Tag / Irish music

by shannonchance

Kevin and Jerry — On Air

Remember when I helped Jerry Crilly (my pal from the Cobblestone pub) find his ole pal Kevin Donleavy?  Kevin lives in Virginia, which is why Jerry (a Dublin resident) requested my help.  Well, Kevin has written to me several times since.  He’s going to be featuring some of the music Jerry sent him on his WTJU radio show tomorrow!  I hope you’ll tune in to learn something about traditional Irish music!  See how, below:
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A chairde and pals,

Kevin Donleavy. (Photo by Josh Meltzer, The Roanoke Times)

Kevin Donleavy. (Photo by Josh Meltzer, The Roanoke Times)

Just a reminder to switch on your radio this Saturday for another on-line program of Irish trad music. It’s the ATLANTIC WEEKLY PART TWO show, and the date is Dec. 1.  As always, the broadcast time is 10 am till 12 noon, eastern US time (or 3 to 5 pm in Ireland).  If you live near the Charlottesville, Virginia area,  you can listen on WTJU, at 91.1 on the FM dial.
This week there will be whistle playing from both Enda Seery and Kathleen Conneely off their newish CDs.  Among the younger  groups you can hear are Realta from Belfast,  Ioscaid from all over the Wee Six counties, and Flashback from Texas.  Among the individual singers this week are Tadgh Maher and Jerry Reilly,  Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Mairin Fahy,  Jerry Crilly and Lenny Duff.  There’s plenty to entertain even the most sophisticated and jaded ears !  Reels agus jigs galore !
Here are the easy steps to listen in on your computer. First, visit http://wtju.net.  Next, select Listen Live on the right side bar. Then,  choose between Ogg and MP3.
Hope that you can tune in this Saturday, wet the tea, and roll back the carpet.
Kevin
by shannonchance

Tuesday Nights at the Cobblestone

The dim light of the Cobblestone on a Tuesday night.

I love stopping by the Cobblestone on Tuesday nights after yoga class.  Tom Mulligan (the proprietor), his son Tomas, and some of his nephews play on Tuesdays.  The crowd is small on Tuesdays and the tone of the place is very relaxed.  I alway find a good a seat right in the musicians’ corner.

Irish musicians often play more than one instrument. Here you see Tomas on guitar and his cousin playing flute with a set of uilleann pipes on his lap.

Whenever I come in on Tuesday, Tom’s playing his flute.  When the song ends and he looks up, recognizes me, and exclaims “Shannon!” in the most lovely Kerry accent I’ve ever heard.  That warms my heart!

Of course, dropping in on the way home from yoga leads to some misconceptions as well.  Many people assume that my tall, green bag holds a musical instrument.  The musicians and audience alike ask me to join in.

Unfortunately, it’s been years since I played the oboe. But with six years of that under my belt, I know that playing well takes tremendous time and dedication.  Were I to take up an instrument, it would take years before I’d be ready to play for an audience.

by shannonchance

Painting the Town Red

Esther loves musical productions.  Surprisingly, she wasn’t much interested in seeing plays while she was here.  That’s because English is her fifth language and she was worried she’d have trouble understanding.

You heard right.  She speaks five languages: (1) Swiss German (in Berne dialect), as well as (2) High German, (3) French, (4) as much Italian as I speak, and also (5) English.

Esther used to take in exchange students like me as a way of building her skills in English.  I was the  first in a long line of American exchange students to frequent her Ferenberg home.

And while she was here we painted the town red!  We soaked in all these musical performances during her one-week stay in Dublin:

