Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney celebrates the musical collaboration of the Irish and Jewish populations in New York that peaked between 1880 and 1920. He returns to speak with Fresh Air host Terry Gross about the songs that stemmed from the work of those songwriters and performers of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, an area around 28th and Broadway where many music publishing houses were located. His album is called If It Wasn't For the Irish and the Jews.
Moloney holds a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught ethnomusicology, folklore and Irish studies courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, and Villanova Universities, and currently teaches at New York University in the Irish Studies program.
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