In a recent thread, someone commented on the fact that some of us old craggy, beardy musicians ...... ". look like things I've grown in a stony allotment"!
Now I must confess, I do resemble that remark, but not that it bothers me in the least of course, after all, as a great philosopher used to say: "I yam what I yam"!
Anyway, I have a question for all the Beardy Irish Music bashers out there:
Did you grow your Beard BEFORE or AFTER you developed an interest in this Music?
I ask, because I actually started growing mine about 5 years before I ever even thought of playing music & I suspect I am not the only one.
So I'd just like to disprove the urban myth that all us 'Beardy Folkers' grew their beards in an attempt to look more Folky, or Traditional, or more like one of the Dubliners ..... or whatever!
Perhaps it is in fact the other way round & maybe, just maybe, all us free thinking radicals who sport beards, don't really give a $5!T what people think of the way we look, so we are less likely to be bothered when someone might laugh or scoff at us for carrying an instrument case ........ or playing Diddly Dee!
After all, being the nonconformist comes real easy to us, we're not like all ye other urbane blokes, who spend all that time looking at yourselves in the mirror each morning, shaving & applying all that modern Man Makeup & girly smells to your bodies!
Well I started groing mine back in 1960 & at that time I was playing guitar and into rock & roll. I am basically lazy and just can't be doing with all that messing around shaving and making my face sore. I was into caving at that time as well and it's well known that a lot of cavers have beards. So maybe a lot of folkies have tendancies to become cavers lol.
Me too Bernie, I can think of far better ways of wasting my time than all that standing in front of a mirror c£ap!
Mind you, I just don't get this 2 Day Shadow yokes or those wee Goatee jobees, cause surely they're bound to take up even more time than simply shaving clean each day!
Funny thing too, the Greek word for beard is actually pogon, so now I guess I can think of myself as a Pogan Pagan!
Of course, the ancient Greeks regarded the beard as a badge or sign of virility, while in the Middle Ages, a beard displayed a knight's virility and honour!
So at least, as we all know, they got that right!
In 1698, Peter the Great of Russia ordered men to shave off their beards, and in 1705 levied a tax on beards!
Well, all I can say is ............. Three Cheers for the Russian Revolution!
For the first time, I saw someone drinking red wine rather than beer at a session the other day. Some perhaps I'm not the only sessioneer who can't stand beer...
About 1970 I was watching my reflection in the mirror scraping its face with a piece of sharpened steel and though, 'What on earth is that idiot doing?' All those hours saved since I chucked the razor away have been better spent; and although I couldn't possibly say what on, there isn't much that could be more of a waste of time.
I could say that it took me several years as morris dancer to feel confident enough sport a beard and that I had to move on from the dancing before growing it to avoid the stigma of succumbing to peer pressure. But I would rather be thought of as the free-thinking radical that I am.
I'm certain you're right, Dick. Does it apply to music too?
I moderate a group about live steam model railways - bizarrely, after several years of talking, it came to light a few months ago that nearly everyone was also into folk music too! Anyone else on here into steam trains?
I grew my beard for my first job. I thought it made me look older and more experienced.
With regard to hats, its a Panama for me. I just don't have the sort of face that suits a flat cap. Of course, I would never wear a hat indoors. I don't think its socially acceptable to do that.
Oh, and people wearing hats at the dinner table annoys the hell out of me.
I remember it was a great advantage to be able to grow a beard at 14. I could buy liquor. Now I'm as clean shaven as a new-born. My wife and the extreme warmth of my location demand it.
Besides, I could never pull off the Luke Kelly look - I'd look like an unruly hobbit.
My fraternal grandmother wore a flat cap seemingly permanently. She also smoked Woodbines like a chimney which needed permanently testing and was not averse to tripping down to the local in her slippers with a jug to get it filled with stout (much cheaper than buying a bottle). She was also extremely fond of all-in wrestling, though didn't have much time for Adrian Street - she was a Mick McManus man.
Ian, my maternal grandfather drove steam locomotives for the Great Central Railway and, subsequently, the LNER. I can still recall the thrill of being lifted into his cab (at the age of five or six) and trundling down the track (at what seemed an impossible speed to my then young eyes) as the fireman thundered coal into the firebox.
Two of my greatest holidays included travelling on steam trains in Sri Lanka (now all diesel-operated) and exploring the narrow-gauge railways of Portugal (almost all of which have sadly been closed). There's a very well-known accordinist and concertina-player in Donegal who's an absolute steam trains buff.
