By Frank Keel
Many apt descriptors come to mind when one thinks about Joanie Madden, the world-renowned flute and tin whistle virtuoso and unquestionable leader of the acclaimed Irish-American trad band, Cherish The Ladies.
Gifted. Visionary. Trail-blazing. All the terms fit. But, for this long-time fan of Cherish The Ladies and Joanie Madden, there is one descriptor that truly captures the essence of this remarkable musician and band leader.
Indefatigable.
Take a glance at her and the band’s social media posts and website and you’ll get it. A near-ceaseless touring schedule for Cherish The Ladies. Multiple “Joanie Madden’s Folk n Irish Cruises.” Annual bus tours of Ireland. Music workshops in the Catskills. Private flute tutorials. She never seems to stop. That’s by design.
“Where do I find the energy? Well, look at me…I’m built for two!” she wise-cracks. “I find it hard to say no to people. If one bus tour or cruise sells out and I know there’s more people who want to go, I just add another one. I’m Irish. A big part of it for me is the social aspect of it. The Irish love the craic and I love joining with folks in celebration of Irish music. Plus, I have a ‘no assholes’ rule! The people I bring along have to love Irish music as much as me.”
Joanie Madden’s love affair with Irish music began in her childhood, growing up in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx in New York City, still considered one of the densest Irish places in the country. Joanie and her siblings were raised in a music-loving household. The daughter of Irish-born parents from County Clare and Galway, her late father, Joe, was an All-Ireland button accordionist who led various local trad Irish bands that performed countless gigs at weddings, dances, and balls throughout the New York City region. His tragic death from a fall still haunts Joanie, who references her beloved Dad often from the stage to this day. Of all her musical inspirations, Joe Madden will always be the biggest. “The first time Dad saw me perform with the Boston Pops, he cried his eyes out. It was unreal,” she wistfully recalls.
She first tried playing fiddle as a young girl but didn’t much care for it. By age 16, she’d acquired her first flute. Despite Joanie’s early and obvious passion for playing, her parents did not want her to pursue a career in music. To honor their wishes, she enrolled in Oswego College but soon quit to pursue a career in music. “When I quit school, it almost gave my parents a heart attack, but I told them I was too far from the music.” A lifelong love affair with music was born and the rest, as they say, is history.
As with so many other noteworthy Irish and Irish-American musicians, there exists a Philadelphia connection for Joanie Madden, too. It was the late, great Irish musician, historian and Irish culture champion Mick Moloney (who for years lived in Philly’s Germantown section) who played a huge role in the formation of Cherish The Ladies. In 1985, Moloney conceived of an NYC music series to showcase the amazing young female musicians who were bucking the heretofore male-dominated Irish trad music genre and carrying it forward into the future. He dubbed the series “Cherish The Ladies” after a beloved old Irish jig. Joanie scrambled to pull together a band for the three-night stand. The reviews were fantastic. What she thought would be a brief engagement soon turned into a wedding, with like-minded, virtuosic musicians. It’s a musical union that’s lasted 38 years and counting.
“I had no plans to form an all-female band. When Mick first brought us together, I thought we’d do three shows and that’d be it. Then Mick brought us on tour with him and the folks at the shows were so welcoming. The way Mick treated me and so many other young musicians…well, I’ll never forget how he gave so many of us a helping hand.”
For a band that’s been together nearly four decades, Cherish The Ladies has had remarkably little personnel turnover. The current band members have been together nearly 20 years. Many of them, including Joanie, have won All-Ireland titles on their chosen instruments. Along with Joanie on the flute and tin whistle, the band consists of Mary Coogan on guitar, Mirella Murray on accordion, Nollaig Casey on fiddle, Kathleen Boyle on piano and Kate Purcell on lead vocals.
Past members of Cherish The Ladies reads like a “Who’s who” of Celtic music, including such well-known names as Eileen Ivers of “Riverdance” fame, Aoife Clancy of the famous Clancy clan, Winifred Horan of Solas, Liz Knowles, vocalists Cathie Ryan and Heidi Talbot, Michelle Burke, Roisin Dillon and others. Most left Cherish The Ladies either to start solo careers or to start families.
In addition to their near-continuous touring schedule, Cherish The Ladies has found time to record 16 albums, including two Christmas LPs, which Joanie Madden really adores. When pressed for which Cherish The Ladies record she’s most proud of, the usually loquacious Joanie Madden goes silent, pausing for a few seconds.
“Wow…I don‘t know! They’re all really good. Not one received less than four stars in the All-Music Guide and the last one (“Heart of the Home”, Big Mammy Records) got five stars,” she says with obvious pride. Cherish The Ladies’ sterling reputation has also led to on-stage and in- studio collaborations with such legendary bands and solo artists as the Bothy Band, Matt Molloy of The Chieftains, Pete Seeger, Vince Gill, Nanci Griffith, Don Henley, Luka Bloom, Paddy Reilly and many others.
Of all the industry awards and honors bestowed upon Joanie Madden over the past 38 years or so—and there have been many—perhaps the most meaningful one occurred just recently. She won the 2021 National Heritage Fellowship Award presented by the National Endowment for the Arts. It’s the highest national honor bestowed upon America’s folk and traditional artists. Joanie Madden became only the second Irish-American woman to capture the honor, following her dear friend and fellow Irish-American musician, the renowned fiddler Liz Carroll.
Joanie won the prestigious award in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, making an acceptance ceremony impossible to stage at the time. This past St. Patrick’s Day brought the luck of the Irish to Joanie Madden and Cherish The Ladies, however, as they were invited to our nation’s capital to perform for President Joe Biden, a proud Irishman himself, and the Irish-American members of Congress.
“President Biden knew I’d recently won the award and asked me why I wasn’t wearing it. I explained to him that the pandemic caused the cancellation of the ceremony and he said, ‘We’ll, we’re going to fix that right now!’ It was an amazing experience and, as we finished the performance, the President led a standing ovation. We brought everyone to their feet. I’ll never forget it.”
Though the indefatigable Joanie Madden shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, she admits to thinking about her and the band ‘s legacy as they approach their 40th anniversary.
“I’m proud of my Irish heritage. It’s lovely to have young girls come up to me after a show and tell me ‘I started playing flute because of you.’ I continue to do this because I love it, even though my folks didn’t want me to! The generation before me showed me how it’s done and I hope I’m passing it on to the next generation.”
To the surprise of no one, Cherish The Ladies is currently touring the states and is soon embarking on a concert tour of Ireland. A consummate businesswoman, Joanie Madden is already formulating plans for a major Cherish The Ladies 40th Anniversary tour.
“But it won’t be a world tour…I’m getting too old for this!” she laughs.
For more information on Joanie Madden and Cherish The Ladies, including tour dates, visit their website.
