Hi everybody at the Session!
Isn't it wonderful that - whereever we live in real life - we can all meet and particpate here e Session.
I'm so fascinated by the fact that the culture of one island in the middle of the ocean can "common ground" for people from all over the world - and that the web allow us all to meet at places like this.
Some of you probably grew up with this music, 'cos you live in Ireland or some other 'celtic' country or at least have some heritage to that culture.
Others - like myself - grew up under other conditions and have bumped into the music for different reasons - and got stucked!
I come from and live in Sweden. Grew up with the same misch-masch of western rock music as most people in the Western world.
My first "folk" -encounter was when I discovered the music of Jethro Tull and fell in love with the harmonies and the sounds of flute and mandolin. And the slight folk influences on the early Zeppelin records!
Next it was Planxty and some "real stuff". And after that there was nothing for many years. just a sleeping passion. Until a couple of coincidences gave me the chance to play the music. First as a guitar player in a pub band (you know whiskey in the jar and that kind of stuff) and later as whistle player in a more serious band. That's a small part of my history.
I'd love to know more about you, fellow Session partners. Where do you live, what brought you here to the Session, etc etc. Let us know!
We actually have a thread on this subject, but it's kind of buried waaaaaay back in the threads, so why not again? However, you can read about a lot of us regulars who've been around for a while in that thread.
Me, I'm from Denver, Colorado, in the States. I'm sort of a misch-masch myself -- I'm a Chinese American who happens to teach Irish stepdancing and play Irish fiddle. I like just about all kinds of music -- I've worked for Opera Colorado, my husband is a club dj who plays alternative/industrial/goth (so NIN is a favorite of mine, okay? heh), I played classical for a time in school (I lean towards the Baroque but like almost everything), and I once was in an a-capella girl group for whom I was the main arranger. I do a great deal of writing and have on and off for most of my adult life -- you can see some of my articles at http://www.celticcafe.com. I'm currently starting up a new project at The Cafe called The Hidden Note, which will highlight new and upcoming artists. Look for it in the next couple of weeks at the Cafe.
I'm a freelance web designer for a living (if you can call it that) and am something of a neurovore (I live on my nerves!). And I think Jeremy is a god for starting up The Session!
My name is Glauber Ribeiro. I live currently in the Chicago area, USA. I'm a rank beginner, trying to unlearn at least 1 old thing each week --- still have many years to go before i'm calling the tune changes in a session. Just joined my first session in meatspace, where i mostly listen. I play the flute. My main musical influences are Zina Lee, Will Harmon and Jörg "Rhymes With Work" Fröse.
I'm Toni and I'm from Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). My CV is not as impressive as Zina's, but here I go.
I used to play the guitar in my youth (pop/rock mainly) but I've always been fascinated for Irish music.
Then I joined of group of Irish set dancers in Barcelona (Irish and Catalan people) , the only one in Spain, as far as I know, and there I met my wife, a lovely irishwoman from Cork who plays the piano and was involved in a duo with a fiddle player.
So I got involved with Irish music at once, and shortly after I bought my first whistle and a bodhrán..
That was 5 years ago, and many whistles and sessions later here I am playing in a band with me wife and a couple of friends more. The band is called Timber & Tin, and it's about a year old.
I posted the link to our web site some time ago , which is under the Groups section. There are some samples in MP3 and Real Audio if you dare to listen to them.
I like the playing of Kevin Crawford (see the recent Lunasa thread), Paul McGrattan (Beginish), Tom Doorley (Danú), Eamon de Barra (Slide), Michael McGoldrick, Mary Bergin and of course Matt Molloy
Hi Lars!
My name is Irina. I'm also from Barcelona and I learnt how to play the whistle and the flute when I was in Galway studying at the university. When I came back last september I needed to find some session or somebody to play with, and then I met Toni and his wife and the rest of the band. It is great not playing alone once in a while!
There are a lot of musicians that I admire and listen to, some of them are Seán Tyrrell, Tommy Peoples, Harry Bradley, Matt Molloy, my teacher Noel Lenaghan...
Hi everybody. My name is Dave (Daver). I'm fairly new to "The Session", but I found it useful already in finding tunes and tips. I live in England and have played the guitar since I was a teanager, mainly ragtime type instrumentals. I have always been interested in music of all sorts, Hendrix, Zappa, Dylan, Beatles...
I have always maintained a keen interest in folk/traditional music and have been going to folk clubs and festivals since my early 20s. At the age of 40 I decided to have a go at the fiddle, I'm now 52 and play fiddle in a Barn-Dance band. I also play in a session that I started up some years ago. I'm not sure if my fiddle tecnique improves any more, so I practice in the hope of at least not getting any worse! One of my all time favourite musicians is Stephane Grappelli at the time when he played with Django Reinhardt in the 1930s, he just made it look and sound so easy. My favourite fiddle players include Kevin Burke, Mark O'Connor and Dave Swarbrick.
The fiddle has become somewhat of an obsession but it keeps me off the streets and I have made some good friends through playing. I love the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and England. I find that the ethnic music of other cultures also stimulating.
I'm often asked by non-folkies why I like folk music and I answer that the range of musical styles is so great that you can find nearly everything there, it's not just unaccompanied songs by old beardies. I like where folk music is at the moment, enjoyed by thousands for the music not for the fame and fortune. Although I would like to see more folk music programs on English TV, we seem to ignore it and appear to be somewhat embarrassed by it. Anyway session friends, back to work.
Hi to Lars and everybody else. I´m Mike Murphy and am an occasional contributer to the discussions of The Session. I´m from London (Sligo and Offaly parentage) and we always had what was known as "ceili music" at home. My mother played the fiddle but it wasn´t until my twenties that I took up the concertina when I saw Tommy McCarthy play in London. This was the thriving pub session scene of sixties London when you could quite easily run into Bobby Casey or Kevin Burke at a session. In 1969 I toured around the west of Ireland with some musician friends and we had the good fortune to meet and play with people that later went on to be superstars (Willy Clancy, Matt Molloy, Séan and James Keane, Paul Brady, Paddy Moloney, Sean Potts, and many more). Those people were very accesible in those days.
In 1973 I married a Spanish lady and came to live in Spain (near Bilbao). For a long time I didn´t play the concertina (raising a family, no other musicians to play with, etc.) but in the late 80s I got it together again musically and met up with local folk musicians and people interested in ITM over here. We now have a weekly session (Thurs) at an "Irish" pub in Bilbao.
I´ve played in several groups locally but dropped out when they began to go too "celtic rock" for my liking. I like the slow, lilting Clare style of playing, although I can play fast for sets if necessary. I also play quite often in France at weekends. There is a very lively ITM and set dancing scene in Toulouse, in the Lourdes-Tarbes area, and nearer the Spanish frontier in Les Landes. I go to Ireland (Shannon) every year in August to recharge musical batteries and take in the Mrs Crotty concertina festival in Kilrush. I play by ear but can just about work out ABC notation. I enjoy The Session discussions but when tunes are dissected and analyzed too much, my eyes begin to glaze over, although I respect and admire the musical knowledge of others. When I have fully got to grips with ABC notation and am a little more computer literate, I hope to contribute some tunes.
Good tunes to one and all,
Mike.
I'm Halldor, living in Oslo (Norway), so web-speaking we are almost neghbours.!
I started playing "violin" way back at age of 10 but at some point I quit , beeing bored of classical stuff that I did'nt feel ownership of it. However, I luckily got my fiddle out of the case in my student days in Trondheim (It was used as a model to build a 24-foot pink violin in a bath-tub-boat-race contest!!), and I really started enjoyiing playing folkmusic in a student group called "Snaustrinda" . The repertoire was mostly norwegian dance music (waltz, polka, pols and reinlender (=schottish)) with an occasional reel and irish twist. I started learning Irish music by trying out tunes from O'Neils. (I now have a hard time "re-learning them with an irish style!!)
Playing on a boat trip with this lively and crazy gang I met an American girl, who happened to play violin, and who joined the group. After marrying her we had the luxury of a one-year "honeymoon" street-performing Norwegian folk at the Norway Pavillion, Epcot Centre (WDW) in the Orlando, together with two accordians from this student group.
Back in Norway, I started going to sessions and I now spent a lot of time listening to music and doing my best to join in in at the neck-breaking speeds. One week at Willy Clancy's provided lots of ispiration. Recent highlights include a visit to Dublin before Christmas where the sessions and people at Gogharty's were espcecially friendly.
Having wife+2 kids, and busy working in the eBusiness & telecom field, I divide whatever is left over of time on irish and Norwegian folk (I play in a fiddle group counting 20 fiddlers +1 Swede) When not logging in to "The Session"I enjoy going to sessions at the "Dubliners Folk or other pubs or private sessions in Oslo.
By the way - my third musical dream is one day to master swing jazz fiddle. This weekend I'll be at the Oslo Django Reinhart festival to listen to goodies. Yum.
My name is Jörg Fröse (don´t mind the dots!), and I live in East Frisia on the North Sea coast. Some say it´s part of Germany but not many here believe that...
I am 42 now, not married, no children, but happily in love at the moment. The lady is the owner of my favourite pub here in Emden (real Guinness on tap, Irish session once a month, every first monday -- that´s an invitation to everybody. Let me know when you happen to come to this part of the world!)
I play trad. music for a living, but not Irish. There are too many brilliant Irish musicians living here in Germany, and I´m not brilliant! Mostly German folksongs and originals, but we try to make them sound good and interesting...
