The first time you heard a jig and five reels by the bothy band
The first time you heard the black album by planxty
The first time you sat in a deserted folk club in South Armagh and heard Liam Óg play air after beautiful air
The first time you saw James Byrne play next to you. He said with his characterestic kindness that he enjoyed your playing ( when you knew you were awfull)
When you heard Paddy Glackin play Séan a Dhibhiir na Ghleanna
When in the Gaeltacht playing a session, people reply in Irish
The first time you start a tune in a session and people join in
The first time people say I enjoyed your playing
The first time you thought, actually I can play this thing.
And, I don't know, wives, kids, all that other stuff, that's good too
That is an awesome list Pol - regretfully I can only claim to have experienced about half of what you listed - but I sure enjoyed living vicariously through your list - even if just for a moment.
I bought a cheapie compilation double LP in about 1982 because it had Billy Connolly on it, and it had Planxty playing Raggle Taggle Gypsy and Give me Your Hand. That is the sole reason I am here.
Largely leaving aside people, I can register the following:
First hearing Andy Irvine's "As I Roved Out" on that Planxty LP deep into the night as the company fell into meditative mood after a p*ss-up;
Catching a magnificently spotted 1lb 6oz trout in a hill tarn on fly;
Waking up on a clear July morning on top of Cross Fell and seeing the Lake District, Galloway, Border - you name it - hills, and much else;
The upper slopes and summit of Mount Olympus in Greece;
Eating home-grown veg that has actually bothered to come up;
Various places in the Pennines;
Good coffee, good meat, good dessert, creamy Greek yoghurt - I'll eat these things till they bust me! As dessert, I'll give Atholl Brose a special mention.
Certainly drink: but the first thing I think of isn't pints or wine or whisk(e)y, but a bottle of Baileys. I'm not sure I want to know what this says about me.
Doing a drawing or a watercolour to my satisfaction - but I'm long out of practice.
Contemplating things of the natural world - various plants and flowers; various examples of Northern wildlife, e.g. black grouse, red squirrels, Kathryn Tickell when she used to come to local sessions aged 17, and so forth. (In case you're wondering, it was a bit like Snow White and the seven dwarves...)
1. Christy Moore singing the Little Musgrave
2. Planxty Black album
3. Bothy Band 1975
4. PInt of Guinness in Mulligans
5. Pint of guinness Roadside Tavern Lisdoonvarna
6. Whiskey in the Jar THin Lizzy
7. Raglan Road Luke Kelly
8. Fiddlesticks Donegal fiiddle music
9. Scatter the Mud Eileen Ivers
10. My first Greek meal in Athens in 1979
Yep, Raglan Road and Luke. And as for you, Nicholas - hows about my first glimpse of mountain avens on the sugar limestone on Cronkley Fell, or purple saxifrage on Penyghent, or any visit to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss. All with blues harp in pocket, ready to play Amazing Grace!
1. I'll join you nicholas for the bottle of Bailey's, number 1, perfect simply cold and on ice
2. Getting CD's in the mail from around the world - a big thank you to the wonderful people who have recorded and/or sent them - love you all
3. Getting time to play my fiddles - love the quiet times they bring in what is essentially a mad mad world
4. Looking at my fiddles/loving my fiddles - amazed that they are mine - luv 'em to bits xxxxxxx
5. Finding the track I'm looking for on eMusic - fantastic that the music is so available where it isn't (if you know what I mean)
6. Mt Sonder purple in the sunset - there is nothing so perfect
7. A long red road stretching ahead of the 4-w-d and mosying along it nice and steady but still leaving a trail of red dust
8. Stopping to pick up some beautiful red bubble-rocks - evidence of tides and its existance in what was once a huge inland sea - amazing how old and different a rock can be
9. Listening to the sound of water bubbling in the fish ponds
10. Mango! A heavenly heavenly fruit. Yummmmmmmmmm - breakfast, lunch or tea
Don't want to beat you Shylock, but these are heaven to me.
