CELTIC CRUSH 20TH ANNIVERSARY ON SIRIUSXM RADIO

About twenty years ago, I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was visiting the Sirius Satellite Radio headquarters for an interview with Meg Griffin, head of the Disorder Channel. I was promoting a memoir, Green Suede Shoes, and the release of an associated Black 47 CD, Elvis Murphy’s Green Suede Shoes.

Meg and I were friends from the downtown Punk days, and after the interview we were laughing and bantering in the corridor of the 36^th Floor as a top executive, Steve Blatter, strode by. 

We exchanged a few words and, noticing my accent, Steve called Meg to one side; she soon returned inquiring, “Would you be interested in hosting a weekly Celtic show?”

I’d always loved radio and I had done countless interviews with Black 47 - it seemed like a gig made in heaven.

Meg mentioned that the Sirius Celtic collection was pretty scant, so a couple of days later I showed up with a backpack full of CDs and a list of songs for a 3-hour show. I decided to adapt the old  WNEW-FM system: play 3 songs and then talk about whatever came to mind. 

I called the show Celtic Crush, as I would be mixing songs and styles from across the Celtic world, while hopefully adding a seasoning of the radio romance that had swept me away as a boy.

Meg taught me how to use the controls, and gave me hints on how to balance a show, like “keep to the point,” but let inspiration guide me.

I had been influenced by many hosts from the golden days of FM radio, but three in particular: Vin Scelsa, Alison Steele and Meg herself. All three were masters of improv.

Black 47 was an improv band – we never did the same set twice, we just lived in the moment and trusted in the ongoing dynamic between band and audience. 20 years later I still use that sixth sense of communication to propel each Celtic Crush show.

I begin each show with a 5-minute intro that usually sets the tone of the show. I rarely play a song from the previous week, and I always add new songs, so that the show is always fresh to me, and hopefully to the audience.

Celtic Crush is about songs, not artists, and I encourage musicians submitting material to be daring with their choices. Because I’ve been on the road for most of my life, I tend to know or have first-hand knowledge of many artists. But I don’t deal in gossip, only their musical history as I understand it.

The idea is to find and nurture “future classics.” These can be recordings from as far back as 100 years. In last year’s listener’s Top 100 poll, Sean Ó’Riada’s mystical live version of Aisling Gheal from 1971 was voted #3, and Celtic Crush has been the first in the US to play such current popular favorites as Lankum, Kneecap, Fontaines DC, Jiggy, The Mary Wallopers, and so many more.

Instead of just looking back to the original 8 Celtic nations I’m as interested in the diaspora from each and how new lands have influenced immigrant music. 

As for my commentaries I delve into history, politics, literature, theatre and memory. One of the touchstones of being a SiriusXM host is that your show may be heard in any part of the US or Canada, so you must speak to audiences way beyond your own locality.

I have my own political views and they include being a small “r” and “d” republican and democrat, so I speak my mind in these troublesome authoritarian times, while trying not to do so in an abrasive manner. 

The last message each week is to encourage listeners to reach out to one person in his/her circle and help put a dent in the epidemic of loneliness that afflicts modern life.

After 20 years, Celtic Crush is still a joy to host and produce, and no matter what mood I’m in before I record, I invariably feel uplifted after. What more can one ask for? Ah yes, the ongoing magic of radio!

 

SiriusXM is the largest audio entertainment company in North America and has approximately 34 million subscribers in the US and Canada. It is subscription based and is available through satellite or online. It offers over 200 channels, including commercial-free music, sports, news, talk, and entertainment. To sign up for SiriusXM, or for a free trial option, visit www.siriusxm.com or call1-866-635-2349.

DAVID JOHANSEN, JACK O'LEARY, JOE STRUMMER & ALL MY INFLUENCERS!

 There are a number of building blocks in any reasonably successful rock ‘n’ roll band. First of course, are the musicians themselves, followed closely by a loyal tech crew. Add a dogged and dedicated agent and you’re off to the races.

Some swear by a good manager, but if you haven’t learned how to manage yourself after a couple of years, then you haven’t been looking or listening – besides adding a manager’s 15% off the top to an agent’s 10%, means you’ll take very little home. Forget about hiring a PR person, just favor a united Ireland and oppose an American war and you’ll get all the publicity you need.

That being said, you’re going nowhere unless you have a loyal fanbase led by superfans. 10 years after Black 47 disbanded I can still summon up the faces in the first two rows in most American cities. Many still stay in touch.

But there’s another, somewhat more exalted breed, that really made a difference, I called them influencers, long before every Tom, Dick and Harry debased the title. I lost some of mine recently.

I first met Jack O’Leary when I was 18 and playing a pub in Wexford. I was singing “Donna, Donna,” a little-known ballad; no one was listening - except Jack. During a break he complimented my taste, and stated that “Donna, Donna” was an old Jewish folk song. 

From that moment on we were linked. Jack seemed to know every song that had any bit of soul or history to it, and was determined to pass on his knowledge.

He worked on the Rosslare/Fishguard ferries, and on his time off attended most of my gigs.

I can still picture him roaming around pubs, resplendent in a well-cut grey suit, pint in hand, swaying to the music, and encouraging me to try new songs, especially my own.

He was an excellent singer of sea-chanteys and could have gained a PhD in the semi-mystical songs of the merchant-marine songwriter, Cyril Tawney.

He came to London when Black 47 opened for The Pogues at their remarkable Christmas show in 1990. There I introduced him to Joe Strummer. Backstage they talked non-stop, head to head at the bar. When Jack finally took a toilet break, Joe turned to me and said, “Where did you find him, guy knows more about music than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Like many other commercial sailors Jack had little time for religion, still I fancy I can see him, pint in hand, wheedling his way into heaven by entertaining St. Peter with a lusty version of Tawney’s “Five Foot Flirt.”

Joe himself died way too young; although he was recognized as the Prince of Punk, he had an inexhaustible knowledge of popular music. For about 6 months he came to every Black 47 gig in Paddy Reilly’s. It was a rare night we didn’t introduce a new song, and Joe took delight in mentioning its “obvious” influences. Even when I’d tell him none of us ever heard of such arcane writers, he’d say, “Makes no difference, man, music is universal and we’re all linked.” He always had a friendly suggestion for how we could make a song better. But just knowing Joe was listening made you better anyway. 

He never mentioned The Clash but he often spoke about Thomas Moore’s Minstrel Boy, and how someday he hoped to improve on Paul Robeson’s magisterial interpretation; he eventually did in the soundtrack for Black Hawk Down.

David Johansen’s mother was a Cullen from Staten Island. I noticed him on the streets of the East Village not long after I arrived in the US. Handsome, rakish and convivial, he had been vocalist for The New York Dolls and became big daddy to many New York musicians. He used to drink in Tramps, Terry Dunne’s bar on 15^thStreet. ‘Twas there he developed his alter-ego, Buster Poindexter. 

He guested on the Black 47 track, Staten Island Baby. Talk about a pro, he made that song his own. As he left the studio, veteran producer/engineer Stewart Lerman murmured, “I learned more in the last 2 hours from Dave than I did in the past 20 years.”

I miss my influencers – they gave so much of themselves and asked for so little in return.