For me it all started in 1977 when I got my first guitar. Bob Dylan, Donovan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger (& the 5-string banjo), Earl Scruggs (and bluegrass), plus blues & ragtime. On folk festivals I met people with other funny-looking instruments and asked them if they´d allow me to try them out. If I understood the instrument at once, I started looking for one and finally bought it.
That way I have over the years added fiddle and mandolin (because it is tuned like the fiddle!) and later cittern to my arsenal. I also play squeeze box and English concertina but you can ignore that (the squeeze box isn´t B/C and the concertina is English, so there...), but they are my favourites (you don´t have to tune them!).
I love to play fiddle music wherever it´s from, as long as it has A and B parts (at least). I was lucky because I learnt to play first, and reading and writing it only a long while later, when it couldn´t do much harm to my playing and learning abilities anymore.
And my main musical influence at the moment is Will Harmon who´s made me practise bowed triplets on the fiddle again (funny, they have become better on guitar, but worse on fiddle!).
And now it´s 1 o´clock in the morning, and I´m going for my goodnight-Guinness..
Hi, Lars! Hi, Y'all! (I just borrowed a little Texas talk there.) What a joy to hear from each of you.
I'm Linda. I, like Glauber, am from the Chicago area. I grew up on Dixieland and Jazz and Big Band music which I love--you know, all the music that was popular in my parents generation and makes MY spirit sing. But, I spent many a year totally involved in playing guitar and performing European folk dancing, too. (That was BIG during the late 60's and all through the 70's...yes, I'm a "baby boomer".) I made a lot of costumes for the group. And I enjoyed immensely dancing the "Jota de Badajoz" and the dances of Germany and Scandinavia. To this day, if a tune sounds like a schottish to me, then I know it's a hornpipe. Eventually, I was taken with the speed and rhythms of the Balkans. (Anyone ever see the "Tambouritzans" of Pittsburg play and dance and sing that stuff? Incredible!)
But, alas! Living in Chicago and being in the folk dance scene, I still wasn't introduced to Irish trad music until 6-7 years ago, and, like you all, I was hooked. I started playing the bodhrán (not the guitar--go figure!). I'm not great at it; I've never been invited to be in a band, anyway, but I plan to be a "great" drummer, as Will has mentioned in another thread. I play an Albert Alfonso 14" drum by the way. Speaking of whistles, Glauber, I have a John Sindt whistle that I may eventually get around to doing something with someday.
Being in Chicago, there are a virtual plethora of Irish pubs to go if one wants to listen or play. In fact, Chicago is so Irish that we have a kind of unspoken competition between neighborhoods. There are the Northside Irish, the Southside Irish, and the Westside Irish. And, if Chicago had an eastside, I suppose there'd be Irish living there, too.
In real life, I'm a bilingual (Spanish) History teacher (12-14 year olds). Though most of my students are Mexican, I have a potpouri of kids from all over the world--Indonesia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and, of course, all the kids that are flooding into the States from India. I love what I do, though it is draining. At home I take care of my own 2 nearly grown kids and my elderly mother who are amazingly tolerant of my almost daily pounding on my drum.
And, someday I'm going to learn how to use the rest of this site. It would help if I knew how to use the computer better, I imagine!
What a great way to start my morning! This has been just great. My name is Cassie, and I live north of Chicago in Beloit, Wisconsin. I teach middle school choir and general music. I, too, had a secret love affair with folk music in the 60's and 70's while I studied (yawn) classical music. I started listening to and playing Irish music about 5 years ago. My husband and I went to Ireland about 3 years ago. He got sick and left me alone in a music store in Galway. I bought a concertina. When we got home, I sat in the basement with it for hours, crying in frstration. Then, one day, magic happened, and I got through a couple of tunes. I dropped in on a session down in Rockford, IL--and heard beautiful, beautiful conertina playing. That's how I met my teacher. I have since bought a better concertina, and a b/c button box, and have met many wonderful people through this music. I've attended Irish Fest summer school classes, and willingly drive to Madison, Milwaukee and Rockford for session. I took my conertina to Ireland this past November and had a lesson with Mary MacNamara, thanks to a reference from this site. What a great group of people!
Hi, I'm Sharron and I found irish music completely by accident. I never knew that such a thing existed, never mind sessions. I have a daughter who plays piano, alto sax, clarinet, flute cello,viola and anything she picks up she can play easily in about 15 mins. I find it so frustrating.
Well we went to a charity concert at her old school, and everyone played classical pieces until one girl finished her piece and followed it with an irish reel. I was stunned, I didn't know about anything that sounded like that. So off I went and rented a cheap student violin, got Pete Cooper's fiddle book and learned. My husband and I found out about folk clubs, but that wasn't what we wanted, but we eventually got there by asking about the type of music we wanted to listen to, then we found out that you could definitely NOT just listen, you HAD to play at least a token gesture. If you didn't , look out. So ready or not I just had to play my latest offering no matter how bad (and it was bad let me tell you) but the effort was really appreciated. Now my husband plays too, box and flute. Me, I still play the fiddle, albeit not the one I started with, a bc box and my latest instrument is the guitar.
It's coming up 3 years since I heard that girl play, but is has been the best, but most expensive (instruments) 3 years. To learn from scratch, especially when it's two of us with a common interest is amazing. You realise all the things you CAN do. All the new friends we have, and the biggest plus is that we can have our own little 'session' at home together if the weather gets too bad. We do live in the North-east of England.
Hey, Cassie! Hi 5 to a "neighbor" and fellow teacher! Where & when is the Rockford session? When the weather gets warmer (like next Summer) it would be fun to drive out there. It's ONLY an hour and a half's drive from me.
You've got tenacity, woman! Your story gives me hope that it'll fall into place for me, too.
And, Sharron, what I find amazing is that you could just decide to play a bunch of instruments and in a couple of years you do! But, all of you guys out there who have done that astound me. I can't imagine how without having extraordinary talent and determination. Kudos, you guys!
Hi Linda, if you don't know about instruments you just have to keep trying until you find something you gel with. We didn't know that a melodeon existed until we saw one being played. And as for talent, no, my daughter is the one with that, determination DEFINITELY.
Instruments we have tried on our search have been fiddle, banjo, mandolin, flute, piano accordion, concertina, melodeon and of course guitar. So between us we now have 2 bc boxes, 2 fiddles, 1 flute and 1 guitar. But my hubbie now fancies taking on something else, the thing is, what is there that we haven't tried already (sometimes several times).
It's just like being a kid in a sweet shop or a fun fair, where do you start if you haven't been before? Incidently our daughter HATES any 'celtic' music, so I actually suspect that is why she opted to go to university about 250 miles from home, to get away from us both practicing for hours at a time ;)
We both find learning very frustrating and slow but also very rewarding when it comes together. I've even lost count now of the amount of tunes I've learned. I got to 140 and then realised all the ones I play at sessions that I've picked up when joining in weren't on my 'list', so gave up counting.
It's a heck of a hobby, but maybe it's more of an obsession and should really of been posted under that recent link.
ttfn
Sharron
Hi, everybody and thanks for all your answers.
I really love to hear about you all!
I envy you who has a wife or husband who shares your interest. My wife is mostly into jazz and hates when I practice on the whistle. She begins to growl and my dog begins to howl. So it's a wonder that I've been able to learn the instrument at all.
I too likes to play different instruments. As I mentioned I started out with the guitar many years ago. Now I' m planning to take the guitar playing a step further by tuning it DADGAD or DADEAE. I've also played the electric bass. Now I love to play the mandolin and the bodhran as well. I'm a lousy player on those instruments, but it's the sheer joy of trying and discovering what you can do.
I've no intention to become a pro. I'm so happy being an amateur. It gives me the freedom to do and not do whatever I want. Learn a difficult tune if it gives me satisfaction. Or just let it be if it doesn't.
I build my own whistles. Mostly of aluminium. It's also a something I want to develop further. Next week I'll build a steam chamber and start to bend wood for bodhran rims. And later I'll try to build a mandolin and then a mandola and then.......
Ooops I forgot, I need time to do my job and some time to play on my instruments as well....
Lars
Hi Lars.
Pleased to see someone else likes to try different instruments, and to make them 'wow'.
Mind you I am pleased that I don't have a barking/howling problem as I have 8 dogs.
Sharron
8 dogs!!!!!! On this site, you better say at least one of them is an IRISH setter or IRISH wolfhound!
One guy came into our pub one night and said he sings and plays (on harmonica) the Blues. (He was really good, too!) We joked with him that if he was going to play that stuff in an Irish pub, he'd better call it the Greens.
Well, I really want to do very well on the bodhran. Once I reach an acceptable level (by my own evaluation...hmm! that may be never with my perfectionism. Maybe when my instructor says I've reached an acceptable level), I'd like to attack the whistle. I've got my Sindt whistle waiting for me in my bodhran case ("waiting in the wings" so to speak).
Hi Linda, No I am afraid not an Irish one amongst them. Why wait to pick up the whistle? I actually do spend a lot of time practising, but I find that even playing more than one instrument gives a much needed break and also seems to improve the quality of time I put in on each one. Somewhere along the line you fancy one more than the other and concentrate on that, then you tend to swop over and spend more time on another one. The thing is that because you have 2 totally different instruments you will probably find they will both come along quite nicely side by side without jeopardising the progress on each.
Remember what they say: Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
good luck from
Sharron and all 32 paws
Will Harmon here. At first I worried that this thread would be a repeat of the "Who's Who and Who Plays What?" thread that Jeremy started last fall or summer, but I've really enjoyed reading everyone's biographies here, especially so many fun and enthusiastic newcomers or lurkers revealed.