(not in any particular order, although the first was the best)
1. witnessing the birth of each of my four children
2. playing my doublebass on stage at Symphony Hall in Boston
3. standing on the field in Fenway Park
4. living in New England with the spectacular scenery
5. playing Taps at my father's grave and getting through it
6. the Guiness at my first session
7. being happily married for 30 years
8. finally finishing my Masters degree
9. surrounding myself with music, art, and literature
10. having the best job in the world (school music teacher, surrounded by hundreds of eager kids)
1. The time I 'saw the light' to trad. music.
2. The time I first picked up and old, nylon string guitar and got a song out of it.
3. The time I realised that I could actually play a guitar proficiently enough.
4. The time I recieved my first 6 string banjo
5. The time I recieved my new and seemingly rare Parrot guitar.
6. The first time I went to a ceili
7. At the end of the ceili, when the session started and was the first one I'd ever actually been to.
8. The time I got tenor banjo.
9. The time I learnt my first banjo tune
10. Every time I learn a new tune.
When I got my first Walton's bodhran, the one with the Guinness logo on it, and realised that I was good enough on it within five minutes to join in all night at any session. Heheh. Sorry, it's Saturday night and the Talisker's just kicked in!
Steve - been to Gordale Scar, but have yet to see the Teesdale mountain avens, never having gone onto Cronkley Fell.
I remember now the best pint of beer I've ever had, and it is a singularly strange choice.
It was the day after I camped atop Cross Fell. It was in a July heatwave in 1989. Up top, I'd needed all the thick "emergency" jerseys etc. I'd brought, just to sleep, so cold it was; but as I descended the west side of the mountain, the late morning heat kicked in. I was getting up a thirst; I only had one small bottle of water with me - I should have brought more: I'd assumed the fells would have lots of clean springs, whereas they'd largely dried up and/or been fouled by sheep. A long time later, a lot further down, I was exhausting myself climbing over obstacles along my path, and suchlike things.
Then I saw a pub. I also saw that it was about five minutes before what might have been the closing time then. I floundered endlessly towards it; it seemed to recede, as in a nightmare.
Eventually I got there. It was all right. They weren't going to shut, just yet. I propped up the bar, sweating shedloads, taking this in.
Their beer was Scotch. (I mean, that was the name of the brand.)
Scotch is a peculiarly horrible drink. It is the sort of beer only postwar pre-CAMRA Britain could allow within its borders, let alone produce. It caresses the palate and shears the taste buds like broken bottle-glass; it might well be made from the collected nail-clippings of local politicians' wives rendered down in the effluent from what's left of the chemical industry, plus the odd tannery; it is where bad scorpions go when they die; and so on.
But right then it was nectar. After a good rest I set out again for Dufton. I certainly thought then that it had been the best pint of beer I'd ever drunk; or at any rate, the beer I was most happy to drink.
I didn't know you could get bottles of water in 1989! Ah, I remember that long, sunny summer, but we were in Cornwall by then. One of the best days of my life was in about 1976-ish, when my soon-to-be wife and I walked from Langdon Beck over to Dufton via Cauldron Snout, Moss Shop, the Maize Beck and High Cup. I'm almost inclined to say that those who know not this bit of the north country have a gap in their lives (but only almost, as I'm not my dad!). Sigh...
Steve - what I had with me was a plastic screw-top bottle holding about 1/2 a litre. I blythely assumed I could top it up from springs etc. at will - the reason being that I'd normally gone to that country in the cool 6 months when the hillsides are literally running with clean water. But on this summer trek I found this very hard to find. The heat had not only dried the small springs on the tops, it also posed a real risk of dehydration; so more than once I had to come down off a hill unduly soon so as to find water.
I should have taken appreciably more and/or bigger water-bottles, filled up first at home and then at water sources encountered. That was my big mistake on that trip.
I'd love to list my top 10, but people will think I'm mental send me an e mail and ill send you the answers .............looking at others im not normal even lligs look ok in comparison
Nicholas' story reminds me of a story told to me over a two kegs of a wonderful Munich microbrew at a friend's wedding at a hunting lodge on a mountain overlooking Tubingen by a cousin of the groom. He had been bicycling in the desert in Egypt some years earlier. Hot and thirsty, he came to a small grocery store. He went in, reached into the cooler, and pulled out two identical half-liter bottles of local beer. The first was the best he had ever tasted. The second was the worst.
Being six feet from Buddy MacMaster as he played a recital at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp in 2001.
Playing our old standby with my fiddlefriend Jimmy for the nth time at a local session -- a "They ALWAYS do that set" kind of thing we have going -- and having so much fun playing it in the same old way that we were both laughing our heads off at the end for the sheer joy of it.
My amazing good fortune to have gotten marriage right, just the way I always thought it was supposed to be, the very first time out when I was 22 and crazy, an unbelievable 30 years ago.
