12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Taken from the Clare Champion dated Thursday 25th September 2008
Last night saw the formation of a new 12 Step Support Group For Concertina Players. The meeting took place in the Falls Hotel Ennistymon and although widely accepted that anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all 12 step groups, those present agreed to break or waive their right to anonymity in order that others out there might know that help was available. At the beginning of the meeting, all present were asked to pause for a moment to consider the still suffering concertina players.
The ballroom in the hotel was filled to overflowing and among those present were Chris D, Tom C, Noel H, Tim C, Gearóid O’hAll, Micheál O’R, Dympna O’S, Claire K, Ernestine H, Kate McN, Mary McN, Edel F, Mairead C, Sharon O’L, Jack T, Yvonne G, Jacqueline McC and many others.
Nell Flaherty (she of the drake fame) said she would chair the first meeting. Although one of the tenets of a 12 step recovery programme is that one cleans up his or her side of the street and not be blaming others, it was generally believed that this meeting was held in response and following on from comments posted on session.org by Michael Gill of Edinburgh. Not all present had read these comments but had been told about them by family members. That they hadn’t been read was due it is believed to a lot of the players actually playing and not spending time on a computer. Some wag suggested that “this playing business “would have to stop. Someone asked where was Edinburgh and it was thought that it must be a mighty important place if Michael Gill lived there. Was it past Kilfenora someone wondered?
However the jokes soon ended and it wasn’t long before those present started to get in touch with their feelings. Someone (well it was Jenny- she had just come in from picking cockles having earlier in the day gotten married) asked what did Michael mean when he said that a concertina couldn’t do a slow roll. Someone else asked what was a slow roll anyway, and Miss M said she thought it was what those fiddlers in Sligo called a long roll but seeing Michael Gill knew “stuff” then maybe they were wrong and slow roll was the right description. But Jenny wanted to sit with her feelings and asked again about the slow roll and the concertina. Julia D said it wasn’t the slow roll on it’s own was the problem but that Michael insists that if you don’t play the slow roll at the start of Out On The Ocean, then you aren’t playing the tune properly. And where did that leave them all? And *that* was why they were there. None of them had been playing Out On The Ocean correctly and that this pain had gone on for years. What other tunes had they being playing wrongly they wondered aloud. Jenny said that she didn’t play that tune and that she was going to head off to Dalys for a few tunes but then Micheál O’R said that Michael said the same about The Kesh Jig. If you didn’t play the slow or was that long roll on the G, then you weren’t playing the tune properly. Jenny sat back down. How can I play in Dalys again she said, and me not playing right. I may go home. But she was told to give time time.
As people began to open up and own their feelings, they talked very emotionally about how, for years they had been playing wrongly and were deeply ashamed. Chris Droney was concerned about the person who once described him as putting the music under the feet of the dancers. He wondered had he unwittingly led him astray. It is a programme about honesty he said, and if Micheal Gill says that he isn’t playing the tunes “right” then he had no right putting the music under the feet of any one, never mind dancers.
Micheál O’R got upset. He said that he was hitting every button on his yoke and was that not good enough? Apparently not said someone. There was talk then about getting on to Youtube and indeed Comhaltas, to ask would they mind taking off those clips features the concertina players. Cds would have to be recalled before any more damage was done. It was time to clear away the wreckage of the past. Others talked about the regret they felt. Had they only gone to Sandy Bells in Edinburgh they could have heard Michael Gill play and would have known from early on that they were on the road to perdition. O’R came in from racing his greyhound and said; “I saw that film”. Nobody said anything. The deep pain, which had lain dormant for years, was now up. All the hiding the concertinas, all the making excuses, the justifying the playing of them, was now exposed. The healing had begun.
And soon their minds turned to those who had passed over. Noel H broke down. He said that when he was getting “his system” from Paddy Murphy that Paddy had hinted at how much pain he was in. Noel H remembered that particular night. It was etched in his mind he said. It was late, they were sitting by the dying embers of a fire, tunes like Over The Moor To Maggie, Kiss The Maid Behind The Barrell and Come West Along The Road had been lashed out, the dancers had made an awful racket and were gone home, and Paddy had told Noel H how he felt something wasn’t quite right with his playing. He muttered about dark energies bringing word in from Ennis on the slow roll and he felt that he would have to go out to the Back Of The Haggard. Noel said that there were no places in them tunes for that slow roll carry on and so there was no need to worry. Noel felt that he had put Paddy Murphy’s mind at peace but now he wondered. Poor Kitty someone said. And she after doing so well and so late in life and to think that she wasn’t playing the tunes right either. Why didn't Peter L tell her?He must have known.