MacC. one of my best friends builds exquisite large-scale models of Irish 3ft gauge trains - and passed on his love of such to me. He even went as far as returning trains to the Barnesmore Gap last time he was in Donegal...
I grew my beard during my long hiatus from playing, so "after I developed an interest in the music". I slept on someone's floor after a party (New Year's, coincidentally), didn't bother shaving when I got home, and then thought "why should I?". Mind you, my product is nowhere near as fine as yer man Ptarmigan's.
I do have a Greek Fisherman's cap, received as a gift befitting an avid sailor. I mostly wear it as part of one of my busking costumes. The first folky I saw wearing one was Tom Paxton, and I think it was to conceal an untimely shiny cranium.
The two geezers in ZZ Top definitely have the growth, but I wish they wouldn't do that wobbly-knees dance. It's an embarrassment to geezers everywhere.
I've grown a beard a few times, and found that a beard annoys me more than shaving does. I find a full beard uncomfortable for fiddling, escpecially since I don't normally use a chin rest.
Maybe I should invent a new beard style, with only the left cheek shaven. Might start a trend.
The husband won't grow a beard, although he has a fine set of curly sideburns, because he knows he'll get fewer kisses from me if he does. Sorry boys, but some of us have a preference!
I do like flat caps, indeed hats in general. I have a black leather one, which I wear at a jaunty angle. Mind you, I also have a tammy which I wear (in dress Gordon tartan) so don't be coming to me as any kind of arbiter of hat style and taste.
The Coast Guard cut my hair off at 18, and I always swore that when I was done, I would grow it back again. Throughout that time, I had your standard military moustache. Twenty-nine years later, when I left the USCG Reserves, I found that I had lost the ability to grow long hair, except around the edges. So I grew a beard. This was after I found the music.
Hat would be a blue baseball cap, with a red B on the front. Well, actually, it is more of a slate grey these days, having faded over the years.
Music came first. Beard is now down to knees. By this arithmetic, my playing should be a lot better than it is. A light combing of the beard, after long periods of neglect, turns up a veritable treasure trove of old cigarettes, dried up meat balls, missing chanter reeds and what not. (These grooming episodes can expand into hours of innocent fun.) For the person who was worried about their facial expression when they play -- let your beard grow!
"Sorry boys, but some of us have a preference!" Well, given the fact that I've never kissed anyone who actually sported a Beard, I'm afraid I can't comment.
I always guess it was a think of the sixties, if not the hippy's with there Flower Power - Then the Clancy' Bro's and Dubliner's with
there Folk and Diddle Dee music...so if you where in you late teens then, it was the fashion there.. Bit like in the early seventies wearing a light waistcoat and or a cap in traditional circles , ????
jim,,,
Nail Clippers are an essential piece of kit for most musicians, because of course over time, quite apart from the fact that they just get in the bl@@dy way, long nails damage the likes of fingerboards & the wood around Concertina Buttons!
Slainte! First post on here, this seemed like a good spot.
Started with side burns and a goatee about the same time I got my first guitar at 16. Never been baby-faced since.
Grew a full beard for St. Patty's a few years back and it stayed until just now I've trimmed back to a nice bushy set of mutton chops to hide the grey in the middle.
"I moderate a group about live steam model railways - bizarrely, after several years of talking, it came to light a few months ago that nearly everyone was also into folk music too! Anyone else on here into steam trains? " Ian
No, not trains, but Harleys, anyone else in to Harleys, old school bobbers, softail springers? ZZ Top beards are hip otherwise no
I've ridden the train from Boston to LA and back, twice now, but I don't have a beard. And fwiw, I chopped off my below-waist-length locks one week after I discovered the music, one year ago, which seems like the opposite of what should have happened, this being kind of a folksy bunch and all.
When we lived in Grantown on Spey, I often used to take my son on this, the Aviemore to Boat of Garten Steam Railway!
The scenery is also spectacular! http://www.strathspeyrailway.co.uk/
Thinking of the link between Folk Music & Trains, I don't know if any of them were/are Steam, but has anyone here ever played on any of the Folk Trains? http://www.hvhptp.org.uk/folktran.htm
It sounds to me like it might be a great way to combine two passions!
However, we do now have the Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway, but I've still to play a few tunes on it.
Must add that to my list of New Year's Resolutions!
Unfortunately, the line is only TWO MILES long, so I'd have to pick a very short set of tunes for the job! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giant's_Causeway_and_Bushmills_Railway
"Now the sheds are used for chicken coops, and Beastwood bought the track; and no matter how much you long for her, she'll never comin' back." Even all the way out here in California...