Having the stars in the right position to have gone to my all-time favorite music camp, the Sunshine Coast Summer Fiddle School, this very summer. Being in Seamus Connolly's Advanced Adult class was exceptional, undoubtedly one of the finest learning experiences one could hope for.
Seeing my goddesschildren dancing to the music I make.
Playing unaccompanied, solo fiddle on the Alaska state ferry up the Inside Passage and generally being treated like a rock star by the crew; playing on the deck for a wonderful group of young people from Detroit to contradance as the gorgeous shoreline and tree-heavy islets rolled past.
Playing at celebrations of the full moon and the changing seasons, seeing my spiritual cohorts dancing as I played.
Seeing timid, traumatized cats we've adopted from shelters become comfortable and happy.
Growing an organic garden, enjoying its beauty and fruitfulness while knowing that in at least this one corner of the planet, the Earth is done right by.
Glancing out the window while playing and seeing that two adorable toddler twin boys, out walking with their father, were dancing to the fiddle.
Pretty much everything and anything between the night of the 12th and the morning of the 14th, just last week. After school I hopped a train, zipped up to Boston, and hung out in Armand's apartment before we met up with some more folks for Caoimhin o'Raghallaigh and Breanndan Begley, playing a grand concert at Boston College.
Understand - Caoimhin and I have been corresponding online for more than a year and I've been following his music apostolically for longer than that, so this was a big deal, seeing him live for the first time. We came in - late - and found that every seat was full. The answer? The kind hostess, who I had met once before, said, "There's some space right up front, let me get you a couch cushion." Up we went IN FRONT of the front row, and the second the man himself came out, he recognized me! Grand stuff.
Terrific concert, lots of talking, recording, awesome stuff in general. We had awesome dinner, headed back to the apartment, slept. Next day, we en-schooled ourselves, learnt a tune off our recordings, then caught a train to Rhode Island - where we saw Caoimhin and Breanndan again, at our fiddle teacher's house in Cranston.
Front row seats again! And not only that, but as a nod to us sorry pair that had to sit through them twice, they were kind enough to eh, change their entire program to new tunes. Lots of magic and surprises and a lovely time! I'm listening to the recordings of that concert right now, actually.
So the concert ended, people milled, people played...and then Caoimhin and I just sort of ended up standing next to each other, struck up a conversation, pulled up chairs, and meandered through life and all to, "Let's play a bunch in GDGD." We did, and it was AMAZING. Then of course, tuned back up to all fifths and played a bunch more - myself right next to him, and two bits of just me and the man. I even got to play his instrument before the night was out! Remarkable time.
So....my life pretty much completely flipped arse-over-teakettle and POW!
Good list, for the music. I share a few of them in common.
The first time you heard a jig and five reels by the bothy band
>>YES!
The first time you heard the black album by planxty
>>YES!
The first time you sat in a deserted folk club in South Armagh and heard Liam Óg play air after beautiful air
>>It was Sligo for me, listening to some old travelling fiddler. I still wish I could play rather like the man.
The first time you saw James Byrne play next to you. He said with his characterestic kindness that he enjoyed your playing ( when you knew you were awfull)
>>For myself, it was a well-known piper, I was stumming my (apologies!) guitar, and he looked across the table and said something about , Keep going, what have you got? Then we jammed for awhile.
When you heard Paddy Glackin play Séan a Dhibhiir na Ghleanna
>>Not yet, it is now on my to-do list.
When in the Gaeltacht playing a session, people reply in Irish
>>YES!
The first time you start a tune in a session and people join in
>>YES!
The first time people say I enjoyed your playing
>>YES!
The first time you thought, actually I can play this thing.
>>Still waiting, I have nearly got the Butterfly where I feel comfortable.
And, I don't know, wives, kids, all that other stuff, that's good too
>>I would add Good Friends, but I think you implied that with "all that other stuff."
Plus:
My wife. My birds. My pipes. My fiddle.
Getting off the plane, and feeling that tingle and anticipation of not really having a clue about anything in a strange land.
My first pint at Myles Breen's in Limerick.
The next session, and the one after that.
And goldfinches. I am looking at about fifteen of them right now.
Here are a few choice musical moments, in no particular order:
Hearing Solas for the first time live at the Iron Horse Tavern in Northampton, MA (the old lineup including Doyle and Casey).
Hearing Battlefield Band live for the first time (the lineup with Davey Steele and John McCusker).