And I'm greatly humbled by Glauber and Jorg's comments. It is incredibly gratifying to hear that I've been able to pass along any helpful knowledge or information at all. It's a great reminder that all of us are links in the circle of Irish traditional music--the tunes we play and the techniques we use, and even the ways we think about the music have been handed down for many generations, from one player to the next. By participating in this online session, each of us joins that remarkable, age-old community. In short, if I've helped anyone here, it's only because really good players--Linda Danielson, Kevin Burke, Liz Carroll, and all my local session mates--have helped me.
So...I've played Irish fiddle for 20 years, after stumbling through piano, harmonica, drums, 5-string banjo, guitar,and mandolin. I've dabbled in classical, folk, blues, rock, and bluegrass, playing in a rock band through highschool, then in a bluegrass quintet during college. I also started teaching music when I was 15.
I first heard Irish trad music back in the 1970s, with the Bothy Band playing Farewell to Erin on Mick Moloney's midnight radio show out of Philadelphia. I've been carrying Irish tunes around in my head and urging them out of the strings ever since.
At 43, creaky joints and aging nerve synapses are taking their toll, so like Daver I'm just trying to slow the decline. I lead a local session and occasionally play a gig at a local coffee house or on stage for good causes, but I'm a writer by trade, and it's wonderful to play music simply for the joy of it.
Glauber, your enthusiasm for whistle and flute is one of the main reasons I've recently taken up these two instruments, and the new perspective has taught me stuff about Irish music I didn't even know was there. It's also rejuvenated my fiddling. Thanks for the inspiration!
Looking forward to another year of great sessions online!
Will
I never thought of it that way, Sharron. Thanks! That's encouraging. And give each of those 8 fur balls a hug from me. I love dogs though I don't have any of my own at the moment. I used to have English Springers, field trained, when I lived in the country.
And, I agree with you, Will. Reading these entries has been a delight. See what you started, Lars? Where is local for you, Will, may I ask?
Sorry, meant to say that after an army brat childhood (all over the US, three formative years in Naples, Italy), I now live in the center of the Irish universe--NOT--the self-proclaimed "Queen City of the Rockies," Helena, Montana, USA.
Well, I'll jump in here and introduce myself. I've been lurking for a while, and I guess it's time I actually posted something. I've really just started playing Irish fiddle in, oh, about October, but I've loved listening to it since I've known about it. I had the great fortune to spend a couple of days in Ireland in May, and hearing a real session for the first time gave me the impetus I needed to actually get a start playing Irish music, and the really nice community of people here in Bloomington, IN is a super place to learn. It's been an interesting road, so far: I started playing classical violin when I was 5 (my parents didn't ask *if* I wanted to play an instrument, they asked *what* I wanted to play). I really enjoy classical music, but playing violin never quite clicked with me although I played in various orchestras and quartets all the way through college.
My other musical love, however (now has to rival the fiddle!) is the harp. Again, began learning to play pretty young, 7 or so, and mostly have climbed the classical route. Since a pedal harp is pretty large for a small girl, tho', I played a smaller folk harp into high school and had a supportive teacher who encouraged me to play more traditional music for that style of harp as well as get the fingers in order for the canonical solo repertoire. So now I have a pedal harp and my "baby", a double-strung neo-celtic lap harp. It's not exactly traditional in any way other than it's a harp, but she sounds awfully pretty playing those aires! Any other harpers in the crowd?
In my other life I'm a graduate student of physics here at IU...which would be utterly irrelevant except that it takes up so much time that i rather be playing music!
Welcome aboard, Elia. Nice to hear from a harpist. It kind of makes the membership more complete to have you here. If you ever get up Chicago way, come join a few sessions.
Bloomington -- isn't that where Grey Larsen is from? If it is, and you hang out at his session, say hi for me, Elia!
Gosh...Glauber, I didn't say thanks for putting me on your list because I thought you were slagging me! *grin* Seriously, I'm not, am I? There's lots better folks (like Will!) to look up to than me!
Zina, how dare you suggest that you're somehow more worthy of slagging than I am! *grin*
Truth is, I consider you one of my influences too. I really appreciate your comments about the playing and attitudes of all those brilliant players you get to hang out with, and your work with the slow sessions--and posting it on the web--convinced me to set one up here in Montana, tho so far on a much smaller scale.
While it's true that any musician's approach to the tunes and playing will change (hopefully "grow") over the years, and there's no substitute for a decade or two of experience, I find that a person's sensitivity and openness to the music and to musical companions matters more than how long he or she has played, or how many tunes s/he knows, or how technically accomplished they are on their instrument.
The bottom line is that I know that my playing has improved because I've listened to what other people (including you) have said on this site. That's good news for us all because it testifies to the fact that each of us can hope to continue improving even after many years of playing, and that we're all capable of contributing mightily to one another's progress--newcomers can have something to teach the more experienced players, and fiddlers can learn from whistle players, etc.
It's amazing that this is possible over the web, without ever actually playing together. Imagine what we could do if we all sat down together in the same room...hmmm....perhaps we should start a more serious, exploratory discussion about convening a meatspace session among the cyberspace Session participants. I know not everyone would be able to make it, and it would be incredibly difficult to decide on a location. Maybe an annual US session, a Euro session, etc., and some years down the road, a grand meeting in Galway?
Oh Zina!
If you only could hear me and my dog when I practice the low whistle!
The wolf instincts in her tell her that I - the leader of the band - has started a howling session. Full moon or not...
So with the dog - the tin whistle is to prefer compared to the low whistle. And guess why I never pick up the harmonica anymore?!
But your right with my wife. Even she can appreciate some moments with the low whistle.
And the dogs breed...not Irish, but almost Scotch. She's a Shetland Sheepdog, combining the best of Viking and Celtic heritage, just like her master
Lars
Another lurker here, also a fiddler, also started classical violin at a young age (although not as young as you, elia!). However, a few years after starting, things happened, as they frequently do, and violin playing was one of the casualties. My parents were music snobs, nothing but classical and some (very) esoteric forms of jazz were allowed in the house. Add to that a cloistered environment, well, I was 16 when I first heard rock music. Bizarrely, that first experience with "unacceptable music" was Black Sabbath "Paranoid" (it was a gift - and no, my parents were not pleased . Major relevation, and off I went into the depths of musical depravity (aka rock and blues), not to surface for many years. During that period, there were a few failed attempts to teach myself an instrument, and then I decided to just stick with listening to others who could make music that was enjoyable to hear (unlike the sounds I made on the sax, yikes).
Then the 40s struck. I woke up on the morning of my 42nd birthday and had one of those ohmygod! moments - time was rushing by and letting crud from the past continue to muck things up was just plain dumb. I wanted to play music and had some training on the violin, so why was I just sitting around doing nothing? I bought a violin that morning, thinking blues or oldtimey (anything *but* classical), but Fate had other plans. Natalie MacMasters was playing in a nearby town that night, a friend suggested I go, and that was it. Boy, she sure can play, and not only that, she has the best time - it is obvious that she loves making music.
So, now every minute not spent at work or doing all those little things that you just can't get out of doing, is spent playing or listening to music (or reading back discussions on this site), trying to get a feel for what it is that makes a jig a jig - instead of just a bunch of notes strung together in 6/8 time. Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for a person not steeped in traditional music from the time they were a child to ever really "get it". I have to fight the need to play the music perfectly, exactly as it is written down on the page (learning by ear is so hard and sheetmusic so seductive) - leftovers from the classical training, no doubt. A glass of good single malt helps somewhat . But, I love playing and if I never quite get it, well that's ok, I'm having a grand time trying. Luckily, I live in a very isolated place (in the mountains in New Mexico), so there's no one to be driven insane by all the squeaking and squawking - although the coyotes sometimes howl and yip along. I wonder if it's in pain or accompaniment?
hmm, well, this was a ridiculously long ramble, back to work or I'll still be here tomorrow morning....
All right, all right, I'm completely embarrassed now, Will -- and of course a player can *always* learn something from another player, no matter whether they're an experienced player or a beginner. But I still think folks like Will and Jörg are better to hold up as role models than me! Most of what I know came from other players that are *my* own role models, indeed, so they can take all the credit.
But what an absolutely lovely idea about an annual gathering of The Session some where, Will -- we'll have to think seriously about that.
Elia, it's lovely to be a harper -- no matter how many mistakes you make, the instrument itself still manages to sound lovely! Not nearly as irritating as mistakes on other instruments. Someday I'll get back to learning the harp. Fiddle is the main focus right now, though...somehow it just seems right for me at this stage in my life.
Oy, for such a sparky lass, you sure embarrass easy, Zina.
I don't think of myself as a role model at all, more of a co-dependent really. *chortle* My head's full of Irish tunes, so I go around bumping into door frames and weaving across the yellow line just to hit the rewind button on a particularly juicy phrase (I thought DWI stood for "Driving While listening to Irish tunes") and neglecting my job and kids. Hardly a role model. It's an addiciton, no doubt. If you're reading this, you may be deeper in trouble than you realize. Just take this short quiz:
Do you play tunes by yourself?
Do you need a stiff set of tunes to get through the week?
Do you feel more sociable after belting down a few tunes?
Do you quickly put away your instrument when your spouse comes home unexpectedly?
Do you fritter away too much of your paycheck on your habit?
Do you ever fib about how much time you spend playing tunes--or logged on to The Session?
Seriously, I think we're all hooked on the music, and some of us just really enjoy spreading the fun.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No. (He's likely to pick up the guitar and start in if I keep going.)
Does it count if I spend both mine AND my husband's?
Er...I'm not sure anyone's ever asked!
Usually it's me doing the embarrassing, Will, not the other way round!
Me? Being a role model?
