Member of the McCabes, founding member of the Prodigals Visits Nine Irish Brothers! 

Nine Irish Brothers is pleased to be hosting Sean McCabe on February 18 for a night of acoustic Irish music.  Who is Sean McCabe, you ask?

Sean McCabe came to New York City in 1994 with the intention of putting together an Irish band with fiddles, accordions, mandolins, banjos, guitars, and of course, drums and bass. Inspired by the work of Steve Earl, especially the album ‘Train A Comin’, Sean felt he could forge a country/old-timey sounding band, singing songs with Irish themes. Having never played guitar before, Sean bought a used one in a trinket shop, spent six months learning his first few chords and took it into the Times Square subway station. Initial reactions were not very encouraging, but Sean kept at it, singing the old Irish songs, and throwing in a couple of his own for good measure. His performing skills improved and soon his busking effort was paying the rent for his tiny room in Brooklyn.

Sean’s first gig, a year after he arrived in New York, was on Saint Patrick’s Day, 1995, aboard a yacht along the shores of The Hudson, with an accordeon and banjo player. Soon this trio, with the aid of a fiddler, was playing in pubs all over the five boroughs. It wasn’t long before a drummer and a bass player were added, and the band, calling itself The Prodigals, (after another busking band that Sean had been involved with in Paris called The Prodigal Sons), recorded its first CD. This band began a residency in Paddy Reilly’s on Second Avenue, America’s best known Irish music venue and the launching pad for Black 47, Eileen Ivers, Cherish The Ladies and many more successful acts. The band played mostly versions of Irish drinking and rebel songs and ballads, and became quite popular. Sean, being a poet, longed to perform more of his own material, and decided to leave the boys and form his own band. He called it The McCabes, at the drummer’s suggestion.(Sean tried but could not think of any other names), and soon this new band was performing not just in new York but at festivals in all of the northeastern states and as far away as Texas, sharing the bill with none other than ‘Blood Sweat & Tears’ at the Wildflower Folk Festival in 2000.

The McCabes won itself the Saturday spot at Paddy Reilly’s in 2001, and kept it until the fall of 2003. In the words of Steve Duggan, owner of Paddy Reilly’s and booking agent for many bands including Black 47, Paddy Reilly, and The Prodigals, The McCabes were one of the ‘best bands ever’ to play in his club, and the residency was one of the ‘most successful ever’. The McCabes first CD, ‘Live at Paddy Reilly’s’, was recorded there, and is still a favourite on jukeboxes throughout the Irish club scene nationwide.