Ceol agus craíc - you’ll see that written everywhere and it’s Irish for music and good times. The two go hand-in-hand and, until you’ve experienced a bit of her music, you haven’t experienced Ireland.
Yes, I’ve been quoted in a local paper using the word “stoked.”
I guess it just shows you can take the boy out of California but you can’t take the California out of the boy.
In a slightly embarassing, but very flattering, article I’ll have to send home to mom along with the Westmeath’s article on this blog, the Athlone Advertiser has run a story on tomorrow’s
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The poor aul big beansie just hasn’t been feeling well. Locals may have spotted his ghost at this past Sunday session in Sean’s bar. In any case, even when just a shade of himself, the aul guitar still functions. We had a good crew in, as you can see from above, and it produced some excellent trad thusly.
The 2/3 of Amber Moon were also in great effect when singing that rock roll.
A musical tour coordinator from the states dropped in as well and …
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This week’s instrument is the bones.
Exactly like they sound - the bones are two bones (usually the rib or lower leg bones of a goat) held in the hand and played to percussive effect.
Today “bones” are more often carved from wood. They are most commonly held concave sides facing away from each other on either side of the middle finger. The bone closest to the wrist is held in place, pressed against the palm, and the other swings free like a hinge, creating a “clickity” sound as the player rocks his hand from side to side. The effect is created not directly by the player’s hand movement, but by encouraging the natural swinging of the bones.
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Now, while that video is mainly all about the Uilleann pipes, the Bodhran player there - John Joe Kelly from Flook - is the one I WANTED to post on, but the “embed video” feature was disabled. You’ll have to click here to watch his awesome viruosity. I think it’s also his sense of humour as he plays that really makes it worth watching.
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The oldest bar in the world and the, ah, maybe not the oldest session, but certainly a good old session if’n ya know what I’m talkin’ about . . .
That picture there is of the munchkin clapping and the goils laughin with her. But I get ahead of myself
I stuck the head in solo early on and caught the moonies at their usual shenanigans of great tunes, great songs and great scott - who’s yer one? What? Nevermind. Hang …
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A populous Shack session this week. As there had been a break in the rain and the evening was a mild one, I tipped out early with the instruments across my back for the session.
It wasn’t long before a good number of Arizonians (Arizonans??) arrived on the scene. The fingerpicker, the sherrif and ze germanz gathered around the table along with the unassuming gentleman and a lively session proceeded among the appreciative company.
It only took a little coaxing to get the chief Arizonian (Arizonan?) up …
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Yes, the Athlone Castle gig and the triathlone are this weekend and the midlands are a-buzz with anticipation.
In this vein, myself (as half of Kerbside)and the other local original bands playing Saturday night in the castle were invited by Midlands Radio 3 DJ June Carley to drop in during her Sunday Best of Irish broadcast to discuss the concert and maybe play a song on the air. Wifey wasn’t feeling up to it, so I joined the lads from Makewait on my own and headed down to Tullamore Sunday evening.
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Ireland isn’t a big place. Nevertheless, Irish artists have always had a huge presence on the international charts. More than that, Ireland and her music is often cited by songwriters and musicians worldwide as a musical influence and inspiration. What is it about this small, rain-soaked island that breeds such excellent music? This is the seventeenth in this series.
This week’s artist is My Fallen Empire.
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It had been a while since the bean and myself walked out to the Shack and, seeing as there was a break in the rain, we decided the evening was perfect for a stroll.
Ze germanz relieved us of carrying the instruments out (though we’d return with them across our backs later) and we had a lovely stroll over, the bean waxing enthusiastic about having received the parts for building a guitar. Yes, the bean is going to make his own guitar from scratch - watch this space!
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This week’s instrument is the Irish flute.
The picture to the left there was taken at the Sean’s Bar sunday session while a very patient damsel awaited my photographic portrait of her instruments before plucking one of the three from the table and proceeding with the next song. Shown in the photo are (left to right) an Irish whistle, a classical-style flute and then two Irish flutes made of different woods.
I really wish I had a better photo of the lighter-coloured one there because it is a particularly lovely looking instrument.
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