That one was funny, but I've growned concerned about how they've ramped up those challenges over the years, they're getting quite dangerous and I really don't want people to get themselves killed trying to entertain me.
Dangerous things, sports cars. There's always that risk (for some of us) of accidental death much the way Isadora Duncan died; except with a beard, instead of a scarf, wrapped around a back wheel hub.
I have a beard and I always wear sandals (with socks only in winter, my saving grace) and I write to and read The Guardian. Now bugger off - I'm trying to listen to Test Match Special.
Yes, no need to make it worse by driving on arctic ice, while taking live fire, or painting offensive messages on them before stopping for gas in a small redneck town.
I used to like steam engines -- but now I'm and ex-tractor fan. boomboom.
I was a train driver in an earlier life but I never wanted to be one, it just happened. (Thank you Mrs Thatcher.)
I was once buying a guitar after work and said to the bloke behind the counter, 'How about a bit of discount for cash?' He looked me up and down and replied without a hint of humour, 'I should charge you double for working for British Rail.'
I can't stand sport, cars or television, but I would happily watch cars driving across the channel. Great summer sport.
Steve, so far in this wonderfully eclectic thread, we've done our best to relate the music to such fascinating topics as Beards, Caving, Greek Fisherman's Hats, Flat Caps, ZZ Top, Beer, Model Railways, Panama Hats, Steam Trains, Kissing, Baseball Cap, Emoticons, Nail Clippers, Side Burns, Goatees, Harleys, Yamaha Dakar, Electric Trams & even Top Gear! All cool but .......
OK, I'll check in. Inability to shave properly, check. (The only thing that keeps me from growing an actual beard as opposed to stubble is the fact that I live in the sub-tropics.) Unhealthy obsession with trains, check. (You should see my sons' Thomas the Tank Engine collection, yikes.) Flat cap in thick tweed for cold, flat cap in thin fabric for warm, double check.
Oh my, well...this could all be quite frightening but I'll just take them as good signs!
Hack off the bird nest, lose the woven toupee (flat cap, baseball cap), then decide whether your 'stache is to be handlebar, pencil thin, or waxed and curled at the tips.
I grew a beard
For my little bird may build her nest.
And now that she has flown away
I shall mourn with shaven face
Until my little bird flys back some day
@ miner .. well by my reckoning, more than a third & almost half of the men in those photos actually had facial hair, so I reckon that's pretty high, considering any modern national average!
... & here's a staggering statistic for you.
The most Moustache-Dense Country in the World is India where, with its 1.2 billion citizens, some estimates suggest that as many as 80% of men in southern India wear a Moustache!
So there certainly is a lot of facial hair out there!
Of course I don't suppose many Indians play Irish Music, nor does Ireland actually feature in the top 10. http://www.readinggeeker.com/fashionman/?p=3902
It's funny how many Flute players you see sporting a Moustache, cause I'm sure a long Moustache would have to interfere with a Flute players embouchure, but that's no doubt why they keep them well trimmed!
Incidentally, in case you are wondering, no my Beard doesn't get in the way when I play the Fiddle, although it does tend to look a little dented by the end of the night!
On the plus side it also helps to keep my face warm, on the way home from the Session, on a frosty night!
Since I discovered this music while I was an enlisted man in the military, that meant I was clean shaven at the time.
I have had a beard for almost twenty years now because shaving is so painful and uncomfortable for me. No matter how careful I was or what I used, I always managed to cut myself somewhere. So I quit shaving and grew a beard a few years before the local Irish sessions started.
I don't allow my beard to become too long or ragged because I have to look halfway "respectable" for my job as a medical clerk in the intensive care unit at a hospital.
During the winter, I think of my beard as an all-natural, organically-grown chin warmer.
I am also a railfan because I grew up in a city which is a major rail center (Chicago, Illinois). I grew up thinking it was perfectly normal to take the train or the subway or the "L" instead of driving in a car when we had to go somewhere (especially if we were going downtown).
Then we moved to Arkansas and I had to adjust to using our car to go everywhere.
I prefer wearing hats with wide brims similar to cowboy hats because they protect me better from the sun than a flat cap or a Greek fisherman's cap. Yes I have tried wearing a cowboy hat and I didn't like it.
There definitely is a benefit to growing a beard; if you are loosing hair on the top a hairy chin gives enough hair round the face for a balanced look, much better than the billiard-ball 'slaphead' look.
IMNSHO.
Well, I would, wouldn't I ?
Urbane or Urban Myth?
Urbane or Urban Myth?
In a recent thread, someone commented on the fact that some of us old craggy, beardy musicians ...... ". look like things I've grown in a stony allotment"!
