Leahy

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #117 (April/May 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Leahy

More Musical by the Dozen

by Kerry Dexter

With a surname of Leahy, and being a family group from rural Ontario, one might at first expect to hear traditional jigs and reels from this Canadian band. Think again. Though there is a Celtic element present in their music, the heart of their original tunes and arrangements of traditional material is found in the siblings' lifelong connection to each other, to music, and in many ways, to Canada.

"So much of what happens in our band is not planned, not intended, it just kind of falls into place," explained Donnell Leahy. That's not to say the result is at all haphazard; rather, as audiences beyond Canada learned when the talented brothers and sisters opened for and played with country/pop superstar Shania Twain for more than 100 evenings, a Leahy show is a dazzling experience of traditional, original, and engaging music and dance.

It's a family connection and collaboration which has been been decades in the making. "Mom and Dad played," Donnell said, explaining that his father, a fiddler, and his mother, a champion step dancer and also a pianist, always had some sort of band going on, and, with 11 children (the three oldest sisters are not consistently active with the band at present) growing up around the house, a rich pool of talent from which to draw. "They both played, and we grew up on a farm, without television," Donnell continued. "We wanted to emulate Mom and Dad. When there were social functions at our house, you would want to be included, and music was the focal point of the party. So it became something we really wanted to do." There was some sibling rivalry in the mix, especially when a new instrument was introduced, he said, but the rivalry was often based more in connection than in competition. "We were always pushing and pulling each other along -- playing together as a family, I think you're challenged to keep up. It's not necessarily trying to be better than [another], you're trying to keep up, you don't want to be left behind. When there are 11 around, you'll be in the minority very quickly if you're not playing music."

All the brothers and sisters play mainly by ear, and each started on an instrument, usually the fiddle, at preschool age. The family farm, a beef cattle operation, is in Lakefield, about one hundred miles northwest of Toronto. "Another important factor in our music is that we grew up playing music in a community where there was not a big music scene, there wasn't a big musical influence, or culture, there. It was a sports town. What that allowed us to do, and forced us to do, was not listen to any one style and sound like that. We had to develop on our own. If we'd lived in Ireland and heard Irish fiddling, we'd sound like Irish fiddlers; if we lived on Cape Breton we'd have a Cape Breton sound, all the fiddlers down there are Cape Breton fiddlers. But we grew up every now and again hearing snippets of different styles but existing by ourselves, so we kind of developed our own little style," Donnell said. Sister Erin recalled that their parents "encouraged us to listen to a wide variety of styles. I see that coming across in our writing today."

[cover #117]