Bouzouki City

Population me!

It's been a while since I've written (exactly a month now). It's been a busy December finishing off classes for the term and making sure my students are in good shape for the new year. Christmas has hit pretty hard, both the weather and the spending. But I've had an excellent time thus far, as has my fiancee.

For a while I've been eyeing bouzoukis and octave mandolins, and K has been eyeing a mid range Alegria fiddle. We both said the spending just couldn't handle these things so we went on our merry way. I later decided to buy her the fiddle as a surprise Christmas gift. I knew she'd love it. As it turns out, however, she also got me a bouzouki!

On Christmas morning I was shocked to find this hidden in the corner behind the tree: an Ozark 2222 model bouzouki. It's a flat back bouzouki with: natural solid spruce top with inlaid escutcheon, mid brown finished solid maple back and sides, slotted head, and a scale length of 660mm. I like the pattern on the body as well. Quite nice.

The sound coming out of this instrument is better than I would have guessed. A clear rich tone while providing good natural bass. As of yet I've been learning songs to play on bouzouki that I've learned for tin whistle or guitar. It's a new way of picking and strumming that I need to get used to. I will no doubt add more pictures and a couple videoes as time goes by.

My Guitar

Thought I'd post an entry about my guitar. It's a MR 710 F model Cort guitar complete with venetian cutaway, sold sitka spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, and Fishman classic FT electronics.

I bought this guitar during my days as a poor university student. One fall I received a millennium scholarship of $2000 dollars (half of which I put on my student loan). After I made sure bills were paid and I was in the black for the next month I took a trip to the local Musicstop branch and spent hours perusing guitars. I tried out some nice Takmines, Epiphones, Martins and stumbled onto Cort.

I had never heard of the brand and had to try it out. I first saw a $400 basic model without the cutaway. it looked interesting so I tried it out. It had great tone for a guitar of that dollar range and I was impressed, but not enough to fork out the dollars for it. A moved on and out of the corner of my eye saw this beauty. Beautifully made, lovely design. I took it up and began to mess around with it. I remember first playing "The Streets of London" and being utterly surprised by the clear deep sound coming from this guitar. The body had a solid coat of gloss which slightly muted the sound produced, but refined it, or so it seems to me now looking back.

I played some faster tunes (a polka or two) and even some unplugged heavy metal. I didn't think Megadeth could sound so sweet coming from an acoustic guitar I've never heard of before. I spent over an hour holding it and decided I'd take her home. She impressed me more than any of the comparable Takamines I'd played and the price was just right. I ended up paying $650 for her and to this day I believe it's one of the best deals I've ever gotten.

Six years later this guitar still plays like a dream and I find it hard to tear myself away. I think that's the mark of a wonderful instrument, the kind that just cannot be put down.

Annie Laurie and Wisteria

Two songs. One is an old Scottish song based on the poem by William Douglas. THe second is by Richard Shindell. Awesome Tune.

The Valley of Strathmore

This song was written by Andy M. Stewart. I won't ruin it with a preface...

Donnybrook Fair, The Kesh Jig

Here's a couple jigs I recorded the other day. They aren't perfect (I'm trying to get back into some tin whistle). The first is Donnybrook Fair and the second is the Kesh Jig. They are both in the key of G and fairly straight forward.

In the background you will note my walls are no longer white. This is because I'm in my new house and the computer room has a coffee kind of colour to it. Enjoy...

"Donnybrook Fair"




"The Kesh Jig"

New Digs

So I've recently moved. So recent in fact that all I have unpacked are boxes of dishes and some clothes. Everything else is stacked not so neatly in cardboard in the middle of my living room. This has left me with little to no time for recording videos or adding to my posts here. This will change however.

The house is beautiful. it's a 3 bedroom bungalow big enough for me, my fiancee, two cats and a puppy (with room to spare!). One of the best features in the house is the downstairs area. There is a beautiful dark stained/stressed bar, complete with beer cooler. It even has a beem across the ceiling in from and posts coming down from it, making the place look like a potential pub! I'm excited about the possibility of decorating the place to look comfortable and somewhat pub-like. I've got a stereo down there and a home theatre system that rocks the place. It's a great place to relax and sing a couple songs. Maybe I'll be able to bring the camera down there and record a couple. Hmmmmm...