Now I must confess, I do resemble that remark, but not that it bothers me in the least of course, after all, as a great philosopher used to say: "I yam what I yam"!
Anyway, I have a question for all the Beardy Irish Music bashers out there:
Did you grow your Beard BEFORE or AFTER you developed an interest in this Music?
I ask, because I actually started growing mine about 5 years before I ever even thought of playing music & I suspect I am not the only one.
So I'd just like to disprove the urban myth that all us 'Beardy Folkers' grew their beards in an attempt to look more Folky, or Traditional, or more like one of the Dubliners ..... or whatever!
Perhaps it is in fact the other way round & maybe, just maybe, all us free thinking radicals who sport beards, don't really give a $5!T what people think of the way we look, so we are less likely to be bothered when someone might laugh or scoff at us for carrying an instrument case ........ or playing Diddly Dee!
After all, being the nonconformist comes real easy to us, we're not like all ye other urbane blokes, who spend all that time looking at yourselves in the mirror each morning, shaving & applying all that modern Man Makeup & girly smells to your bodies!
In any case, who says Beards aren't COOL!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/ZZTop.jpg
That reminds me ... I need a pair of Sunglasses!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I'm not craggy or beardy. I don't get what you're on about.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Well I started groing mine back in 1960 & at that time I was playing guitar and into rock & roll. I am basically lazy and just can't be doing with all that messing around shaving and making my face sore. I was into caving at that time as well and it's well known that a lot of cavers have beards. So maybe a lot of folkies have tendancies to become cavers lol.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Bernie
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Do any of you still sport Greek fisherman hats?
I do not know about your old neighborhoods, but hey use to be rather "folk scene mandatory" where I grew up.
Hang in there, gents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XWmwvT8bCw
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Piece
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I think the flat cap is the way forward myself. For the blokes that is.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Me too Bernie, I can think of far better ways of wasting my time than all that standing in front of a mirror c£ap!
Mind you, I just don't get this 2 Day Shadow yokes or those wee Goatee jobees, cause surely they're bound to take up even more time than simply shaving clean each day!
Funny thing too, the Greek word for beard is actually pogon, so now I guess I can think of myself as a Pogan Pagan!
Of course, the ancient Greeks regarded the beard as a badge or sign of virility, while in the Middle Ages, a beard displayed a knight's virility and honour!
So at least, as we all know, they got that right!
In 1698, Peter the Great of Russia ordered men to shave off their beards, and in 1705 levied a tax on beards!
Well, all I can say is ............. Three Cheers for the Russian Revolution!
When it comes right down to it though, all I'm doing is simply trying to emulate my hero .... Charles Darwin!
http://www.crystalinks.com/darwin.jpg
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I started growing mine in 1968 and I'm still waiting for it to fill in.
All the best!
Peace,
Ed
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ejsant
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Hey Piece, never mind those clean shaven dudes
These guys say it all with their:
Sharp Dressed Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_EFdod4YDo
... with their image, that's gotta include the Beard & let's face it 7,000,000 people can't be wrong!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I grew my first beard when I was 22 and got into the music when I 17 so...........................................
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by bazouki dave
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
By the way, I'm with Silver Spear when it comes to head gear. A Flat Cap is yer only man, but only outdoors ... not when I'm actually playing!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I don't understand Dave! Did you get into the music when you were 17 or 117?
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
For the first time, I saw someone drinking red wine rather than beer at a session the other day. Some perhaps I'm not the only sessioneer who can't stand beer...
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ian stock
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Ian, I gave up drinking Beer around 1984, so don't worry ...... you are not alone!
Nowadays, I usually just drink 'Red Diesel' ..... that's Blackcurrant, Ice & Water ... or I just drink Tea!
Yup, you guessed it, I have to drive to my sessions but also, I'm there for the Music ... not the Drink!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
About 1970 I was watching my reflection in the mirror scraping its face with a piece of sharpened steel and though, 'What on earth is that idiot doing?' All those hours saved since I chucked the razor away have been better spent; and although I couldn't possibly say what on, there isn't much that could be more of a waste of time.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by gam
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I could say that it took me several years as morris dancer to feel confident enough sport a beard and that I had to move on from the dancing before growing it to avoid the stigma of succumbing to peer pressure. But I would rather be thought of as the free-thinking radical that I am.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by David50
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
>>the free-thinking radical that I am
Amazing how many free-thinking radicals all come to the same conclusions - especially about facial hair
Ian
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ian stock
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Ian, perhaps it's simply a case of ..... Great Minds think alike!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I'm certain you're right, Dick. Does it apply to music too?
