Gig Recap & Two Songs

It's been almost a month since my last post. I'm currently balancing work, writing, and wedding planning (not necessarily in that order) and so music events have not been copious. I did, however, play at the Elk's Club as I mentioned in my last entry.

It went wonderfully. We played for about 50 minutes and the songs followed the set list we worked out minus "The Streets of London". The one problem that arose for me was the volume for my bouzouki. I played this on a number of songs and it really wasn't loud enough. I was set up with a condenser mic that really didn't do the job. The other vocals and guitar drowned out my picking quite a bit. That said, it sounded pretty good on stage. A couple friends of Gary recorded the whole show on digital camera. The sound quality was a little off and, I think, it is here that the bouzouki didn't come off all the well. I guess I'll need a pickup! Our singing was good and everything else went off without a hitch.

I'll see if I can geta clip or two from the show to post. In the meantime, here are two songs I recorded a couple days ago with the webcam. The first is "The Leaving of Liverpool", and the second "Free in the Harbour" by Stan Rogers. Enjoy.

Paddy's Day

Even though Paddy's Day is not until Monday there are, of course, parties occuring everywhere this weekend in celebration of being Irish (or not being Irish, whichever you prefer). Here it is no different. Tonight I happen to be playing with two other guys (Gary and Dave) at the Elks Club here. I've never been in the building before, but I'm sure it will be fun. We've had a couple practices and have a set list lined up. Here's what we are doing:

1. Botany Bay
2. Foggy Shores of Home
3. Fiddler's Green
4. Big Strong Man
5. Excursion Around the Bay
6. Will You Go Lassie Go
7. Walk in the Irish Rain
8. Tickle Cove Pond
9. The Streets of London
10. Catch the Wind

We have a couple back up tunes ready in case there's a situation where filler will be required, either for us or any of the other performers. In an hour I have to leave to do a sound check and final practice run of a couple songs. I've been looking forward to this, but am only now starting to get a tiny bit nervous. Nerves are funny like that.

I'll be on guitar, bouzouki, tin whistle, and bodhran tonight. I'll be switching between these the whole time. Should be fun as long as I remember what I'm playing! Hopefully I'll have pictures or a video or two to put up later. We shall see.

Fill 'er Up!

I've been working on the bouzouki regularly. I'm no Andy Irvine, but I'm at the stage where I want to use fills to make the inbetween singing parts of songs more interesting. Right now I'm looking at a melody sequence as a fill. Later I'll probably want to spruce it up a bit and make things a little more original.

The first song I've done this with is "Catch the Wind" by Donovan. This song has always been a favourite of mine. It's heartfelt, direct and has a touch of poetry about it. Anyway, I modified the fill I've heard in the Irish Descendant's version of the song and came up with this:



The next one I'll put up is "The Boys of the Old Brigade". This song has a lovely lilt to it. The fill is the last two lines of the chorus. Not difficult and leaves some room to spice it up a bit too.

An Original from Me

I usually post my own versions of other songs here, but I've decided this time to put up an original of mine called "Long Shore". This is inspired by people in Newfoundland who have had to move thousands of miles to get work. It's a situation the Irish are used to and we are used to it here as well. Numerous people I grew up with have moved away and often end up raising their families away from the place that many still call home. It's something that many of them detest and I have to agree. The ones who stay often give the better paying jobs and opportunity to remain here.

Long Shore is a place in Heart's Content, NL where I'm from. The images of the power house, etc come from my experience.

A little something of home...

First Steps

Since Christmas I've been spending a lot of time working on the bouzouki. The first thing I did was do a google search to find bouzouki chords. There are a lot of different tunings. I prefer the standard Irish bouzouki tuning - GDAD. I will, no doubt, experiment more with others as time progresses. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, here is the site that I got them from:

Brian's Huge Chordlist Collection

There is so much I want to do with this thing that I'm almost boggled by it. It's the perfect instrument for me since it has a full enough sound to accompany singing, while being well suited to picking tunes. At the moment I'm learning some tunes I've always played on guitar and trying to work out some fills for them. I'm mainly concerned at the moment with becoming familiar with chord fingerings and keys. So far I haven't had to play much outside of D, G, or C. I can use a capo for other changes, but I'd like to go beyond this with time.

In the meantime, this is the first song I learned on the bouzouki.

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.