Actually, I am flattered... (and I´m going to let a few former girlfriends know who stood life with me only for so long, and then decided to give someone with a decent job a try...)
Well, I could have mentioned a few more of you as well, like Steve who made me try a new tuning on guitar, or Zina (don´t get red, it´s a compliment, but it´s true!). It´s a while back now, but your comments on the dance threads (and I´m not forgetting the others that also added their bits) have taught me more about the dancing side of Irish music in a few days than 20 years of playing it. Someone will always be at the top for a while, and then make room for somebody else. That´s what it should be like.
What always has attracted me to folk music, wherever it´s from, is the fact that it is possible for everybody -- whatever his or her level of skill is -- to participate in the fun. Real masters play tunes together with beginners. Better players start a slow session to encourage beginners and make learning tunes easier. Some old man, after enjoying the session and the company, sings his favourite song, basks in the limelight for a few moments, has another pint and walks home smiling... Things like that. Has anybody ever heard stories like that from a classical musician? Might happen in Italy though....
Okay, this healthy attitude has disappeared from certain circles, mainly because the number of incredibly good players (or the number of CDs on which they can be heard?) has grown so much that everybody seems to think a certain level of skill is necessary to take part in it. Which is true, it is necessary. But the actual level is a lot lower -- unless one wants to impress people like Sharon Shannon (I once tried -- and failed miserably!). Of course even the best players have a right to enjoy themselves, but some give the impression that what they enjoy most is showing beginners their place. A sign of a weak ego? The striking thing about that is, that the really best players in particular are the ones seeming to have no problems with that at all. (They are my role models!)
When you tell your stories about people like Kevin Crawford, and others that you´ve met, I get the impression that the elitists are far from getting the upper hand.. They are influential, but what keeps Irish music alive and kicking are people like us. And The Session is the place where all of it still works (more or less, like in the real world), and people with various skill levels can communicate, share ideas, ask dumb questions (and get dumber answers) and so on. So what attracted me to the music, and made me stay with it (though it´s not the easiest and most profitable choice if you want to earn your living by playing music) is the same thing that´s made me stay with The Session. Somehow all of you have managed to make me feel at home here, like being at the right place. Taking and giving, learning something from you and passing it on to others, either here or in meatspace (great term!), that´s what it´s about.
And the feedback we´re getting here from so many people -- like Lars and the other newcomers -- I´d say it´s a compliment to all of us (first of all to Jeremy of course)! Doubtless they all landed here for the same reasons.
The quiz:
1. Yes!
2. YES!
3. No to that one! I´m often aked: "Anything wrong? You don´t talk much tonight." I have to admit then that I was listening closely to the music. So music seems to make me less sociable. And the last tune that I heard or played before I leave the house seems to hang on between my ears for a long time....
4. Only if I was supposed to have finished washing the dishes by then...
5. What paycheck?
6. No need to, but I can imagine what it is like. Though, as far as self-discipline is concerned I´m anything but a role model (other than playing tunes, that is)
Addiction? Definitely!
Trouble? I´ve never seen it like that (though I know some girls did!) but, if it´s trouble I wish I could enjoy all the other sorts as much as I do this....( *grin*)
Zina, yes, Bloomington is where Grey Larsen is. By some strange twist of fate, I have yet to meet the man, but I have confidence that I will soon. And I do love it that the harp sounds good no matter what I do to it - not so with the fiddle. On the other hand, it's a lot harder for me to pick up the faster tunes as quickly on the harp...I consider myself a much better harper than fiddler, but my fingers seem to get in the way when I try to play dance tunes on the harp if I haven't learned them really solidly by myself first. But, heck, I can drone and I can chord!
Linda, that's a marvelous welcome, to hear somebody say that having a harper makes a community more complete. Thank you.
Great post Jorg. I always enjoy it when somebody posts the same sort of thing I've been thinking and feeling, and makes it all come across so well.
Elia and Linda, your conversation made me realize that one of the aspects of this online Session that I like so much is that it's more diverse than what's available to me in my hometown. We have every possible trad instrument represented here, people from many different countries, youngsters and oldsters, etc. Makes for a great circle--the friendliest on the Web and as welcoming as any realworld session I've been to.
Thanks, Will. I feel exactly the same about it when somebody else manages to do that.
Side effect: I can´t recall a time when I´ve used my English so much actively. I´ve always liked to read but there was a time when I did more of that. I didn´t have a car then and did most of my travelling by train. Today it´s mostly software manuals -- and The Session discussions....
Good lord! Jörg, I hope you're not counting on us for GOOD English! The President's English is nowhere what it could be or has been.
Elia -- so, why not make this a good reason to go to Grey's session? I understand he runs a good one. Tell him I've got plans and will contact Sandy in a bit, if you don't mind!
Zina - Supposedly, he and I will be at the same house party this evening...the only reason I haven't been to his session yet is my dratted schedule. If I get a chance, I will tell him hello for you and that you've, umm, "got plans for him".
Will - you're absolutely right...I know where to find a community of other harper/ists, but it is wonderful to find a diverse group of folks and instruments that still manages to have a community feel to it.
Who said I was looking for GOOD English, Zina? I´ve had years of that in school and later while I was studying to become an English teacher (which I didn´t finish, the chance of getting a job afterwards was exactly zero...) If what you write is anywhere close to what you talk like (minus the local differences) I´d very much love to be able to understand you if I ever get the chance to cross the pond...
Just go on like before (you can´t help but do that anyway, I guess/ hope/ look forward to). If I can´t make sense of something I´ll ask stupid questions again...
And Sharon Shannon, that´s years ago (we were both a lot younger then...). She just had her first album out, I think, summer of 93. I met her again in Rudolstadt in 1996 (biggest German folk festival, 20,000 visitors, definitely no place for a session meeting...) where I played that year too, but she didn´t give a sign of recognizing me (thank God!), and I was too busy with preparations for my own gig to make a fool of myself once more... Next time I meet her, I´ll offer to buy her a drink and apologize formally...
Actually when I thought my post over, I remembered why I came to The Session in the first place: it was mentioned somewhere on the net as a source of tunes. Only I find myself spending less and less time with the tunes section...
Funny, Jörg, Kevin Glackin said much the same thing about real sessions.... hehe...
I talk, I'm afraid, almost exactly like I write, or perhaps it's that I write exactly like I talk....long, parenthetical sentences that often lose track of where they were in the story and go piteously wandering off onto sidetracks that only come back to the main storyline when forcibly wrestled to it. Ask Dirk, or my husband Pete, they'll tell you how bad it can be. (It is a constant source of amazement to me that I ever worked as an editor, not only because my grasp of grammar is pitiful, but also because one of the main jobs of an editor is to chop down excess verbiage. Needless to say, I'm dreadful at editing my own pieces.)
Well, if you can get yourself into Denver somehow or other, you'll have a place to stay!
As we say here: You put a flea into my ear! (Hope you can make sense of that)
Last night in the pub I told my love about the -- very distant -- possibility of taking a trip across the Atlantic. And had a hard time afterwards to convince her to pour me another Guinness...
There may be more obstacles than I exspected...
My name is Hans, and I'm besed in Oslo, Norway (same as you, Halldor...). I currently play in a trio, Ugrass (Ditchweed, that is in english), together with a flute- and a fiddle player. I'm a bluegrass picker myself, lending what knowledge I may have to this irish/bluegrass/celtic band of ours. I grew up with my father being probably the only Norwegian making a living (more or less, that is...) as a bluegrass banjo player. I therefore started out playing the banjo-killer, also known as guitar on a Martin HD-28. I've now been playing on and off stage for about 13 yrs.
Apart from noodling on the guitar, I work as a copyright lawyer (paying my dues to the hand that once fed me), currently in the field of litterature. Being married and father of a 2 year old junior picker, I don't get arund to The Dubliner (in Oslo) and other such places as much as I might want to, but every now and then I may be observed on stage in some crummy little bar. My kind of bar, that is...
Happy spring time, everybody, and to those who deserve it; thanks for The Session!
Linda, Gray Larson is an American fluter (who lives in Bloomington Indiana). He wrote the tune Thunderhead, which you might hear a fair amount. Try http://www.larsonandleague.com for more info.
Kevin Crawford is also a fluter, he plays with Lunasa -- definitely one of the top fluters in the hot young player category. (He ably replaced Michael McGoldrick in Lunasa.) Lunasa's web site is http://www.lunasa.ie .
What's not knowing who some players are got to do with being stupid?
Thanks, Zina! I suppose a better word would be ignorant? There's just a lot I don't know when it comes to the names of "known" people or groups...a LOT! I've been hanging out in sessions for several years now and all these names I see mentioned here from time to time are a mystery to me. Lunasa?
Reeling all over the world!
Reeling all over the world!
Hi everybody at the Session!
Isn't it wonderful that - whereever we live in real life - we can all meet and particpate here e Session.
I'm so fascinated by the fact that the culture of one island in the middle of the ocean can "common ground" for people from all over the world - and that the web allow us all to meet at places like this.
Some of you probably grew up with this music, 'cos you live in Ireland or some other 'celtic' country or at least have some heritage to that culture.
Others - like myself - grew up under other conditions and have bumped into the music for different reasons - and got stucked!
I come from and live in Sweden. Grew up with the same misch-masch of western rock music as most people in the Western world.
My first "folk" -encounter was when I discovered the music of Jethro Tull and fell in love with the harmonies and the sounds of flute and mandolin. And the slight folk influences on the early Zeppelin records!
Next it was Planxty and some "real stuff". And after that there was nothing for many years. just a sleeping passion. Until a couple of coincidences gave me the chance to play the music. First as a guitar player in a pub band (you know whiskey in the jar and that kind of stuff) and later as whistle player in a more serious band. That's a small part of my history.
