What the heck is in Haley's head?

[Miguel]

One reason Haley can sing so many diverse things is due to the many musical influences her parents exposed to at a young age.

So these two Amazon reviews by "Harry Reinhart" from "Chicagoland" might be of interest. They are about albums by Eileen Ivers, a violin player from the Bronx that has won 35 All-Ireland titles. They were written in March 2001, when Haley was ten.

Crossing the Bridge

This is a HOT album! In this day and and age of communications making the world smaller, Eileen succeeds at doing this with music. She takes us to a lot of places, but she doesn't leave her Irish roots. They still shine thru. She starts out smokin' right away with 'Gravelwalk', and builds it to a nice intense climax at the end. This girl can rock! Like on her other CD's, her choice of textures and colors is superb. The title tune is a Monster! It's like taking a boat ride from Ireland to New York. Eileen plays over that slick 'bounce' groove, and then she has Lew Soloff come in on the bridge with muted trumpet over a fat bed of chords. VERY COOL! Her African and Latin influenced songs are great and she still plays those jigs as effortlessly as ever. Sweet soul always comes out when playing the Irish folk ballads. They are haunting. And last but not least, this girl can play over CHANGES! Eileen truely does cross the bridge on this album. Hope she keeps doing so. Love it!
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KlD5zoh_j8 [/video]

Wild Blue

This album is the first I heard of Eileen. I was blown away. She brings Celtic to a whole new place. Her use of various colors is extraordinary, especially in the case of percussion. She is a fine soloist. She's firey! Her Irish roots come through and it's so perfectly mixed with good old American soul! She hits you with one thing after another. Nothing stays the same. You go away from this with a great feeling!

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6I7dg-TTZw [/video]