Joanie Madden and Mary Coogan Live at CTIMS
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By Jeff Meade
As Joanie Madden and Mary Coogan took to the stage at the Coatesville Cultural Society, Joanie asked her audience if anyone would like to see her whistles. How could anyone refuse an offer like that? With that, she unwrapped her whistle case and draped it across her hips like a kind of a cross between a bandolier and a sarong. Then she said, "I feel like a stripper," and she laughed ... and the night was off to an uproariously informal start.
Joanie usually isn't very shy, but at the Coatesville Cultural Society, the usual invisible wall between performers and audience members simply did not exist. In this cozy venue, it was as if these two phenomenally gifted musicians had just dropped by and were playing in organizer Frank Dalton's living room. If there's a better venue for hearing traditional Irish music in the Delaware Valley, I can't imagine what it is. The sound quality's great, and the audience practically sits in the performers' laps.
This concert was also special because, as Joanie pointed out, in 20 years of playing together in Cherish the Ladies, a concert such as this on—with just Mary and Joanie—had occurred perhaps only once before.
The small but warmly appreciative audience heard something CTL audiences usually don't hear—many of the same tunes they've heard again and again, but in a setting where Mary's masterful playing of guitar and banjo truly stands out.
Joanie, of course, needs no encouragement. She dazzled the crowd with the whistle and flute pyrotechnics that by now we have all come to take for granted.
And yet, at the same time, nothing about the evening felt like a performance. It seemed more like a memorable meeting of old friends. With Mary and Joanie in the house, it really was.
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