Lawyer excels in Sligo performances

In this Irish musical style, Brian Conway holds highest honors

Randi Weiner

The Journal News

Brian Conway remembers 1986 as perhaps the best year of his life: He passed the New York bar exam, got a job with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and won All-Ireland honors for playing the fiddle.

Then he laughs. Life is hardly over these days for the 44-year-old Conway, who was honored this week when Westchester County proclaimed Monday as Brian Conway Day.

Nor is a music career over for the Ossining resident who is working on two compact discs, teaching fiddle, playing at gigs across the country and efficiently overseeing the Public Integrity Bureau for the Westchester District Attorney's Office, where he is deputy bureau chief.

"I love what I do," Conway said. "It's hard to blend and it is a juggling act. People ask me what I do for myself, between the music and my job. But the music is that - it's what I do for myself."

Conway was born in the Bronx, the second of five children, to Jim and Rose Conway, natives of County Tyrone in Ireland and amateur fiddlers.

The elder Conways introduced all their children to music, but it was Brian and his sister Rose who followed the family pattern. Brian has become known as the foremost Sligo fiddler in the United States, one of the reasons the Smithsonian used his CD, "First Through the Gate," as its Irish offering in its folk music series.

Rose Conway Flanagan, 43, of Pearl River, teaches fiddle, performs and is a committee member for the upcoming fleadh, the mid-Atlantic qualifying competition for the All-Ireland contests later this summer. The fleadh - pronounced "flaw" - will be held in June at Pearl River High School.

"The people who really know Irish music over in Ireland know who Brian is," Flanagan said. "Now, the mainstream people are learning about him."

Brian Conway said he was lukewarm on the fiddle when he picked it up at age 10, but that quickly changed. By the time he was 11, he won the first of two consecutive All-Ireland junior titles. He picked up the All-Ireland senior championship when he was 24. Despite his success in competition, it was never expected that he would be a musician by trade. He became an attorney.

Conway worked in Suffolk County for two years before joining the Westchester District Attorney's Office in 1988. His job includes prosecuting crimes committed by public officials and by those who use public documents to commit crimes like fraud. He has no plans to give up his career.

"It's very rare that you can play for a living, really rely on it for your food and shelter, and still love it passionately," Conway said. "I can't do it all the time, so I really appreciate it more. The downside is I haven't gotten to play as much as I wanted full time."

Like many traditional Irish musicians, Conway often plays in sessions, roughly organized open concerts. Originally held in homes, many now are held in Irish bars.

Conway started a session at Dunne's Pub in White Plains eight years ago after he met owner Sean Dunne, who was originally from County Monaghan. Dunne invited Conway to come and play. The Wednesday night tradition has drawn musicians and fans from around the world.

Lainie Gerard, 32, of Croton, first dropped by two years ago to meet a friend who worked at the bar, and has come back nearly every Wednesday since because she loves the music. The fiddling rivets her 2-year-old son, Henri, who avidly listens to Conway's CD and accompanies her to Dunne's every Wednesday.

"He's really good," she said of Conway. "It's true Irish fiddling music."

Early in his career, Conway was a demon for reels and other fast songs. Now, he said, he's becoming enamored of slow airs, the haunting melodies traditionally reserved for songs of lost causes, rejected love, betrayal and interactions with the spectral and faerie worlds.

"I do have a Zen approach to music," he said. "You can get into the note that you are playing, or you can take a distant approach and go for a broader feel for a tune.

"I like to shape the notes. I love to modify the phrasing. I have thought a lot about it. I want to please an audience when I play.

"But in the end, when it comes down to the music, the playing is independent of who the audience is. I play for myself. I want them to understand, but in the end, I play for myself."

Sligo fiddling

Conway specializes in Sligo fiddling, named after the Irish county. There are a half-dozen different types of traditional Irish fiddling named after the areas where they originated: Donegal, Sligo, Clare, Galway, Kerry and Cork.

Sligo fiddling is fast and rhythmic with a lot of ornamentation - extra notes and scales in and around the melody - but is smoother than Donegal fiddling because the bowing is different.

The farther south in the country, the slower the same songs are played. The tones are different, too, and individual notes sound less distinct, he said, the farther south you go.

Lawyer excels in Sligo performances

March 17, 2006