òran mór

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. 

Our good friend, and oft-times musical cohort, Susan Young gave a great performance and session-after at Blue in Portland last night.

Sue nicely built the momentum during the evening, starting a capella, playing some tunes with Chris Stevens, and then moving to songs (with yours truly and then Michel Jenneau) and more tunes, with most of Boghat (to be fair.. Jamie wasn’t there). 

She brought it around full circle to end with a pair of a capella songs.  The crowd, which happened to include Paddy Keenan, loved it.

We had a great session afterward, where, for a few fleeting moments, we all saw ‘another side of Tom Rota.’   Put the cash in a plain brown envelope, Tom.

If you missed the festivities, check out some of the photos that Beth Therriault took of us during our Sunday show at Kelley’s Row. She’s a great photog that specializes in events and weddings – and she offered to capture a few shots of òran mór in action. Hey, she’s so talented she makes us look good.

And a special thanks to our friend, the lovely and talented Sue Young, who stepped up on Tuesday to cover for Dave at the noontime gig. She was great, and now we have the makings of a new super group — sú & mór!

I'm not that much shorter than Dave, am I?

The artsy shot

Bob and Dave belt one out

Building on last year’s success, òran mór takes the stage just a bit after noon.  Kelley’s Row is the heart of County Dover and the Irish tradition on this special day. We loved the enthusiastic audience last year, and we look forward to another good party.

We’ll be playing a ‘get ready’ party there on Sunday, March 15th  — now there’s a way to get a real running start on the marathon week!

Susan Young, our good friend and super Irish singer and player, will join us at noon on the 17th – so you’ll get an added treat. Expect some very special vocals, and Sue’s melodic and driving drum.

Kelley’s Row
421 Central Ave
Dover, NH 03820
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