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?”

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. LeBrun!  Lindsay Laughton and Steve LeBrun tied the knot on Saturday June 13th at the Derryfield Country Club in Manchester, NH, and òran mór played for the wedding and the pre-reception cocktail hour following the wedding.  The setting was under a large tent just off the golf course, and the rain held off more than long enough to make it a perfect weather day for the ceremony and celebration.  The wedding party, parents of the bride and groom, and 50+ guests enjoyed the music, and a good time was had by all!

Sometimes it’s nice to take a night off and enjoy being part of the audience…especially when the group you’re seeing really knows their stuff. That was definitely the case last night when I went to Trad Tuesday at Johnny D’s and caught The Makem and Spain Brothers.

The Makem and Spain Brothers

Two words: Great. Show.

I’ve sat-in a few times with Liam and Mick Spain at their song session at The Shaskeen in Manchester, and they’ve always been warm and welcoming…great craic. But last night was the first time I had the chance to see them perform on stage with Rory, Shane and Conor Makem. I’m glad I made the 15-minute drive to Somerville, ‘cuz it was a fun night of great songs and stories. Both sets of siblings did a fine job of representing the musical traditions of their families.

As local guys, you’d think that you could see the five of them perform regularly around here, but apparently the full contingent isn’t always here. So my advice is if you get a chance to catch them at full strength, take it. (Or you can order their concert DVD at makem.com.)

Now…if anyone can confirm that Liam actually wrote the lizard story that Mick shared last night, it’d be nice to know. Liam may need help.

Last night we were joined by Mike Jeanneau, Reagh Greenleaf, Gary Usher, and Marty Stock … and some enthusiastic and very capable singers in and about the pub.

Particularly memorable for me – and fitting to the picture of the night sky outside our window – was Reagh’s rousing rendition of “The Rising of the Moon.”

That kind of named the night and topped it off for me.

After we’d already planned our May trip to Ireland we learned that the Fleadh Nua was on that week in Ennis, and that the Chieftains would be playing their first-ever concert in Ennis at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral – about a one-minute walk from our B&B.  Sometimes you gets lucky.

We arrived a bit early, and got to watch their setup and sound check, and then found our way to some excellent seats for the show.  The opening band, ‘F0olin’ in Doolin’ was great, and besides some energetic jigs and reels, their bouzouki-based arrangement of the  The Longford Weaver inspired my first  thievery(of a song) on this trip (but that’s a story for another post).

As it was our first time seeing the Chieftains in concert, I can’t compare this one with their other incarnations, but we really loved the mix of tunes, stories, and dance.  While Seán Keane is still the main fiddler, he is joined by Jon Pilatzke, who adds some great chair dancing to his fiery bowing.  Then, to bring things over the top, Jon’s brother Nathan, and Cara Butler come out from time to time to dance in wild style.  As there was no open ban on photograph, we were able to capture  these shots (Chris got the best  and first one here, of Matt Malloy).  Also caught this little clip of the chair dancing and mixed Irish and French Canadian folk dance.

All in all a great night – full of inspiration that I can bring back to our session the many fun musical events we all have back home.