òran mór

July has come and gone, and summer is flying by…but we’re looking forward to the Monday’s in August.

The Mad Fisherman's gonna be a daddy!

We were fortunate to kick off this month on Monday with our friend Mike Jeanneau joining us. His wife is expecting their first child (come on, Jacque!), so Mikey figured he’d better sit in while he had the time…’cuz lord knows he ain’t gonna have time soon. It was a great night and we were able to play a few of the maritime songs we’ll be performing together (as Mudhook) at the 11th Annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, on September 25 & 26. More on that to come.

Of course, we’ll have other guests dropping by during the month. Personally, I won’t be able to make the 16th, since I have a conflict with the day job…so Dave will likely be joined by our friend Terry Weir.

Regardless, we’re at RiRa every Monday, so feel free to stop in for a half-priced burger, great brews and a song or two.

The pub we love so well

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!

Fall is in the air, football has returned to Foxborough, and leaves are starting to change color…and both Dave and I start refreshing all the maritime music in our repetoire because this is the time of year when we regroup with our friends Mike Jeanneau and Alan Eaton to form Mudhook.

Mudhook

What is Mudhook? Originally, it was nautical slang for an anchor. But we’re a quartet that formed three years ago to play the the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival. As ‘hookers, we mix traditional shanties with instrumentals and contemporary songs of the sea…and the PMFF is a great venue for us. We have loads of fun during the festival (always the last weekend of September), and it’s a great opportunity for us to create a unique combination of maritime, Celtic and contemporary music. We also get to hear and play with some fantastic performers from around the world. This year, for example, we have a 45 minute performance scheduled with acclaimed Irish singer Robbie O’Connell…should be great fun.

If you’re in the area and want to catch a performance, you might try hitting the historic Moffat-Ladd House in Portsmouth on Saturday from 12:30 – 2 PM. We’ll be doing a set there along with our friends from Great Bay Sailor. Hope to see you there!

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.

Planxty Reunion Concert in 2004

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mike Jeanneau was helping me anchor the sessions at McMenemy’s over Memorial Day Weekend while Bob and Dave were traveling. We had a lot of fun — as we often do — and we were joined by our friends Eamon Coyne, Kevin Sheehan, Ramona Connelly and Bill Zecker on Thursday, and Kevin, Ramona and Reagh Greenleaf  on Saturday night.

The start of Thursday night was a bit quiet since there weren’t a lot of diners and people were saving their money for the long weekend…so we had the opportunity to play some stuff we don’t normally get to play. One of my favorite songs to play with Mike is “The Ballad of Little Musgrave” and, since the place was kind of quiet, we launched into it.

Man, I love that song and Mike’s playing on it is always great…and I was listening to a version of it on the ride to work today and wanted to share it.

If you’re not familiar with the song, it’s a traditional ballad (F.J. Child’s Ballad #81) that is known by several names and variations, including “Mattie Groves,” “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard,” and the version we do, which is based on Planxty’s arrangement…which you can see on their live 2004 concert here.

When you come across really great songs — especially really old ones — it’s always fascinating to learn a little more about them. There’s a lot out there about “Little Musgrave”, but last year, I found a cool post on Rational Delight. It’s worth checking out if you like the song, especially since it has the audio of Nic Jones’ version…which I can’t find anywhere else.

We had a chance to play the song, and we took it. If you have a chance to check out the video and the post, you should take it as well.