òran mór

So there we were, minding our own business and enjoying a few tunes and songs at Eamon and Sue’s place … and we look up … and there in our mits [sic, as usual with my jokes] was this wild person… makin’ the guitar howl and sing, with a voice that rocked out the whole place, and with this hair that just shimmered green in the night light.

Who was that man? ….. now …. it *was* a man wasn’t it?…..

So there we were at RiRa last night, with Ramona Connelly joining Pete and I, and we decided to play Amelia’s Waltz.  That beautiful melody, written by NH treasure Bob McQuillen, has long been a favorite fiddle tune for Ramona and me.

During the tune a woman walked over behind Pete to listen a little closer – and when we were done she said to him “That was beautiful … that’s my waltz.”  Pete smiled, and she added, ” I’m Amelia … Bob McQuillen wrote that for me.”  Now she had our attention and we enjoyed the first chance for all of us to meet ‘the’ Amelia.

After we’d chatted for a minute. I asked her to confirm or correct the interesting story I’d heard about how she’d been named ‘Amelia.’  The tale had started with Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight in1927.  As two large wooden crates had been built for his plane’s ocean journey back to the states,  they were given to the ship’s captain, Admiral Guy Burrage.  He built them into a humble cottage in the woods near Contoocook NH.  In about 1980 Amelia’s mother, Deana Stiles was living in that cottage, and Amelia was born right there.  I had heard that, with the Lindbergh connection, she’d been named after Amelia Earhart – but last night I got ‘the rest of the story.’   She said her mother loved Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Amelia’ — which does reference Earhart, but has some broader threads.  As her mother played flute at contra dances with Bob, he wrote the waltz for Amelia when she was about 3. 

One more note – I see that the cottage was bought and moved to Canaan, Maine, where it’s been restored as the centerpiece of Lindbergh’s Crates Museum there.

All in all, quite a special moment for us all – seeing the real Amelia there as we finished playing her song.

After a great  first night at RiRa,  we’ve got a better feel for the room, the PA settings, and the best way to involve our musical friends in the fun.  As we posted earlier, in we’re looking to create something different…so here’s what we’re envisioning.

We’ll have two open chairs that we’ll mostly pre-arrange with the couple of players or singers who want to be part of our little ‘collaborative performance’ each week. It’ll be more planned and controlled than a session, but we hope everyone will see that it offers some things that wide open sessions don’t:

• For those who come to listen, this format means you’ll get to  ‘really hear’ the great musicians from the Seacoast and beyond play with us…and each week will be different because the other players will bring their own repetoire to the table.

• For our musician friends, the smaller table means we’ll be able to hear each other better — so the music will be tighter and sound the best it can. Plus, you’ll have more chances to lead the songs and tunes.

On November 23rd, Ramona Connelly and Emery Hutchins will join us to put the plan into action.

Ramona will bring her  fiddle and plenty of super tunes – and, when we be lucky enough – we hope she’ll give us some songs.

Emery, with the  combination of concertinas, guitar, banjo, drum, and stories that he chooses, will light up the night for us all.

Hope you can swing by for a pint and/or to give us a song or two.

And if any of our musician friends are interested in getting into the mix, let us know when you might want to stop by and we’ll get you there. Looking forward to some great craic!

While we were still feeling a bit nostalgic about the era just ending at McMenemy’s, we were happy to get a note from Scott the manager at RiRa, inviting us to get together and talk about starting up a new night there…. Mondays from 7-10, starting November 16th.

We’ll use about the same setup we had at McM’s, with Pete and I at a table with mics and room for a few musical friends. The pub wants that format because it’s something different than their other nights, and we like it because it combines the best aspects of a performance and a session. How will that work?

• The performance part engages the audience, with a base of practiced, popular songs and tunes they know. That gets the punters in the door and ‘pays the rent’ for the business.
• The session part means we have one or a few friends join us for added spontaneity and variety. With a small group around one table, we can all hear what we are doing, making the music tighter, and giving those players more chances to lead songs and tunes with a solid foundation.

We hope you’ll enjoy this “collaborative performance” formula and join us on occasion. Having you there will help us make each Monday night unique and fun.

Looking forward to our maiden voyage tonight — hoping you can be there.

As Pete previewed in an earlier post, he and I plugged into our maritime group, Mudhook, for this year’s Tenth Annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival. To help make this year special, we were lucky enough to get Robbie O’Connell to take part.

Robbie was the very special finale to concert on Saturday night, and he appeared with us on Sunday afternoon, sharing songs back and forth at RiRa pub in Market Square.

Robbie was most gracious throughout the weekend, often acknowledging how impressed he was with the songs and singing he heard from all the other festival participants. We are very lucky to have the critical mass of local talent,  that helps attract others from around the world on a weekend like this.

I’ll admit to a certain ‘dream’ quality that went with being in the songs with Robbie.  After years of listening to him and admiring what he does, I did have to pinch myself a time or two to be sure it was for real.  Truly a memorable day.

Mudhook, for the record, is Alan Eaton, Pete Hale, Mike Jeanneau, and myself.  We came together to perform for this festival a few years ago – but we may extend our reach to other maritime events throughout the year… and do watch for the CD!