I'd love to know more about you, fellow Session partners. Where do you live, what brought you here to the Session, etc etc. Let us know!
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by lars
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars:
We actually have a thread on this subject, but it's kind of buried waaaaaay back in the threads, so why not again? However, you can read about a lot of us regulars who've been around for a while in that thread.
Me, I'm from Denver, Colorado, in the States. I'm sort of a misch-masch myself -- I'm a Chinese American who happens to teach Irish stepdancing and play Irish fiddle. I like just about all kinds of music -- I've worked for Opera Colorado, my husband is a club dj who plays alternative/industrial/goth (so NIN is a favorite of mine, okay? heh), I played classical for a time in school (I lean towards the Baroque but like almost everything), and I once was in an a-capella girl group for whom I was the main arranger. I do a great deal of writing and have on and off for most of my adult life -- you can see some of my articles at http://www.celticcafe.com. I'm currently starting up a new project at The Cafe called The Hidden Note, which will highlight new and upcoming artists. Look for it in the next couple of weeks at the Cafe.
I'm a freelance web designer for a living (if you can call it that) and am something of a neurovore (I live on my nerves!). And I think Jeremy is a god for starting up The Session!
Zina
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by Zina Lee
Reely!
My name is Glauber Ribeiro. I live currently in the Chicago area, USA. I'm a rank beginner, trying to unlearn at least 1 old thing each week --- still have many years to go before i'm calling the tune changes in a session. Just joined my first session in meatspace, where i mostly listen. I play the flute. My main musical influences are Zina Lee, Will Harmon and Jörg "Rhymes With Work" Fröse.
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by glauber
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars,
I'm Toni and I'm from Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). My CV is not as impressive as Zina's, but here I go.
I used to play the guitar in my youth (pop/rock mainly) but I've always been fascinated for Irish music.
Then I joined of group of Irish set dancers in Barcelona (Irish and Catalan people) , the only one in Spain, as far as I know, and there I met my wife, a lovely irishwoman from Cork who plays the piano and was involved in a duo with a fiddle player.
So I got involved with Irish music at once, and shortly after I bought my first whistle and a bodhrán..
That was 5 years ago, and many whistles and sessions later here I am playing in a band with me wife and a couple of friends more. The band is called Timber & Tin, and it's about a year old.
I posted the link to our web site some time ago , which is under the Groups section. There are some samples in MP3 and Real Audio if you dare to listen to them.
I like the playing of Kevin Crawford (see the recent Lunasa thread), Paul McGrattan (Beginish), Tom Doorley (Danú), Eamon de Barra (Slide), Michael McGoldrick, Mary Bergin and of course Matt Molloy
Toni.
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by Toni Ribas
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars!
My name is Irina. I'm also from Barcelona and I learnt how to play the whistle and the flute when I was in Galway studying at the university. When I came back last september I needed to find some session or somebody to play with, and then I met Toni and his wife and the rest of the band. It is great not playing alone once in a while!
There are a lot of musicians that I admire and listen to, some of them are Seán Tyrrell, Tommy Peoples, Harry Bradley, Matt Molloy, my teacher Noel Lenaghan...
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by aniri
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi everybody. My name is Dave (Daver). I'm fairly new to "The Session", but I found it useful already in finding tunes and tips. I live in England and have played the guitar since I was a teanager, mainly ragtime type instrumentals. I have always been interested in music of all sorts, Hendrix, Zappa, Dylan, Beatles...
I have always maintained a keen interest in folk/traditional music and have been going to folk clubs and festivals since my early 20s. At the age of 40 I decided to have a go at the fiddle, I'm now 52 and play fiddle in a Barn-Dance band. I also play in a session that I started up some years ago. I'm not sure if my fiddle tecnique improves any more, so I practice in the hope of at least not getting any worse! One of my all time favourite musicians is Stephane Grappelli at the time when he played with Django Reinhardt in the 1930s, he just made it look and sound so easy. My favourite fiddle players include Kevin Burke, Mark O'Connor and Dave Swarbrick.
The fiddle has become somewhat of an obsession but it keeps me off the streets and I have made some good friends through playing. I love the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and England. I find that the ethnic music of other cultures also stimulating.
I'm often asked by non-folkies why I like folk music and I answer that the range of musical styles is so great that you can find nearly everything there, it's not just unaccompanied songs by old beardies. I like where folk music is at the moment, enjoyed by thousands for the music not for the fame and fortune. Although I would like to see more folk music programs on English TV, we seem to ignore it and appear to be somewhat embarrassed by it. Anyway session friends, back to work.
Daver
# Posted on January 16th 2002 by Daver
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi to Lars and everybody else. I´m Mike Murphy and am an occasional contributer to the discussions of The Session. I´m from London (Sligo and Offaly parentage) and we always had what was known as "ceili music" at home. My mother played the fiddle but it wasn´t until my twenties that I took up the concertina when I saw Tommy McCarthy play in London. This was the thriving pub session scene of sixties London when you could quite easily run into Bobby Casey or Kevin Burke at a session. In 1969 I toured around the west of Ireland with some musician friends and we had the good fortune to meet and play with people that later went on to be superstars (Willy Clancy, Matt Molloy, Séan and James Keane, Paul Brady, Paddy Moloney, Sean Potts, and many more). Those people were very accesible in those days.
In 1973 I married a Spanish lady and came to live in Spain (near Bilbao). For a long time I didn´t play the concertina (raising a family, no other musicians to play with, etc.) but in the late 80s I got it together again musically and met up with local folk musicians and people interested in ITM over here. We now have a weekly session (Thurs) at an "Irish" pub in Bilbao.
I´ve played in several groups locally but dropped out when they began to go too "celtic rock" for my liking. I like the slow, lilting Clare style of playing, although I can play fast for sets if necessary. I also play quite often in France at weekends. There is a very lively ITM and set dancing scene in Toulouse, in the Lourdes-Tarbes area, and nearer the Spanish frontier in Les Landes. I go to Ireland (Shannon) every year in August to recharge musical batteries and take in the Mrs Crotty concertina festival in Kilrush. I play by ear but can just about work out ABC notation. I enjoy The Session discussions but when tunes are dissected and analyzed too much, my eyes begin to glaze over, although I respect and admire the musical knowledge of others. When I have fully got to grips with ABC notation and am a little more computer literate, I hope to contribute some tunes.
Good tunes to one and all,
Mike.
# Posted on January 17th 2002 by murfbox
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hei Lars - Hi everybody else
I'm Halldor, living in Oslo (Norway), so web-speaking we are almost neghbours.!
I started playing "violin" way back at age of 10 but at some point I quit , beeing bored of classical stuff that I did'nt feel ownership of it. However, I luckily got my fiddle out of the case in my student days in Trondheim (It was used as a model to build a 24-foot pink violin in a bath-tub-boat-race contest!!), and I really started enjoyiing playing folkmusic in a student group called "Snaustrinda" . The repertoire was mostly norwegian dance music (waltz, polka, pols and reinlender (=schottish)) with an occasional reel and irish twist. I started learning Irish music by trying out tunes from O'Neils. (I now have a hard time "re-learning them with an irish style!!)
Playing on a boat trip with this lively and crazy gang I met an American girl, who happened to play violin, and who joined the group. After marrying her we had the luxury of a one-year "honeymoon" street-performing Norwegian folk at the Norway Pavillion, Epcot Centre (WDW) in the Orlando, together with two accordians from this student group.
Back in Norway, I started going to sessions and I now spent a lot of time listening to music and doing my best to join in in at the neck-breaking speeds. One week at Willy Clancy's provided lots of ispiration. Recent highlights include a visit to Dublin before Christmas where the sessions and people at Gogharty's were espcecially friendly.
Having wife+2 kids, and busy working in the eBusiness & telecom field, I divide whatever is left over of time on irish and Norwegian folk (I play in a fiddle group counting 20 fiddlers +1 Swede) When not logging in to "The Session"I enjoy going to sessions at the "Dubliners Folk or other pubs or private sessions in Oslo.
By the way - my third musical dream is one day to master swing jazz fiddle. This weekend I'll be at the Oslo Django Reinhart festival to listen to goodies. Yum.
# Posted on January 17th 2002 by FiddleTramp
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars, hi everybody else!
(Hi, Glauber, how did I make it on your list?)
My name is Jörg Fröse (don´t mind the dots!), and I live in East Frisia on the North Sea coast. Some say it´s part of Germany but not many here believe that...
I am 42 now, not married, no children, but happily in love at the moment. The lady is the owner of my favourite pub here in Emden (real Guinness on tap, Irish session once a month, every first monday -- that´s an invitation to everybody. Let me know when you happen to come to this part of the world!)
I play trad. music for a living, but not Irish. There are too many brilliant Irish musicians living here in Germany, and I´m not brilliant! Mostly German folksongs and originals, but we try to make them sound good and interesting...
For me it all started in 1977 when I got my first guitar. Bob Dylan, Donovan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger (& the 5-string banjo), Earl Scruggs (and bluegrass), plus blues & ragtime. On folk festivals I met people with other funny-looking instruments and asked them if they´d allow me to try them out. If I understood the instrument at once, I started looking for one and finally bought it.
That way I have over the years added fiddle and mandolin (because it is tuned like the fiddle!) and later cittern to my arsenal. I also play squeeze box and English concertina but you can ignore that (the squeeze box isn´t B/C and the concertina is English, so there...), but they are my favourites (you don´t have to tune them!).
