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.