òran mór

Here in the Seacoast area we often thank our lucky stars that there are so many great musical people and events to enjoy – every night of the week.  The Irish, Scottish, and (yes, even) English music interweaves with  the sounds and songs of the sea, and in that connection we enjoy a camaraderie  with our friends around Gloucester, MA.  They host a gathering  every Tuesday night at Cameron’s Restaurant  in Gloucester, where shanties, forebitters, and the occasional song or tune from anywhere anyone wants fill the air from about 8:30 to midnight.

We knew that last night at Cameron’s  would be special, as Danny Spooner,  one of our favorite folk and shanty singers would be visiting in.

Peter Hale headed up after work, and Chris Maden, Marty Stock, and I headed south from NH to arrive in time to enjoy the whole night.

Peter and Joanne Souza informally lead the event, encouraging the many folks around the big comfy room to get in the songs or music they’d like to share.

You never quite know what you are going to hear next – and that’s a big part of the fun.  Shanties from time to time involve the whole group in work-songs, and plenty of songs about sailors and their lives on and off ship come to the fore.

Beyond that – last night we enjoyed hearing ‘The King of Rome” telling the story of a heroic homing pigeon, and the now infamous “Cow Song” led by Colin and friend (in the collage below) which cracked everyone up.

Barry Finn was there in strong form, gathering his own set of pictures to document the special night.

This past Sunday, I had a chance to help out our friends from the band Celtic Tribe since their regular rhythm player wasn’t available for a gig. We were playing at the fest for the Murray Irish Dance Academy in Stratham, NH. What a fantastic afternoon! The dancing was great, featuring absolute beginners (around 4 and 5 years old) to incredible displays by some of the students who will be competing at the World Competitions in a few weeks! I even got to see Sue Dunlavey — wife of bandmate Bob — as she was part of the set dancing group.

Of course, playing with Celtic Tribe was a hoot. As another Portsmouth-based group, we get to play with them at sessions regularly and they frequently join us at McMenemy’s. Their approach to the music is high-energy and driving, so I was working hard to keep up. I also had never played with a full drum kit behind me (particularly one with a superb jazz drummer at the wheel), so I got the chance to play around with a few new strums. It was a great time playing music with friends!

The Tribe was also joined by Patrick Bowling for this special appearance…a fantastic flute, bodhran and pipes player. Perhaps the best bit, however, was when Paddy got out from behind the mike and started step dancing to a set of reels we did. A former competitive step dancer, he was LAUNCHING himself off that stage. Good on you, Paddy!

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.