Someone said “and didn’t that fella Michael Gill say that he thought that poor old Micho Russell was more about the emperor’s new clothes and jaykers if he said that, he must really know his stuff. Sure we all knew that and didn’t want to say. And that carry on in Kilrush would have to stop. How they could continue to call an “éigse” after Mrs Crotty, sure she wasn’t playing right either. Someone said “what’s an éigse” and it was generally agreed that Michael Gill should be asked ‘cause he knew lots of stuff. Tom C said that he had been trying to “parp” for years but no one wanted to know. One of the men, broken and in tears asked sobbingly how such a mistake could have been made. For years, everyone said that great concertina music was heard in Clare. How could such a terrible mistake be made? Jacqueline said that there was no point in parping on about it.
But eventually the hotel wanted the room back. A session was due to start and there was a group hug and they all drifted out to the lobby. It was here that the enormity of the task facing them became clear. It was all very well when they were in the safety of the “rooms” but now they were being asked to walk the talk out in the world. As their fiddle and flute-playing friends brushed by them, hurrying to get a good spot in the session, the pain was evident on their faces. Now was the time, they knew what they had to do. There could be no more playing of concertinas. Punters coming in to the hotel and seeing all these players together in the one place were already ringing their friends, tipping them off that the mother of all sessions was going down in the Falls. Little did they know! Ennistymon, Ennis, Miltown, Cooraclare, Feakle, Tulla, Kilfenora, Liscannor, Bell Harbour, the word would spread. Life as they knew it was over. The younger musicians wondered did Ryanair do a flight from Shannon to Edinburgh. Now that was the place to be. The healing had truly begun.Tthere would be fires burning all the brighter tonight as those terrible Jeffries , Wheatstones and Latchenals not to mention the yokes the younger generation play such as Suttners and Dippers( what type of a yoke were they anyway with green bellows) crackled on the turf.
Michael Gill was right- again. Chris D said that he was going home and first thing in the morning he was gettin' on to Eircom. He was gettin' that blashted broadband thing in and never again would it be said that he was playing wrong.Never mind the playing- being on the net was what was important.How could he justify playing music when such wisdom could be found by clicking the button instead of pressing it.You could hear him whistling Out On The Ocean as he drove home.He was making sure to roll his tongue around in his mouth so that he could do the slow roll on the B.The healing had begun.
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Absolutely brilliant. Best post of the year in my opinion. I burned my concertina immediately, of course, after trying for hours to play a slow jig with "Irish sounding" rolls. Damn you, Gill!
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
I second that "Absolutely Brilliant"...I could almost taste the pain that this group of misguided and evidently inept players were experiencing. I wonder when I'm in Ennis in a few weeks time if they will have learned a thing or two, or will nary a one be seen at a session, concert, ceili (sob!)...
Now to weed out an entire shelf full of concertina CD's that I can no longer play on my radio show. I wonder if Mr. Gill would like me to send them on to him so he can dispose of them properly?
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
One of the best post I´ve ever seen here. All this talk about "slow rolls" worries me though. How do I play a slow roll on the banjo? Would that be a roll with tremolo?
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou CP for this heartrending tale of everyday musical folk. Please convey my sympathies to those concerned, my thoughts are with them (as a fellow musical pilgrim) on their daily toils through the disappointments and disillusionment. While I can only profess an understanding of their pain should we or could we, as other yellow boarders, offer some form of tangible support? Say a bursary for airfare?
Or would this be regarded as a futile gesture?
12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Taken from the Clare Champion dated Thursday 25th September 2008
Last night saw the formation of a new 12 Step Support Group For Concertina Players. The meeting took place in the Falls Hotel Ennistymon and although widely accepted that anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all 12 step groups, those present agreed to break or waive their right to anonymity in order that others out there might know that help was available. At the beginning of the meeting, all present were asked to pause for a moment to consider the still suffering concertina players.
The ballroom in the hotel was filled to overflowing and among those present were Chris D, Tom C, Noel H, Tim C, Gearóid O’hAll, Micheál O’R, Dympna O’S, Claire K, Ernestine H, Kate McN, Mary McN, Edel F, Mairead C, Sharon O’L, Jack T, Yvonne G, Jacqueline McC and many others.
