and Susan McKeown's Chanting House, and begin to test the bounds of the trad repertoire with such covers as Phil Ochs' "I Ain't Marching Anymore." Four to the Bar headlined regularly at Tommy Makem's Irish Pavilion and Paddy Reilly's Music Bar, and on one occasion served as Pete Seeger's backing band. Frank Patterson (October 5, 1938 - June 10, 2000) He was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland) and was a world famous tenor who died of brain cancer at the age of 61 in 2000. ...
Susan McKeown is an Irish-American folk singer. ...
Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was a U.S. protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer), songwriter, musician and recording artist who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice. ...
I Aint Marching Anymore was Phil Ochs second long player, released on Elektra Records in 1965. ...
Tommy Makem (born 4 November 1932) is an internationally celebrated folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller from Ireland, most known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. ...
Paddy Reilly (b. ...
Seegers album Clearwater Classics. ...
Sometime between February and April of 1994, Four to the Bar spent time in a Manhattan studio working with a number of fellow musicians, including Seamus Egan, Joannie Madden, Trevor Hutchinson, Eileen Ivers, Larry Campbell, Matt Keating, Steve Holly, and Rufus Cappadocia. This project was never commercially released; rough mixes from these sessions apparently circulated as bootlegs through the community, but little else is known about the project. This is also where the band first met Tim Hatfield, who immediately became the band’s primary recording engineer. Seamus Egan is an Irish-American musician. ...
Cherish The Ladies is an Irish-American group Cherish The Ladies, an all-female group, was formed in 1985 in New York. ...
The Waterboys, performing a concert in Antwerp in 2003. ...
Eileen Ivers is an Irish-American musician Eileen Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents on 13 July 1965, but grew up in the Bronx, NY. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. ...
Larry Campbell is a musician who plays several string instruments (including guitar, mandolin, and violin) in genres including country, folk, and rock. ...
Around the same time, Four to the Bar was experimenting with its sound--by adding to the lineup, together and separately, accordionist Tony McQuillan and percussionist Seamus Casey. While neither would prove permanent, they both appear on Craic on the Road, the band's first CD release (1994). This album is a dramatic glimpse of the famous live act and--as it is reputed to contain no overdubs--an impressive technical achievement for a concert album. Les Paul, a pioneer of multi-track recording. ...
The Final Days: 1995-1996 In early 1995, Four to the Bar bought and borrowed an arsenal of recording equipment, called in engineer Tim Hatfield, and converted a rented dancehall into a recording studio. The five men worked in isolation for three weeks recording, mixing, and mastering, and emerged with what would be both the band's masterpiece and its swan song, Another Son (1995).
The musicianship and sophistication of this release took many old fans by surprise, and reviews were unanimously glowing. On the strength of the recording, the band was chosen to perform at the 1995 International Music Festival in Daytona, FL, sharing the bill with Trisha Yearwood and the London Symphony Orchestra. The subsequent promotional tour carried the band from Vermont to Key West to St. Louis to Chicago. Trisha Yearwood Trisha Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is a country music singer. ...
It has been suggested that London (orchestra) be merged into this article or section. ...
Improbably, at some point later that same year, O'Neill resigned; his spot was filled by a series of local freelancers, including Monty Monaghan, Tony DeMarco, John Reynolds, and Joyce Andersen. Classically trained, Andersen brought a promising, new, cultured sound, but was focused on a solo career and her tenure was brief.
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2005, Four to the Bar had just started its first set in Dillon's Pub in hometown Woodside, NY, when a fire broke out in an adjoining diner. Each musician managed to save his instrument, but everything else was destroyed. Four to the Bar never fully recovered from the disaster, and despite playing a handful of shows in early 1996, this setback effectively signalled the band's demise.
Discography
Members - David Yeates: Vocals, bodhran, flute, tin whistle, percussion, guitar
- Martin Kelleher: Lead and backing vocals, guitar, bouzouki, five-string banjo, mandolin
- Patrick Clifford: Bass guitar, piano, electric guitar, accordion
- Keith O'Neill: Fiddle, tenor banjo
Transitional Members - Joyce Andersen
- Seamus Casey
- John Farrell
- David Livingstone
- Tony McQuillan
- Monty Monaghan
- Chris Murphy
- John Reynolds
References - Four to the Bar biography
- Another Son Release Party Program
- deYampert, Rick, "Four to the Bar: An Irish Rebel Yell," Daytona Beach News-Journal, Vol. LXX, No. 215 (Saturday, July 29, 1995)
- deYampert, Rick, "Four to the Bar a Stout, Soulful Quartet," Daytona Beach News-Journal, Vol. LXX, No. 219 (Thursday, August 3, 1995)
- Niewoehner, Elizabeth A., The Local (Boston, MA), March 1992
- The Mountain Times (Killington, VT), Vol. 24, No. 29: July 20, 1995
- The Peninsula News (Rockaway Beach, NY), May 25, 1993
External links - Four to the Bar official web site
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