BACK in the early 1980s, some of the best traditional music to be heard around New York could often be found at the various Clare annual dances when the Joe Madden Band was on the bandstand.

Box player Joe Madden had already established himself on the Irish dance circuit with a larger, more versatile band for a score of years, but societies like the Miltown Malbay Club and Doonbeg Social Club preferred to have trad music be center stage on the evening.

It wasn’t hard to take note of the fledgling flute player breaking into the act then with a gusto and gra for the old tunes of Galway and Clare where her heritage lay, and even to see a budding band leader take form. From an early age, Joannie Madden was a formidable musician with a great future ahead of her.

This Saturday, February 17, the New York Irish community will acknowledge the massive impact that the still young Ms. Madden has had on the traditional music scene since she first took up lessons with the legendary Galway flute player Jack Coen in her native Woodlawn in the Bronx.

She will be inducted into the Comhaltas Mid-Atlantic Regional Hall of Fame as not only its youngest member but also the first daughter (or son) of an existing member to be so honored.

Her father Joe from Portumna in East Galway was inducted in 1992 at a memorable night in Gaelic Park in the Bronx. Her mother, Helen, hails from the trad music capital of Clare, Miltown Malbay, so you can see she didn’t steal it when it comes to her trad music pedigree.

You are probably already aware that 2007 will be celebrated in many places around the world as the 20th year that the esteemed performing troupe Cherish the Ladies founded by Madden and her remaining founding sister Mary Coogan have been on the road to countless countries, festivals and symphony stages.

Our sister publication Irish America magazine will honor Joanie as a Top 100 Irish American again this year for this organizational feat. And a Bronx concert at Lehman College (www.lehmancenter.org) on March 2 at 8 p.m. will mark the 20th anniversary in the city where the band started out just a few miles from the Woodlawn streets where Madden and Eileen Ivers played as young musicians.

While that is no small accomplishment there is a subtle distinction that I would draw for why Madden deserves entry into the CCE Hall of Fame.

CCE prides itself on being a grassroots organization where the love of traditional music and dance beats loudly in a community oriented fashion. Madden has always supported and encouraged those who make the music and dance the steps for the love of it beyond the commercial sphere in the spare time she has at home.

It was also indicative of this special place she holds in the Irish music community when Dr. Mick Moloney turned over the reins of the longest running Irish music summer school (Irish Week at the Augusta Heritage Center) to his younger protégé to take over as artistic director this year. He valued those same qualities and talents he relied on to help launch the Cherish the Ladies project two decades ago.

The fame coming her way this Saturday is not just about her professional accomplishments. It is more for the common touch that she brings to the music and the respect for those who gave it to her, share it with her and for those future generations who take inspiration from her the way she once did from fellow Hall of Fame members like Tom Doherty, Mike Rafferty, Mike Preston, Jack Coen, Martin Mulhaire, Mattie Connolly and even the late Maureen Glynn Cronin Connolly, the only other woman who preceded her into the CCE Mid-Atlantic Hall of Fame.

In a similar vein, her fellow inductees into the Hall of Fame this year, Dermot Grogan and Jim Coogan, who passed away in 2006, also left their mark on their New York Irish music brethren.

Grogan, from Co. Mayo, was a consummate tradition bearer whose music on the flute and accordion was heartfelt and respected from his home area to London and to New York where he only lived five years but made a mighty impression.

Like many an Irish exile with the music in him, he was never far from home when he shared a few tunes and stories with people who loved the music as much as he did. Dermot died of pancreatic cancer just over a year ago at 48 back home in Mayo, and he was buried alongside of his father in Kilkelly.

Jim Coogan, the Yonkers native and father of guitarist Mary from Cherish the Ladies, died last November at 76 years of age of leukemia which he gamely battled for six years. He was recognized as a staunch keeper of the flame as an accordion player over five decades from when he taught himself to play the box in the Navy right down to the end.

His stewardship of a session in Suffern, New York at Ireland’s 32 Pub introduced many musicians to Irish music and offered them a patience and guiding hand that encouraged them to play more. He delighted in the revival of the accordion in Irish music and sold many new ones to people who were looking for the right instruments to aid their learning.

Perhaps most amazing for his age, he developed an internet persona in various chat rooms that varied from comic to critic to historian of New York Irish music lore that spanned cyberspace.

The Irish American Center (297 Willis Avenue, Mineola, Long Island) will be the hot spot for the CCE Hall of Fame Ceili (www.cce-ma.com) from 7 p.m. to midnight where the induction ceremonies will surround a night of great music by the Hall of Fame musicians and other special guests.

Dr. Mick Moloney will be the Fear A Ti for the event. There will be a music session after the ceili. Contact dance chair Terry Rafferty at 201-288-4267 or Pat Kearney at 631-698-3305.

Admission is only $15 and there will be coffee, tea and soda bread.