Singing From The Heart: The Dady Brothers, Irish Music, and Ethnic Endurance in an American City

In January of 1961, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and launched a revival of

Irish music that continued through the 1980s and 1990s with the

success of The Chieftains and Riverdance. Far from the Irish

music centers of New York and Chicago, John and Joe Dady-

The Dady Brothers-worked out a version of this revival in

Rochester, New York. This book tells the story of how the

brothers developed a distinctly Irish American mix of folk,

Bluegrass and Irish music in the context of the tight-knit,

multi-ethnic Catholic community of Rochester's old Tenth Ward.

A story of new music created without ever forsaking the

traditional ties of community, John and Joe's life reflects not

only ethnic revival, but also ethnic endurance.