òran mór

As we’ve mentioned before, one of the sessions we like to haunt, er, play at is the one Terry Weir runs at Harrington’s in Wakefield, MA. During the last year or so, we’d get a visit once in a while from a mandolin player from Tuscon, AZ. He’d pop-in with his mando when he was in town on business. I didn’t know his name for the longest time, so I just referred to him as Tucson Dave, as in: “When’s Tucson Dave coming back?” “Has anyone heard from Tucson Dave?”…etc. He’s always friendly, jovial guy, and a fantastic mando player to boot.

Round the House

Turns out that Tucson Dave is actually Dave Firestine, a member of Round the House. Last Friday (6/12) I had the opportunity to see him and his bandmates play live – they had schlepped cross-country to play a gig at The Blue Mermaid in Portsmouth to kick-off an East Coast tour. How convenient!

And as an added bonus, our friend Jeff Baker (the very talented flute player from NH) performed with them…apparently they’d met at a festival in Texas and Jeff convinced them to come East. 

For the record, they were a lot of fun. Great tune sets. Fine song selections. Engaging stage presence. For part of the night, I just sat back and watched the guitar player so I could pick-up some tricks (always the thief).

The only downside to the whole experience is that I missed Dave at the Harrington’s session, and they’re headed back to Arizona at the end of this week…

…so I’m left to go back and ask “When’s the next visit from Tucson Dave?”