I love to play fiddle music wherever it´s from, as long as it has A and B parts (at least). I was lucky because I learnt to play first, and reading and writing it only a long while later, when it couldn´t do much harm to my playing and learning abilities anymore.
And my main musical influence at the moment is Will Harmon who´s made me practise bowed triplets on the fiddle again (funny, they have become better on guitar, but worse on fiddle!).
And now it´s 1 o´clock in the morning, and I´m going for my goodnight-Guinness..
See you at Thesession,
Jörg
# Posted on January 17th 2002 by Joerg Froese
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi, Lars! Hi, Y'all! (I just borrowed a little Texas talk there.) What a joy to hear from each of you.
I'm Linda. I, like Glauber, am from the Chicago area. I grew up on Dixieland and Jazz and Big Band music which I love--you know, all the music that was popular in my parents generation and makes MY spirit sing. But, I spent many a year totally involved in playing guitar and performing European folk dancing, too. (That was BIG during the late 60's and all through the 70's...yes, I'm a "baby boomer".) I made a lot of costumes for the group. And I enjoyed immensely dancing the "Jota de Badajoz" and the dances of Germany and Scandinavia. To this day, if a tune sounds like a schottish to me, then I know it's a hornpipe. Eventually, I was taken with the speed and rhythms of the Balkans. (Anyone ever see the "Tambouritzans" of Pittsburg play and dance and sing that stuff? Incredible!)
But, alas! Living in Chicago and being in the folk dance scene, I still wasn't introduced to Irish trad music until 6-7 years ago, and, like you all, I was hooked. I started playing the bodhrán (not the guitar--go figure!). I'm not great at it; I've never been invited to be in a band, anyway, but I plan to be a "great" drummer, as Will has mentioned in another thread. I play an Albert Alfonso 14" drum by the way. Speaking of whistles, Glauber, I have a John Sindt whistle that I may eventually get around to doing something with someday.
Being in Chicago, there are a virtual plethora of Irish pubs to go if one wants to listen or play. In fact, Chicago is so Irish that we have a kind of unspoken competition between neighborhoods. There are the Northside Irish, the Southside Irish, and the Westside Irish. And, if Chicago had an eastside, I suppose there'd be Irish living there, too.
In real life, I'm a bilingual (Spanish) History teacher (12-14 year olds). Though most of my students are Mexican, I have a potpouri of kids from all over the world--Indonesia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and, of course, all the kids that are flooding into the States from India. I love what I do, though it is draining. At home I take care of my own 2 nearly grown kids and my elderly mother who are amazingly tolerant of my almost daily pounding on my drum.
And, someday I'm going to learn how to use the rest of this site. It would help if I knew how to use the computer better, I imagine!
# Posted on January 17th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
What a great way to start my morning! This has been just great. My name is Cassie, and I live north of Chicago in Beloit, Wisconsin. I teach middle school choir and general music. I, too, had a secret love affair with folk music in the 60's and 70's while I studied (yawn) classical music. I started listening to and playing Irish music about 5 years ago. My husband and I went to Ireland about 3 years ago. He got sick and left me alone in a music store in Galway. I bought a concertina. When we got home, I sat in the basement with it for hours, crying in frstration. Then, one day, magic happened, and I got through a couple of tunes. I dropped in on a session down in Rockford, IL--and heard beautiful, beautiful conertina playing. That's how I met my teacher. I have since bought a better concertina, and a b/c button box, and have met many wonderful people through this music. I've attended Irish Fest summer school classes, and willingly drive to Madison, Milwaukee and Rockford for session. I took my conertina to Ireland this past November and had a lesson with Mary MacNamara, thanks to a reference from this site. What a great group of people!
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by woman of the house
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi, I'm Sharron and I found irish music completely by accident. I never knew that such a thing existed, never mind sessions. I have a daughter who plays piano, alto sax, clarinet, flute cello,viola and anything she picks up she can play easily in about 15 mins. I find it so frustrating.
Well we went to a charity concert at her old school, and everyone played classical pieces until one girl finished her piece and followed it with an irish reel. I was stunned, I didn't know about anything that sounded like that. So off I went and rented a cheap student violin, got Pete Cooper's fiddle book and learned. My husband and I found out about folk clubs, but that wasn't what we wanted, but we eventually got there by asking about the type of music we wanted to listen to, then we found out that you could definitely NOT just listen, you HAD to play at least a token gesture. If you didn't , look out. So ready or not I just had to play my latest offering no matter how bad (and it was bad let me tell you) but the effort was really appreciated. Now my husband plays too, box and flute. Me, I still play the fiddle, albeit not the one I started with, a bc box and my latest instrument is the guitar.
It's coming up 3 years since I heard that girl play, but is has been the best, but most expensive (instruments) 3 years. To learn from scratch, especially when it's two of us with a common interest is amazing. You realise all the things you CAN do. All the new friends we have, and the biggest plus is that we can have our own little 'session' at home together if the weather gets too bad. We do live in the North-east of England.
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hey, Cassie! Hi 5 to a "neighbor" and fellow teacher! Where & when is the Rockford session? When the weather gets warmer (like next Summer) it would be fun to drive out there. It's ONLY an hour and a half's drive from me.
You've got tenacity, woman! Your story gives me hope that it'll fall into place for me, too.
And, Sharron, what I find amazing is that you could just decide to play a bunch of instruments and in a couple of years you do! But, all of you guys out there who have done that astound me. I can't imagine how without having extraordinary talent and determination. Kudos, you guys!
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Linda, if you don't know about instruments you just have to keep trying until you find something you gel with. We didn't know that a melodeon existed until we saw one being played. And as for talent, no, my daughter is the one with that, determination DEFINITELY.
Instruments we have tried on our search have been fiddle, banjo, mandolin, flute, piano accordion, concertina, melodeon and of course guitar. So between us we now have 2 bc boxes, 2 fiddles, 1 flute and 1 guitar. But my hubbie now fancies taking on something else, the thing is, what is there that we haven't tried already (sometimes several times).
It's just like being a kid in a sweet shop or a fun fair, where do you start if you haven't been before? Incidently our daughter HATES any 'celtic' music, so I actually suspect that is why she opted to go to university about 250 miles from home, to get away from us both practicing for hours at a time ;)
We both find learning very frustrating and slow but also very rewarding when it comes together. I've even lost count now of the amount of tunes I've learned. I got to 140 and then realised all the ones I play at sessions that I've picked up when joining in weren't on my 'list', so gave up counting.
It's a heck of a hobby, but maybe it's more of an obsession and should really of been posted under that recent link.
ttfn
Sharron
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi, everybody and thanks for all your answers.
I really love to hear about you all!
I envy you who has a wife or husband who shares your interest. My wife is mostly into jazz and hates when I practice on the whistle. She begins to growl and my dog begins to howl. So it's a wonder that I've been able to learn the instrument at all.
I too likes to play different instruments. As I mentioned I started out with the guitar many years ago. Now I' m planning to take the guitar playing a step further by tuning it DADGAD or DADEAE. I've also played the electric bass. Now I love to play the mandolin and the bodhran as well. I'm a lousy player on those instruments, but it's the sheer joy of trying and discovering what you can do.
I've no intention to become a pro. I'm so happy being an amateur. It gives me the freedom to do and not do whatever I want. Learn a difficult tune if it gives me satisfaction. Or just let it be if it doesn't.
I build my own whistles. Mostly of aluminium. It's also a something I want to develop further. Next week I'll build a steam chamber and start to bend wood for bodhran rims. And later I'll try to build a mandolin and then a mandola and then.......
Ooops I forgot, I need time to do my job and some time to play on my instruments as well....
Lars
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by lars
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars.
Pleased to see someone else likes to try different instruments, and to make them 'wow'.
Mind you I am pleased that I don't have a barking/howling problem as I have 8 dogs.
Sharron
# Posted on January 18th 2002 by
Re: Reeling all over the world!
8 dogs!!!!!! On this site, you better say at least one of them is an IRISH setter or IRISH wolfhound!
One guy came into our pub one night and said he sings and plays (on harmonica) the Blues. (He was really good, too!) We joked with him that if he was going to play that stuff in an Irish pub, he'd better call it the Greens.
Well, I really want to do very well on the bodhran. Once I reach an acceptable level (by my own evaluation...hmm! that may be never with my perfectionism. Maybe when my instructor says I've reached an acceptable level), I'd like to attack the whistle. I've got my Sindt whistle waiting for me in my bodhran case ("waiting in the wings" so to speak).
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Lars, try a low whistle -- almost everybody loves the sounds of those!
Zina
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Linda, No I am afraid not an Irish one amongst them. Why wait to pick up the whistle? I actually do spend a lot of time practising, but I find that even playing more than one instrument gives a much needed break and also seems to improve the quality of time I put in on each one. Somewhere along the line you fancy one more than the other and concentrate on that, then you tend to swop over and spend more time on another one. The thing is that because you have 2 totally different instruments you will probably find they will both come along quite nicely side by side without jeopardising the progress on each.
Remember what they say: Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
good luck from
Sharron and all 32 paws
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Greetings all!
Will Harmon here. At first I worried that this thread would be a repeat of the "Who's Who and Who Plays What?" thread that Jeremy started last fall or summer, but I've really enjoyed reading everyone's biographies here, especially so many fun and enthusiastic newcomers or lurkers revealed.
And I'm greatly humbled by Glauber and Jorg's comments. It is incredibly gratifying to hear that I've been able to pass along any helpful knowledge or information at all. It's a great reminder that all of us are links in the circle of Irish traditional music--the tunes we play and the techniques we use, and even the ways we think about the music have been handed down for many generations, from one player to the next. By participating in this online session, each of us joins that remarkable, age-old community. In short, if I've helped anyone here, it's only because really good players--Linda Danielson, Kevin Burke, Liz Carroll, and all my local session mates--have helped me.
