Band keeps it lively throughout New Jersey

Sunday, March 13, 2005

BY CHRISTINA JOHNSON

Star-Ledger Staff

It's 10 o'clock on Saturday night, and about 200 people are scrambling

to find partners and form lines on the dance floor of the Roselle

Catholic High School gym for the start of the Siege of Ennis, a spirited

Irish ceili dance.

Bandleader Willie Lynch waits on stage, dramatically sighing "geez" into

the microphone, teasing the confused crowd. He strikes up the music.

Within the first few beats, 25 groups fall into step to the rollicking

dance, laughing at their mixups, clapping to the reels, locking elbows

with friends and strangers in an all-for-one tradition that feels like

Dublin, in the rare old times.

Willie Lynch and the band have been taking them back there for 32 years.

Singing traditional Irish music in pubs, VFW halls, festivals, church

basements, political fund-raisers, cruises, weddings and wakes, the

58-year old Whitehouse Station tenor in the green plaid vest has

persisted famously in New Jersey.

He usually draws a full house, four times a week, all around the Irish

calendar. Since Ash Wednesday it has been nonstop. Just this week, Lynch

will have given nine performances in the name of St. Patrick.

Stepping into Roselle Catholic's gym from the winter cold where nearly

600 had gathered, it was possible to believe there could be no better

way to spend an evening in March. Spouses waltzed; families shared a jug

of beer; old friends reacquainted.

The step dancers from the Deirdre Shea School of Irish Dancing twirled.

The St. Columcille United Gaelic Pipe Band blew marches. And as usual,

there was Willie Lynch and the boys in the band, having fun, keeping it

lively well past midnight.

"We've been running this dance for years," said organizer Erin Sweeney.

"A while back we tried other bands -- some are cheaper -- but it just

fell apart without Willie Lynch."

Born the last of eight children in the Dublin suburb of Cabra West,

Lynch was raised by his mother, Lily MacDonald, who sang "Pal of My

Cradle Days" around the house, a tribute to a mother's sacrifices.

Willie now sings it in her memory, and of the 60 or more songs in his

repertoire it's the one that makes him sentimental.

At 14 he left school, which he says was not entirely unusual back then,

and discovered the rhythm guitar. He played in a Creole jazz band, even

recorded a few 45s

At 24, Willie headed to West Germany to try his luck in Beatles and

Rolling Stone covers, but a pit stop in Elizabeth, N.J., where his

brother Louie owned the Emerald Pub on Jefferson Avenue, changed

everything. He was smitten by a girl named Beverly and agreed to take

her on a Sunday evening date at a Catholic folk music mass. They have

been married 30 years, and between her nursing career and his late-night

music gigs, they've raised four children: Liam, 28; Marybeth, 27; Katie,

23 and Brian, 12.

To this day, Lynch has pursued his music career that is all heart and

intuition, but no lessons.

"I bought sheets of music, and my friends taught me how to read them,"

he said. His voice is a sort of low tenor, full and bold, a bit raspy

but elastic enough to hit the high notes of "Danny Boy" and the Roy

Orbison ballads he throws in.

All the members of the Lynch band can play several instruments, though

they don't bother much with a fiddle or banjo, preferring the sound of

an accordion-mandolin-penny whistle combo.

Guitarist Jim Cox, a Hillsborough schools custodian, and accordionist

Paddy Yorke, a West Orange police sergeant, have been with him 27 years.

"In all those years, we've only had two practices," said Yorke.

The drummer Ed Creenan, a high school music teacher at St. John's in

Clark, said hanging out with Willie over 18 years means he's been at a

party every weekend. Saxophonist Richard Perini finds the work quite

agreeable.

"We seldom go anywhere where Willie does not have a rapport with the

audience," he said. "I've been playing music for the past 48 years. The

last 15 with Willie are the best. He's really one of the best

entertainers and bandleaders I've met."

Although hiring the Lynch trio or five-piece Show Band is not cheap --

fees start at $900 and go up to $3,200 for a wedding -- the neighborhood

Irish pubs love to book Willie.

Pat Mannion, owner of Mannion's Pub in Somerville, says when Lynch comes

he knows the kitchen and bar will keep busy, and patrons will have a

memorable time at his joint, dancing in the aisles.

At JD McGillicuddy's in North Wildwood, a Sunday crowd will start

gathering three hours in advance for the Willie Lynch no-cover

dinnertime show. In the end, there will be 300 people, from "2 to 102

years old," said manager Matte Kane.

"He plays traditional Irish songs with a Vegas kind of flair," said

Kane. "He's up there with Blackthorn from Philly and the Bogside Rogues.

... He's one of the backbones of Irish culture."

Willie Lynch, who has no publicist and pays no agent, said he credits

most of his success to simply being Irish. "To sing the Irish songs you

have to be from Ireland, or what are you singing about?" he said.

The other part is showing up on time and playing hard -- he and the band

usually sing and play three hours straight before they take a break, and

they don't take a pint of Guinness until it's all over. "Don't need it

-- I'm on a natural high," Lynch said.

He respects the people who come to enjoy the Irish music, even if they

never stop asking for "The Fields of Athenry" and "I'll Take You Home

Again, Kathleen."

As the years have gone by, he's developed a kinship with the fans. To

mutual delight, he picks on them from stage.

"I say, 'Oh look, it's Arthur Murray, it's 'Twinkle Toes.'"

Pity the lady who trips over herself on the dance floor, Willie will

have a good laugh at her expense. But rest assured he'll feel the guilt.

Every Sunday at Our Lady of Lourdes in Whitehouse Station he prays that

he's not hurt anyone's feelings too much.

"He's gotten better over the years," says Art Hynes, owner of the Hynes

Irish jewelry boutique in Cranford, and an Irishman. "He gets everyone

dancing. He brings us together."

As the popularity of the Irish Tenors, a trio who sing traditional

music, has grown, Lynch says he has added more quality ballads. As the

peace talks in northern Ireland continue, he has downplayed the

fist-waving rebel army songs with refrains like "Give me the Irish

Republican Army!"

And maybe it's a trend, or maybe it's just a sign his fan base is

getting older, but Lynch is lately in demand for private Irish wakes.

Last year he did 15.

Sometimes it is written into a will, sometimes he is invited by the

family. In February the band played at a service for a County Roscommon

man, the tavern owner and former Essex County Sheriff John Cryan, who

died in February. They sang his favorite songs a half-hour before Mass

in the Sacred Heart Church in the Vailsburg section of Newark, and not

particularly mournfully.

"We try not to make it into an Irish dance," he says. "But we sing it

the way the person liked it." During Communion, Lynch sang a song called

"The Old Man."

Some people actually throwing their own wakes. At 75, in anticipation of

his demise, John Speckin of Ringoes invited 110 of his best friends to a

wake in his own honor in August at the Firehouse.

"Willie had the guys play and all," said Speckin, who is still very much

alive. "I told my family, if you think you are going to drink all my

booze when I'm gone! I want to have a party when I'm there to enjoy it."

It was so much fun, Speckin said, he plans to wake himself again at 80.

Willie Lynch enjoys these parties. From his position before the crowd,

he likes to imagine he's at the pulpit, and he has the power to talk to

people through the lyrics, a job he never wants to retire from.

"I sing it to the people," he said, over a meal of fish and chips at

Cryan's Ale House and Grill in North Branch, where he often plays. "I