Attending the Gaelic Roots festival at BC--they were great times!
Cranking out some old marches with four other box players in the Catskills one summer (that session does not rank in my wife's favorites--it was a fiddle player's nightmare).
A session five fine players (and me) at the pub about five years ago, which just roared along at an incredibly high level.
Being in a band with my wife, with a current lineup that really clicks--everything about it--practices, gigs, craic---has been good!
Knowing that no one else uses my building’s roof deck at 7:30 in the morning, and no one has noticed that I go there every morning to practice.
The moment that a passage or a skill that I’ve been struggling with for months becomes effortless.
Living in an ethnically diverse community, which makes it possible for me to play Irish music and eat Thai food.
That the musician who inspired me to take up the fiddle recognized me when I saw him in concert.
Playing my ocarinas on the ferry to the Island, and being approached by a young woman shyly telling me that she had a fiddle and a guitar in her car, and would I mind if she joined me?
Working with clay.
Enjoying listening to myself play more every day.
My first session, at which I played four tunes badly but was encouraged to keep my fiddle out anyway.
My last session, at which I played more than fifty tunes, and at which newcomers gravitated toward me when they had questions about the music.
That my session is resuming this Friday, after a two month break.
The ten most perfect things in your life
The ten most perfect things in your life
have got to be
The first time you heard a jig and five reels by the bothy band
The first time you heard the black album by planxty
The first time you sat in a deserted folk club in South Armagh and heard Liam Óg play air after beautiful air
The first time you saw James Byrne play next to you. He said with his characterestic kindness that he enjoyed your playing ( when you knew you were awfull)
When you heard Paddy Glackin play Séan a Dhibhiir na Ghleanna
When in the Gaeltacht playing a session, people reply in Irish
The first time you start a tune in a session and people join in
The first time people say I enjoyed your playing
The first time you thought, actually I can play this thing.
And, I don't know, wives, kids, all that other stuff, that's good too
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Pól
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
That is an awesome list Pol - regretfully I can only claim to have experienced about half of what you listed - but I sure enjoyed living vicariously through your list - even if just for a moment.
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
My god, lovely. Thanks for that.
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by fidkid
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I bought a cheapie compilation double LP in about 1982 because it had Billy Connolly on it, and it had Planxty playing Raggle Taggle Gypsy and Give me Your Hand. That is the sole reason I am here.
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Largely leaving aside people, I can register the following:
First hearing Andy Irvine's "As I Roved Out" on that Planxty LP deep into the night as the company fell into meditative mood after a p*ss-up;
Catching a magnificently spotted 1lb 6oz trout in a hill tarn on fly;
Waking up on a clear July morning on top of Cross Fell and seeing the Lake District, Galloway, Border - you name it - hills, and much else;
The upper slopes and summit of Mount Olympus in Greece;
Eating home-grown veg that has actually bothered to come up;
Various places in the Pennines;
Good coffee, good meat, good dessert, creamy Greek yoghurt - I'll eat these things till they bust me! As dessert, I'll give Atholl Brose a special mention.
Certainly drink: but the first thing I think of isn't pints or wine or whisk(e)y, but a bottle of Baileys. I'm not sure I want to know what this says about me.
Doing a drawing or a watercolour to my satisfaction - but I'm long out of practice.
Contemplating things of the natural world - various plants and flowers; various examples of Northern wildlife, e.g. black grouse, red squirrels, Kathryn Tickell when she used to come to local sessions aged 17, and so forth. (In case you're wondering, it was a bit like Snow White and the seven dwarves...)
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by nicholas
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
1. Christy Moore singing the Little Musgrave
2. Planxty Black album
3. Bothy Band 1975
4. PInt of Guinness in Mulligans
5. Pint of guinness Roadside Tavern Lisdoonvarna
6. Whiskey in the Jar THin Lizzy
7. Raglan Road Luke Kelly
8. Fiddlesticks Donegal fiiddle music
9. Scatter the Mud Eileen Ivers
10. My first Greek meal in Athens in 1979
Beat that!
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Shylock
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Yep, Raglan Road and Luke. And as for you, Nicholas - hows about my first glimpse of mountain avens on the sugar limestone on Cronkley Fell, or purple saxifrage on Penyghent, or any visit to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss. All with blues harp in pocket, ready to play Amazing Grace!
