òran mór

Kevin Dolan as he looked when I first met him in the early '90s

I was psyched the other day when I got an email from an old friend of mine, Kevin Dolan. For anyone who’s read my bio on this site, you’ll know that Kevin was a big influence when I was first considered moving from the punter’s seat to the stage. He and Marty Quirk were extremely supportive when I would show up at The Wild Rover in Manchester, bodhran in hand. Not only did they let me join in on the occasional song, but we had many long conversations about music, songs, and life in general.

Anyway, when I got Kevin’s email, it had been a while since we had last spoken. But he was excited to send me a link to a YouTube video that his bandmate Simon Crawford had put together for one of Kevin’s songs. Called ‘Freedom Road,’ it’s a tribute to the men and women in uniform that serve our country. I thought it was definitely worth sharing…

I’ve always been a fan of Kevin’s songwriting and I even do one that he wrote called ‘Kings Highway‘ — I got that one from a bootleg called “Kevin is Dead.” Long story behind that name…and I dare not get into it here.

As you may know, I don’t usually suggest CDs here, but you might want to check out one of the albums Kevin did with his band, Acoustic Nuisance. Our friends at Ossian USA can hook you up with their first one, and the live album they did a few years ago is on CD Baby.

Of course, nothing beats seeing Kevin perform live. I’m trying to get him to have him come down to Portsmouth to sit-in with Dave and I on a Monday night at Ri Ra, but that hasn’t worked out yet. In the meantime, if you’re up north for a ski weekend, he plays every Sunday at The Shannon Door Pub in Jackson, NH. You should definitely pop-in for a pint, a bite and a song from himself.

Great hearing from you, Kev. Freedom Road is a fine song. Good on ya, me ol’ china!

Just a quick note to let y’all know that we’ll be performing with Terry Weir this Sunday (1/24) as Sligo Road at The Port Tavern in Newburyport. We always have a great time, the people are great, and the food and drink are excellent.

However, if you were planning to stop by RiRa’s on Monday night (1/25) to see us, you’ll be out of luck. They’ll be closed for a private function, so we get the night off. We’ll be back the following Monday, of course.

Such is the life of musicians…which reminds me of a joke, which should tide you over until we see you in-person again:

We're not getting in, no how...

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.

With Christmas approaching, we’ve been throwing in a few holiday songs into the mix. Some are songs we’ve sung for years. Others are relatively new. This year, I decided it was time to learn a modern classic — “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl.

In doing a little homework, I came across a fantastic documentary that the BBC did about “Fairytale” which as been posted on YouTube. The hour-long show is posted in six 10-min chunks…definitely worth watching.

Hope you’ll come out to RiRa’s tomorrow and will shout back “Well so could anyone” as we give “Fairytale” it’s last run before Christmas.

BTW, I tried recruiting our friend Sue Young to sing Kirsty McColl’s part in “Fairytale,” but unfortunately her schedule this fall didn’t allow us to rehearse too much. While I’ve been doing the song solo, Sue will be joining us at RiRa tomorrow, so I may have the lyrics printed for her to jump into Kirsty’s role. 

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!