  • The musical An American Idiot which, like so many musicals these days, has a plot contrived as a way to package a band’s album into a Broadway show. Wikapedia explains “American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day.”  Although the plot is understandably disappointing, Green Day’s “punk” music is actually quite festive.  The performance concluded with the whole company singing “It’s something unpredictable but in the end it’s right. I hope you have the time of your life!”  I’d been looking for an opportunity to visit the theater building itself, because it was designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind (the firm that designed the building to replace the World Trade Towers), and so I was perfectly happy that Esther actually asked to spend an evening immersed in American idiot-ry.  The theater is quite beautiful. However the knee-room was lacking where I sat and I determined once and for all that nose-bleed seats and traveling Broadway shows don’t mix.  The sound balance is often poor in the far upper corner when the show hits a new space.
  • Arlington Hotels Traditional Live Irish Music and Irish Dancing dinner show. The musicians sang “take me home country roads” (which is a favorite drinking song in Switzerland and pub song in Ireland). They also dedicated a song to Esther and me that was quite fitting.  Something about friends and traveling, if I recall correctly after this whirl-wind week. I was the only one in the place getting the host’s jokes. (He used to be a city planner, so perhaps we share some mental wiring?)
  • Gavin and his brother playing with other musicians at Hughes Pub. One of the guys in the band recognized the faces in Glen McClure’s photos from Achill Island (see my posts Leader of the Band and Drummer Girl).
  • The opera Hansel and Gretel, performed in the beautiful Gaiety Theater. I enjoyed this production more than any other opera I’ve ever seen. So I wasn’t too opposed when Esther asked to go see Disney on Ice for her last night in town. (It wasn’t my own top choice for the evening, but I gave in!)
  • Esther had never attended an ice-skating show in person and throughly enjoyed seeing Disney on Ice’s Passport to Adventure held at the Royal Dublin Society last night.
  • Two back-to-back visits to The Cobblestone pub. Thursday night we visited with Fulbright scholar Bob Trumble, his lovely wife Ann, and Ann’s her sister and brother-in-law.  When we’re in Virginia, Bob and Ann live in Williamsburg–just up the road from Dave and  me. On Thursday Tom gave Esther a copy of his CD.  She glowed with happiness.  Her eyes sparkled with excitement.  She’s so lovable!  We visited the pub again last night and got to hear Tom’s brother Neil (and Neil’s son) play.

Esther has just left for the airport, and things are now quiet and still. I’ve got mounds of work to do and yet hundreds of memories of this past week that I still want to share with you.  I hope to find time to post more for you in the coming days.

Gavin (far left) and his brother, Aidan, are among the musicians who play at Hughes Pub on Monday nights. Esther (far right) was soaking in the melodies.

Grand Canal Commercial Development and Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
Logo from the musical “An American Idiot.”
Theater by Studio Daniel Libeskind. http://daniel-libeskind.com/projects/bord-gáis-energy-theatre-and-grand-canal-commercial-development
Reflection on the Theater facade.
Inside of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind.
The Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava’s office.
Gavin (far left) and his brother, Aidan, are among the musicians who play at Hughes’ Pub on Monday nights. Esther (far right) was soaking in the melodies.
This musician was at the Achill Island St. Patrick’s Day parade that Glen McClure photographed last March. He knows many people in Glen’s photos.
The American Embassy threw an election-night party with All-American flair.
Election Night at the Guinness Storehouse.
An election night discussion led by a lecturer from Trinity College Dublin.
The Ambassador to Ireland spoke to us from Pittsburgh on election night.
Poster from the opera “Hansel and Gretal.”
Shannon and Esther after the opera.
Shannon mimicking the witch.
Captain Hook got quite bossy in Disney on Ice.
Scenes from Passport to Adventure a Disney on Ice production.
I finally got to hear Tom’s brother Neil play the pipes last night. My camera didn’t have any juices left, so I downloaded this photo from http://www.chuckbrodsky.com, but all these guys were at the Cobblestone last night.
by shannonchance

Night Owl

Tea with Richard Hayes, Gavin Duffy, and Brian Bowe after the College Education Seminar wrapped up.

Happy Halloween!  I just got a call from Trish Long, who leads Disney’s branch here in Ireland.  We met at Zumba class at the elbowroom a couple of weeks ago.  She called to invite me to RTÉ Concert Orchestra: Psycho – Live! Hallowe’en Night at The National Concert Hall in Dublin.

What an awesome way to follow up yesterday’s seminar and last night’s musical evening at the Cobblestone.

At the Cobblestone, I got to hear Tom’s brother, Alfie, play alongside three of his kids.  Alfie’s daughter (seated to the left in the video) is studying Medieval Irish History and Architecture. She’s a student at Trinity College, and an excellent candidate for a Fulbright, I’d say.

Enjoying music and good conversation, with Nancy Stenson, Susan Early, and Joan Cahalin. Tom Mulligan is there, too, in the background.

Just as a crowd of instrument-carrying appeared to join Alfie’s family in the musicians corner, a bunch of my friends showed up, too. I spent a lovely evening talking with Fulbright Nancy Stenson and architects Joan Cahalin and Susan Early.

Nancy and Joan both have degrees in linguistics, so we got to discuss Nancy’s research (she’s diagnosing where students have the biggest problems with Irish pronunciation in order to help teachers teach Irish more effectively). Nancy has authored several textbooks on Irish language already, though she never mentions it herself.  I always do–because it’s fascinating!

When they left, I visited with three generations of a family from Brooklyn who are celebrating birthdays this week (one turning 21, one 50, and one 92)! They were there along with a relative from Dublin. I can’t believe how good life has been to the lot of us!