The Witch of the Westmorland

This is a song I learned from a Stan Rogers recording, though it was written by Archie Fisher. "The Witch of the Westmorland" has mythic elements that create a wonderful atmosphere of mystery and epic intrigue. Westmorland is in the north of England, near Scotland and some of the vocabulary seems to reflect this.

Anyway, beautiful song...

Peter Street

Here's a good song done here by me with no music. Warnings against a rowdy life...

PETER STREET

Oh ye landsmen and ye seamen come listen to my song,
It’s of a trick was played on me, it won’t delay you long.
I came from sea the other day, a fair girl I did meet,
She kindly asked me to a dance, was up on Peter Street.

"Oh no," says I, "me fair maid, though I can dance quite well,
Tonight I’m bound for Wicklow’s town that’s were my people dwell."
"You’d better come with me," she said, "for the distance is not far,"
And finding her so friendly, I jumped into her car.

Now as the dance was over straight to the bed did go,
‘Twas little didn’t I ever think she’d pull my overthrow:
Robbed my gold watch and thirty pounds, a pack of fags and fled,
And left me there, stark naked, alone upon the bed.

Now when I awoke in the morning it was nothing did I spy,
But a woman’s shirt and apron up the bed did lie.
I rung me hands, I tore my hair, I cried, "What shall I do?
Ah, tonight I’m bound for Wicklow’s town, no more will I see you."

Now as the streets were lonesome at the hour of two o’clock,
I put on the shirt and apron and marched down to the dock.
The crew they saw me coming and these words to me did say,
"My dear old chap you’ve struck a snap since you’ve been gone away.

"Are those the new spring fashions that the ladies wear onshore?
Where is the shop you bought them at and is there anymore?"
The Captain on the quarterdeck looked at me with a frown,
Saying, “Jack I'd buy a better suit than that for thirty pounds”.

"I would sir, if I could sir, if I’d only got the chance,
But I met a girl on Peter Street and she asked me for a dance.
She danced my hearts deception, I got robbed from head to feet,
And I’ll take my oath no more I’ll go to a dance on Peter Street."

Oh, ye landsmen and ye seamen a warning take by me:
Be sure to choose good company when you go out on spree.
Be sure to choose good company or your find yourself like me,
With a woman’s shirt and apron for to fit you out for sea!

The Galtee Mountain Boy

Here's a video to accompany my last post. This is "The Galtee Mountain Boy". The lighting was way off in the room due to extreme brightness from the sun. The cam couldn't handle it properly. Anyway, here's the rebel song:

Tradition with a Touch of Class

Today my World Geography class and I finished off our first section related to land and water forms, which means we are moving along pretty good. The material isn't too challenging and the students, for the most part, are getting it. I had them working quite a bit this week with questions and case study material related to mountain types, etc., so I thought I'd give them a treat at the end of the week.

Well it's a treat for me anyway. Not all people like traditional music, but I thought I'd try it out on them in case they liked it. To be somewhat related to the course material I brought in my guitar to sing "The Galtee Mountain Boy". This is a lovely ballad about the anti-treaty movement in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century. This group opposed the "Free Staters" who wanted peace and a treaty with England to end the fighting during the Irish War of Independence. The people mentioned in the song were leading members of the anti-treaty group and had varying levels of involvement in the action. The "flying column" is a small, guerrilla type band of soldiers who roamed the mountains and raided from their outlaw posts in the hills. The lyrics are as follows:

THE GALTEE MOUNTAIN BOY
by Patsy Halloran

"I joined the flying column in nineteen and sixteen,
In Cork with Seán Moylan, in Tipperary with Dan Breen.
Arrested by Free Staters and sentenced for to die...
Farewell to Tipperary," said the Galtee Mountain Boy.

