Wednesday Session in The Green Olive

The fingerpicker performing at The Green Olive pub, Athlone

There’s a new music session in town. The Green Olive, just off the N6 motorway, has a session of mostly Irish tunes with a few songs in between on a Wednesday night.

I piled in with Amber Moon and out there we met the music teacher, who presided mightily over some cracking tunes from behind her keyboard accordian. The fingerpicker showed up and played us a couple of tasty numbers. His daughter tagged along with a talented friend who chipped in with a Joan Osborne number.

I love the way Irish pubs are a place where the different generations can interact. I often feel in the states that there is a real divide - young people stateside would never willingly go where their parents and grandparents go. They’d never participate in the same social scene the way they do here in Ireland.

But the music! Here is a sampling of one of the fingerpicker’s impressive numbers.

Trad session in the Green Olive, Athlone VE joined me near the end of the evening and persuaded me to continue our contemplation of the merits of music and life in general over a bottle of Buckfast. It must be because the wife is out of town. What was I thinking?

I could tell you what I was thinking Thursday morning when I peeled myself off the mattress at 8am to discover a wet snowfall that refused to do anything but create muddy puddles for me to splash through on my way to work . . . but it wouldn’t be fit for polite company.