I moderate a group about live steam model railways - bizarrely, after several years of talking, it came to light a few months ago that nearly everyone was also into folk music too! Anyone else on here into steam trains?
Ian
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ian stock
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I also use a flat 'at for a less hirsute area but not indoors - or at folk festivals.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by David50
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I grew my beard for my first job. I thought it made me look older and more experienced.
With regard to hats, its a Panama for me. I just don't have the sort of face that suits a flat cap. Of course, I would never wear a hat indoors. I don't think its socially acceptable to do that.
Oh, and people wearing hats at the dinner table annoys the hell out of me.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ormepipes
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I remember it was a great advantage to be able to grow a beard at 14. I could buy liquor. Now I'm as clean shaven as a new-born. My wife and the extreme warmth of my location demand it.
Besides, I could never pull off the Luke Kelly look - I'd look like an unruly hobbit.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I am also a wearer of the flat cap, but it's just a coincidence. Nothing to do with folk music.
As for this: "I think the flat cap is the way forward myself. For the blokes that is" - how do you mean, for the blokes? Chicks in flat caps rock!
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
My fraternal grandmother wore a flat cap seemingly permanently. She also smoked Woodbines like a chimney which needed permanently testing and was not averse to tripping down to the local in her slippers with a jug to get it filled with stout (much cheaper than buying a bottle). She was also extremely fond of all-in wrestling, though didn't have much time for Adrian Street - she was a Mick McManus man.
Ian, my maternal grandfather drove steam locomotives for the Great Central Railway and, subsequently, the LNER. I can still recall the thrill of being lifted into his cab (at the age of five or six) and trundling down the track (at what seemed an impossible speed to my then young eyes) as the fireman thundered coal into the firebox.
Two of my greatest holidays included travelling on steam trains in Sri Lanka (now all diesel-operated) and exploring the narrow-gauge railways of Portugal (almost all of which have sadly been closed). There's a very well-known accordinist and concertina-player in Donegal who's an absolute steam trains buff.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
MacC. one of my best friends builds exquisite large-scale models of Irish 3ft gauge trains - and passed on his love of such to me. He even went as far as returning trains to the Barnesmore Gap last time he was in Donegal...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDpRy5tf6CQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Ian
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ian stock
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I grew my beard during my long hiatus from playing, so "after I developed an interest in the music". I slept on someone's floor after a party (New Year's, coincidentally), didn't bother shaving when I got home, and then thought "why should I?". Mind you, my product is nowhere near as fine as yer man Ptarmigan's.
I do have a Greek Fisherman's cap, received as a gift befitting an avid sailor. I mostly wear it as part of one of my busking costumes. The first folky I saw wearing one was Tom Paxton, and I think it was to conceal an untimely shiny cranium.
The two geezers in ZZ Top definitely have the growth, but I wish they wouldn't do that wobbly-knees dance. It's an embarrassment to geezers everywhere.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by oldstrings
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I've grown a beard a few times, and found that a beard annoys me more than shaving does. I find a full beard uncomfortable for fiddling, escpecially since I don't normally use a chin rest.
Maybe I should invent a new beard style, with only the left cheek shaven. Might start a trend.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
The husband won't grow a beard, although he has a fine set of curly sideburns, because he knows he'll get fewer kisses from me if he does. Sorry boys, but some of us have a preference!
I do like flat caps, indeed hats in general. I have a black leather one, which I wear at a jaunty angle. Mind you, I also have a tammy which I wear (in dress Gordon tartan) so don't be coming to me as any kind of arbiter of hat style and taste.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Red Menace
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
The Coast Guard cut my hair off at 18, and I always swore that when I was done, I would grow it back again. Throughout that time, I had your standard military moustache. Twenty-nine years later, when I left the USCG Reserves, I found that I had lost the ability to grow long hair, except around the edges. So I grew a beard. This was after I found the music.
Hat would be a blue baseball cap, with a red B on the front. Well, actually, it is more of a slate grey these days, having faded over the years.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Music came first. Beard is now down to knees. By this arithmetic, my playing should be a lot better than it is. A light combing of the beard, after long periods of neglect, turns up a veritable treasure trove of old cigarettes, dried up meat balls, missing chanter reeds and what not. (These grooming episodes can expand into hours of innocent fun.) For the person who was worried about their facial expression when they play -- let your beard grow!
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
"Sorry boys, but some of us have a preference!"
Aye, I agree with Michelle on this one.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
"Sorry boys, but some of us have a preference!" Well, given the fact that I've never kissed anyone who actually sported a Beard, I'm afraid I can't comment.
