(Photo courtesy of Mick Moloney)

Athena Tergis and Mick Moloney

“If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews” … it sounds like the beginning of a joke.

But in fact, it’s the name of a song from the so-called Tin Pan Alley era of American music in the late 19th century, when Irish and Jewish immigrants dominated the music industry in New York City, and they wrote a litany of catchy songs about immigrant life and their love of the homeland.

Now Irish folk musician Mick Moloney is revisiting that bygone era, and he’s bringing his show celebrating the music of the Tin Pan era to Phoenix Wednesday night.

Moloney and his fiddle player, Athena Tergis, talk about their show and this intersection of Irish and Jewish songwriters around the turn of the century.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been modified to correct the spelling of Mick Moloney's name.