It seems to me, having read through the long discussion of yesterday that ITM or more exactly the environment in which it is a part, has so changed, that a return to it's roots might be envisaged. A session to me was very often spontaneous, or at the very least,a minimum of organisation involved contacting local musicians to give details of venue, time was not too important. There were no leaders, just people who enjoyed the craic, which led sometimes to very little music being played. When somebody started telling stories or the ancient art of tracing relatives intervened, the night was as often or not every bit as enjoyable.
What people forget is that songs or music were part and parcel of everyday life. Once it was taken out of context and became listening music, the emphasis changed to an environment of public entertainment. It is this divorce which has led to a) the popularity of ITM all over the world, yet at the same time has b) led to the loss of regional and indeed, parochial styles.
Technically, the music has developed incredibly. In the old days we would have talked about 'virtuosos', now it seems there are thousands of them. How many have actually played for dancing? which is what the music is and always was.
How often have we been to concerts, where, individually each musician is a very accomplished player but the band in total on stage leaves you with an empty feeling?
I have now been singing for 43 years, the first 20 or so I felt I was an apprentice learning my trade and looking back on it wonder whether this element is now lacking.
Music is part of life. Life is not part of Music.....
I do get bored at sessions when chit chat between tunes lasts for more than 5 minutes, and we don't get free drinks for talking but for playing. Story telling would be ok from someone with a nice voice and a good story, not some pompous Billy no mates dropping names known only to them.
If I could play for dances I would, I'm not quite good enough to do it, but the first chance I get to do it I will take. You're quite right, most of the tunes ARE dance tunes.
I dont know how practical this 'returning to the roots' would be.Life in general is possibly less spontaneous than it used to be and, as Irish music doesn't exist in a vacuum,the nature with which it is played will accordingly be less spontaneous.
Your post reminded me of the way i used to notice old people's conversations when i was growing up.They'd tend to have slow thoughtful conversations interspersed with long silences.There wasn't this incessant need to fill every moment with noise.Not only is this a thing of the past but it would be wholly out of step with the pace of modern life.
Likewise with the music.We divide our time to get the most out of whatever we do.so if we have set aside 2 hours for playing irish music at a session then we want to get as much playing in as possible.it's just the way it is.
Perhaps we could establish a Spontaneity Committee, who could produce a set of guidelines on how to act spontaneously, some advice on the etiquette of spontaneity, and a table of the allowable times for spontaneous conversation, spontaneous tunes etc. Perhaps in view of recent discussions they could also advise us on what is the right proportion for playing tunes you don't like as against tunes you like.
"There wasn't this incessant need to fill every moment with noise" - there still isn't a need - but sometimes you have to actually make an effort to stop it happening.
"it would be wholly out of step with the pace of modern life" - is that so wrong? Why do people feel the need to "get in as much playing as possible" - surely by the time this has become the case, then some of the purpose has been lost.
I'm not getting at you personally C, but the things you write represent what I hear so much from so many people, and I just want people to stop and think a bit.
Cunnla
You are right of course, in reality it's not possible, I think it's more a question of attitude. Pregnant pauses remind me of someone who in the middle of one of them said 'He was speechless and the bike was spokeless'. I was trying to put across the point that ITM has evolved out of all proportion, the same way life has. It just seems to me that far too many compromises have taken away some of the real values.
Well the sessions are organic, and varied, perhaps your statement is a bit sweeping Ian.
I've been to slow, laid back sessions, and to very intensive sessions, and loved them equally.
The main thing is not to get stuck in a rut.
Dave
I liked your first paragraph, it has the same kind of logic as ' A camel was a horse designed by a committee'
The idea that people ought to stop and think a bit, is a good part of the crux of the matter.But do we have or can we make time?
Cath
Organic is right, and because individuals are so different, the mood of a session changes not just by the day but often by the hour. I find that it's normally just not possible in a 2 hour session to arrive at the point where the enthusiasm and the atmosphere starts to make the music jump. The rut used to come after about five days of music and song only when the last bag had been opened.
Yes 2 hours IS very short. I like playing non stop for at least 3 hours, and I've played afternoon sessions starting at 12.30 pm and reluctantly wimped out by about 10.00 pm when the old arms could no longer lift the fiddle
I wasn't too sure about you first comment, Cath, and was about to disagree with you.
However, your second statement about the variety of different types of sessions just sums up what I think.
Yes, you can get some very intensive, slick sessions and others which just involve a few friends meeting up for a tune. In the latter, there is sometimes as much blethering as music. Not everyone chooses to take part at the same time.
Of course, there's all manner of arrangements in between.
Life is fragmented now. It's part of the ongoing process Engels called Alienation. And it's encouraged because it maximises our potential as consumers. The more things we do, and the quicker we do them, the more we spend, and the faster the capitalist machine whizzes around. It's something that reaches into all areas of life. My partner is a caver. When she started on this dubious pursuit, she did what anyone who wanted to go caving did then, and joined a club. She gradually learned the skills involved in caving, and became 'a caver'. This meant that, in addition to going down holes in the ground, she spent a lot of time at the club's caving cottage, going to weekly social meetings in pubs, going to conferences, and socialising with like minded individuals. That was her lifestyle.
Now the club is disintegrating through lack of interest. No-one wants to be 'a caver' any more. It's not that they don't want to go caving, they just want to turn up, go down a cave with someone experienced, and then next weekend they want to go paragliding. So they get to do more and more activities, but the social element, which was actually a bigger part timewise than the caving itself, has been almost entirely discarded.
Eventually the only people caving will be weekend thrillseekers and professional guides.
as Cath said: "we don't get free drinks for talking but for playing".....
Perhaps we should go on strike!
The technique for playing mandolin at 60 with arthrhitic right hand is to sling it in the bin and take up playing guitar with bent fingers, not the ideal solution but it's the enthusiasm that counts.
Yes Ian - the first para I wrote was just ever so slightly tongue in cheek. I'm with you in this matter - if one only judges a session by the number of tunes played then one has missed something along the way.
On the railway bridge halfway between Lichfield and Wall someone has written in large letters: "Modern life creates needs because it can satisfy none".
As Mark describes in his caving story above, there is a lot of call in these times for instant gratification. Instant food - Macdonalds, instant communications - mobile phone, and so forth, instant session satisfaction - bang out two hours of tunes and rush off to do the next thing. We get television programmes and magazine articles tellng us of 30 (50, 100) things to do before you die. How about just settling down a bit and enjoying a slower but more fulfilling life - that seems like one really good thing to do before you die, rather than spending all your time chasing the wind.