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
1. I'll join you nicholas for the bottle of Bailey's, number 1, perfect simply cold and on ice
2. Getting CD's in the mail from around the world - a big thank you to the wonderful people who have recorded and/or sent them - love you all
3. Getting time to play my fiddles - love the quiet times they bring in what is essentially a mad mad world
4. Looking at my fiddles/loving my fiddles - amazed that they are mine - luv 'em to bits xxxxxxx
5. Finding the track I'm looking for on eMusic - fantastic that the music is so available where it isn't (if you know what I mean)
6. Mt Sonder purple in the sunset - there is nothing so perfect
7. A long red road stretching ahead of the 4-w-d and mosying along it nice and steady but still leaving a trail of red dust
8. Stopping to pick up some beautiful red bubble-rocks - evidence of tides and its existance in what was once a huge inland sea - amazing how old and different a rock can be
9. Listening to the sound of water bubbling in the fish ponds
10. Mango! A heavenly heavenly fruit. Yummmmmmmmmm - breakfast, lunch or tea
Don't want to beat you Shylock, but these are heaven to me.
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Clear Drops
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
(not in any particular order, although the first was the best)
1. witnessing the birth of each of my four children
2. playing my doublebass on stage at Symphony Hall in Boston
3. standing on the field in Fenway Park
4. living in New England with the spectacular scenery
5. playing Taps at my father's grave and getting through it
6. the Guiness at my first session
7. being happily married for 30 years
8. finally finishing my Masters degree
9. surrounding myself with music, art, and literature
10. having the best job in the world (school music teacher, surrounded by hundreds of eager kids)
# Posted on September 15th 2007 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
1. The time I 'saw the light' to trad. music.
2. The time I first picked up and old, nylon string guitar and got a song out of it.
3. The time I realised that I could actually play a guitar proficiently enough.
4. The time I recieved my first 6 string banjo
5. The time I recieved my new and seemingly rare Parrot guitar.
6. The first time I went to a ceili
7. At the end of the ceili, when the session started and was the first one I'd ever actually been to.
8. The time I got tenor banjo.
9. The time I learnt my first banjo tune
10. Every time I learn a new tune.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by camwebby
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
When I got my first Walton's bodhran, the one with the Guinness logo on it, and realised that I was good enough on it within five minutes to join in all night at any session. Heheh. Sorry, it's Saturday night and the Talisker's just kicked in!
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Steve - been to Gordale Scar, but have yet to see the Teesdale mountain avens, never having gone onto Cronkley Fell.
I remember now the best pint of beer I've ever had, and it is a singularly strange choice.
It was the day after I camped atop Cross Fell. It was in a July heatwave in 1989. Up top, I'd needed all the thick "emergency" jerseys etc. I'd brought, just to sleep, so cold it was; but as I descended the west side of the mountain, the late morning heat kicked in. I was getting up a thirst; I only had one small bottle of water with me - I should have brought more: I'd assumed the fells would have lots of clean springs, whereas they'd largely dried up and/or been fouled by sheep. A long time later, a lot further down, I was exhausting myself climbing over obstacles along my path, and suchlike things.
Then I saw a pub. I also saw that it was about five minutes before what might have been the closing time then. I floundered endlessly towards it; it seemed to recede, as in a nightmare.
Eventually I got there. It was all right. They weren't going to shut, just yet. I propped up the bar, sweating shedloads, taking this in.
Their beer was Scotch. (I mean, that was the name of the brand.)
Scotch is a peculiarly horrible drink. It is the sort of beer only postwar pre-CAMRA Britain could allow within its borders, let alone produce. It caresses the palate and shears the taste buds like broken bottle-glass; it might well be made from the collected nail-clippings of local politicians' wives rendered down in the effluent from what's left of the chemical industry, plus the odd tannery; it is where bad scorpions go when they die; and so on.
But right then it was nectar. After a good rest I set out again for Dufton. I certainly thought then that it had been the best pint of beer I'd ever drunk; or at any rate, the beer I was most happy to drink.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by nicholas
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I didn't know you could get bottles of water in 1989! Ah, I remember that long, sunny summer, but we were in Cornwall by then. One of the best days of my life was in about 1976-ish, when my soon-to-be wife and I walked from Langdon Beck over to Dufton via Cauldron Snout, Moss Shop, the Maize Beck and High Cup. I'm almost inclined to say that those who know not this bit of the north country have a gap in their lives (but only almost, as I'm not my dad!). Sigh...