As for Steam Trains, I've loved them ever since this was waiting for me under our Christmas Tree, when I was about 9 years old:
http://www.vectis.co.uk/AuctionImages/351/606_l.jpg
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
You should explore these things, Dick. ; - )
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Why can't I ever get the winky smiley face? The only one that ever works for me is the plain one.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
In my experience, a lot of women like a few days worth of stubble, true beards aside.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
@ SilverSpear
: + - + ) =
; + - + ) =
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
TSS: you're putting spaces between the symbols. Drop the spaces and you'll get it. It's always good to get closer in any case.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
;+-+)
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I always guess it was a think of the sixties, if not the hippy's with there Flower Power - Then the Clancy' Bro's and Dubliner's with
there Folk and Diddle Dee music...so if you where in you late teens then, it was the fashion there.. Bit like in the early seventies wearing a light waistcoat and or a cap in traditional circles , ????
jim,,,
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by FIDDLE4
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
; + - + )
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Despite many years of playing ITM I don't appear to be sprouting a beard yet
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by cathycook
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
The beard came first, the music not long afterwards. I'm sure there is a link, both being given their opportunity by deficiencies in my character.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Speaking of grooming habits and music, I can't stand having fingernails of any real length, and keep them trimmed down to the quick at all times.
Anyone else like that? If I travel, I have to take nail clippers with me, I live in fear of being unable to trim my nails.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Nail Clippers are an essential piece of kit for most musicians, because of course over time, quite apart from the fact that they just get in the bl@@dy way, long nails damage the likes of fingerboards & the wood around Concertina Buttons!
I always carry a spare pair in the car!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Slainte! First post on here, this seemed like a good spot.
Started with side burns and a goatee about the same time I got my first guitar at 16. Never been baby-faced since.
Grew a full beard for St. Patty's a few years back and it stayed until just now I've trimmed back to a nice bushy set of mutton chops to hide the grey in the middle.
# Posted on January 2nd 2011 by jakeintox
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
"I moderate a group about live steam model railways - bizarrely, after several years of talking, it came to light a few months ago that nearly everyone was also into folk music too! Anyone else on here into steam trains?
" Ian
No, not trains, but Harleys, anyone else in to Harleys, old school bobbers, softail springers? ZZ Top beards are hip otherwise no
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Steamwilkes
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I myself have dabbled in model railroads at times over the years...
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
:-{>
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I give up
http://www.twistedmindz.co.uk/forum/images/smiles/smiley_beard.gif
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
(:-{~
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
(8-{)}
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
:-=
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by airport
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
This thread REALLY rocks - what an amazing spectrum of common interests.
I have a beard on (part-time, guess I lack commitment) -
I have ridden steam trains at opportunity since I was about six -
(me da works staff at a railroad museum, so this nut fell near the tree) -
I have into the motos since about thirty years ago, Harleys are my fave (but the fantasy bike is the Yamaha Dakar comp bike!
http://www.marathonrally.com/news/sa_dakar_2011_more_then_40_teams_to_compete_with_yamaha_bike_and_quad.17071.0.html
I am drooling for that bike...
And ZZ Top makes anything the rest of us do with whiskers OK by comparison.
http://pigjockey.com/2010/03/03/top-10-most-unusual-beards/
Happy New Beard.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Piece
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I've ridden the train from Boston to LA and back, twice now, but I don't have a beard. And fwiw, I chopped off my below-waist-length locks one week after I discovered the music, one year ago, which seems like the opposite of what should have happened, this being kind of a folksy bunch and all.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by sara505sings
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Especially for the curious ....... thanks to Reverend, on an old thread!
: - )
; - )
: - (
: - O
: - D
: - P
8 - )
Cheers,
Dick
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
For the Steam Buffs!
When we lived in Grantown on Spey, I often used to take my son on this, the Aviemore to Boat of Garten Steam Railway!
The scenery is also spectacular!
http://www.strathspeyrailway.co.uk/
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Thinking of the link between Folk Music & Trains, I don't know if any of them were/are Steam, but has anyone here ever played on any of the Folk Trains? http://www.hvhptp.org.uk/folktran.htm
It sounds to me like it might be a great way to combine two passions!
It's a great shame we don't still have the old Giant's Causeway Tramway up here!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant's_Causeway_Tramway
However, we do now have the Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway, but I've still to play a few tunes on it.
Must add that to my list of New Year's Resolutions!
Unfortunately, the line is only TWO MILES long, so I'd have to pick a very short set of tunes for the job!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giant's_Causeway_and_Bushmills_Railway
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Hmmm, well I'm not much into trains or bikes.
