Melanie Beth Curran is a New York City-based folklorist, traditional musician, Irish American Song Saver, and writer.
She is the author of “Happy Within: An Irish American Songbook”. Her live performance “takes you on this journey through the evolution of Irish American music” -Rick Steves Monday Night Travel, by “pulling field recordings through the annals of time and sharing them with a new generation of folk music enthusiasts.” -Courtney Fox (@thefoxandtheivy).
Curran’s performance transports listeners back and forth over centuries of musical history and landscape, all while “shifting narratives around the Irish-American experience through music” -Hannah Mayree, Black Banjo Reclamation Project. Fans of traditional American song, hidden histories, and Irish musicality will delight in Curran's performance of forgotten traditionals and “rousing originals” -The Irish Echo. Melanie was a Fulbright recipient for her work documenting the living musical traditions of Bretagne, France.
“We had the privilege of catching one of Melanie’s shows in Rhode Island a few months ago and were blown away. Her Irish American songbook is incredible, as well as her deep research and commitment to keeping these songs alive.” -Jason Principi, Thee Phibbs
*Pre-Orders, Shipping Dec 2025 (before Christmas!)*
This spiral-bound songbook gives readers a robust selection of Irish American song from a section of New York City’s Rockaway Beach, “Irish Town”
I don’t have to dig too long to find what I am looking for. Being Irish American means deprecating your own role or authority on things. No one thinks they are the one I am supposed to be talking to. But they give me hints. They sing a few far off memories, the songs off Paddy Noonan’s album “A Grand Irish Party”. Ah dee doo ah dee doo ah day, ah dee do aad de day-lee and he charmed the heart of a lay-ay-ay-dy. They give me a thumb drive, a few CDs, a paper songbook from their own mother. I learn of the McNulty family, who made a great living as entertainers here in Irish Town, playing Irish American music for Irish Americans. The layers are so dense. For aren’t I living here doing the same thing, fifty, sixty, seventy years later?
The songbook collects the music I observe as being significant to the Irish Americans of this place, stretching back to the early decades of the 20th century, and earlier if I can swing it. It collects the music that the people of today carry with them, singing “Ooh-Ahh Up The Ra” in the St. Camillus parking lot before the FDNY vs. Ireland boxing match, dancing about to “We’re On The One Road” before the parish closes at the end of the year 2025 for lack of priests.
That may be the very end Irish Town, or whatever remains of it. The Catholic Church doled out sacraments on sacraments for the decades when this town burst with the Ruthie Morrissey’s plaintive melodies or the McNulty family’s raucous vaudeville throwback possibly proto-folk punk Irish act, Ma Nulty looking ghostly on the melodeon while her two children tap danced a suspended musical paradise into the souls and ears of the city’s Irish, who, for brief moments at the height of the American century came as close to heaven as people may travel on earth.
Shipping Dec 2025 (before Christmas!)
The Irish American Song Project
Melanie Beth Curran collects and unearths lost Irish American Song and shares them in publications and performances. She is dedicated to celebrating the unsung and forgotten musical contributions of Irish Americans to American Musical History. To support her Irish American Song Project, please donate directly through our Fiscal Sponsor, Fractured Atlas. Your contribution helps fund research, performance, and publication.
Blending Folkore and Musical Performance
Melanie Beth Curran performs originals and traditionals collected and inspired by field recordings, her ancestors, and living Irish American sources. Her performance uses banjo, voice, and guitar to bring listeners on a journey through the evolution of Irish American sound.
Zines
Perfect Reading Materials for your Irish American Meltdown.
