| Member Since | 3/22/2008 | | Band Members | Praise for IRISH PIRATE BALLADS, Dan's new Smithsonian Folkways CD, has been lavish .................................. "Milner is a compelling storyteller in song... a powerful narrative singer" - Dirty Linen (USA)...................................
"A tour de force... impeccably researched folk music with a big Irish heart... a classic in the making... a real legacy recording" - Irish Music (Ireland)..............................
"A folksinger's folksinger" - Time Out New York (USA)...................................
"A veteran singer and scholar of high repute with an extensive repertoire, here he has assembled a truly all star crew to assist him through an a fine song selection... a top quality production from a quality label" - The Living Tradition (Scotland)............................ "Milner's vocals are strong and there's quality backing from stalwarts such as Brian Conway, John Doyle, Joanie Madden, Susan McKeown, Mick Moloney and Robbie O'Connell... Lift a pint of grog and enjoy!" - Sing Out! (USA) ................................. Dan Milner is a founding member of The New York Packet, the official maritime song group of South Street Seaport Museum, NYC. He also sings with Mick Moloney's Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, which is affiliated with New York University............................. From 1998 to 2008, Dan toured in Europe and the USA with Bob Conroy. He now performs at festivals with Robbie and Roxanne O'Connell, and Bonnie Milner. Dan's recorded with the great Louis Killen and Mick Moloney, and 8 All-Ireland champions. His just-released Smithsonian Folkways CD, Irish Pirate Ballads, features many of Irish America's foremost musicians and singers............................... Blessed with a keen ear for a fine song and a clear sense of its cultural context, Dan Milner has been involved in the Irish song tradition all his life. The son of a traditional singer, he was raised in Ireland, England, Canada and the United States. A former National Park Ranger at the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and currently a columnist-reviewer for Visions: the Journal of New York Folklore and occasional contributor to Sing Out! Dan's articles have also appeared in The Log of Mystic Seaport, South Street Seaport Museum’s Seaport magazine and Irish Music magazine of Dublin. .............................. Over a 28-year span, he has organized more than 600 concerts of traditional music in New York City, notably at Malachy McCourt's Bells of Hell, The Eagle Tavern and South Street Seaport Museum. Other credits include The Bonnie Bunch of Roses, a classic book of 150 Irish and British folk songs (Oak Publications), and three acclaimed CDs produced for Folk-Legacy Records. He has taught at Yeshiva University and The Irish Arts Center, both in New York City............................... Dan has performed and lectured at venues including Lincoln Center, Cecil Sharp House, Mystic Seaport, Cobh Maritime Song Festival, New-York Historical Society, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Harvard University, New Bedford Whaling Museum, New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, Festival Maritim Bremen-Vegesack, Boston Singers Club, Brest 2000, National Maritime Museum San Francisco, La Fete des Chants de Marins Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Sidmouth International Festival, Star Club Glasgow, South Roscommon Singers Circle, New York University, Traditions Club London, Goilin Singers Club Dublin, Edinburgh Folk Club, Connecticut Historical Society, Consulate of Ireland New York, Warwick Folk Festival, Texas Maritime Museum, Anoch Paddy O'Brien Nenagh, The Mersey River Festival and The Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada at Grosse Isle ............................... CDs: Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea, Irish in America, and Irish Songs from Old New England are available through Folk-Legacy Records (www.folk-legacy.com and 800-836-0901); Irish Pirate Ballads was released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in February 2009: (www.folkways.si.edu and 1-888-FOLKWAYS). | | Influences | Departed friends and relatives who were both kind and inspiring: Margaret Barry, Joe Heaney, Ewan MacColl and Frank Harte, and Bill and Liam Milner, my late father and brother respectively.......................... Singers from the Inishowen Peninsula of Donegal: Dan McGonagle, Jimmy McBride, the McGonigle family, Paddy Collins and Jim MacFarland........................... My mentor, William Main Doerflinger........................... The friends from Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland I meet each March in Ireland's northernmost place, including Jerry O'Reilly, Barry Gleeson, Luke Cheevers, Mick Fowler, Maurice Leyden, Len Graham, Jackie Boyce, Peta Webb & Ken Hall, Ben Lang, Bruce Scott, Michael O'Leary-Johns, Alison MacMorland, Geordie McIntyre, Susan McClure and Andy McInally............................... Liverpool's outstanding sea shanty group, Stormalong John............................... Irish music friends around the United States, including Robbie O'Connell, Brian Conway, Joanie Madden, Gabriel Donohue, Mick Moloney, Andy O'Brien, Susan McKeown, Shay Walker, Shay Black, John Doyle and many others............................... The New York Packet, South Street Seaport Museum's maritime song group................................ Lastly, two American singers known only from their brilliant recordings, Almeda Riddle and Hanford Hayes. | | Sounds Like | Himself. "An MC once said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the next act is...' and I continued, 'Love it or hate it, folks, this is no act. This is the real thing.'" | | Record Label | Smithsonian Folkways and Folk-Legacy Records | | Type of Label | Indie |
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