How about sports cars? Anyone else play racing games with a wheel and pedals, and watch Top Gear like foodies watch cooking shows?
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
"Now the sheds are used for chicken coops, and Beastwood bought the track; and no matter how much you long for her, she'll never comin' back." Even all the way out here in California...
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Can I admit to watching Top Gear? I'm not even all that interested in sports cars, but I like it when they try to drive across the English Channel.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
That one was funny, but I've growned concerned about how they've ramped up those challenges over the years, they're getting quite dangerous and I really don't want people to get themselves killed trying to entertain me.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Yeah, going through Iraq was maybe a bit dodgy.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Dangerous things, sports cars. There's always that risk (for some of us) of accidental death much the way Isadora Duncan died; except with a beard, instead of a scarf, wrapped around a back wheel hub.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I have a beard and I always wear sandals (with socks only in winter, my saving grace) and I write to and read The Guardian. Now bugger off - I'm trying to listen to Test Match Special.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
"Dangerous things, sports cars."
Yes, no need to make it worse by driving on arctic ice, while taking live fire, or painting offensive messages on them before stopping for gas in a small redneck town.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Marklar
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Any news on the beard glue front?
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
; - )
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I used to like steam engines -- but now I'm and ex-tractor fan. boomboom.
I was a train driver in an earlier life but I never wanted to be one, it just happened. (Thank you Mrs Thatcher.)
I was once buying a guitar after work and said to the bloke behind the counter, 'How about a bit of discount for cash?' He looked me up and down and replied without a hint of humour, 'I should charge you double for working for British Rail.'
I can't stand sport, cars or television, but I would happily watch cars driving across the channel. Great summer sport.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by gam
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
(...Still can't get it...)
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Leave out the spaces.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by gam
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Steve, so far in this wonderfully eclectic thread, we've done our best to relate the music to such fascinating topics as Beards, Caving, Greek Fisherman's Hats, Flat Caps, ZZ Top, Beer, Model Railways, Panama Hats, Steam Trains, Kissing, Baseball Cap, Emoticons, Nail Clippers, Side Burns, Goatees, Harleys, Yamaha Dakar, Electric Trams & even Top Gear! All cool
but .......
Test Match Special ............ don't be silly!
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Dick -
'' Baseball Cap '' -- Geordie McAdam spring's to mind - lol...
jim,,,
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by FIDDLE4
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Indeed Jim, especially when playing Old Time & Bluegrass up at the Ulster American Folk Park.
However, I've more often seen him wearing his old Fishing Friend ... the Tweed Trilby!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4883975464_d3266cc869.jpg
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
That's a classy chapeau!
OK, I'll check in. Inability to shave properly, check. (The only thing that keeps me from growing an actual beard as opposed to stubble is the fact that I live in the sub-tropics.) Unhealthy obsession with trains, check. (You should see my sons' Thomas the Tank Engine collection, yikes.) Flat cap in thick tweed for cold, flat cap in thin fabric for warm, double check.
Oh my, well...this could all be quite frightening but I'll just take them as good signs!
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
2011, The Year of the Moustache
No beards. No caps.
Hack off the bird nest, lose the woven toupee (flat cap, baseball cap), then decide whether your 'stache is to be handlebar, pencil thin, or waxed and curled at the tips.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
When choosing a moustache, you might like to check these out:
32 Facial Hair Types:
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2010/05/weekend_diversion_hey_beardo/beardtypes1.jpg
Sadly, all of them are far, far too neat & tidy & would probably look completely out of place at a session!
However, if it's just a moustache your thinking of growing, then you might like to choose one of these:
http://moustache.chrisvdp.com/moustache/image.axd?picture=2010%2F11%2FeRzxOQo1Loaa1cpaCYlKgoYbo1_500.jpg
Or, why not go the whole hog:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_3JLy947TKiI/STV0w7xju6I/AAAAAAAAw9I/9NHqLk09bCI/s800/197103image001.jpg
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
not many beards here in this arbitrary selection
http://www.jimmaginn.com/diddileedee/
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by harmonic miner
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Ptarmigan, I'll see your Strathspey, and raise you a Royal Hudson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oClHkOYekak&feature=related
For steam buffs, further info is here:
http://www.rrsites.com/royalhudson/
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by oldstrings
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Ptarmigan—
You have found so many moustache options that none of us has an excuse for not finding one to go with through 2011.
Personally, I'm leaning toward a Joe Stalin 'stache, for the air of unquestioned authority it'd allow me to exude. At last.
