I'd say here in the states we've got a variety of styles to jam to if there's not an Irish session available. Here in Michigan there's bluegrass, old timey, swing, etc. all available to the person who wants to take the time to learn the tunes or pick up a local paper to find them. How much variety is there around the world to those who get tired (perish the thought!) of ITM?
Re: Something other than ITM, in North Antrim - not really?
Like yourself jrathbun, I play ye olde HD, but it's not my first instrument. Unlike you, I only really have ITM session's to go to here, in North Antrim, Ulster.
The only variation to that would be when I instigate a Scottish Session, with a local Scottish Smallpipes player, or our local Northumbrian Piper comes out of the woodwork. However, I organise those, not because I'm tired of ITM, but simply because I also like STM & always enjoy playing with pipers - what fiddler doesn't?
As for bluegrass & old timey, I believe there are sessions for those forms down the road a piece in Belfast, but they're not close enough for me to go sessioning at them.
Years ago I played Bluegrass as well as Irish. I'd love to still play both but Bluegrass here in England is a bit of a rarety. Personally I'd like to see more sessions where people are playing a wide variety of traditional music types. I'd have a go at all of them.
Hey 'halfirish' - quarterirish here Good to see another 50 something on the big Mustard page.
Well, on the positive side, I suppose it makes for an interesting session when there's a variety of music being played. But I think, if is going to work at all, the session needs to be more one thing than another, or it never really gets out of 2nd gear.
I always think it's a bit like a 50/50 split of singers/musicians when neither group really fully gets going. 80/20 either way works fine in my book, & naturally I'd prefer if the larger % were musicians. So, I think the same would apply to a Bluegrass/ITM session.
P. S. halfirish, I hope that principal doesn't also apply to our own ancestral make up, cause if so, my 75/25 Scots/Irish make up means I'm OK, but your 50/50 Irish/? means your in big trouble!
But hey, don't have a sleepless night over that thought, just have a wee glass o' 'Black Bush', and you'll be fine!
I enjoy going to an English session once a fortnight, at which I'm often the sole fiddle. It's worth bearing in mind that a number of apparently "English" tunes have Irish antecedents or close equivalents.
Trevor_J, would it not also be true to say that many Irish tunes in fact have English antecedents too? For example, I'm under the impression that many of ITM's hornpipes started out as English tunes.
I wonder, from your own experiences, have you noticed this to be true? ..............................but wait, is that Dow's foorsteps I hear....................
I've heard more than once that many Irish traditional tunes are actually Scottish in origin....
The British Isles are not exactly thousands of miles apart, correct? Wasn't St. Patrick really a Welshman (or, according to some, a Roman who was born in Wales)? There must have been a lot of cross-pollination, over the centuries. Like it or not.
But back to the topic--there's a lot of old-timey and bluegrass fiddling done around here (NW U.S.) and some of my ancestors were early Kentuckians, but I seem to prefer Irish/Scottish/Welsh fiddle tunes over American ones. Why do you suppose that is?
Overhere (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) we have a session once a month at the Parnas-café.
It started with continental music (Dutch/French/Scandinavian) and later ITM folks joined us.
So now it's a mixture of Irish pipes, c(h)abrettes, string instruments, free reeds and flutes all together. Hopping between "Banish misfortune" and "Les garçons de la montagne".
St Patrick is also supposed to have been born in Banwell, a small village near the coast in Somerset (West of England), less than 30 minutes drive from where I live.
The English session I go to has a nice mix of Irish and Scottish tunes.
I'm positively encouraged at the various mixes of trad. music that are apparently pursued by folks here and abroad. Since the demise of old fashioned traditional folk clubs, quite a while ago, the 'session' is the only forum left for trad music of all kinds to be brought to the ears of fellow Guinness Drinkers everywhere. So let's mix it up a bit, and let's also have a bit of unaccompanied singing and a few sea shanties thrown in (preferably in 4 part harmony).
Having close links with Holland myself, I'm impressed with what Bart's friends are doing over there. We should all be a bit more like that.
I think overall though, musicians will be with my quarter Irish friend, Ptarmagan, on this one - ITM is the preference but put a banjo on mi' lap and I can't resist slipping on my finger picks for a bit of Bluegrass. Now I know this crowd here are inclined to dis' banjo players (for a bit of fun, I hope) but there's a terrific amount of skill required to pick out a bluegrass number, so I won't have a bad word said against 'em. So I'm very much with Jim (post before last).
Now that I'm on to the Uilleann pipes, I'm going to be rapidly switching from The Mountain Road Reel on the pipes, to Foggy Mountain Breakdown on the bano and then to Rubben Ranzo unaccompanied. All keeping up?