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
In no particular order.
bitterlings
swifts
stonechats
goldfinches
devil's coach horse beetles
hoverflies
arctic terns
cuckoo bumblebees
red kites
siberian tigers
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Steve - what I had with me was a plastic screw-top bottle holding about 1/2 a litre. I blythely assumed I could top it up from springs etc. at will - the reason being that I'd normally gone to that country in the cool 6 months when the hillsides are literally running with clean water. But on this summer trek I found this very hard to find. The heat had not only dried the small springs on the tops, it also posed a real risk of dehydration; so more than once I had to come down off a hill unduly soon so as to find water.
I should have taken appreciably more and/or bigger water-bottles, filled up first at home and then at water sources encountered. That was my big mistake on that trip.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by nicholas
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I'd love to list my top 10, but people will think I'm mental send me an e mail and ill send you the answers .............looking at others im not normal even lligs look ok in comparison
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Saint
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
1. imperfections
2. um....
3. Well, uh....
4. ....
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Will CPT
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Nicholas' story reminds me of a story told to me over a two kegs of a wonderful Munich microbrew at a friend's wedding at a hunting lodge on a mountain overlooking Tubingen by a cousin of the groom. He had been bicycling in the desert in Egypt some years earlier. Hot and thirsty, he came to a small grocery store. He went in, reached into the cooler, and pulled out two identical half-liter bottles of local beer. The first was the best he had ever tasted. The second was the worst.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by GaryAMartin
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Being six feet from Buddy MacMaster as he played a recital at Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp in 2001.
Playing our old standby with my fiddlefriend Jimmy for the nth time at a local session -- a "They ALWAYS do that set" kind of thing we have going -- and having so much fun playing it in the same old way that we were both laughing our heads off at the end for the sheer joy of it.
My amazing good fortune to have gotten marriage right, just the way I always thought it was supposed to be, the very first time out when I was 22 and crazy, an unbelievable 30 years ago.
Having the stars in the right position to have gone to my all-time favorite music camp, the Sunshine Coast Summer Fiddle School, this very summer. Being in Seamus Connolly's Advanced Adult class was exceptional, undoubtedly one of the finest learning experiences one could hope for.
Seeing my goddesschildren dancing to the music I make.
Playing unaccompanied, solo fiddle on the Alaska state ferry up the Inside Passage and generally being treated like a rock star by the crew; playing on the deck for a wonderful group of young people from Detroit to contradance as the gorgeous shoreline and tree-heavy islets rolled past.
Playing at celebrations of the full moon and the changing seasons, seeing my spiritual cohorts dancing as I played.
Seeing timid, traumatized cats we've adopted from shelters become comfortable and happy.
Growing an organic garden, enjoying its beauty and fruitfulness while knowing that in at least this one corner of the planet, the Earth is done right by.
Glancing out the window while playing and seeing that two adorable toddler twin boys, out walking with their father, were dancing to the fiddle.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by cathrynb
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I was going to list mine, but then realized that they pretty much all involve drinking
Pete
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Reverend
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Thank you, Pol, for starting this thread. It's a far cry from the usual schitt stirring that usually goes on here...
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Pretty much everything and anything between the night of the 12th and the morning of the 14th, just last week. After school I hopped a train, zipped up to Boston, and hung out in Armand's apartment before we met up with some more folks for Caoimhin o'Raghallaigh and Breanndan Begley, playing a grand concert at Boston College.
Understand - Caoimhin and I have been corresponding online for more than a year and I've been following his music apostolically for longer than that, so this was a big deal, seeing him live for the first time. We came in - late - and found that every seat was full. The answer? The kind hostess, who I had met once before, said, "There's some space right up front, let me get you a couch cushion." Up we went IN FRONT of the front row, and the second the man himself came out, he recognized me! Grand stuff.
Terrific concert, lots of talking, recording, awesome stuff in general. We had awesome dinner, headed back to the apartment, slept. Next day, we en-schooled ourselves, learnt a tune off our recordings, then caught a train to Rhode Island - where we saw Caoimhin and Breanndan again, at our fiddle teacher's house in Cranston.
Front row seats again! And not only that, but as a nod to us sorry pair that had to sit through them twice, they were kind enough to eh, change their entire program to new tunes. Lots of magic and surprises and a lovely time! I'm listening to the recordings of that concert right now, actually.