Must rush off and stitch some red ribbons onto some white ribbons now, then there's the parrot to feed, and I bet nobody'll have thought to get any cocktail sticks. . . . .
I find all this exhilarating. Here I am, on a lovely mild sunny winters day, sitting at a desk, communicating with a load of people I don't know, having fun and neglecting to go outside and spread manure in the garden which my roses badly need. By the way, I've just written a 5 part jig called 'the Rambling Rose' whill I'll gladly post if anybody's interested.
Parrot feathers and cocktail sticks has just given me an idea on how I might be able to ressurect the Mandolin, it would need superglue of course.......
Obviously a bit of an overlap with another two threads Ian, but not being terribly young myself, I used to struggle to keep up the speed on the mandolin, it does require some power which I don't have enough of, which is why I took up the fiddle.
The bow is a lot less demanding on the right arm and the tuning is the same. If you have enough time to be bothered, it's so much more fun than the guitar.
Ottery, is there some innuendo there? I can't quite put my finger on it.
WARNING: LENGTH (how's that for a segue from the banter above?) AND SENTIMENTALITY.
My local session grew out of the surrounding community in two basic ways. Initially, there were just two of us and we'd been friends for a couple of years, with kids in the same class at school. One day, out of the blue, we accidentally discovered that we both played Irish music on fiddle.
From there, the group grew slowly, in our living rooms and kitchens. It was mostly a matter of bringing in other friends who also happened to play music, rather than musicians we didn't know.
In other words, our core group knew each other first not from the music, but from work and play and simply living in the same neighborhood. We were *neighbors* first and foremost.
But word got around and soon complete strangers were introducing themselves, citing rumors of an Irish session in town, and could they please sit in. At this point, we decided to find a public place to play, so that, in our small town, other people interested in the tunes could come forward and join in, listening or playing.
To me at the time, that felt like a significant departure. The original session felt like "music was part of life" as Ian said above. I knew my session mates in a more well-rounded way than just as tune hounds. Would we be able to keep the same "neighborhood" feel as more people joined in who we knew only at the session itself?
Things did get a bit rocky for a while as the session became more of a public *event,* rather than an extension of neighbors socializing. But gradually we ferreted out all the usual seven degrees of separation (this being Podunk Montana it was more like two degrees between most of us), added the occasional house session back into the mix, and found non-musical common interests to gather around. Some go boating together, some take pottery classes together, some work togther, some workout together. So today the circle is a bit larger than it was in the beginning, but we're all just neighbors, friends, who happen to play the same music together. It really does feel like music is just part of everyday life. Enough of us live within walking distance that it's not at all unusual to have walk-in impromptu tunes or storytelling.
Our "regularly scheduled session" sometimes isn't just tunes. We've detoured into a night of crack, of songs, stories, jokes, even someone giving us a Burns poem from memory. Sometimes kids from the local step dance school wander in and dance among the punters, sometimes it's the adult ceili dancers doing the same. We also play for community ceilis, that are potlucks first, dances second, and the participants range in age from 2 to 82.
And it's not just the players--most of the punters are friends too, and were friends long before the session formed, so they're not just punters to me, they're John, who I wrote an environmental impact statement with 17 years ago, and Jim, our mayor who badly broke his ankle last year slipping on an icy sidewalk, and Sam, a student at the college where our bodhran player teaches, and Liz, the concertina player's sister who was also my sons' pediatrician, and so on.
Mind you, it's not perfect, and we have nights where it feels like "they don't give us free beer to talk" (someone should print that up on t-shirts but when I sit back and think about, I'm stunned at the sense of community and normalcy (as though this was the most expected thing in the world, to find an Irish session 8,000 miles west of Doolin in Marlboro Country), playing the tunes around a little table stuffed with pints in Helena, Montana.
While I love the music, and I enjoy playing, that's not why I play. I go to play music I love with people I enjoy. While I do enjoy playing music by myself in my famiily room, it's just not the same as getting together with some friends and breaking out the instruments.
Wasn't always that way, when I first started out, I wanted to play play play play play all the time. Kevin Glackin once told me that some of the best sessions are ones where the instrument cases never even open, and of course I had to believe him, but I couldn't really imagine it. Now I can.
But I still have a crazy-fast life that I'm always trying to put the brakes on.
Will
Sounds nice, I'll probably be about 96 if I ever get to the states, will there be room for a singer with a motorised Zimmer frame and neck capo? I doubt I'll still be playing but always like listening.
Lol, Ian, one reason we all learned to get along is because we're such a decrepit aging mangled lot. Our session looks more like the waiting room at the ER, or physical therapy down at the Pearly Gates Nursing Home. Somehow, we still manage to eke out some tunes. So yes, there's always room for another wheelchair or i.v. apparatus.
I think one of the attractions to playing the music is the ability to escape the crazy world for a while.
Everything else seems to be accelerating - contentment with the status quo is laziness, and ultimate personal productivity is the goal. When you come to music from that background it's tough to avoid the temptation to constantly "maximize your potential."
Will seems to have found a slice of the '50s to live in, and I'm somewhat envious. For now, I'll just try to remind myself that I took up the music for pure enjoyment and socialization, and avoid the temptation to look on it as a challenge to be mastered.
A lot of the sessions I've been to have been impromptu and easy going. The regular ones (free beer+hosts+names-on-sign-outside-pub-door) are not like that because they tend to be a loose affiliation of near-to-complete strangers who haven't really got much to say to each other and only showed up for the music. In that atmosphere there is always a bit of friction between the experts and novices, Quebecois, Irish, Breton, Northumbrian and East Coast contingents, the regulars and the drop-ins, etc. and everybody behaves as if the secret to winning their "stake" in this competition is to squeeze in tunes whenever they can.
I've found the better the people playing together know and like each other as (to borrow from Will) "neighbours" or friends, the more relaxed and satisfying the session is. It seems tough to accomplish in a pub though. It's easier in kitchens and back yards, and the odd comandeered public garden or Winnebago at festivals.
In all the years I was collecting, not just songs, but music,stories,anecdotes and pictures of Pope John and J F Kennedy (all the pictures that hang on the wall, I'd throw them all into the bargain, if you'd marry my daughter at all...), I often wondered what I'd be like at their age and I find that I'm exactly the same. Unfortunately, all or most of my old contacts are dead, but the memories keep me sane. One day I'll relate the story of the building of the second runway at Shannon, it was unbelievable then and makes me shiver even now.It's great to know that there are people all over the world who are not just rushing at everything they do, but take time out to be neighbourly, a thing that almost disappeared in the 80's.