I just got home from a small kitchen session that lasted six hours. We played Old Time, Irish, French and Cajun tunes on fiddles, mando and guitar and sang Irish, Scottish and Appalachian ballads, Sacred Harp hymns and a few modern songs in various traditional styles. Not to mention a healthy (or unhealthy?) dose of body percussion.
Hmmmmm Bob, tell us more about this "body percussion"? Were you 'persussing' someone else's body, or just doing it to yourself? I guess, with a handle like yours, probably the latter?
Sounds like a very interesting session though.
Pity we could never experience such variety up here, on 'da north coast', although I'm sure they could enjoy such a session, down the road in Belfasht, if they really wanted, & probably already do!
Hey halfirish, I wonder what "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" would sound like on the Uilleann Pipes?
I'd say, interesting, at least, & possibly spectacular.
On that very theme, Archie Fisher played that famous Felix Doran track, The Fox Hunt, on his Travelling Folk show this week, you know the one where Felix talks us through the Hunt giving all those wonderful animal impersonations on the U Pipes, which he was a master at, Hens, Geese, Dogs, Fox, Hunting Horn & all.
Well, I personally love that track, especially because, for ever more, we get a chance to hear him talk.
However, I understand that many Puritan Pipers frown on that sort of use of the Pipes.
The same guys who, no doubt, didn't appreciate Davy Spillane mixing U Pipes & R & R.
But if you want my advice & I'm sure you don't, but here it is anyway, I'd say go for it, & let us know how you get on, please?
Foggy Mountain Breakdown on the pipes? - a challenge I can't resist.
Mind you, I'm only a beginner on the pipes, so you'll have to wait until I've learned a couple of reels first! I'm doing well though, I've progressed from making my chanter do animal impressions. It no longer sounds like a strangled goose (which is where I think they got the idea from). It sounds half decent now. Foggy Mountain Breakdown will probably set me back a few weeks but, all in the name of music and fun, I guess. Now, which key shall I play it in?, Hmmm, I think G.
I'm likely to be much less of a purist myself. I love all pipe music, from Liam O'Flynn, to Dave Spillane and Danny McCloughlin also but I envy those who have the disicpline to learn the instrument properly in the first place and who keep some pure tradition alive, and that needs a lot of discipline.
Hi Halfirish are you based in London?
If you fancy an eclectic session here in sunny Manchester, come up and join us on a Monday night at the Bear house.
The regular line-up is hammered dulcimer, NSPs, and me on the dreaded Recorder and Deger E-Pipes.
I play shady Grove and Old Joe Clark on the GHBs (with the addition of a very naughty E baritone drone).
Putarmy, the body percussion was the usual – hambone, throat thumping, redneck rhythmic breathing and armpit pharrtz. All performed with the utmost decorum and civility.
Blimey, that's sounds even more weird. I'm in Rochdale so I'll get down there when I can, although Monday clashes with another session elsewhere. Let me know where the Bear House is please.
The Bear House is right at the bottom of Rochdale road were it meets Shudehill, there’s a map in the "session" section here.
Would that be Middleton or Chorlton Monday nights?
I know Shudehill, so I'll find the Bear House. I've been going to the Joiner's in MIddleton last couple of Monday nights. Not a bad session but already too many players and not enough room in the pub.
Hopefully I get to the Bear House in the next couple of weeks and search you out.
I've notice that more than a few times the classically trained musician who gets bored and puts away their instrument. For some reason they discover ITM (or something equivalent) and it's off to the races. I had a guy who wanted me to teach him guitar recently. I asked him about his background and he had the nerve to tell me he once taught cello at a prestigous music camp. Obviously this travesty couldn't go on, so I convinced him to bring his cello in for a session (I was thinking of breaking his arm if he showed up with a guitar again) . He's happily playing along everything we give him and a bit miffed at never having been exposed to a wider variety of music. By the way, the best way to get the best in baked goods from the fiddle ladies (a bunch who practice together near here) is to offer them closest seat to this guy, who by the way bears a striking resemblence to the construction worker on Desperate Housewives.
Something other than ITM?
Something other than ITM?
I'd say here in the states we've got a variety of styles to jam to if there's not an Irish session available. Here in Michigan there's bluegrass, old timey, swing, etc. all available to the person who wants to take the time to learn the tunes or pick up a local paper to find them. How much variety is there around the world to those who get tired (perish the thought!) of ITM?
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by jrathbun
Re: Something other than ITM, in North Antrim - not really?
Like yourself jrathbun, I play ye olde HD, but it's not my first instrument. Unlike you, I only really have ITM session's to go to here, in North Antrim, Ulster.
The only variation to that would be when I instigate a Scottish Session, with a local Scottish Smallpipes player, or our local Northumbrian Piper comes out of the woodwork. However, I organise those, not because I'm tired of ITM, but simply because I also like STM & always enjoy playing with pipers - what fiddler doesn't?
