A period spanning nine years is a sizeable one in any era, but the interval between the first album by Boston-based traditional Irish music trio Copley Street in 2016 and its successor, released in January, seems to encompass multiple lifetimes.

There was COVID, of course, which warped time and space seemingly everywhere. For Joey Abarta (uilleann pipes), Nathan Gourley (fiddle) and Owen Marshall (bouzouki, guitar), however, this near-decade also saw foundational changes on a personal level: marriages, children, relocations and new musical endeavors.

The name “Copley Street” itself is of multiple significance, and attests to another change for the trio: For one, it refers to the street in Roxbury where, in the mid-2010s Abarta and Gourley shared a house that became a polestar for musical gatherings (California native Abarta now lives elsewhere in Greater Boston with his wife, Irish dance performer and teacher Jackie O’Riley, and their two children; after briefly residing in the Boston area, Marshall – born in Vermont – is now in Portland, Me., with his wife and daughter; Gourley, from Wisconsin, remains in the house). Copley also was the name of a Roxbury-based record label that issued recordings of many prominent Irish musicians in Boston, such as Joe Derrane, Jerry O’Brien, Don Messer, Paddy Cronin and Frank Neylon.

Gourley, Abarta and Marshall had that legacy in mind when they recorded the first album, and in the liner notes paid tribute to the musicians of that and earlier eras who helped establish Boston as one of America’s strongholds for Irish music. “Copley Street” was more of an album title than a band name at that point, since Marshall’s status was officially as a session musician, although he would often appear in concert with Abarta and/or Gourley. 

In the period following, the three were active in other musical partnerships, some short lived, others ongoing: Marshall with the Seamus Egan Project, for example, Gourley with the quartet Ship in the Clouds, Abarta with the trio The Sheep Stealers.

 “We’d always planned on – hopefully – recording another album,” says Gourley. “You do a CD release, and of course you’re playing that material a lot, but at the same time you want to incorporate new stuff. So we were constantly coming up with new tunes that we really wanted include in our repertoire, until we felt we had enough to go back into the studio.”

When it came time to start recording again, Marshall opted to shed the “session musician” designation, and so they officially became a trio under the Copley Street name.

Says Abarta, “Owen added so much rhythmically, harmonically, drive-wise – everything. This time, we really felt we had to say, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do this, let’s go all in,’ and he was very excited about the opportunity.”

 “The first time around, it wasn’t really clear what the album was going to be, what it might lead to: Was this just a one-time thing, or were we going to be a band?” recalls Marshall. “I had really enjoyed playing with Joey and Nathan, though, so I said, ‘Just hire me as a session player.’

“I think some people weren’t sure if ‘Copley Street’ was a ‘band album,’ or Joey and Nathan with me as backer. But listening to it, I think the sound is very much reflective of the three of us. While there are some great pipes-and-fiddle albums, Joey and Nathan just have this unique chemistry: very free, creative and loose. As a trio, we have a specific swing and groove. Now, Copley Street is definitely more than a one-off project; it’s a very specific, defined activity.”

However things may have unfolded in the nine-year interim, what has not changed, as is evident from “Copley Street 2,” is the band’s dedication to and love for the music, and the tradition from whence it came. The album’s 14 tracks are full of crisp and energetic but disciplined playing, and just plain good tunes. And while most of the presentation is straightforward, there is ample creativity as well, especially on a pair of tracks at the end of the album.

 One highlight is the acutely vigorous reel set that starts with “The Grand Spy” – attributed to Michael Coleman by way of piper Martin Beirne – and seamlessly changes over to “The Leitrim Thrush,” one of many treasures from the renowned Seamus Ennis. Gourley and Abarta are in breathtaking synch, including on the positively giddy third part of “Grand Spy,” where there’s little margin for error, and Marshall’s bouzouki embroiders the melody while maintaining a rhythmic verve.

Says Gourley, “Owen has this unique bouzouki style, an ability to spontaneously create counterpoint lines that are melodic instead of chordal. It’s almost as if there was an extra instrument playing along with him.”