Nell Flaherty (she of the drake fame) said she would chair the first meeting. Although one of the tenets of a 12 step recovery programme is that one cleans up his or her side of the street and not be blaming others, it was generally believed that this meeting was held in response and following on from comments posted on session.org by Michael Gill of Edinburgh. Not all present had read these comments but had been told about them by family members. That they hadn’t been read was due it is believed to a lot of the players actually playing and not spending time on a computer. Some wag suggested that “this playing business “would have to stop. Someone asked where was Edinburgh and it was thought that it must be a mighty important place if Michael Gill lived there. Was it past Kilfenora someone wondered?
However the jokes soon ended and it wasn’t long before those present started to get in touch with their feelings. Someone (well it was Jenny- she had just come in from picking cockles having earlier in the day gotten married) asked what did Michael mean when he said that a concertina couldn’t do a slow roll. Someone else asked what was a slow roll anyway, and Miss M said she thought it was what those fiddlers in Sligo called a long roll but seeing Michael Gill knew “stuff” then maybe they were wrong and slow roll was the right description. But Jenny wanted to sit with her feelings and asked again about the slow roll and the concertina. Julia D said it wasn’t the slow roll on it’s own was the problem but that Michael insists that if you don’t play the slow roll at the start of Out On The Ocean, then you aren’t playing the tune properly. And where did that leave them all? And *that* was why they were there. None of them had been playing Out On The Ocean correctly and that this pain had gone on for years. What other tunes had they being playing wrongly they wondered aloud. Jenny said that she didn’t play that tune and that she was going to head off to Dalys for a few tunes but then Micheál O’R said that Michael said the same about The Kesh Jig. If you didn’t play the slow or was that long roll on the G, then you weren’t playing the tune properly. Jenny sat back down. How can I play in Dalys again she said, and me not playing right. I may go home. But she was told to give time time.
As people began to open up and own their feelings, they talked very emotionally about how, for years they had been playing wrongly and were deeply ashamed. Chris Droney was concerned about the person who once described him as putting the music under the feet of the dancers. He wondered had he unwittingly led him astray. It is a programme about honesty he said, and if Micheal Gill says that he isn’t playing the tunes “right” then he had no right putting the music under the feet of any one, never mind dancers.
Micheál O’R got upset. He said that he was hitting every button on his yoke and was that not good enough? Apparently not said someone. There was talk then about getting on to Youtube and indeed Comhaltas, to ask would they mind taking off those clips features the concertina players. Cds would have to be recalled before any more damage was done. It was time to clear away the wreckage of the past. Others talked about the regret they felt. Had they only gone to Sandy Bells in Edinburgh they could have heard Michael Gill play and would have known from early on that they were on the road to perdition. O’R came in from racing his greyhound and said; “I saw that film”. Nobody said anything. The deep pain, which had lain dormant for years, was now up. All the hiding the concertinas, all the making excuses, the justifying the playing of them, was now exposed. The healing had begun.
And soon their minds turned to those who had passed over. Noel H broke down. He said that when he was getting “his system” from Paddy Murphy that Paddy had hinted at how much pain he was in. Noel H remembered that particular night. It was etched in his mind he said. It was late, they were sitting by the dying embers of a fire, tunes like Over The Moor To Maggie, Kiss The Maid Behind The Barrell and Come West Along The Road had been lashed out, the dancers had made an awful racket and were gone home, and Paddy had told Noel H how he felt something wasn’t quite right with his playing. He muttered about dark energies bringing word in from Ennis on the slow roll and he felt that he would have to go out to the Back Of The Haggard. Noel said that there were no places in them tunes for that slow roll carry on and so there was no need to worry. Noel felt that he had put Paddy Murphy’s mind at peace but now he wondered. Poor Kitty someone said. And she after doing so well and so late in life and to think that she wasn’t playing the tunes right either. Why didn't Peter L tell her?He must have known.
Someone said “and didn’t that fella Michael Gill say that he thought that poor old Micho Russell was more about the emperor’s new clothes and jaykers if he said that, he must really know his stuff. Sure we all knew that and didn’t want to say. And that carry on in Kilrush would have to stop. How they could continue to call an “éigse” after Mrs Crotty, sure she wasn’t playing right either. Someone said “what’s an éigse” and it was generally agreed that Michael Gill should be asked ‘cause he knew lots of stuff. Tom C said that he had been trying to “parp” for years but no one wanted to know. One of the men, broken and in tears asked sobbingly how such a mistake could have been made. For years, everyone said that great concertina music was heard in Clare. How could such a terrible mistake be made? Jacqueline said that there was no point in parping on about it.
