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Felix Dolan, America’s preeminent piano accompanist for traditional Irish music, was born in the Highbridge section of the Bronx in 1937. His father Felix was from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim and his mother Bridget from Castlebar, Co. Mayo. Bridget played the button accordion, and that became Felix’s first instrument. He put the accordion aside for a while when he joined the De La Salle Christian Brothers as a novice. He had a change of heart before taking any vows, however, and returned to the Bronx, having used his time at the Brothers’ Formation House to start playing the piano.

Back in the Bronx, Felix joined Ancient Order of Hibernians’ accordion band but soon concentrated on the piano (he would later learn to play the flute). Largely self-taught, he developed an understated but always harmonically correct style and honed his skills at sessions of the Paddy Killoran Club at the Irish Institute. His finishing school was a seven-year gig on the bandstand at Manhattan’s City Centre Ballroom in orchestras led by Paddy Noonan and Brendan Ward.

Though he was well able to play for ballroom foxtrots, quicksteps and waltzes, Felix’s real love was traditional music, and he became the favoured accompanist of New York’s Irish musical and step dancing elite. With Larry Redican, Paddy Reynolds and Andy McGann, he played for Gaelic League céilidhe, and with Redican at practice sessions of the McNiff Dancers. It was at the McNiff sessions that he met his wife Joan, an immigrant from Co. Cavan. They married in 1960 and would have four children: Phelim, Siobhán, Brendan, and Deirdre.

In 1957 button accordion great Paddy O’Brien and fiddle legend Paddy Killoran chose Felix to accompany them at a “Night of Shamrocks” benefit for sick and deceased local Irish musicians. The following year, he joined O’Brien and other top New York musicians to form the New York Ceili Band, which competed at the 1960 All-Ireland fleadh in Boyle, Co. Roscommon.

Felix began a long career at IBM in 1963 and, between raising a family and making his way up the corporate ladder, withdrew a bit from his intense involvement in the New York Irish music scene. But he made time in 1965 to join fiddler Andy McGann and button accordionist Joe Burke on the LP A Tribute to Michael Coleman. Recorded in mono in a single session with no editing, it is widely regarded as one of the finest Irish traditional music discs of all time. He accompanied button accordionist Bobby Gardiner (then living in Connecticut) on a 1968 LP, and in 1970 backed Paddy Reynolds and Charlie Mulvihill, and separately James Keane, on the Rego Irish Records LP Sweet and Traditional Music of Ireland. 1979 brought a reunion with Joe Burke and Andy McGann on the Shanachie LP The Funny Reel.

In the early 1980s, Felix’s work for IBM took him to Europe. On his return, however, he found himself in constant demand to perform at dances, concerts, and festivals, and on recordings with artists who included Séamus Connolly, Jack Coen and Martin Mulhaire (Warming Up, 1966), Joe Derrane, Catherine McEvoy, John Whelan, Tom Doherty, and Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin and Patrick Ourceau. Felix’s last commercial recording was with Joe Burke and Brian Conway on the 2007 CD A Tribute to Andy McGann. He passed away at the age of 76 in 2013.

Dan was born in Birmingham, England on the 27 March 1945, and was predeceased by his Irish mother Nora Mary (nee Cremin) and Irish-English father, William Milner. During and after World War II his family lived in many other places including Ballybunion, Ireland, Toronto, Canada, as well as Brooklyn and Queens, NY where they became US Citizens. He attended schools in both New York City and in England.

Upon losing his student deferral for not carrying enough college credits, Dan received his draft notice during the Vietnam War era. He promptly signed up for the United States Air Force and served at Travis Air Force Base in California.

After leaving the military, he began working in the airline industry in California and then in New York. He started as a baggage handler, reservation agent, and eventually became a sales manager for two airlines. Coupled with the many moves he made during his childhood; travel became an important part of his life. Working for airline companies led to many spectacular trips around the globe.

He also worked as a National Park Ranger, a cartographer for the Census Bureau and most recently as a professor at St. John’s University in New York City.

The most important passion of his life was his singing. Music was in the family. His mother was a keen set dancer and his father a good singer and piano player. Dan’s first “performance” occurred when as a wee lad he became separated from his family at Coney Island Beach and was brought to the police station. When his mother came roaring into the station, there was Dan on top of one of the desks regaling the Irish cops with song. He narrowly escaped punishment!

A quick student, Dan learned not only his father’s repertoire, but began to absorb the canon of Irish, English, and Scottish traditional folk songs along with a strong dose of sea chanteys. In the United States, he won the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil several times and competed in the Fleadh in Ireland twice. He was a renowned and respected singer and collector of Irish songs in the English language.

In the early 1970s he established the Eagle Tavern Folk Club in New York City. He ran weekly concerts there for 10 years attracting the best of traditional singers and musicians from here and abroad. He was a founding member of the acclaimed band, The Flying Cloud, who performed in the USA including the 1977 Philadelphia Folk Festival. Their one, eponymous recording, was with Adelphi Records. In 1983 he published his first book, The Bonnie Bunch of Roses: Songs of England, Ireland & Scotland.

Though work dominated his life at this time, he still kept a hand in music by going to sessions and concerts whenever possible. He met his beloved wife Bonnie at one such session at the Eagle Tavern. They were wed in 1989 and she encouraged him to get back to singing which led to a rich and rewarding life.

Over the years Dan made five CDs: three for Folk Legacy Records – Irish Ballads and Songs of the Sea, Irish in America, and Irish Songs from Old New England and two for Smithsonian Folkways: Civil War Naval Songs and Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea.

Upon retiring and after a 37-year hiatus from college, Dan decided to go back and received his bachelor’s and master’s degree from Hunter College in New York City. He then pursued and completed his doctorate in American Studies back “home” at the University of Birmingham in England. His doctoral dissertation led to his second book, The Unstoppable Irish: Songs and Integration of the New York Irish, 1783-1883.

Attending the Inishowen Singers weekend in Ballyliffin, Ireland was a fixed highlight on his calendar, along with the Mystic and CT Sea Music Festivals. He and his wife, Bonnie, enjoyed their music and travels together during an incredible lifetime journey.