So the concert ended, people milled, people played...and then Caoimhin and I just sort of ended up standing next to each other, struck up a conversation, pulled up chairs, and meandered through life and all to, "Let's play a bunch in GDGD." We did, and it was AMAZING. Then of course, tuned back up to all fifths and played a bunch more - myself right next to him, and two bits of just me and the man. I even got to play his instrument before the night was out! Remarkable time.
So....my life pretty much completely flipped arse-over-teakettle and POW!
I play a lot differently now :D
--DtM
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Dan the Man
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
10 pints of Guinness!
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Jon_bailey
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Good list, for the music. I share a few of them in common.
The first time you heard a jig and five reels by the bothy band
>>YES!
The first time you heard the black album by planxty
>>YES!
The first time you sat in a deserted folk club in South Armagh and heard Liam Óg play air after beautiful air
>>It was Sligo for me, listening to some old travelling fiddler. I still wish I could play rather like the man.
The first time you saw James Byrne play next to you. He said with his characterestic kindness that he enjoyed your playing ( when you knew you were awfull)
>>For myself, it was a well-known piper, I was stumming my (apologies!) guitar, and he looked across the table and said something about , Keep going, what have you got? Then we jammed for awhile.
When you heard Paddy Glackin play Séan a Dhibhiir na Ghleanna
>>Not yet, it is now on my to-do list.
When in the Gaeltacht playing a session, people reply in Irish
>>YES!
The first time you start a tune in a session and people join in
>>YES!
The first time people say I enjoyed your playing
>>YES!
The first time you thought, actually I can play this thing.
>>Still waiting, I have nearly got the Butterfly where I feel comfortable.
And, I don't know, wives, kids, all that other stuff, that's good too
>>I would add Good Friends, but I think you implied that with "all that other stuff."
Plus:
My wife. My birds. My pipes. My fiddle.
Getting off the plane, and feeling that tingle and anticipation of not really having a clue about anything in a strange land.
My first pint at Myles Breen's in Limerick.
The next session, and the one after that.
And goldfinches. I am looking at about fifteen of them right now.
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Rook
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I'm not a great one for lists but I'll concur with the Planxty Black album and Luke Kelly "Raglan Rd"
and a crab sandwich and a pint of guinness in the beer garden at Kehoe's in Kilmore Quay was pretty near perfect in an Irish context
# Posted on September 16th 2007 by Bren
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
- a fun jam is a like a gem to me
# Posted on September 17th 2007 by morning star
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
I must add one more to my list -- last night's session. First-timer at this particular venue, and I had a grand time.
Good people, good tunes, they drew a nice pint, and I may have a new "mentor" with the ITM.
Does it get better?
Good Morning, all!!
# Posted on September 17th 2007 by Rook
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Here are a few choice musical moments, in no particular order:
Hearing Solas for the first time live at the Iron Horse Tavern in Northampton, MA (the old lineup including Doyle and Casey).
Hearing Battlefield Band live for the first time (the lineup with Davey Steele and John McCusker).
Attending the Gaelic Roots festival at BC--they were great times!
Cranking out some old marches with four other box players in the Catskills one summer (that session does not rank in my wife's favorites--it was a fiddle player's nightmare).
A session five fine players (and me) at the pub about five years ago, which just roared along at an incredibly high level.
Being in a band with my wife, with a current lineup that really clicks--everything about it--practices, gigs, craic---has been good!
# Posted on September 17th 2007 by AlBrown
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Fine and sincere posts by all. (might be a first).
Thoroughly enjoyable !! Thanks guys.
Chris
# Posted on September 17th 2007 by hauke
Re: The ten most perfect things in your life
Knowing that no one else uses my building’s roof deck at 7:30 in the morning, and no one has noticed that I go there every morning to practice.
The moment that a passage or a skill that I’ve been struggling with for months becomes effortless.
Living in an ethnically diverse community, which makes it possible for me to play Irish music and eat Thai food.
That the musician who inspired me to take up the fiddle recognized me when I saw him in concert.
Playing my ocarinas on the ferry to the Island, and being approached by a young woman shyly telling me that she had a fiddle and a guitar in her car, and would I mind if she joined me?
Working with clay.
Enjoying listening to myself play more every day.
My first session, at which I played four tunes badly but was encouraged to keep my fiddle out anyway.
My last session, at which I played more than fifty tunes, and at which newcomers gravitated toward me when they had questions about the music.
That my session is resuming this Friday, after a two month break.
# Posted on September 17th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious