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!

Well….we weren’t disappointed.   Nice cozy theater, great sound system, and all four voices and instruments blending and ringing out beautifully all evening.

Rory  (when he wasn’t playing guitar or bouzouki) played Tommy’s  old banjo – which brought a bit of history and nostalgia to the stage for me.  Connor does an excellent job with tasteful electric bass, and then adds a lot with concertina or whistle in some special songs or tunes.  Mick and Liam Spain bring their super-strong voices and tasty playing, and it all works as a whole with the ‘Makem’ part of the sound you just have to sit back and say, “Wow.”

They did indeed do some Christmas songs – including the new one.  That capped off the night with a holiday feel, which, now that Thanksgiving is over, we were ready to really enjoy.

If you haven’t seen them, or if it’s been awhile – I’d recommend you find a time to give a good listen.  In the mean time, their new CD, “Up the Stairs” is among their very best.

The boys and ghouls at Ri Ra will be no different. They’ll be getting into the spirit of things with costumes and specials all night, so Dave and I have decided (at the last minute) to perform tonight’s show in costume. Now to find something that won’t get in the way of playing or singing…

Of course, it only makes sense to celebrate Halloween in an Irish pub, since the holiday started as a Celtic pagan celebration! There is a really interesting description of the holiday at The Irish Genealogy Toolkit, which starts:

“To find the origin of Halloween, you have to look to the festival of Samhain in Ireland’s Celtic past. Samhain had three distinct elements. Firstly, it was an important fire festival, celebrated over the evening of 31 October and throughout the following day. The flames of old fires had to be extinguished and ceremonially re-lit by druids.

Happy Samhain, everyone!

It was also a festival not unlike the modern New Year’s Day in that it carried the notion of casting out the old and moving into the new. To our pagan ancestors it marked the end of the pastoral cycle – a time when all the crops would have been gathered and placed in storage for the long winter ahead and when livestock would be brought in from the fields and selected for slaughter or breeding.

But it was also, as the last day of the year, the time when the souls of the departed would return to their former homes and when potentially malevolent spirits were released from the Otherworld and were visible to mankind.”

Apparently, the holiday also marked the end of the apple harvest season, since it was believed that the puca – or evil fairies – would spit on any unharvested apples making them inedible.

Looks like I’ll be having a couple of Magners Ciders in celebration tonight.

Hope you’ll swing by…and watch out for any banshees!

If you missed us playing with Mudhook at the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, you’ll have another opportunity later this month. We’ll be playing a coffee house gig at the Universalist Unitarian Fellowship in Durham NH on Oct. 15. You can see details and let us know if you’re coming at the Facebook event page we set up HERE.

In the meantime, you can get your Mudhook fix with this video that our friend Jeff Murdock took of us last weekend at our PMFF performance at the Moffatt-Ladd House.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to catch one of our shows, stop by The Moffatt-Ladd House on Saturday at 1 p.m. for a set that will feature several new songs. A full calendar of the festival’s events are at the website, and the schedule has all our other performance times listed.

We've come to LOVE playing The Barn at The Moffatt-Ladd House...the acoustics are great!

FYI – We’ll also be playing in Prescott Park at noon on Saturday to kick off the NH Fish and Lobster Festival (known locally as The Fishtival). The PMFF and the Fishtival have been working together on some overlap during the last couple of years because they are so interwoven thematically. Ours will be a short set, but that event is well worth checking out.

Thanks again to Debbie and the whole Cobb family!

An example of the Portsmouth gardens...the garden at Martin Hill Inn

Many of the antique colonial homes in the Port City’s historic South End have small, hidden, but elegantly designed gardens. Once a year, the homeowners and proud gardeners open the gates and welcome the public to enjoy their gardens. Along the way, some of the featured gardens have music, and we’ll be joining in the fun this year.

Dave and I will be playing from 9 a.m. til noon on Saturday, June 18 at the Strawbery Banke Gardens at 14 Hancock St. We hope you’ll come out to enjoy the day and swing by for a little music as well.

Our nicest stage yet...Strawbery Banke Gardens

Many good friends stopped by to have a pint and a few laughs with Reagh and to give him the Wednesday night part of his Earth Walk sendoff. 

Some of us got pulled up on the stage for various songs and shenanigans

As you probably know, Reagh’s  Earth Walk across the US, to raise environmental awareness and promote ecological sustainability, will start this Sunday, May 1st at 9:30 at the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point, Rye.

Many of us will join him again there for the ‘real’ sendoff.    Learn more about Reagh’s trip at his website.

For now, the memory of last night’s fun will ring on for a good while….

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

We setup in a nice spot looking out over the water and enjoyed a warm reception at the dinner and party.  This group liked to sing – and sing they did!   A few tables were especially ‘roudy’ (in a country club way) and they had us ripping through our songbook backwards and forwards.

One particular party-goer, John, had some special background in the music, and spurred us on to do a few songs on the outskirts  of our repertoire.  Turnabout being fair play, we finally got him up to lead a song or two.

All in all,  we had a blast.  We’re happy to have next year’s party already penciled in – looking forward to the prospect of doing it all again.