"We went across the valleys and over the hilltops green
Where we met with Dinny Lacey, Seán Hogan and Dan Breen
Seán Moylan and his gallant men, who kept the flag flying high...
Farewell to Tipperary," said the Galtee Mountain Boy.

"We trekked the Wicklow Mountains, we were rebels on the run.
Though hunted night and morning, we were outlaws but free men.
We trekked the Dublin Mountains as the sun was shining high...
Farewell to Tipperary", said the Galtee Mountain Boy.

"I’ll bid farewell to old Clonmel that I never more shall see
And to the Galtee Mountains that oftimes sheltered me,
To the men who fought for their liberty and died without a sigh...
May their cause be ne’er forgotten," said the Galtee Mountain Boy.

And a map I provided for the kids:



As it happens, the kids seemed to really like it. It helped them not do work as well, so this is now doubt a reason why. But who knows, maybe someone enjoyed hearing it.

A Video Drive By

Two quick videos that I recorded earlier today. The first is "Bonnie Woodhall", a scottish ballad. The second is "Will You Go, Lassie, Go?" written by a man from Belfast. It is often mistaken for a scottish tune.

Arthur McBride and the Sergeant

This is a new favourite of mine. Paul Brady played an amazing arrangement of this song back in the 70s and this is the one I've recorded here. The tuning is open G, tuned down a couple steps, making it an F tuning of some kind, I guess. Took a while to learn the interlude bit. It's the way I play it, not exactly the way Brady does, but I'm not trying to be Brady.

Anyway, here it is. It's a bit long. You might need to pause it and let it load a bit first.

Among the Wicklow Hills

This is a song I've been listening to quite a bit lately. It's written by Pierce Turner and, at least the version I know, is sung by Christy Moore. A song about getting away from it all, the complications of life, the world we've created that stagnates creativity. Here are the lyrics:

Among The Wicklow Hills
Written by Pierce Turner

The autumn evenings filled with copper shades
I see the birds' neck in the frame
A figure walks into the sunset
Someone goes past suspended from the sky

Takes more imagination
When everything's remote control
For me it's just a case of
What's on the far side of the road

Tell everybody
I'm going away for ten years
I'm going to wander
Among the Wicklow hills

The travelling children in their Sunday clothes
Lost on the corner of the Street
Fat gypsy lady smacks the windowpane
A farm dog gets out on the motorway

Takes more imagination
When everything's remote control
For me it's just a case of
What's on the far side of the road

Tell everybody
I'm going away for ten years
I'm going to wander
Among the Wicklow hills

Here is a video of "Among the Wicklow Hills" I recorded recently:

The Cobb's Pond Music Festival

So I'm not long back from the Gander music festival where Gary, Dave, and I (collectively referred to as The Scruncheons) played our hearts out to a crowd of uncertain size. There were hundreds there for sure, maybe a thousand. Just how many is for the abacus to decide.

We took to the stage and began with a good upbeat song called "Botany Bay" to get the crowd going. We followed this with "The Wild Rover", "Will You Go, Lassie, Go?", "Foggy Shores of Home", "Catch the Wind", "Rare People" (an original of Gary's), "Theresa Maria", "Dirty Old Town", and we finished up with a good jumper "Excursion Around the Bay".

I think we all did great and for the most part things sounded good. I had a couple issues with the volume on my mic in "Foggy Shores", but this was cleared up. The sound guy also wasn't sure what to do with the tin whistle and it took "Go, Lassie, Go" to straighten that one out. In all we did a great job. This was my first paid show, so go me!

Here are a couple pics of the event, showing The Scruncheons in action:



Tuning up.



The Scruncheons (Gary, Dave, and I)



My rendition of Donovon's "Catch the Wind"



"Theresa Maria", a great whistle tune.

Joining the Festivities

So I was asked to form the third man in a trio that will play at the Gander Folk Festival this coming Monday. It's been a while since I've played for such an event and immediately said "Sure, b'y".

As happens so often out here, the band consists of three teachers. I'm on guitar, tin whistle, mandolin, and vocals, Dave on guitar and vocals, and the group is headed by Gary on bass, guitar and vocals.