As for bluegrass & old timey, I believe there are sessions for those forms down the road a piece in Belfast, but they're not close enough for me to go sessioning at them.
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Something other than ITM?
Years ago I played Bluegrass as well as Irish. I'd love to still play both but Bluegrass here in England is a bit of a rarety. Personally I'd like to see more sessions where people are playing a wide variety of traditional music types. I'd have a go at all of them.
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by halfirish
Re: Something other than ITM?
Hey 'halfirish' - quarterirish here
Good to see another 50 something on the big Mustard page.
Well, on the positive side, I suppose it makes for an interesting session when there's a variety of music being played. But I think, if is going to work at all, the session needs to be more one thing than another, or it never really gets out of 2nd gear.
I always think it's a bit like a 50/50 split of singers/musicians when neither group really fully gets going. 80/20 either way works fine in my book, & naturally I'd prefer if the larger % were musicians. So, I think the same would apply to a Bluegrass/ITM session.
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Something other than ITM?
P. S. halfirish, I hope that principal doesn't also apply to our own ancestral make up, cause if so, my 75/25 Scots/Irish make up means I'm OK, but your 50/50 Irish/? means your in big trouble!
But hey, don't have a sleepless night over that thought, just have a wee glass o' 'Black Bush', and you'll be fine!
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Something other than ITM?
I enjoy going to an English session once a fortnight, at which I'm often the sole fiddle. It's worth bearing in mind that a number of apparently "English" tunes have Irish antecedents or close equivalents.
Trevor
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by lazyhound
Re: Something other than ITM?
Trevor_J, would it not also be true to say that many Irish tunes in fact have English antecedents too? For example, I'm under the impression that many of ITM's hornpipes started out as English tunes.
I wonder, from your own experiences, have you noticed this to be true? ..............................but wait, is that Dow's foorsteps I hear....................
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Something other than ITM?
I've heard more than once that many Irish traditional tunes are actually Scottish in origin....
The British Isles are not exactly thousands of miles apart, correct? Wasn't St. Patrick really a Welshman (or, according to some, a Roman who was born in Wales)? There must have been a lot of cross-pollination, over the centuries. Like it or not.
But back to the topic--there's a lot of old-timey and bluegrass fiddling done around here (NW U.S.) and some of my ancestors were early Kentuckians, but I seem to prefer Irish/Scottish/Welsh fiddle tunes over American ones. Why do you suppose that is?
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by tuckered out
Re: Something other than ITM?
Overhere (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) we have a session once a month at the Parnas-café.
It started with continental music (Dutch/French/Scandinavian) and later ITM folks joined us.
So now it's a mixture of Irish pipes, c(h)abrettes, string instruments, free reeds and flutes all together. Hopping between "Banish misfortune" and "Les garçons de la montagne".
Very nice indeed!
Bart
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Bart
Re: Something other than ITM?
Good bluegrass sessions, but mostly English flavoured Irish!
(Southampton, UK)
Jim
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by Worldfiddler
Re: Something other than ITM?
St Patrick is also supposed to have been born in Banwell, a small village near the coast in Somerset (West of England), less than 30 minutes drive from where I live.
The English session I go to has a nice mix of Irish and Scottish tunes.
Trevor
# Posted on October 9th 2005 by lazyhound
Re: Something other than ITM?
I'm positively encouraged at the various mixes of trad. music that are apparently pursued by folks here and abroad. Since the demise of old fashioned traditional folk clubs, quite a while ago, the 'session' is the only forum left for trad music of all kinds to be brought to the ears of fellow Guinness Drinkers everywhere. So let's mix it up a bit, and let's also have a bit of unaccompanied singing and a few sea shanties thrown in (preferably in 4 part harmony).
Having close links with Holland myself, I'm impressed with what Bart's friends are doing over there. We should all be a bit more like that.
I think overall though, musicians will be with my quarter Irish friend, Ptarmagan, on this one - ITM is the preference but put a banjo on mi' lap and I can't resist slipping on my finger picks for a bit of Bluegrass. Now I know this crowd here are inclined to dis' banjo players (for a bit of fun, I hope) but there's a terrific amount of skill required to pick out a bluegrass number, so I won't have a bad word said against 'em. So I'm very much with Jim (post before last).
Now that I'm on to the Uilleann pipes, I'm going to be rapidly switching from The Mountain Road Reel on the pipes, to Foggy Mountain Breakdown on the bano and then to Rubben Ranzo unaccompanied. All keeping up?
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by halfirish
Re: Something other than ITM?
I just got home from a small kitchen session that lasted six hours. We played Old Time, Irish, French and Cajun tunes on fiddles, mando and guitar and sang Irish, Scottish and Appalachian ballads, Sacred Harp hymns and a few modern songs in various traditional styles. Not to mention a healthy (or unhealthy?) dose of body percussion.
