òran mór

Thursday, January 26th will be a special evening at the Stone Church in Newmarket, NH.  An open party will celebrate the release of three great CDs.  At about 9 PM Chris Vaughan, Portsmouth’s songwriting Scot, releases his first CD “Freedom.”  This one has a special place in my heart, as I worked with Chris from his early days incubating the songs that he was inspired to write over the past few years.  With scenes and characters from the Portsmouth area, his songs reflect some of  Chris’s colorful life stories.  With a little luck I’m planning to accompany Chris on his classic “Celts” and perhaps another song.

We all know there will be plenty of energy in Chris’s performance.

Then there will be new CDs and performances from Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and the Tom Lanigan Band.  Pete is planning to be there – so you never know what combination of any of the above might be called to the stage for some fun collaboration.  That’s a big part of the good fortune and the fun we all share in this area – so much great music with so many great people.

This night will rock  — here’s hoping you can be there!

Way back in 2008, when we started this little website, Dave and I talked wanting to have info both about our band and, more importantly, the Irish music happenings around the Seacoast. Our first post, in fact, was a video of our good friend Chris Vaughan singing one of the first songs he wrote, called Freedom, at Molly Malones where he was a bartender.

Jim Prendergast and Chris Vaughn, um, working...

Time has passed. Molly’s closed and became McMenemy’s. Then McMenemy’s closed.

But Chris Vaughan motored on. He kept writing songs, bringing them to the different sessions (particularly Friday nights at The Press Room), working with local musicians to polish his material. And now, at long last, he’s putting the finishing touches on a CD of his original songs, working with both Dave and our friend Jim Prendergast at Mill Pond Music Studio. But one thing was missing…until last night.

Freedom.

Friends in music, friends for life

To cap-off his CD project, Chris asked many of The Press Room session regulars to join him at Jim’s studio. So a large group of friends — including Emery Hutchins, Bob Frost, Alan Eaton, Gail McCarthy, Ramona Connelly, Bruce MacIntyre, Steve Carrigan, Dave and I — piled into Jim’s live room for some laughs and music. The live room sounded great and in two takes we got a terrific, very natural version of Chris singing with us backing.

Chris was extremely grateful for the help, and we were equally honored to be included in creating this fitting finale to his CD. Watching each other grow as musicians and artists — and encouraging and collaborating with each other along the way — are the great joys of our little musically community. Last night’s recording session was a great reminder that “this is the good stuff.”

It reminds me of a phrase Eamon Coyne once said to me: “A friend in music is a friend for life.” Just so.

Congrats to Chris on getting his songs recorded and ready to share with the world.

Emery having a laugh

Great Bay Sailor, reporting for duty

A lovely smile, indeed

Because we had a gig later that night, we all did something that’s become a rarity   – Pete, Bob, and I all made it to the Press Room on the same night.  Being May 1st, there were many a May Day song and tale of spring and springtime fancy.

After a cautious start, Peter Hale  declared the session ‘swine flu free’

Before heading across town to our Shriners Dinner gig, we enjoyed some songs and tunes.

As he’s known to do, Chris got the place going on Saturday night.  This one puts a bit of the raw back into ‘raw energy’ – but it gives you a bit of a feel for the fun the crowd was having.