But eventually the hotel wanted the room back. A session was due to start and there was a group hug and they all drifted out to the lobby. It was here that the enormity of the task facing them became clear. It was all very well when they were in the safety of the “rooms” but now they were being asked to walk the talk out in the world. As their fiddle and flute-playing friends brushed by them, hurrying to get a good spot in the session, the pain was evident on their faces. Now was the time, they knew what they had to do. There could be no more playing of concertinas. Punters coming in to the hotel and seeing all these players together in the one place were already ringing their friends, tipping them off that the mother of all sessions was going down in the Falls. Little did they know! Ennistymon, Ennis, Miltown, Cooraclare, Feakle, Tulla, Kilfenora, Liscannor, Bell Harbour, the word would spread. Life as they knew it was over. The younger musicians wondered did Ryanair do a flight from Shannon to Edinburgh. Now that was the place to be. The healing had truly begun.Tthere would be fires burning all the brighter tonight as those terrible Jeffries , Wheatstones and Latchenals not to mention the yokes the younger generation play such as Suttners and Dippers( what type of a yoke were they anyway with green bellows) crackled on the turf.
Michael Gill was right- again. Chris D said that he was going home and first thing in the morning he was gettin' on to Eircom. He was gettin' that blashted broadband thing in and never again would it be said that he was playing wrong.Never mind the playing- being on the net was what was important.How could he justify playing music when such wisdom could be found by clicking the button instead of pressing it.You could hear him whistling Out On The Ocean as he drove home.He was making sure to roll his tongue around in his mouth so that he could do the slow roll on the B.The healing had begun.
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by concertinaplayer
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Absolutely brilliant. Best post of the year in my opinion. I burned my concertina immediately, of course, after trying for hours to play a slow jig with "Irish sounding" rolls. Damn you, Gill!
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by Chrishty
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
lol great post
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by dee.
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Hilarious
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by piobagusfidil
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Best post *ever.*
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by Paul Groff
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
yes, very funny post.
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by Dick Miles
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Wit like this just proves how much bigger musicians' brains are than non-musicians.
That's some serious satire, well done!
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
This will become a classic! Perhaps Jeremy will create a new section for posts of this quality, with a virtual gilt frame around them.
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
I suppose this is the wrong place to say thanks to those who recommneded the Rochelle 30 button Anglo.
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by Nate Ryan
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
I second that "Absolutely Brilliant"...I could almost taste the pain that this group of misguided and evidently inept players were experiencing. I wonder when I'm in Ennis in a few weeks time if they will have learned a thing or two, or will nary a one be seen at a session, concert, ceili (sob!)...
Now to weed out an entire shelf full of concertina CD's that I can no longer play on my radio show. I wonder if Mr. Gill would like me to send them on to him so he can dispose of them properly?
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by moria enya
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Fecking genius! LOL
Is there a recovery group for other musicians who suffer from similar troubles? I am sure some banjo players could use a referral. :P
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by DrSilverSpear
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
... oh my! ... me sides are splitting ...
# Posted on September 26th 2008 by Clear Drops
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Hey, can someone point me towards a midi file of a slow roll in B?
# Posted on September 27th 2008 by mutatis mutandis
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
One of the best post I´ve ever seen here. All this talk about "slow rolls" worries me though. How do I play a slow roll on the banjo? Would that be a roll with tremolo?
# Posted on September 27th 2008 by Björn
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
My copy of the Clare Champion 26th September 08 is now up for auction on ebay, autographed by anyone and everyone as is proper
# Posted on September 27th 2008 by cStu
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
...no reply from llig yet then.....?
# Posted on September 27th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
I did a slow roll this morning ..... I was in bed ..... so went back to sleep (with my darling).
BAAAAAA
# Posted on September 27th 2008 by geoffwright
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou CP for this heartrending tale of everyday musical folk. Please convey my sympathies to those concerned, my thoughts are with them (as a fellow musical pilgrim) on their daily toils through the disappointments and disillusionment. While I can only profess an understanding of their pain should we or could we, as other yellow boarders, offer some form of tangible support? Say a bursary for airfare?
Or would this be regarded as a futile gesture?
# Posted on September 28th 2008 by john knoss
Re: 12 Step meeting for concertina players- Ennistymon
Fair Play concertinaplayer. Great imagination you have there. The words nail, head & hit immediately sprang to my mind.
Though like you Pete, I'm rather surprised llig didn't, or rather hasn't yet, stepped up to the plate, on this thread! ?
Perhaps he's been working day & night on an even funnier reply! Of course, it'd need to be VERY good!
On the other hand, maybe he has just quietly accepted defeat on this one!
# Posted on September 29th 2008 by Ptarmigan