Joanie Madden, Brian Conway, Billy McComiskey and Brendan Dolan - Pride Of New York

(September 2009) 13 tracks: Redican's / The Gatehouse Maid / The Road To Garrison * Taylor's / O'Neill's Favourite / The First Light Of Day * Happy Days / The Boys Of Lough Gowna / The Knights Of Saint Patrick * Seán McGlynn's * Maud Millar / The Morning Mist / Lady Gordon * Slan Le Maigh * The Stage / The Fiddler's Contest / The High Level * King Of The Clans / Dan Breen's / The Steeplechase * Redican's Mother / The Bridal / The Humours Of Whiskey * Mulhaire's #9 / Grandpa Tommy's Céilí Band * The Old Cross / The Clans * Sliabh Na Mban / The Liverpool / The Quilty * Considine's Grove / Trip To Durrow / Martin Wynne's / Bere Island.

The Pride Of New York is a new Irish-American supergroup comprised of some of the best known players on their side of the Atlantic - Brian Conway (fiddle), Billy McComiskey (button accordion), Joanie Madden (flute, whistle) and Brendan Dolan (keyboards).

Between them, they have won four All-Ireland championship awards, recorded multiple solo albums and logged countless miles touring across the US and abroad. But at its essence, this quartet of singular talents is defined in spirit by the city of New York which gives the group its name.

Many of the tunes on the album are written or associated with other past or present stalwarts of the New York Irish scene including Martin Mulhaire, Sean McGlynn, Jack Coen, Joe Burke, Paddy O'Brien, Larry Redican, Tom Doherty, and Charlie Mulvihill.

Daughter of button accordionist Joe Madden, Joanie was the first US-born competitor to win the All-Ireland Senior Tin Whistle title in 1984, and is also an All-Ireland champion on flute. She has recorded a dozen albums with Cherish The Ladies, a group she co-founded in 1985.

Son of pianist Felix Dolan, Brendan is one of the most respected and inventive keyboardists in Irish music today. He appears on Brian Conway's Consider The Source and Billy McComiskey's Outside the Box albums, as well as Live At Mona's with Patrick Ourceau and Eamon O'Leary. He has also been part of the Irish-American music projects of Mick Moloney.

The 1986 All-Ireland Senior Button Accordion champion Billy McComiskey has recorded three albums with The Irish Tradition (a trio featuring Brendan Mulvihill and Andy O'Brien) and two with Trian (a trio featuring Liz Carroll and Dáithí Sproule), as well as two solo CDs for Green Linnet / Compass.

Brian Conway was the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle champion in 1986, and has several recordings to his credit. They include two solo releases - First Through The Gate and Consider The Source - and two trio albums - The Apple In Winter (with Tony DeMarco and Caesar Pacifici) and A Tribute To Andy McGann (with Joe Burke and Felix Dolan).

"Musical lions of the Big Apple's Irish music scene and, in Joanie Madden, a weel-kent figure on Glasgow's Celtic Connections stage, their solid, straight Irish tunes are well played... The album reveals and revels in a style more at home in the Bronx than the Burren." (The Scotsman)

"We are all quintessential New York musicians... The musical camaraderie we share is rare." (Brian Conway)