We've come a long way from my original idea but isn't that typically Irish?
But it's not the same aches and pains. My fingers have healed up more or less okay. It's pore aching feet now! My sister reckons she won't fix me up with her ballerina friends anymore unless I lose some (okay, most) of the care-of-too-many-guinness kilograms I've put on over the past year, so I've been walking to and from work for the past week, and going to gym on top of that, and it hurtses us, doesn't it? My precious toeses and calveses. But hey, it's worth it!
Mmmm.... bendy.
Closer to the topic... I love me my sessions. Life couldn't be anywhere near pleasant enough without 'em. And I'm learning to enjoy the 'the space' too. I used to fret terribly about not knowing enough tunes, and worry that I wasn't earning my free guinness... but I've finally hit a happy medium (he was asking asking for it, though), and now find that sitting back and listening is just as pleasurable, as are the conversations between sets.
Now, if only we could do something about the disrespectful punters. Damn punters.
Tying in again with Ian's original post, our local session does suffer some pangs from the "crazy world"--there's a tendency to be disappointed if your playing doesn't sound as good as the cd you're learning from, and a subtle but constant pressure to work toward that level of accomplishment. And our bag of tunes also reflects the influence of recorded music--we play tunes from every part of Ireland and beyond, sometimes in a weird parade of regional styles, fiddles in particular changing clothes on every tune, from Donegal to Sligo to West Clare to Kerry and Chicago back again.
Kerri said it's hard to pull of this neighborly-type session in a pub, and I'd agree. People come in expecting more of a gig. And the pub owners themselves often see it that way. We're incredibly lucky again there, because the three partners who own the micro-brewery we play in are in it for the community-building aspects. And some of us players knew the owners before we started the session--and before they even started the brewery. I worked with one at a state agency (and he later bought our house when we moved across town), and another's wife was our mail carrier for years. So they're very much part of the neighborly circle.
I don't mean all this to come across so pollyannish, just to air the fact that it is possible to slow things down and get back to a people-oriented pace and scale. And in describing how it's come to this here, shed some light on how others might consider developing their sessions if they're so inclined.
Mark Ottery's comments, and other's, about the fractioning of our society and its influence on sessions is interesting.
Isn't the session one of the few remaining social instruments we have left? It certainly is in my life where it is semi-taboo to socialize with people with whom you work, considered safer to stay away from personal discussions with neighbors, and to only talk about "must see TV". (Let's stop talking now so that we can go back and watch the same show "together" except in different houses.) (We once had neighbors over for dinner. Late in the meal, one excused herself and went into the next room and turned on the TV, without asking. My wife had to go watch with her, while I stayed and chatted with the husband. The boys had a nice time anyway.)
I agree that the larger a session or community gets, the harder it is to know everyone and to make it more social. Still, you can acheive music and chat and general craic in one corner of a large session.
There really are many more people playing locally than 10 years ago. Back then, the community was pretty tight, and you did have that social craic at most sessions. Now, you can still get it, but more so at house parties and the like.
Looks like we'll all have to move to Montana, Will. Even the pub sessions where everybody knows each other over here tend to turn into p*ssing contests half the time. (No offence to anyone here who likes it that way, of course!)
Kerri, I think a little competition in the session environment can be fun, but I agree that it takes away from the social aspect of things.
I like the session style of 3 or 4 tunes, then stop. When you get those 10 tune or play-as-many-as-you-can sets, it does seem more sterile to me. And it is nice when there is a bit of a gap between sets, so that people can chat or try to think of tunes they have not played in ages.
I find it just a wee bit sad if one has to learn from CD's as good as they are, I've done it myself, but there is nothing like learning from a live source in their own home. I understand that logistics don't help matters but I think this is all part of what I was trying to say,. Slow down and take time to understand the lives of the people who kept the thing alive during the terrible (traditionally speaking) 30's, 40's and 50's good, bad or indifferent as they may have been.
Wednesday evenings, as my wife & I approached the ceili class, hand in hand, hearing the sound of the music lilting in the air caused a shift in consciousness. The air suddenly seemed crisper, the atmosphere brighter, our steps grew lighter. The cares of life dropped away. The next couple of hours were just serious, relaxed, silly fun. With no prior dancing experience (at the age of 40 - what a shame) I felt like a pinball bouncing around for the first few months. Thursday mornings I still felt part of the glow, more relaxed, more attentive. It seemed like everyone else was relatively sour.
A couple of years later, and living on the opposite coast, we began attending "celtic concerts" occasionally, groups that would probably carry some name recognition here @ thesession. IAs much as we enjoyed the music, it seemed funny, and just a bit sad, to just sit and listen, rather than move around spontaneously, talk, and dance.
Ian, I agree. But being a suburban rug rat in the States made it difficult to link into the older generation of players in Ireland. I learned my first tunes off the radio--a not totally un-traditional method. And it was Mick Moloney's program on WXPN Philadelphia. Which led me to some great house sessions (though sad to say I missed out on John Vesey's legendary seshes back then) where I learned tunes at the knees of some great players. In my 20s I got some tunes from Kevin Burke in Portland, and most importantly he gave me a sense of being connected to a community of players that spanned continents and generations past and gone.
We've continued that sense here, passing tunes on face to face, and learning from each other. One of our fiddlers learned to play in Scotland and Ireland directly from past masters, and several of us have been lucky enough to swap tunes with great mentors steeped in the music and culture. So cds aren't are only source--just an available one, for those of us who live on the outermost fringes of the Irish universe.
Why have I never been to Montana? Did John Vesey live there?
I know the name but can't put any fingers on why. Did he record?. 78's? who were the musicians that played with him? Locals? Are they still living?
Gosh ! All those questions, but they are relevent.
Ian, John Vesey was a great Sligo fiddler, originally from Ballincurry, who settled in Philadelphia and played with Martin Wynne and the Egan family (Seamus and Siobhan). He released an album in the 70s called Sligo Fiddler, which I think has been re-released on cd. Very fast, fluent, well -ornamented playing. His first teacher was Sligo great Michael Gorman. Mr. Vesey passed away in the late 1990s.
When I was a teenager living 25 miles west of Philadelphia, I had no idea Vesey held these amazing sessions at his home. Or that Ed Reavy lived just three stops down the train line from my home. Sigh. I played Irish music with people who knew Reavy and played with him, but I was a young, scratchy beginner--better off practicing at home. And then a job offer pulled me into bluegrass (on banjo, not fiddle) for 10 years.
Come to think of it, I had a bootleg tape of Vesey's playing back in the 70s. I was 17 then and did not realize he lived in Philadelphia. Sadly, no idea either what ever happened to that tape.
