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!

The legendary Andy Irvine

Dave has been lucky enough to see Andy play a few times – either as a solo, with Patrick Street or the band Mozaik. This was my first time seeing him live, and he didn’t disappoint. He did a fine mix of songs from his new album — including The Spirit of Mother Jones, Emptyhanded, and Oslo — and classics from earlier in his career like Arthur McBride, My Heart’s Tonight in Ireland and Never Tired of the Road.

One song that stood out for me was O’Donoghue’s – his ode to the days when he first got started in music by hanging out at the famous Dublin pub with the boys from The Dubliners and the lads that Andy would soon join to form Sweeney’s Men. Kinda reminds me of my experience coming to The Press Room — getting to know all the other musicians, forming deep friendships and, eventually, creating this duo with Dave, and our maritime group Mudhook with our friends Alan Eaton and Mike Jeanneau (the biggest Andy Irvine fan I know). As the song says: “This is what life was all about.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you made it to the show, or his performance at Blue in Portland, what did ya think? What was your favorite song?

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!

• When I went to college in Manch-vegas, I spent more than a bit of time there.
• When I lived in Mont Vernon, I’d go every Thursday night to hear Marty Quirk sing.
• I became friends with some of the regulars and they invited me to join Manchester’s Ancient Order of Hibernians.
• The Rover is where I learned to play bodhran, where I first got on stage to sing, and where I had my first St. Patrick’s Day gig as part of the band, Shillelagh.

The trinity celebration

Well, I’m happy to say I’ve got a bit of a homecoming in a couple of weeks, as Dave and I will be playing the Wild Rover Celtic Festival. This is a tremendous event that includes three features:

1) The 21st Annual Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day 5K Road Race, which is benefits the Make A Wish Foundation. (I remember working a mile marker for this race when I was with the Hibos.)

2) A St. Baldrick’s fundraiser. This is a fun event that involves people shaving their heads for money, and that money goes for childhood cancer research. This local event is part of a national campaign which has seen 187,000 “shaves” raise more than $114 million since 2000.

3) And, of course, there’s live music and exhibits throughout the day. My friends Marty Quirk and Kevin Dolan will be playing earlier in the afternoon, and after we play there will be a U2 tribute band called New Years Day. There will be several schools of Irish dance taking the stage for demonstrations, and countless booths from local vendors and exhibitors to visit, including our good friends from Celtic Crossing in Portsmouth and the Seacoast Irish Cultural Association (SICA).

The race starts at 10 a.m. and the festival starts at 11 a.m. We’re tentatively scheduled to play between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., so we hope you’ll stop by to visit and enjoy the day.

And if you decide to shave your head…lemme know and I’ll kick in a few bucks.

Would you shave YOUR head? These guys are doing it to help children with cancer.

The day kicks off with the 21st annual 5k road race to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation

Pete and Tom, on stage together at Ri Ra

This special event, which will be held at The Stone Church in Newmarket, NH, is the brainchild of Tom Lanigan and Reagh Greenleaf. They were planning a half-way to St. Pats show, but they wanted to expand it beyond just their band. They instantly thought of òran mór, since we have a mutual admiration of each others’ acts, we sit-in with each other once in awhile, and we’ve been wanting to do a double-bill sometime.

We’re thrilled that “sometime” is now going to be Sept. 16.

The doors open at 6 p.m. The gameplan for the evening is that òran mór will play for the first part of the night (7 p.m.). Then Tom, Reagh, Sue Young, and Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki will take the stage (9 p.m.). We’ll close the night with a big ol’ jam together.

Tickets are $10 each, but here’s the thing: Only 100 tickets will be sold.

Don’t be left out…you can order ticket now by getting in touch with us, or clicking HERE.

It’s gonna be a mighty night of music and craic…hope to see you there!

Stay tuned for more details…

]]> http://www.oranmor.net/2011/08/half-way-to-st-pats-celebration-at-the-stone-church/feed/ 5 http://www.oranmor.net/2011/07/nottingham-summer-concert/ http://www.oranmor.net/2011/07/nottingham-summer-concert/#comments Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:44:25 +0000 Pete Hale http://www.oranmor.net/?p=1728 One of the great things about the area’s sessions is that in addition to playing music with our friends every week, say, at The Press Room’s Friday night trad session, we get to join them in a multitude of different, special events during the year. Another of those special events is coming up this Tuesday, Aug. 2, in Nottingham NH. We’ll be joining The Press Room Gang to perform one of the summer concerts sponsored by the town’s Recreation Department. It will be a wonderful mix of songs and tunes by a talented group of players…hope you can join us.

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

Well, Patsy had a bit of an accident over the winter that’s generated some serious medical bills, so there’s going to be a fundraiser for him at Mr. Dooley’s in Boston this Sunday, May 8 starting at 4 pm. I’m encouraging as many people as possible to get down there. There’s going to be some fantastic music, and all the proceeds will go to help this legendary performer and his family.

I hope you’ll be able to join me at Mr. Dooley’s to help a man who has helped so many others.