# Posted on January 3rd 2011 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I grew a beard
For my little bird may build her nest.
And now that she has flown away
I shall mourn with shaven face
Until my little bird flys back some day
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Gone to work
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Um, Peace, isn't that a little too explicit for a Family website?
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by oldstrings
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
@ miner .. well by my reckoning, more than a third & almost half of the men in those photos actually had facial hair, so I reckon that's pretty high, considering any modern national average!
Perhaps this guy has it right?
Correlation between facial hair and communism!
http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=35367
... & here's a staggering statistic for you.
The most Moustache-Dense Country in the World is India where, with its 1.2 billion citizens, some estimates suggest that as many as 80% of men in southern India wear a Moustache!
So there certainly is a lot of facial hair out there!
Of course I don't suppose many Indians play Irish Music, nor does Ireland actually feature in the top 10.
http://www.readinggeeker.com/fashionman/?p=3902
Incidentally, did anyone here feature in:
Beardo The Movie!
A documentary on the World Beard & Moustache Championships!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8s7rEBXSyQ
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Ptarmigan
Ital white...
Beards?!
Hair?!
HA HA HA HA !
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Hey yhaalhouse .... Ugly Chins?!, Dimples?!, Warts?!, Plukes?!, Acne?!, Age Spots?!, Birth Marks?!, Moles?!, Scars?!, Wrinkles?! etc etc
..... us Beardy Boys don't have to feel self-conscious about any of these, so we are able to just concentrate our thoughts on our music, when we play!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
& in case you are wondering ... Yes, I have all of those, but you would never know, because .............. I have a Big Beard!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
It's funny how many Flute players you see sporting a Moustache, cause I'm sure a long Moustache would have to interfere with a Flute players embouchure, but that's no doubt why they keep them well trimmed!
http://vinterfestival.hit.no/images/Vallely.jpg
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/Images/flute_1c.jpg
http://oakaccommodation.com/images/matt-molloy.jpg
http://www.rogermillington.com/bignight/pics/brad1.jpg
http://www.go386.com/music/images/GROO120ACC.JPG
http://www.whistleanddrum.com/images/melbay/larsen.jpg
http://www.mally.com/gallery/JAS07/Miltown/miltown054.jpg
http://fineartamerica.com/images-small/irish-flute-player-bob-salo.jpg
http://fineartamerica.com/images-small/blue-melody-bob-salo.jpg
& of course:
http://i2.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/lens7199312_1253912378James-Galway.jpg
Incidentally, in case you are wondering, no my Beard doesn't get in the way when I play the Fiddle, although it does tend to look a little dented by the end of the night!
On the plus side it also helps to keep my face warm, on the way home from the Session, on a frosty night!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Ptarmigan
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
What happens underneath a flautist's mustache STAYS there.
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by Piece
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
>>Royal Hudson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oClHkOYekak&feature=related
Bizarre - a North American train running along the Kyle-Inverness line
# Posted on January 4th 2011 by ian stock
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
Since I discovered this music while I was an enlisted man in the military, that meant I was clean shaven at the time.
I have had a beard for almost twenty years now because shaving is so painful and uncomfortable for me. No matter how careful I was or what I used, I always managed to cut myself somewhere. So I quit shaving and grew a beard a few years before the local Irish sessions started.
I don't allow my beard to become too long or ragged because I have to look halfway "respectable" for my job as a medical clerk in the intensive care unit at a hospital.
During the winter, I think of my beard as an all-natural, organically-grown chin warmer.
I am also a railfan because I grew up in a city which is a major rail center (Chicago, Illinois). I grew up thinking it was perfectly normal to take the train or the subway or the "L" instead of driving in a car when we had to go somewhere (especially if we were going downtown).
Then we moved to Arkansas and I had to adjust to using our car to go everywhere.
Laurence
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by fauxcelt
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
I prefer wearing hats with wide brims similar to cowboy hats because they protect me better from the sun than a flat cap or a Greek fisherman's cap. Yes I have tried wearing a cowboy hat and I didn't like it.
Laurence
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by fauxcelt
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
There definitely is a benefit to growing a beard; if you are loosing hair on the top a hairy chin gives enough hair round the face for a balanced look, much better than the billiard-ball 'slaphead' look.
IMNSHO.
Well, I would, wouldn't I ?
# Posted on January 10th 2011 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Urbane or Urban Myth?
@ Guernsey Pete ... except for the fact that it makes you look like your head is on .... upside down!
.... & yes Pete, I speak from personal experience!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on January 10th 2011 by Ptarmigan