I had the good fortune to meet Ed Reavey once when he came over with Neili Boyle and Hugh Gillespie and played in the Crossroads branch of the Comhaltas, Donegal. It was a great night with three great fiddlers all playing with very different styles, but the tunes they played together were something else, especially some of Eds rarely played compositions. I was playing duet with Derry piper Finbarr McLaughlin at the time and remember him saying in the car going back home that all the money in the world couldn't buy that night. He was right... Thanks for the information on John Vesey, I must look up the record.
Thanks Kerri, it was in fact, this page that led me here in the first place. A French concertina player told me about it would you believe. There is a session here in La Rochelle every Sunday night, mostly French musicians but the standard is pretty good and they're a nice bunch of lads.
Will, if you ever find that tape of Vesey, I'd love a copy. I got his recording last year, I think, and it is very nice. I remember the notes said that some of the tracks were recorded at house parties, so I am not sure if this is a re-release of the earlier recording. The person who gave me the recording said that I sounded like him. A high compliment!!
In regards to the initial volley on this thread, is it possible that these days more people tend to (more often) be consumers of entertainment rather than to be participants in recreation, at least in regards to music / dancing / the arts? Fod for thought...
I can only agree with that. Nowadays entertainment can be found everywhere (for a price), years ago we had to make our own and to be honest I think we were better off for it. I threw my television out of the kitchen window, unopened of course, on Boxing Day 1980 and have not had one since. I love the radio.
Excellent point, Cecil. Ian, good for you! I chucked mine off of a second story balcony into the dumpster back in 1983 (it made a lovely smash) and haven't missed it yet.
To quote a very short version of one of my husband's favorite soapboxes, this consumer society makes a very good living off of convincing people to give up their own capacities and then selling them a facsimile thereof. Don't cook; go to McDonald's (if you can call that food) or to the deli at the grocery store, or open a can or box. Don't walk; drive. (My coworkers flip out because I walk to work. It's not far --- a bit less than two miles.) Don't take your exercise outdoors in the garden or riding your bicycle; buy a health club membership and ride a stationary bicycle while staring at the person in front of you walking on a treadmill. Don't make music for yourself, perhaps with family and friends; buy cds and dvds and videos. I'm not opposed to recorded music, far from it, but I know so many people who consume recorded music the same way they consume TV shows and fast food sludgeburgers and the latest fad clothing: as passive observers. Me, I prefer to participate, thank you. I'm better off that way.
Seems to me that the participatory life becomes ingrained, a habit. I'd rather play music than just listen to it, and even when listening to cds I can't help but work out the tunes and run through the variations, and make up more of my own. It's like a reflex--I can't just have music on without interacting with it.
The chat reminds me of a night we had in Gurteen. There was no TV at the center of the room, and it was all about entertaining the visiting yanks. Dinner was cooking and the smells were wonderful. Clanking in the kitchen. Fred and Rosie Finn in the house playing tunes and telling stories. The uncle comes up the road, home from the fields, and it's into the stories and tales of years gone by. There were no singers in the house, but we had several up dancing as well. Then gathering together for a lovely meal. You couldn't want for better entertainment.
Sara, I've either said or thought all the same comparisons that you made.
Will, your hometown sounds like where I grew up (I guess Nebraska is about as close to nowhere as Montana is), except that the only other musician I knew was a pianist in his mid-70s. We met at the chess club. I use to go to his house once or twice a month for about a year. He would beat me in checkers, then I would beat him in chess, then he would play old German Marches on the piano for about 20 minutes. He had a grand touch on the keyboard, a smile on his face, and a fiery twinkle below his furry brow whenever he played - kinda like Santa Claus.
hows it going Cunnla,do you play in the sessions around your area,the reason I ask is I am looking for somewhere to play , We have recently been sacked after 7 years playing the same pub,I would like to join a session to as opposed to playing gigs,
Crikey we're still sniffing around the forgotten threads.Actually ive only in the last year dedicated myself to playing trad so ive not joined any sessions yet.i want to at least look like i know what im doing.i think as a guitarist/bouzouki player it's far easier to mess things up with a wrong chord or whatever so im still in practice mode.i know of a few sessions in the brentford area which i will have a go at when i get the nerve.have a look in the sessions section to see whats about.
What a crazy world
What a crazy world
It seems to me, having read through the long discussion of yesterday that ITM or more exactly the environment in which it is a part, has so changed, that a return to it's roots might be envisaged. A session to me was very often spontaneous, or at the very least,a minimum of organisation involved contacting local musicians to give details of venue, time was not too important. There were no leaders, just people who enjoyed the craic, which led sometimes to very little music being played. When somebody started telling stories or the ancient art of tracing relatives intervened, the night was as often or not every bit as enjoyable.
What people forget is that songs or music were part and parcel of everyday life. Once it was taken out of context and became listening music, the emphasis changed to an environment of public entertainment. It is this divorce which has led to a) the popularity of ITM all over the world, yet at the same time has b) led to the loss of regional and indeed, parochial styles.
Technically, the music has developed incredibly. In the old days we would have talked about 'virtuosos', now it seems there are thousands of them. How many have actually played for dancing? which is what the music is and always was.
How often have we been to concerts, where, individually each musician is a very accomplished player but the band in total on stage leaves you with an empty feeling?
I have now been singing for 43 years, the first 20 or so I felt I was an apprentice learning my trade and looking back on it wonder whether this element is now lacking.
Music is part of life. Life is not part of Music.....
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
I do get bored at sessions when chit chat between tunes lasts for more than 5 minutes, and we don't get free drinks for talking but for playing. Story telling would be ok from someone with a nice voice and a good story, not some pompous Billy no mates dropping names known only to them.
If I could play for dances I would, I'm not quite good enough to do it, but the first chance I get to do it I will take. You're quite right, most of the tunes ARE dance tunes.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
I dont know how practical this 'returning to the roots' would be.Life in general is possibly less spontaneous than it used to be and, as Irish music doesn't exist in a vacuum,the nature with which it is played will accordingly be less spontaneous.
Your post reminded me of the way i used to notice old people's conversations when i was growing up.They'd tend to have slow thoughtful conversations interspersed with long silences.There wasn't this incessant need to fill every moment with noise.Not only is this a thing of the past but it would be wholly out of step with the pace of modern life.
Likewise with the music.We divide our time to get the most out of whatever we do.so if we have set aside 2 hours for playing irish music at a session then we want to get as much playing in as possible.it's just the way it is.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by cunnla
Re: What a crazy world
Perhaps we could establish a Spontaneity Committee, who could produce a set of guidelines on how to act spontaneously, some advice on the etiquette of spontaneity, and a table of the allowable times for spontaneous conversation, spontaneous tunes etc. Perhaps in view of recent discussions they could also advise us on what is the right proportion for playing tunes you don't like as against tunes you like.
"There wasn't this incessant need to fill every moment with noise" - there still isn't a need - but sometimes you have to actually make an effort to stop it happening.
"it would be wholly out of step with the pace of modern life" - is that so wrong? Why do people feel the need to "get in as much playing as possible" - surely by the time this has become the case, then some of the purpose has been lost.
I'm not getting at you personally C, but the things you write represent what I hear so much from so many people, and I just want people to stop and think a bit.
;o) Dave
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: What a crazy world
Cunnla
You are right of course, in reality it's not possible, I think it's more a question of attitude. Pregnant pauses remind me of someone who in the middle of one of them said 'He was speechless and the bike was spokeless'. I was trying to put across the point that ITM has evolved out of all proportion, the same way life has. It just seems to me that far too many compromises have taken away some of the real values.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Well the sessions are organic, and varied, perhaps your statement is a bit sweeping Ian.
I've been to slow, laid back sessions, and to very intensive sessions, and loved them equally.
The main thing is not to get stuck in a rut.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Dave
I liked your first paragraph, it has the same kind of logic as ' A camel was a horse designed by a committee'
The idea that people ought to stop and think a bit, is a good part of the crux of the matter.But do we have or can we make time?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Cath
Organic is right, and because individuals are so different, the mood of a session changes not just by the day but often by the hour. I find that it's normally just not possible in a 2 hour session to arrive at the point where the enthusiasm and the atmosphere starts to make the music jump. The rut used to come after about five days of music and song only when the last bag had been opened.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Yes 2 hours IS very short. I like playing non stop for at least 3 hours, and I've played afternoon sessions starting at 12.30 pm and reluctantly wimped out by about 10.00 pm when the old arms could no longer lift the fiddle
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
I wasn't too sure about you first comment, Cath, and was about to disagree with you.
However, your second statement about the variety of different types of sessions just sums up what I think.
Yes, you can get some very intensive, slick sessions and others which just involve a few friends meeting up for a tune. In the latter, there is sometimes as much blethering as music. Not everyone chooses to take part at the same time.
Of course, there's all manner of arrangements in between.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by John J.
Re: What a crazy world
Are we all agreed then?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Life is fragmented now. It's part of the ongoing process Engels called Alienation. And it's encouraged because it maximises our potential as consumers. The more things we do, and the quicker we do them, the more we spend, and the faster the capitalist machine whizzes around. It's something that reaches into all areas of life. My partner is a caver. When she started on this dubious pursuit, she did what anyone who wanted to go caving did then, and joined a club. She gradually learned the skills involved in caving, and became 'a caver'. This meant that, in addition to going down holes in the ground, she spent a lot of time at the club's caving cottage, going to weekly social meetings in pubs, going to conferences, and socialising with like minded individuals. That was her lifestyle.
Now the club is disintegrating through lack of interest. No-one wants to be 'a caver' any more. It's not that they don't want to go caving, they just want to turn up, go down a cave with someone experienced, and then next weekend they want to go paragliding. So they get to do more and more activities, but the social element, which was actually a bigger part timewise than the caving itself, has been almost entirely discarded.
Eventually the only people caving will be weekend thrillseekers and professional guides.
as Cath said: "we don't get free drinks for talking but for playing".....
Perhaps we should go on strike!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ottery
Re: What a crazy world
Are you taking enough vitamins Cath? If I tried to do the same thing today I'd probably be taking Viagra !!!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
No, nothing stronger than a cup or two of tea, stamina born out of obsession, then resigned to feeling knackered for the following 2 days
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Sorry Ian but, if you need Viagra to play the mandolin, what IS your technique
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Just as well he doesn't play box - could be painful
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Bren
Re: What a crazy world
it's not so bad...
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: What a crazy world
At the moment I'm laughing at the last few comments, not exactly what I had in mind when I posted the discussion but isn't the craic great?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
The technique for playing mandolin at 60 with arthrhitic right hand is to sling it in the bin and take up playing guitar with bent fingers, not the ideal solution but it's the enthusiasm that counts.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Yes Ian - the first para I wrote was just ever so slightly tongue in cheek. I'm with you in this matter - if one only judges a session by the number of tunes played then one has missed something along the way.
On the railway bridge halfway between Lichfield and Wall someone has written in large letters: "Modern life creates needs because it can satisfy none".
As Mark describes in his caving story above, there is a lot of call in these times for instant gratification. Instant food - Macdonalds, instant communications - mobile phone, and so forth, instant session satisfaction - bang out two hours of tunes and rush off to do the next thing. We get television programmes and magazine articles tellng us of 30 (50, 100) things to do before you die. How about just settling down a bit and enjoying a slower but more fulfilling life - that seems like one really good thing to do before you die, rather than spending all your time chasing the wind.
Must rush off and stitch some red ribbons onto some white ribbons now, then there's the parrot to feed, and I bet nobody'll have thought to get any cocktail sticks. . . . .
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: What a crazy world
I find all this exhilarating. Here I am, on a lovely mild sunny winters day, sitting at a desk, communicating with a load of people I don't know, having fun and neglecting to go outside and spread manure in the garden which my roses badly need. By the way, I've just written a 5 part jig called 'the Rambling Rose' whill I'll gladly post if anybody's interested.
Parrot feathers and cocktail sticks has just given me an idea on how I might be able to ressurect the Mandolin, it would need superglue of course.......
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Ian, by clever use of the cocktail sticks and red ribbon, you might get away with not using the Viagra
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ottery
Re: What a crazy world
Obviously a bit of an overlap with another two threads Ian, but not being terribly young myself, I used to struggle to keep up the speed on the mandolin, it does require some power which I don't have enough of, which is why I took up the fiddle.
The bow is a lot less demanding on the right arm and the tuning is the same. If you have enough time to be bothered, it's so much more fun than the guitar.
Ottery, is there some innuendo there? I can't quite put my finger on it.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Best not to put your finger on it(!)
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ottery
Re: What a crazy world
Mmm, that's what I thought
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
Actually, that's not my finger . . . .
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: What a crazy world
And that's not my ear....
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Cath
Re: What a crazy world
WARNING: LENGTH (how's that for a segue from the banter above?) AND SENTIMENTALITY.
but when I sit back and think about, I'm stunned at the sense of community and normalcy (as though this was the most expected thing in the world, to find an Irish session 8,000 miles west of Doolin in Marlboro Country), playing the tunes around a little table stuffed with pints in Helena, Montana.
My local session grew out of the surrounding community in two basic ways. Initially, there were just two of us and we'd been friends for a couple of years, with kids in the same class at school. One day, out of the blue, we accidentally discovered that we both played Irish music on fiddle.
From there, the group grew slowly, in our living rooms and kitchens. It was mostly a matter of bringing in other friends who also happened to play music, rather than musicians we didn't know.
In other words, our core group knew each other first not from the music, but from work and play and simply living in the same neighborhood. We were *neighbors* first and foremost.
But word got around and soon complete strangers were introducing themselves, citing rumors of an Irish session in town, and could they please sit in. At this point, we decided to find a public place to play, so that, in our small town, other people interested in the tunes could come forward and join in, listening or playing.
To me at the time, that felt like a significant departure. The original session felt like "music was part of life" as Ian said above. I knew my session mates in a more well-rounded way than just as tune hounds. Would we be able to keep the same "neighborhood" feel as more people joined in who we knew only at the session itself?
Things did get a bit rocky for a while as the session became more of a public *event,* rather than an extension of neighbors socializing. But gradually we ferreted out all the usual seven degrees of separation (this being Podunk Montana it was more like two degrees between most of us), added the occasional house session back into the mix, and found non-musical common interests to gather around. Some go boating together, some take pottery classes together, some work togther, some workout together. So today the circle is a bit larger than it was in the beginning, but we're all just neighbors, friends, who happen to play the same music together. It really does feel like music is just part of everyday life. Enough of us live within walking distance that it's not at all unusual to have walk-in impromptu tunes or storytelling.
Our "regularly scheduled session" sometimes isn't just tunes. We've detoured into a night of crack, of songs, stories, jokes, even someone giving us a Burns poem from memory. Sometimes kids from the local step dance school wander in and dance among the punters, sometimes it's the adult ceili dancers doing the same. We also play for community ceilis, that are potlucks first, dances second, and the participants range in age from 2 to 82.
And it's not just the players--most of the punters are friends too, and were friends long before the session formed, so they're not just punters to me, they're John, who I wrote an environmental impact statement with 17 years ago, and Jim, our mayor who badly broke his ankle last year slipping on an icy sidewalk, and Sam, a student at the college where our bodhran player teaches, and Liz, the concertina player's sister who was also my sons' pediatrician, and so on.
Mind you, it's not perfect, and we have nights where it feels like "they don't give us free beer to talk" (someone should print that up on t-shirts
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Stop it! Now!
I'm supposed to be teaching my class and I can't because this thread is making me laugh.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: What a crazy world
So Will, since you are in Marlboro Country, can we figure you as "The Marlboro Man". Quite frankly, "he"(original Marlboro Man) was pretty hot!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Agnes Nutter
Re: What a crazy world
"Will Play for Beer."
While I love the music, and I enjoy playing, that's not why I play. I go to play music I love with people I enjoy. While I do enjoy playing music by myself in my famiily room, it's just not the same as getting together with some friends and breaking out the instruments.
Wasn't always that way, when I first started out, I wanted to play play play play play all the time. Kevin Glackin once told me that some of the best sessions are ones where the instrument cases never even open, and of course I had to believe him, but I couldn't really imagine it. Now I can.
But I still have a crazy-fast life that I'm always trying to put the brakes on.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
So's Will, Deb, but don't tell his wife I said that, I like my head in one piece. ;)
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
Oh yeah, I'm a regular Mel-uscious-Gibson. Especially if you go for the yard gnome look....
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Mel Gibson as a yard gnome, what a thought.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
Oh Geez, The Marlboro Man/Mel Gibson. What a combo!! Am fanning myself as I write!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Agnes Nutter
Re: What a crazy world
Will
Sounds nice, I'll probably be about 96 if I ever get to the states, will there be room for a singer with a motorised Zimmer frame and neck capo? I doubt I'll still be playing but always like listening.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Ottery
Will I still need the superglue?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Lol, Ian, one reason we all learned to get along is because we're such a decrepit aging mangled lot. Our session looks more like the waiting room at the ER, or physical therapy down at the Pearly Gates Nursing Home. Somehow, we still manage to eke out some tunes. So yes, there's always room for another wheelchair or i.v. apparatus.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
I think one of the attractions to playing the music is the ability to escape the crazy world for a while.
Everything else seems to be accelerating - contentment with the status quo is laziness, and ultimate personal productivity is the goal. When you come to music from that background it's tough to avoid the temptation to constantly "maximize your potential."
Will seems to have found a slice of the '50s to live in, and I'm somewhat envious. For now, I'll just try to remind myself that I took up the music for pure enjoyment and socialization, and avoid the temptation to look on it as a challenge to be mastered.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by grego
Re: What a crazy world
A lot of the sessions I've been to have been impromptu and easy going. The regular ones (free beer+hosts+names-on-sign-outside-pub-door) are not like that because they tend to be a loose affiliation of near-to-complete strangers who haven't really got much to say to each other and only showed up for the music. In that atmosphere there is always a bit of friction between the experts and novices, Quebecois, Irish, Breton, Northumbrian and East Coast contingents, the regulars and the drop-ins, etc. and everybody behaves as if the secret to winning their "stake" in this competition is to squeeze in tunes whenever they can.
I've found the better the people playing together know and like each other as (to borrow from Will) "neighbours" or friends, the more relaxed and satisfying the session is. It seems tough to accomplish in a pub though. It's easier in kitchens and back yards, and the odd comandeered public garden or Winnebago at festivals.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Kerri Brown
Re: What a crazy world
In all the years I was collecting, not just songs, but music,stories,anecdotes and pictures of Pope John and J F Kennedy (all the pictures that hang on the wall, I'd throw them all into the bargain, if you'd marry my daughter at all...), I often wondered what I'd be like at their age and I find that I'm exactly the same. Unfortunately, all or most of my old contacts are dead, but the memories keep me sane. One day I'll relate the story of the building of the second runway at Shannon, it was unbelievable then and makes me shiver even now.It's great to know that there are people all over the world who are not just rushing at everything they do, but take time out to be neighbourly, a thing that almost disappeared in the 80's.
We've come a long way from my original idea but isn't that typically Irish?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
As a postscript, I still find the 'Sunday Lunchtime' sessions are usually extremely satisfying even if they're short.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Hang on... you find you're exactly same as who... the pope or JFK? You know, Ian, I'm really struggling to form a decent mental picture of you here.
%7)
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Q
Re: What a crazy world
How's the aches and pains, Matty?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
If I'm the same as the Pope or JFK I'd be writing this from my grave; Hummmmm.....not a bad idea!!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Oh, I'm suffering Zina. I'm suffering.
But it's not the same aches and pains. My fingers have healed up more or less okay. It's pore aching feet now! My sister reckons she won't fix me up with her ballerina friends anymore unless I lose some (okay, most) of the care-of-too-many-guinness kilograms I've put on over the past year, so I've been walking to and from work for the past week, and going to gym on top of that, and it hurtses us, doesn't it? My precious toeses and calveses. But hey, it's worth it!
Mmmm.... bendy.
Closer to the topic... I love me my sessions. Life couldn't be anywhere near pleasant enough without 'em. And I'm learning to enjoy the 'the space' too. I used to fret terribly about not knowing enough tunes, and worry that I wasn't earning my free guinness... but I've finally hit a happy medium (he was asking asking for it, though), and now find that sitting back and listening is just as pleasurable, as are the conversations between sets.
Now, if only we could do something about the disrespectful punters. Damn punters.
%7)
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Q
Re: What a crazy world
Alcohol is good. The rubbing kind, not the kind you drink. ;) Epson salts, too, in hot water. Soak, not drink. *smirk*
Are punters safe to pick on?
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
Tying in again with Ian's original post, our local session does suffer some pangs from the "crazy world"--there's a tendency to be disappointed if your playing doesn't sound as good as the cd you're learning from, and a subtle but constant pressure to work toward that level of accomplishment. And our bag of tunes also reflects the influence of recorded music--we play tunes from every part of Ireland and beyond, sometimes in a weird parade of regional styles, fiddles in particular changing clothes on every tune, from Donegal to Sligo to West Clare to Kerry and Chicago back again.
Kerri said it's hard to pull of this neighborly-type session in a pub, and I'd agree. People come in expecting more of a gig. And the pub owners themselves often see it that way. We're incredibly lucky again there, because the three partners who own the micro-brewery we play in are in it for the community-building aspects. And some of us players knew the owners before we started the session--and before they even started the brewery. I worked with one at a state agency (and he later bought our house when we moved across town), and another's wife was our mail carrier for years. So they're very much part of the neighborly circle.
I don't mean all this to come across so pollyannish, just to air the fact that it is possible to slow things down and get back to a people-oriented pace and scale. And in describing how it's come to this here, shed some light on how others might consider developing their sessions if they're so inclined.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Mark Ottery's comments, and other's, about the fractioning of our society and its influence on sessions is interesting.
Isn't the session one of the few remaining social instruments we have left? It certainly is in my life where it is semi-taboo to socialize with people with whom you work, considered safer to stay away from personal discussions with neighbors, and to only talk about "must see TV". (Let's stop talking now so that we can go back and watch the same show "together" except in different houses.) (We once had neighbors over for dinner. Late in the meal, one excused herself and went into the next room and turned on the TV, without asking. My wife had to go watch with her, while I stayed and chatted with the husband. The boys had a nice time anyway.)
I agree that the larger a session or community gets, the harder it is to know everyone and to make it more social. Still, you can acheive music and chat and general craic in one corner of a large session.
There really are many more people playing locally than 10 years ago. Back then, the community was pretty tight, and you did have that social craic at most sessions. Now, you can still get it, but more so at house parties and the like.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Jode
Re: What a crazy world
Looks like we'll all have to move to Montana, Will. Even the pub sessions where everybody knows each other over here tend to turn into p*ssing contests half the time. (No offence to anyone here who likes it that way, of course!)
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Kerri Brown
Re: What a crazy world
Kerri, I think a little competition in the session environment can be fun, but I agree that it takes away from the social aspect of things.
I like the session style of 3 or 4 tunes, then stop. When you get those 10 tune or play-as-many-as-you-can sets, it does seem more sterile to me. And it is nice when there is a bit of a gap between sets, so that people can chat or try to think of tunes they have not played in ages.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Jode
Re: What a crazy world
I find it just a wee bit sad if one has to learn from CD's as good as they are, I've done it myself, but there is nothing like learning from a live source in their own home. I understand that logistics don't help matters but I think this is all part of what I was trying to say,. Slow down and take time to understand the lives of the people who kept the thing alive during the terrible (traditionally speaking) 30's, 40's and 50's good, bad or indifferent as they may have been.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Wednesday evenings, as my wife & I approached the ceili class, hand in hand, hearing the sound of the music lilting in the air caused a shift in consciousness. The air suddenly seemed crisper, the atmosphere brighter, our steps grew lighter. The cares of life dropped away. The next couple of hours were just serious, relaxed, silly fun. With no prior dancing experience (at the age of 40 - what a shame) I felt like a pinball bouncing around for the first few months. Thursday mornings I still felt part of the glow, more relaxed, more attentive. It seemed like everyone else was relatively sour.
A couple of years later, and living on the opposite coast, we began attending "celtic concerts" occasionally, groups that would probably carry some name recognition here @ thesession. IAs much as we enjoyed the music, it seemed funny, and just a bit sad, to just sit and listen, rather than move around spontaneously, talk, and dance.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by ceciltguitar
Re: What a crazy world
Ian, I agree. But being a suburban rug rat in the States made it difficult to link into the older generation of players in Ireland. I learned my first tunes off the radio--a not totally un-traditional method. And it was Mick Moloney's program on WXPN Philadelphia. Which led me to some great house sessions (though sad to say I missed out on John Vesey's legendary seshes back then) where I learned tunes at the knees of some great players. In my 20s I got some tunes from Kevin Burke in Portland, and most importantly he gave me a sense of being connected to a community of players that spanned continents and generations past and gone.
We've continued that sense here, passing tunes on face to face, and learning from each other. One of our fiddlers learned to play in Scotland and Ireland directly from past masters, and several of us have been lucky enough to swap tunes with great mentors steeped in the music and culture. So cds aren't are only source--just an available one, for those of us who live on the outermost fringes of the Irish universe.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Why have I never been to Montana? Did John Vesey live there?
I know the name but can't put any fingers on why. Did he record?. 78's? who were the musicians that played with him? Locals? Are they still living?
Gosh ! All those questions, but they are relevent.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Ian, John Vesey was a great Sligo fiddler, originally from Ballincurry, who settled in Philadelphia and played with Martin Wynne and the Egan family (Seamus and Siobhan). He released an album in the 70s called Sligo Fiddler, which I think has been re-released on cd. Very fast, fluent, well -ornamented playing. His first teacher was Sligo great Michael Gorman. Mr. Vesey passed away in the late 1990s.
When I was a teenager living 25 miles west of Philadelphia, I had no idea Vesey held these amazing sessions at his home. Or that Ed Reavy lived just three stops down the train line from my home. Sigh. I played Irish music with people who knew Reavy and played with him, but I was a young, scratchy beginner--better off practicing at home. And then a job offer pulled me into bluegrass (on banjo, not fiddle) for 10 years.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Come to think of it, I had a bootleg tape of Vesey's playing back in the 70s. I was 17 then and did not realize he lived in Philadelphia. Sadly, no idea either what ever happened to that tape.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Oh, and you haven't been to Montana (yet
because it's so conveniently located right next to the middle of no where. 
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
I could take exception to that last comment, Will!
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by grego
It's actually located next to the centre of the universe.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by grego
Re: What a crazy world
hah, Grego, imagine how the Saskatchewanians feel....
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
But I was really talking about Wyoming.
# Posted on January 7th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
ian, check this out: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/5446
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Kerri Brown
Re: What a crazy world
I had the good fortune to meet Ed Reavey once when he came over with Neili Boyle and Hugh Gillespie and played in the Crossroads branch of the Comhaltas, Donegal. It was a great night with three great fiddlers all playing with very different styles, but the tunes they played together were something else, especially some of Eds rarely played compositions. I was playing duet with Derry piper Finbarr McLaughlin at the time and remember him saying in the car going back home that all the money in the world couldn't buy that night. He was right... Thanks for the information on John Vesey, I must look up the record.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Thanks Kerri, it was in fact, this page that led me here in the first place. A French concertina player told me about it would you believe. There is a session here in La Rochelle every Sunday night, mostly French musicians but the standard is pretty good and they're a nice bunch of lads.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
Will, if you ever find that tape of Vesey, I'd love a copy. I got his recording last year, I think, and it is very nice. I remember the notes said that some of the tracks were recorded at house parties, so I am not sure if this is a re-release of the earlier recording. The person who gave me the recording said that I sounded like him. A high compliment!!
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Jode
Re: What a crazy world
Kerri, my second boo-boo of the night. I thought it was the posting of two years ago, turns out to be a new one and an old friend found.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
In regards to the initial volley on this thread, is it possible that these days more people tend to (more often) be consumers of entertainment rather than to be participants in recreation, at least in regards to music / dancing / the arts? Fod for thought...
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by ceciltguitar
Re: What a crazy world
I can only agree with that. Nowadays entertainment can be found everywhere (for a price), years ago we had to make our own and to be honest I think we were better off for it. I threw my television out of the kitchen window, unopened of course, on Boxing Day 1980 and have not had one since. I love the radio.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Ian Stevenson
Re: What a crazy world
I don't get to listen to radio anymore, my husband's a former dj, so now he's allergic. I don't watch television much, either. I tend to read.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: What a crazy world
Excellent point, Cecil. Ian, good for you! I chucked mine off of a second story balcony into the dumpster back in 1983 (it made a lovely smash) and haven't missed it yet.
To quote a very short version of one of my husband's favorite soapboxes, this consumer society makes a very good living off of convincing people to give up their own capacities and then selling them a facsimile thereof. Don't cook; go to McDonald's (if you can call that food) or to the deli at the grocery store, or open a can or box. Don't walk; drive. (My coworkers flip out because I walk to work. It's not far --- a bit less than two miles.) Don't take your exercise outdoors in the garden or riding your bicycle; buy a health club membership and ride a stationary bicycle while staring at the person in front of you walking on a treadmill. Don't make music for yourself, perhaps with family and friends; buy cds and dvds and videos. I'm not opposed to recorded music, far from it, but I know so many people who consume recorded music the same way they consume TV shows and fast food sludgeburgers and the latest fad clothing: as passive observers. Me, I prefer to participate, thank you. I'm better off that way.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by sara g
Re: What a crazy world
Seems to me that the participatory life becomes ingrained, a habit. I'd rather play music than just listen to it, and even when listening to cds I can't help but work out the tunes and run through the variations, and make up more of my own. It's like a reflex--I can't just have music on without interacting with it.
# Posted on January 8th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: What a crazy world
Will, 's true of most players I know...and singers too, actually.∞
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by sara g
Re: What a crazy world
The chat reminds me of a night we had in Gurteen. There was no TV at the center of the room, and it was all about entertaining the visiting yanks. Dinner was cooking and the smells were wonderful. Clanking in the kitchen. Fred and Rosie Finn in the house playing tunes and telling stories. The uncle comes up the road, home from the fields, and it's into the stories and tales of years gone by. There were no singers in the house, but we had several up dancing as well. Then gathering together for a lovely meal. You couldn't want for better entertainment.
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by Jode
Re: What a crazy world
enjoyed this thread ,HI everyone I have just joined the session after lurking for the last two weeks.
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by Bob .C.
Re: What a crazy world
welcome bob
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by cunnla
Re: What a crazy world
Cheers Cunnla,do you get in tir na nog ,or the Killkenny,etc.
# Posted on January 9th 2005 by Bob .C.
Re: What a crazy world
Sara, I've either said or thought all the same comparisons that you made.
Will, your hometown sounds like where I grew up (I guess Nebraska is about as close to nowhere as Montana is), except that the only other musician I knew was a pianist in his mid-70s. We met at the chess club. I use to go to his house once or twice a month for about a year. He would beat me in checkers, then I would beat him in chess, then he would play old German Marches on the piano for about 20 minutes. He had a grand touch on the keyboard, a smile on his face, and a fiery twinkle below his furry brow whenever he played - kinda like Santa Claus.
# Posted on January 10th 2005 by ceciltguitar
Re: What a crazy world
nah bob.i dont get out that direction too often.im around the richmond area meself.
# Posted on January 11th 2005 by cunnla
Re: What a crazy world
hows it going Cunnla,do you play in the sessions around your area,the reason I ask is I am looking for somewhere to play , We have recently been sacked after 7 years playing the same pub,I would like to join a session to as opposed to playing gigs,
# Posted on January 12th 2005 by Bob .C.
Re: What a crazy world
Crikey we're still sniffing around the forgotten threads.Actually ive only in the last year dedicated myself to playing trad so ive not joined any sessions yet.i want to at least look like i know what im doing.i think as a guitarist/bouzouki player it's far easier to mess things up with a wrong chord or whatever so im still in practice mode.i know of a few sessions in the brentford area which i will have a go at when i get the nerve.have a look in the sessions section to see whats about.
# Posted on January 12th 2005 by cunnla