We have a half hour set to get ready for, so that's about 8 songs, maybe 9 if we go through quickly. Our planned set list is as follows:

Botany Bay
The Wild Rover
Will You Go, Lassie, Go?
The Foggy Shores of Home
Theresa Maria
Catch the Wind
Rare People (an original of Gary's)
Dirty Old Town
Excursion Around the Bay (extra just in case)

This is by no means the correct order. I'll figure that out talking to Gary today. We timed ourselves and this seems like it will do a half hour for us. We had a shaky practice the other night. A couple of us hadn't heard a song or two and had to learn it on the spot. The harmonies are the weakest on my part. Something I'll have to get used to them and tighten it up. Last night went quite well. We've almost got everything down to a science now. Going to put in another practice Sunday night to make sure we got it all straight and hope for the best on Monday.

Streets of London

Thought I'd put up another ballad-type song. I love these, as you can tell. This one is called "The Streets of London" and is very popular in traditional circles. It's about the poor and dejected, less fortunate people who are all around you, but whom you might not notice. Ralph McTell wrote this song back in the sixties and since then it has been performed by numerous artists. I probably first heard this as a kid listening to some local bands from my hometown.

I play the song in E with a capo on the 4th fret. This is a good one to help you practice your finger picking. Anyway, without further adieu...

Two More Lovely Songs

I guess this is turning into a video blog. Oh Well!

The first song here is a classic ballad that has nearly been done to death by everyone, but is nevertheless a very popular number. "The Fields of Athenrye":



The second song is one of my personal favourites. It's called "Arthur McBride". This version is inspired by Andy Irvine's, which is perhaps the most famous. An anti-recruitment song of the 19th century protesting Irish recruitment into the British Army. Enjoy!

Another Video

Yesterday I posted a video of me singing "The Bard of Armagh". People elsewhere have given me some positive feedback, so I figured I'd record another to post. This one is called "The Sick Note" and was written by Pat Cooksey. Ah, the joys of physical labour! Enjoy!

Been A While, But...

Ok, it's been a while since I've posted, due to business, etc. But I'm back with a video. A beautiful Irish song called "The Bard of Armagh". Tommy Makem recorded this and I love his version of the song. This is my rendition. Hope you enjoy!

Out of Touch

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here. I blame the fact that I've been on holiday for a couple weeks and busy with other matters just before.

The biggest news, I think, is that I purhcased a fife. It's cheap mind you ($12.00) and is plastic, but it is enough, I figure, to learn on. I've always wanted to play one and maybe over the course of the summer I will get a chance to do so. It's played the same way a tin whistle is with the exception that you blow into it somewhat like you do a flute. This is the hardest part to learn, along with forming full notes and changing octaves. I'm going to stick to tunes I already know, not new ones at this stage. Oh well, it's all a learning experience.

I'm going to see an old friend of mine tonight. I think I'll bring the guitar and see if we can get some tunes on the go.

MP3 Tunes

I mentioned a few entries back that I was going to put up a recording of a couple tunes. Well, here they are.

The first tune is "The Humours of Glendart" and the second is "Donnybrook Fair". They are both played on a Clarke D whistle. The recording isn't perfect, but it gives an idea of the each tune and how they go.

Enjoy.

Two Jigs

Drum Pics

I've been playing bodhran for 4 or 5 years now (I can never remember exactly when it comes to these things). I've had two. The first was umber brown with a beige head and was very generic in every conceivable way. The sound wasn't bad, but was a bit sharp. The head itself was losing its colour and becoming transparent (not that this is a big problem, but it did annoy me). The thing cost me $40 and I ended up giving it to a friend of mine who wanted it either to learn or to use as some kind of decoration in his apartment.

The current bodhran I have is a real beauty. It's a handmade 19 inch Neil O'Grady with a red goat skin drum head. This one is about 3 years old and is locally made by Neil O'Grady, who is from Carbonear, Newfoundland. He is also the only local maker of ulieann pipes. Here's a couple pictures of this drum:

The last one here shows the three tippers I most often use. The first and second are my favourites.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to recording something on this insturment.