Other highlights include a jig set that opens with “A Tailor I Am,” a titular and musical variation on “Tell Her I Am” associated with Paddy Cronin; a trio of slides that serves as a homage to Pádraig O’Keeffe, a champion of the Sliabh Luachra fiddle style; and two Turlough O’Carolan pieces, the stately “Loftus Jones” and equally elegant “O’Carolan’s Draught,” the latter paired with “Planxty Davis,” thought to have been composed by Thomas O’Connellan.  

Gourley and Abarta each get a showcase track: Gourley uses a different fiddle tuning (AEAE) for a pair of reels, “John Kelly’s/Humours of Carrigaholt” (the AEAE tuning particularly enhances the latter) while Abarta essays a six-part jig, “Gallagher’s”(sometimes known as “The Frieze Britches”), the classic D modal ambience suiting pipes and bouzouki alike.  

The last two tracks on “Copley Street 2” show the trio is not above stepping outside the Irish tradition, or outside the so-called conventional “rules” for arrangement. First is a pair of marches that begins with “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” a Scottish tune that venerates Jacobite leader and would-be British ruler Charles Edward Stuart; it’s at once proud and poignant, evoking the enduring affection for Charlie and the Highland spirit as well as the tragic legacy of the failed uprising.  

“What I like about working with Nathan is he remembers so much more than I do,” says Abarta. “I learned ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ at a session in New York City, though more as a song than a march. I played it for Nathan at some point, and we didn’t really talk about it after that – but then, when we were putting together sets, he came back with it.”

Following “Bonnie Prince Charlie” is another martial tune, “Return to Fingal” (sometimes given as “from Fingal”), thought to have been a tribute to 11th-century Irish king Brian Boru following his death in the Battle of Clontarf. The march is as desolate and grief-stricken a lament as there is, and the trio accentuates the tone by having Abarta turn off the pipe drones after the first time through, creating a stark, mournful effect.    

 “Normally, when you have a set, the D tune is last, because you can bring in the D drones to give it some lift,” he explains. “In theory, you don’t want to have a set where you take the drones out on the final tune, because that takes the ‘energy’ out. Our feeling on this set was, OK, maybe we lose some energy – but maybe add something else.”

Leading off the final track is “The Siege of Guingamp,” a march that is French in origin but picked up by Irish soldiers in the 18th century, and then Copley Street again goes off the well-worn path by playing the slow air “Amhrán an Bhá (Song of Drowning),” Gourley’s fiddle set against only the pipe drones. Abarta reinvigorates the tempo with “The Road to Lisdoonvarna” – not the jig often associated with the name but a reel that is equally popular in sessions – and Marshall reenters to drive the set home.

“We did something similar on the finale for the first album: a medley of a waltz, a barn dance and then a reel,” says Abarta. “Not the sort of thing we do a lot, but it’s fun to experiment a little. I think of that air, coming as it does between a march and a reel, as a thoughtful pause.”

“For us, it’s a matter of constantly listening to tunes,” says Gourley. “We choose which ones we like the most and listen to them as much as possible, so they become familiar to us. Do that often enough, and you’ll have hundreds of tunes, and then you can mix and match them.”

The nine years between “Copley Street” and “Copley Street 2” have been eventful enough for the trio as individuals, but they are also part of an extensive music community centered in, though not limited to, Greater Boston. The changes that have taken place in it during that span – the arrivals and departures, the moments of collective joy and sadness – are not lost on Abarta, Gourley and Marshall. They see a community that is resilient and continually replenished by new faces, fresh perspectives and a continuing dedication to traditional music – an ideal place for Copley Street to flourish.

“Boston is just an incredibly vibrant place for Irish music, and right now is about the best I’ve ever seen it,” says Gourley. “There are so many good places to play, some of them new, others that have been around for ages. And there are so many good players around, too, a lot of them in their middle or late 20s, doing what I wanted to do when I was in my middle or late 20s.”

“Time marches on, and certainly there have been changes,” muses Abarta. “We’ve lost some good people, which has been hard to bear. But there continues to be a high standard of music here, shared by people who love the tradition and, best of all, are respectful of the old musicians who made that tradition so great. It’s fun to see it happen.”

“Copley Street 2” is available at copleystreet.bandcamp.com