Sunday nights, the Abbey Pub buzzes and hums with the sounds of pipes and fiddles, drums and small accordion-like boxes. Its a rousing music, rich with Irish tradition. The players are stellar, jovial, radiating warmth and community. And the crowd that slowly but surely gathers around them loves what they do.
But this ain’t no headline act, no superstar recording group or cult sensation. Sunday nights at the Abbey, it’s all pickup, a jam in the finest sense.
“I grew up with this music,” says Una McGlew, who’s playing fiddle. “My mother played the concertina. She was as addicted to this music as I am. It rains a lot in Ireland — it’s the most depressing thing — so you just call the neighbors and cheer yourselves up by having a session.”
McGlew explains that she moved to the U.S. from Ballaghdeereen, County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1954, landing in Ohio, where her sisters lived.
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“Then I visited Chicago and, well, the nightlife,” she says, still excited. “I just fell in love with it here.”
McGlew fell so hard she moved. At the time she used to play clubs around town with other small Irish bands, but she stopped playing when she got married and decided to raise children (she has two).
“Later, when they got older, I took them with me to hear the music, and I realized people who weren’t even Irish were playing Irish music,” she says.
So she bought herself a new fiddle and started jamming again. She’s been a regular at the Abbey’s Sunday night Irish jams for more than seven years.
As the evening goes on, the small circle of players expands from two pipers and two fiddlers to include a pair of drummers, a guitar player and several others. The hand-held drums — called bodhrans — are hit with a two-headed stick and give the music an earthy quality, like a confident march or strut.
“I met Una when I was here in January,” explains Jimmy Morrison, the handsome red-head playing the uillean pipes, smaller cousins of the bagpipes that are powered by bellows held under the arms rather than by the player’s own wind. He’s from Cork, Ireland, and his brogue is pretty thick. “It’s great to play with her because she knows all the old tunes. She plays tunes we wouldn’t ordinarily play in sessions at home.”
He’s brought his pipes along, he says, “because they’re like the better part of my arm. You know, all cultures have some sort of pipes that have to do with regulating air through a reed. Even the Chinese have pipes.”
At the Abbey, it’s not just the tourists who have an Irish accent: the bartender, most of the players, the wait staff, even the guy perched on the bar stool flirting with the new arrivals.
“There are a lot of Irish people in Chicago,” says Morrison as he looks around and admires the Abbey. “This is pretty much the same atmosphere — except in Ireland, no TV and no advertisements.”
The room is cozy, with exposed brick walls, booths along both sides, and tables with green tablecloths. The feel is masculine, den-like. On a door near the back, there’s a little Irish blessing tacked up: “May your roof never fall in, and those beneath it never fall out.”
To one side, there’s a huge window that looks out on Grace Street — the big red Track Warehouse sign shines like a beacon. There’s constant pedestrian traffic. At one point, a pair of little doe-eyed neighborhood boys peer in, like urchins in a sappy Hollywood movie.
Two productions that we told you about first in this column have been honored with Fringe First Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Long-time “After Hours” fave David Hauptschein was recognized for “Trance” and Sean O’Neill’s adaptation of the Dale Peck novel, “Martin and John,” was also honored — the first time the award has gone to two Chicago productions.
We recently got a call from Tony Gordon, managing editor of Barfly, annoyed at our description of his publication. And he’s right to be teed off — we were a bit too flippant. Barfly is a comprehensive Chicago monthly that covers all manner of nightlife. It’s probably the best source of information for a variety of bar-related issues, such as the city’s crackdown on clubs and the liquor commission’s antics. It’s also just plain fun to read. We’re sorry we didn’t give it its proper due the first time around.
The After Hours date book
7 p.m. Sundays: Irish jam, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St. Call 312-478-4408.
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Achy Obejas can be reached at [email protected].