MUSIC

Donohoe at Sept. 20 recording of "There Are No Words."

Jambalaya's setting for CD release party for Donohoe

By Elaine Yaw

It took Kitty Donohoe more than two years to complete her latest album, "This Road Tonight." But it took just 10 days for her to write and record "There Are No Words," which is in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Friday Donohoe will be at Jambalaya’s in Laingsburg for her CD release party.
But members of Lansing’s folk community have been buzzing about the single.
Donohoe was among several local performers who took the stage Sept. 14 to fill a vacancy in the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse Series when Irish group Danu couldn’t get to the United States. As Sally Potter, of the former trio Second Opinion, tells it, Donohoe pulled out a piece of paper, explained to the crowd she had written the song the day of the attacks, and started playing, backed by Second Opinion.

"At first I was overwhelmed by the project," Donohoe said. "It just seemed like no words or songs could encompass this tragedy. Eventually that became the words for the song-the fact that there are no words to describe what has happened."
After the show at Erickson Kiva on MSU’s campus, Bob Blackman, who hosts WKAR’s Folk Traditions, said members of the audience told him he should play the song on his show. "There was a tremendous response to it," he said. "Everyone was very moved by it."

After the Ten Pound Fiddle show, many of the performers went to Beggar’s Banquet, where Pub Domain’s Mike Cutler and local musician Wanda Degen told Donohoe to record the song.

She listened and talked to Glenn Brown of Glenn Brown Productions, booked the studio, and recorded the song Sept. 20. On the single, Donohoe sings with Brown, Degen, Kim Ellingwood, Regina Fry, Bob Lewis, Pat Madden-Roth, Emery Max, Laurence Max, Diane McNeil, Joe McNeil, David Mosher, Karrie Potter, Sally Potter, Pat Power, Chuck Riley, Mark Schoen, Renae Slaton, Sticker, Kathleen Stockman, Rick Ward and Matt Watroba. Also featured is Rachel Alexander on cello, Doug Berch on whistle, William Hamilton on bagpipes and Mosher on fiddle and mandolin.

Donohoe has been writing music for more than 20 years. Sally Potter says this is the best song Donohoe has written. "It’s a 12 on a scale from one to 10," Potter said.

The song has gained some national attention as well. "It is by far the best to date written in the aftermath of the tragedy," wrote Steve Jerrett of KOPN in Columbia, Mo., on a listserve for folk DJs.
"The irony is she’s been working on the album for years," said Blackman. "She’s really pain-staking about her recordings." The single was the polar opposite, writing it on Sept. 11 and recording it Sept. 20. "But there’s nothing rough about it."

Good luck getting a copy of the single. Elderly Instruments in Old Town had 26 copies dropped off Sept. 29 and was sold out by Monday. It is available at the Ten Pound Fiddle’s Web site, www.tenpoundfiddle.org.

Or go hear Donohoe perform live at Jambalaya’s. The doors open at 7 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m.