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?”

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.

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.

They left Pete in charge?!?

Well, well, well … Dave and Bob have each packed up and gone away this week. Dave is traipsing around the west coast of Ireland (recorder in hand) and Bob is in Maryland visiting friends (wife Sue in hand), leaving me all alone at McMenemy’s. Whatever will I do?

It's Mike to the rescue!

Never fear, my friends! I’m not tackling this on my own. I’ve enlisted the help of our good friend (and Mudhook bandmate) Mike Jeanneau to help anchor Thursday and Saturday night. We’ve also invited a few special guests — not all the usual crowd — to stop by to join us.

So there may be no ‘Clockwinder’ this week, but we’re planning to tear it up with a different mix of tunes and songs. I’m expecting the craic to be grand!