That's the kind of session I like best.
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Something other than ITM?
Hmmmmm Bob, tell us more about this "body percussion"? Were you 'persussing' someone else's body, or just doing it to yourself? I guess, with a handle like yours, probably the latter?
Sounds like a very interesting session though.
Pity we could never experience such variety up here, on 'da north coast', although I'm sure they could enjoy such a session, down the road in Belfasht, if they really wanted, & probably already do!
Hey halfirish, I wonder what "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" would sound like on the Uilleann Pipes?
I'd say, interesting, at least, & possibly spectacular.
On that very theme, Archie Fisher played that famous Felix Doran track, The Fox Hunt, on his Travelling Folk show this week, you know the one where Felix talks us through the Hunt giving all those wonderful animal impersonations on the U Pipes, which he was a master at, Hens, Geese, Dogs, Fox, Hunting Horn & all.
Well, I personally love that track, especially because, for ever more, we get a chance to hear him talk.
However, I understand that many Puritan Pipers frown on that sort of use of the Pipes.
The same guys who, no doubt, didn't appreciate Davy Spillane mixing U Pipes & R & R.
But if you want my advice & I'm sure you don't, but here it is anyway, I'd say go for it, & let us know how you get on, please?
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Something other than ITM?
Hi Ptarmagan,
Foggy Mountain Breakdown on the pipes? - a challenge I can't resist.
Mind you, I'm only a beginner on the pipes, so you'll have to wait until I've learned a couple of reels first! I'm doing well though, I've progressed from making my chanter do animal impressions. It no longer sounds like a strangled goose (which is where I think they got the idea from). It sounds half decent now. Foggy Mountain Breakdown will probably set me back a few weeks but, all in the name of music and fun, I guess. Now, which key shall I play it in?, Hmmm, I think G.
I'm likely to be much less of a purist myself. I love all pipe music, from Liam O'Flynn, to Dave Spillane and Danny McCloughlin also but I envy those who have the disicpline to learn the instrument properly in the first place and who keep some pure tradition alive, and that needs a lot of discipline.
I'll let you know how I get on.
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by halfirish
Re: Something other than ITM?
Hi Halfirish are you based in London?
If you fancy an eclectic session here in sunny Manchester, come up and join us on a Monday night at the Bear house.
The regular line-up is hammered dulcimer, NSPs, and me on the dreaded Recorder and Deger E-Pipes.
I play shady Grove and Old Joe Clark on the GHBs (with the addition of a very naughty E baritone drone).
PP
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by Pied Piper
Re: Something other than ITM?
Putarmy, the body percussion was the usual – hambone, throat thumping, redneck rhythmic breathing and armpit pharrtz. All performed with the utmost decorum and civility.
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Something other than ITM?
I spend sunday afternoons at a bagel shop playing mandolin and poyk at a klezmer session. It is great fun but ,no beer.
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by McMandolin
Re: Something other than ITM?
Hi PP
Blimey, that's sounds even more weird. I'm in Rochdale so I'll get down there when I can, although Monday clashes with another session elsewhere. Let me know where the Bear House is please.
# Posted on October 10th 2005 by halfirish
Re: Something other than ITM?
The Bear House is right at the bottom of Rochdale road were it meets Shudehill, there’s a map in the "session" section here.
Would that be Middleton or Chorlton Monday nights?
TTFN
PP
# Posted on October 11th 2005 by Pied Piper
Re: Something other than ITM?
I used to play Classical music a few years ago(hated it!)
But then my brother introduced me to Irish music
Pubs, music and the rest is history!
# Posted on October 11th 2005 by paratroopers
Re: Something other than ITM?
Thanks PP
I know Shudehill, so I'll find the Bear House. I've been going to the Joiner's in MIddleton last couple of Monday nights. Not a bad session but already too many players and not enough room in the pub.
Hopefully I get to the Bear House in the next couple of weeks and search you out.
bfn
# Posted on October 11th 2005 by halfirish
Re: Something other than ITM?
I've notice that more than a few times the classically trained musician who gets bored and puts away their instrument. For some reason they discover ITM (or something equivalent) and it's off to the races. I had a guy who wanted me to teach him guitar recently. I asked him about his background and he had the nerve to tell me he once taught cello at a prestigous music camp. Obviously this travesty couldn't go on, so I convinced him to bring his cello in for a session (I was thinking of breaking his arm if he showed up with a guitar again) . He's happily playing along everything we give him and a bit miffed at never having been exposed to a wider variety of music. By the way, the best way to get the best in baked goods from the fiddle ladies (a bunch who practice together near here) is to offer them closest seat to this guy, who by the way bears a striking resemblence to the construction worker on Desperate Housewives.
# Posted on October 15th 2005 by jrathbun