So...I've played Irish fiddle for 20 years, after stumbling through piano, harmonica, drums, 5-string banjo, guitar,and mandolin. I've dabbled in classical, folk, blues, rock, and bluegrass, playing in a rock band through highschool, then in a bluegrass quintet during college. I also started teaching music when I was 15.
I first heard Irish trad music back in the 1970s, with the Bothy Band playing Farewell to Erin on Mick Moloney's midnight radio show out of Philadelphia. I've been carrying Irish tunes around in my head and urging them out of the strings ever since.
At 43, creaky joints and aging nerve synapses are taking their toll, so like Daver I'm just trying to slow the decline. I lead a local session and occasionally play a gig at a local coffee house or on stage for good causes, but I'm a writer by trade, and it's wonderful to play music simply for the joy of it.
Glauber, your enthusiasm for whistle and flute is one of the main reasons I've recently taken up these two instruments, and the new perspective has taught me stuff about Irish music I didn't even know was there. It's also rejuvenated my fiddling. Thanks for the inspiration!
Looking forward to another year of great sessions online!
Will
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Reeling all over the world!
I never thought of it that way, Sharron. Thanks! That's encouraging. And give each of those 8 fur balls a hug from me. I love dogs though I don't have any of my own at the moment. I used to have English Springers, field trained, when I lived in the country.
Where is local for you, Will, may I ask?
And, I agree with you, Will. Reading these entries has been a delight. See what you started, Lars?
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Sorry, meant to say that after an army brat childhood (all over the US, three formative years in Naples, Italy), I now live in the center of the Irish universe--NOT--the self-proclaimed "Queen City of the Rockies," Helena, Montana, USA.
# Posted on January 19th 2002 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Well, I'll jump in here and introduce myself. I've been lurking for a while, and I guess it's time I actually posted something. I've really just started playing Irish fiddle in, oh, about October, but I've loved listening to it since I've known about it. I had the great fortune to spend a couple of days in Ireland in May, and hearing a real session for the first time gave me the impetus I needed to actually get a start playing Irish music, and the really nice community of people here in Bloomington, IN is a super place to learn. It's been an interesting road, so far: I started playing classical violin when I was 5 (my parents didn't ask *if* I wanted to play an instrument, they asked *what* I wanted to play). I really enjoy classical music, but playing violin never quite clicked with me although I played in various orchestras and quartets all the way through college.
My other musical love, however (now has to rival the fiddle!) is the harp. Again, began learning to play pretty young, 7 or so, and mostly have climbed the classical route. Since a pedal harp is pretty large for a small girl, tho', I played a smaller folk harp into high school and had a supportive teacher who encouraged me to play more traditional music for that style of harp as well as get the fingers in order for the canonical solo repertoire. So now I have a pedal harp and my "baby", a double-strung neo-celtic lap harp. It's not exactly traditional in any way other than it's a harp, but she sounds awfully pretty playing those aires! Any other harpers in the crowd?
In my other life I'm a graduate student of physics here at IU...which would be utterly irrelevant except that it takes up so much time that i rather be playing music!
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by elia
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Welcome aboard, Elia. Nice to hear from a harpist. It kind of makes the membership more complete to have you here. If you ever get up Chicago way, come join a few sessions.
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Bloomington -- isn't that where Grey Larsen is from? If it is, and you hang out at his session, say hi for me, Elia!
Gosh...Glauber, I didn't say thanks for putting me on your list because I thought you were slagging me! *grin* Seriously, I'm not, am I? There's lots better folks (like Will!) to look up to than me!
Zina
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Zina, how dare you suggest that you're somehow more worthy of slagging than I am! *grin*
Truth is, I consider you one of my influences too. I really appreciate your comments about the playing and attitudes of all those brilliant players you get to hang out with, and your work with the slow sessions--and posting it on the web--convinced me to set one up here in Montana, tho so far on a much smaller scale.
While it's true that any musician's approach to the tunes and playing will change (hopefully "grow") over the years, and there's no substitute for a decade or two of experience, I find that a person's sensitivity and openness to the music and to musical companions matters more than how long he or she has played, or how many tunes s/he knows, or how technically accomplished they are on their instrument.
The bottom line is that I know that my playing has improved because I've listened to what other people (including you) have said on this site. That's good news for us all because it testifies to the fact that each of us can hope to continue improving even after many years of playing, and that we're all capable of contributing mightily to one another's progress--newcomers can have something to teach the more experienced players, and fiddlers can learn from whistle players, etc.
It's amazing that this is possible over the web, without ever actually playing together. Imagine what we could do if we all sat down together in the same room...hmmm....perhaps we should start a more serious, exploratory discussion about convening a meatspace session among the cyberspace Session participants. I know not everyone would be able to make it, and it would be incredibly difficult to decide on a location. Maybe an annual US session, a Euro session, etc., and some years down the road, a grand meeting in Galway?
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Oh Zina!
If you only could hear me and my dog when I practice the low whistle!
The wolf instincts in her tell her that I - the leader of the band - has started a howling session. Full moon or not...
So with the dog - the tin whistle is to prefer compared to the low whistle. And guess why I never pick up the harmonica anymore?!
But your right with my wife. Even she can appreciate some moments with the low whistle.
And the dogs breed...not Irish, but almost Scotch. She's a Shetland Sheepdog, combining the best of Viking and Celtic heritage, just like her master
Lars
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by lars
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi All!
Another lurker here, also a fiddler, also started classical violin at a young age (although not as young as you, elia!). However, a few years after starting, things happened, as they frequently do, and violin playing was one of the casualties. My parents were music snobs, nothing but classical and some (very) esoteric forms of jazz were allowed in the house. Add to that a cloistered environment, well, I was 16 when I first heard rock music. Bizarrely, that first experience with "unacceptable music" was Black Sabbath "Paranoid" (it was a gift - and no, my parents were not pleased
. Major relevation, and off I went into the depths of musical depravity (aka rock and blues), not to surface for many years. During that period, there were a few failed attempts to teach myself an instrument, and then I decided to just stick with listening to others who could make music that was enjoyable to hear (unlike the sounds I made on the sax, yikes).
Then the 40s struck. I woke up on the morning of my 42nd birthday and had one of those ohmygod! moments - time was rushing by and letting crud from the past continue to muck things up was just plain dumb. I wanted to play music and had some training on the violin, so why was I just sitting around doing nothing? I bought a violin that morning, thinking blues or oldtimey (anything *but* classical), but Fate had other plans. Natalie MacMasters was playing in a nearby town that night, a friend suggested I go, and that was it. Boy, she sure can play, and not only that, she has the best time - it is obvious that she loves making music.
So, now every minute not spent at work or doing all those little things that you just can't get out of doing, is spent playing or listening to music (or reading back discussions on this site), trying to get a feel for what it is that makes a jig a jig - instead of just a bunch of notes strung together in 6/8 time. Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for a person not steeped in traditional music from the time they were a child to ever really "get it". I have to fight the need to play the music perfectly, exactly as it is written down on the page (learning by ear is so hard and sheetmusic so seductive) - leftovers from the classical training, no doubt. A glass of good single malt helps somewhat
. But, I love playing and if I never quite get it, well that's ok, I'm having a grand time trying. Luckily, I live in a very isolated place (in the mountains in New Mexico), so there's no one to be driven insane by all the squeaking and squawking - although the coyotes sometimes howl and yip along. I wonder if it's in pain or accompaniment?
hmm, well, this was a ridiculously long ramble, back to work or I'll still be here tomorrow morning....
Sosaidh
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by chicagofiddler
Re: Reeling all over the world!
All right, all right, I'm completely embarrassed now, Will -- and of course a player can *always* learn something from another player, no matter whether they're an experienced player or a beginner. But I still think folks like Will and Jörg are better to hold up as role models than me! Most of what I know came from other players that are *my* own role models, indeed, so they can take all the credit.
But what an absolutely lovely idea about an annual gathering of The Session some where, Will -- we'll have to think seriously about that.
Elia, it's lovely to be a harper -- no matter how many mistakes you make, the instrument itself still manages to sound lovely! Not nearly as irritating as mistakes on other instruments. Someday I'll get back to learning the harp. Fiddle is the main focus right now, though...somehow it just seems right for me at this stage in my life.
Zina
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Oy, for such a sparky lass, you sure embarrass easy, Zina.
I don't think of myself as a role model at all, more of a co-dependent really. *chortle* My head's full of Irish tunes, so I go around bumping into door frames and weaving across the yellow line just to hit the rewind button on a particularly juicy phrase (I thought DWI stood for "Driving While listening to Irish tunes") and neglecting my job and kids. Hardly a role model. It's an addiciton, no doubt. If you're reading this, you may be deeper in trouble than you realize. Just take this short quiz:
Do you play tunes by yourself?
Do you need a stiff set of tunes to get through the week?
Do you feel more sociable after belting down a few tunes?
Do you quickly put away your instrument when your spouse comes home unexpectedly?
Do you fritter away too much of your paycheck on your habit?
Do you ever fib about how much time you spend playing tunes--or logged on to The Session?
Seriously, I think we're all hooked on the music, and some of us just really enjoy spreading the fun.
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Oh dear.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No. (He's likely to pick up the guitar and start in if I keep going.)
Does it count if I spend both mine AND my husband's?
Er...I'm not sure anyone's ever asked!
Usually it's me doing the embarrassing, Will, not the other way round!
zls
# Posted on January 20th 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Me? Being a role model?
Actually, I am flattered... (and I´m going to let a few former girlfriends know who stood life with me only for so long, and then decided to give someone with a decent job a try...)