Song Book City

So I've completed another song book. This one, like the other big book I have, contains only traditional music, or songs written by artists working in the traditional style. This one contains 127 songs at last count and there is still room to add more.

I now have four books: a big 200 some odd page, smaller new 130 or so page, a small book with common party tunes, and a Christmas carol book. I've had the lyrics and chords to a lot of songs lying around on my hard drive and wanted to take the time to organize them into a new collection.

This book contains a few of my favourite songs, including "Annie Laurie", "The Bard of Armagh", "Bonnie Woodhall", "The Curragh of Kildare", "The Foggy Shores of Home", "Little Musgrave", "The Mermaid Song", "The Rose of Saigon", "Slip Jigs and Reels", and "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure".

Most of these I either know how to play already, or will very soon.

A Lovely Find

I was perusing my directory of songs today and thought I'd listen to a little Dolores Keane. I hadn't listened to anything by her in a while and, to be honest, I don't know much of her work. I clicked on a song called "The Low Lowlands of Holland".

I have never heard this song before and sure enough I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the guitar and tin whistle playing an intro. The melody really stuck me as beautiful with it's unexpected lows and highs. These help emphasize the lyrics, which, by the way, are here:

The Low Lowlands of Holland

The night that I was married and upon my marriage bed,
Up came a bold sea captain and he stood at my bed head
Saying "Arise arise young wedded man and come along with me
To the low lowlands of Holland to fight the enemy."

Now Holland is a lovely land and on it grows fine grain.
Sure it is a place of residence for a soldier to remain
Where the sugarcane is plentiful, where the tea grows on each tree.
I never had, but the one sweet thought and now he's far away from me.

Says the mother to the daughter, "Give up your soldier man
For there's man enough in Galway for to be your heart's content."
"Oh if there's man enough in Galway, alas there are none for me,
Since the low, lowlands of Holland have come between my love and me."

I'll wear no swathe around my waist, nor combs all in my hair,
No handkerchief around my neck for to save my beauty fair.
And never will I marry, until the day I die
Since the low, lowlands of Holland have come between my love and I.

Beautiful song of loss, the hurt of war, and the desire to hold on to the things that mean most to us. I've already worked out the chords to the song and all I need is a little time to getting the melody right then it's another song ready for my song book.

Two Choice Jigs

I've been back on a tin whistle kick lately, so I'm putting up two tunes that I've been working on: "The Humours of Glendart" and "Donnybrook Fair".

These jigs work very nicely together, the first being in the key of D and the second in G, allowing for a key change that is the equivalent of "dropping the car back in third and walking on her", as my brother says.

"The Humours of Glendart" I first met in a Planxty recording. On this track they called it "East at Glendart", but the tune is the same. "Donnybrook Fair" I heard paired "Glendart" on a ceiligh band recording (the band's name elludes me at the moment). The tune is also called "The Joys of Love".

Here they are in midi form. One of these days I may get around to posting the ABC notation for whistle playing:

The Humours of Glendart, Donnybrook Fair

Ah, visuals

I think I'll start things off with a link to a video. This is a song performed by a wonderful group of irish musicians known around the world as Planxty. There will be more to follow about this supergroup in the future, but for now I'll leave you with a classic of theirs, entitled "Arthur McBride", that really illustrates their style. Andy Irvine is the singer.

A-one, a-two, and a one, two, three, four

So here I am, starting a (we)blog. This is way overdone and hackneyed with at least a third of the internet's populous believing that the words ad nauseum cannot in any way apply to this kind of internet abuse. I've decided to see what the hype is, putting aside my fierce desire to do only the things that most other people do not, or will not.

That said, I hope to have this posting board concern itself primarily with one of my major hobbies: music. To be more specific, traditional/folk music from Newfoundland and Ireland (music from Scotland, Britian, and the odd Australian tune may also make an appearance). This is the kind of music popular in the pubs, bars, and houses of Newfoundland when parties and party people gather together. Songs, bands, instruments and anything else associated with this topic will likely appear here somewhere.

Alright then.