Well, I could have mentioned a few more of you as well, like Steve who made me try a new tuning on guitar, or Zina (don´t get red, it´s a compliment, but it´s true!). It´s a while back now, but your comments on the dance threads (and I´m not forgetting the others that also added their bits) have taught me more about the dancing side of Irish music in a few days than 20 years of playing it. Someone will always be at the top for a while, and then make room for somebody else. That´s what it should be like.
What always has attracted me to folk music, wherever it´s from, is the fact that it is possible for everybody -- whatever his or her level of skill is -- to participate in the fun. Real masters play tunes together with beginners. Better players start a slow session to encourage beginners and make learning tunes easier. Some old man, after enjoying the session and the company, sings his favourite song, basks in the limelight for a few moments, has another pint and walks home smiling... Things like that. Has anybody ever heard stories like that from a classical musician? Might happen in Italy though....
Okay, this healthy attitude has disappeared from certain circles, mainly because the number of incredibly good players (or the number of CDs on which they can be heard?) has grown so much that everybody seems to think a certain level of skill is necessary to take part in it. Which is true, it is necessary. But the actual level is a lot lower -- unless one wants to impress people like Sharon Shannon (I once tried -- and failed miserably!). Of course even the best players have a right to enjoy themselves, but some give the impression that what they enjoy most is showing beginners their place. A sign of a weak ego? The striking thing about that is, that the really best players in particular are the ones seeming to have no problems with that at all. (They are my role models!)
When you tell your stories about people like Kevin Crawford, and others that you´ve met, I get the impression that the elitists are far from getting the upper hand.. They are influential, but what keeps Irish music alive and kicking are people like us. And The Session is the place where all of it still works (more or less, like in the real world), and people with various skill levels can communicate, share ideas, ask dumb questions (and get dumber answers) and so on. So what attracted me to the music, and made me stay with it (though it´s not the easiest and most profitable choice if you want to earn your living by playing music) is the same thing that´s made me stay with The Session. Somehow all of you have managed to make me feel at home here, like being at the right place. Taking and giving, learning something from you and passing it on to others, either here or in meatspace (great term!), that´s what it´s about.
And the feedback we´re getting here from so many people -- like Lars and the other newcomers -- I´d say it´s a compliment to all of us (first of all to Jeremy of course)! Doubtless they all landed here for the same reasons.
The quiz:
1. Yes!
2. YES!
3. No to that one! I´m often aked: "Anything wrong? You don´t talk much tonight." I have to admit then that I was listening closely to the music. So music seems to make me less sociable. And the last tune that I heard or played before I leave the house seems to hang on between my ears for a long time....
4. Only if I was supposed to have finished washing the dishes by then...
5. What paycheck?
6. No need to, but I can imagine what it is like. Though, as far as self-discipline is concerned I´m anything but a role model (other than playing tunes, that is)
Addiction? Definitely!
Trouble? I´ve never seen it like that (though I know some girls did!) but, if it´s trouble I wish I could enjoy all the other sorts as much as I do this....( *grin*)
Jörg
# Posted on January 21st 2002 by Joerg Froese
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Zina, yes, Bloomington is where Grey Larsen is. By some strange twist of fate, I have yet to meet the man, but I have confidence that I will soon. And I do love it that the harp sounds good no matter what I do to it - not so with the fiddle. On the other hand, it's a lot harder for me to pick up the faster tunes as quickly on the harp...I consider myself a much better harper than fiddler, but my fingers seem to get in the way when I try to play dance tunes on the harp if I haven't learned them really solidly by myself first. But, heck, I can drone and I can chord!
Linda, that's a marvelous welcome, to hear somebody say that having a harper makes a community more complete. Thank you.
# Posted on January 21st 2002 by elia
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Great post Jorg. I always enjoy it when somebody posts the same sort of thing I've been thinking and feeling, and makes it all come across so well.
Elia and Linda, your conversation made me realize that one of the aspects of this online Session that I like so much is that it's more diverse than what's available to me in my hometown. We have every possible trad instrument represented here, people from many different countries, youngsters and oldsters, etc. Makes for a great circle--the friendliest on the Web and as welcoming as any realworld session I've been to.
# Posted on January 21st 2002 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Thanks, Will. I feel exactly the same about it when somebody else manages to do that.
Side effect: I can´t recall a time when I´ve used my English so much actively. I´ve always liked to read but there was a time when I did more of that. I didn´t have a car then and did most of my travelling by train. Today it´s mostly software manuals -- and The Session discussions....
Jörg
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by Joerg Froese
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Good lord! Jörg, I hope you're not counting on us for GOOD English! The President's English is nowhere what it could be or has been.
Elia -- so, why not make this a good reason to go to Grey's session? I understand he runs a good one. Tell him I've got plans and will contact Sandy in a bit, if you don't mind!
Zina
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Zina - Supposedly, he and I will be at the same house party this evening...the only reason I haven't been to his session yet is my dratted schedule. If I get a chance, I will tell him hello for you and that you've, umm, "got plans for him".
Will - you're absolutely right...I know where to find a community of other harper/ists, but it is wonderful to find a diverse group of folks and instruments that still manages to have a community feel to it.
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by elia
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Plans for him? Nahhh...just plans in general.
Jörg -- Sharon Shannon...man, does that woman wear some great clothes!
Zina
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Who said I was looking for GOOD English, Zina? I´ve had years of that in school and later while I was studying to become an English teacher (which I didn´t finish, the chance of getting a job afterwards was exactly zero...) If what you write is anywhere close to what you talk like (minus the local differences) I´d very much love to be able to understand you if I ever get the chance to cross the pond...
Just go on like before (you can´t help but do that anyway, I guess/ hope/ look forward to). If I can´t make sense of something I´ll ask stupid questions again...
And Sharon Shannon, that´s years ago (we were both a lot younger then...). She just had her first album out, I think, summer of 93. I met her again in Rudolstadt in 1996 (biggest German folk festival, 20,000 visitors, definitely no place for a session meeting...) where I played that year too, but she didn´t give a sign of recognizing me (thank God!), and I was too busy with preparations for my own gig to make a fool of myself once more... Next time I meet her, I´ll offer to buy her a drink and apologize formally...
Actually when I thought my post over, I remembered why I came to The Session in the first place: it was mentioned somewhere on the net as a source of tunes. Only I find myself spending less and less time with the tunes section...
Jörg
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Joerg Froese
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Funny, Jörg, Kevin Glackin said much the same thing about real sessions.... hehe...
I talk, I'm afraid, almost exactly like I write, or perhaps it's that I write exactly like I talk....long, parenthetical sentences that often lose track of where they were in the story and go piteously wandering off onto sidetracks that only come back to the main storyline when forcibly wrestled to it. Ask Dirk, or my husband Pete, they'll tell you how bad it can be. (It is a constant source of amazement to me that I ever worked as an editor, not only because my grasp of grammar is pitiful, but also because one of the main jobs of an editor is to chop down excess verbiage. Needless to say, I'm dreadful at editing my own pieces.)
Well, if you can get yourself into Denver somehow or other, you'll have a place to stay!
Zina
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Thank you, Zina.
As we say here: You put a flea into my ear! (Hope you can make sense of that)
Last night in the pub I told my love about the -- very distant -- possibility of taking a trip across the Atlantic. And had a hard time afterwards to convince her to pour me another Guinness...
There may be more obstacles than I exspected...
Jörg
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Joerg Froese
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Tell her the States is a lovely place to have a honeymoon, Jörg. Bet the tune would change pretty fast... heh.
Zina
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Okay, here's where I REALLY start showing how stupid I am: Who are Grey Larson and Kevin Crawford?
# Posted on January 25th 2002 by linda
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Hi Lars, and fellow pickers and players.
My name is Hans, and I'm besed in Oslo, Norway (same as you, Halldor...). I currently play in a trio, Ugrass (Ditchweed, that is in english), together with a flute- and a fiddle player. I'm a bluegrass picker myself, lending what knowledge I may have to this irish/bluegrass/celtic band of ours. I grew up with my father being probably the only Norwegian making a living (more or less, that is...) as a bluegrass banjo player. I therefore started out playing the banjo-killer, also known as guitar on a Martin HD-28. I've now been playing on and off stage for about 13 yrs.
Apart from noodling on the guitar, I work as a copyright lawyer (paying my dues to the hand that once fed me), currently in the field of litterature. Being married and father of a 2 year old junior picker, I don't get arund to The Dubliner (in Oslo) and other such places as much as I might want to, but every now and then I may be observed on stage in some crummy little bar. My kind of bar, that is...
Happy spring time, everybody, and to those who deserve it; thanks for The Session!
Hans
# Posted on January 26th 2002 by flatpick
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Linda, Gray Larson is an American fluter (who lives in Bloomington Indiana). He wrote the tune Thunderhead, which you might hear a fair amount. Try http://www.larsonandleague.com for more info.
Kevin Crawford is also a fluter, he plays with Lunasa -- definitely one of the top fluters in the hot young player category. (He ably replaced Michael McGoldrick in Lunasa.) Lunasa's web site is http://www.lunasa.ie .
What's not knowing who some players are got to do with being stupid?
Zina
# Posted on January 27th 2002 by Zina Lee
Re: Reeling all over the world!
Thanks, Zina! I suppose a better word would be ignorant? There's just a lot I don't know when it comes to the names of "known" people or groups...a LOT! I've been hanging out in sessions for several years now and all these names I see mentioned here from time to time are a mystery to me. Lunasa?
Linda
# Posted on February 1st 2002 by linda