Well I finally got around to updating the band’s website a little to take account of the National Folk Festival and St Patrick’s Day.
Still a bit fluey from the festival lurgy but recovering well. learning some hardanger music, including a couple of schottisches and a ganglat! And a wonderful waltz called “Vals efter blinder Peter”
Cheers
Jerry
What an amazing festival!! This one has to have been the best yet – The only downside was that my attempts at moblogging failed dismally, so here are my highlights of the festival – after the event.
Key highlights were some great concerts – Martin Pearson’s satyrical recitation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in two parts… Dingo’s Breakfast – especially the “Original Goon Show”; Nancy Kerr – an amazing fiddle player (My apologies Nancy if my anti-session caused you grief); Jane Brownlea’s band; the Wise Family Band (Scott Wise made my hardanger fiddle); and many more.
Other highlights included our ‘Anti-Session in the session bar – where we welcomed bodhran players and squeeze boxes, performed random stand-ups during the tunes, and then topped it off with literal musical chairs – getting up and wandering around and sitting down randomly where other musicians had been sitting – it was a no-frown celtic music session. Yes it was loud and raucous but everyone had a big grin and a laugh – after all music is all about enjoyment and never mind the odd random notes! Many came up afterwards and said it was the best session they’d ever played in – high praise indeed.
Other highlights included a couple of one-to-one sessions with Jane Brownlea – an awesome fiddle player; sessioning with Louisa Wise, Scott Wise and Jane Brownlea; performing a concert spot with the venerable Billy Moran – an Irish accordionist from Melbourne in his nineties and still going strong! Also jamming with some cayjun fiddlers; lots of guinness and sessioning until six AM most mornings.
One of the biggest surprises was finding another hardangerfiddle (hardingfele) – a genuine Norwegian eight string fiddle of the type mine was modelled on. So we played some Scandinavian tunes – and had the very great pleasure of Dave deHugaard joining in – and suggesting we all ge together for a spot of Scandinavian music at the next National Folk Festival.
Dueling hardangers!
My own performances with Will-o-the-Wisp circus street performers (stilt walkers and associated characters) went very well and received a lot of attention throughout the festival – especially when we invaded the Session Bar!
And finally, the many friends I caught up with from many years ago from Perth, Western Australia, and from Adelaide – along with the many new friends I met and the many new friends I haven’t met yet 🙂
It was exhausting, but exhilarating!
The Festival flu I came home with was a small price to pay!
Cheers
Jerry
If you were wondering why I’m taking so long to blog St Patrick’s day, it wasn’t because of the Guinness – it’s just that it is only today I have stopped aching after two very energetic shows totalling six hours of playing with a complete sound system breakdown and setup in between!
I put on my pedometer – reset to zero – on the morning of St Pat’s day, and I took a photo when I took it off in the evening:
Now that is a lot of bounding around on stage!
We started off at PJ O’Reilly’s in Civic (Canberra Australia) playing from 1.30-4.30pm
The wireless sound system is great to use – it allows much more freedom of movement than if we were plugged in to the sound system through standard leads – as you can see I danced around so much my legs just faded away!
And we played for some Irish dancers from a local Irish dance school
The audience were a great crowd and all too soon we had to pack up in a rush and head over to Filthy McFadden’s in Kingston (Canberra, Australia) and set up in time to start playing from 5.30-8.30pm.
Filthy’s is another great venue – more intimate, with many nooks and crannies, despite being quite a good sized pub. It certainly kept our sound engineer busy as the dynamics would change as the composition of the crowd changed.
The audience was very enthusiastic and many got up to dance. The bar was lined up five deep for most of the night and we kept ourselves lubricated with light beer throughout both shows so we wouldn’t end up Patrickly Sainted! But I did allow myself a good pint of the Guinness at the end of the evening once our work was done and we could relax and take in the band that followed us. They were a mainly covers band and did not get as enthusiastic a response as we did 🙂
Anyhow it was a great day and as the Irish say – great craic!
Cheers
Jerry
Happy St Patrick’s Day! We will be busy today – the band Full Circle is playing two shows today – from 1.30pm-430pm at PJ O’Reilly’s in Civic and 5.30pm-8.30pm at Filthy McFadden’s in Kingston – so if you are in Canberra, Austraalia today, why not drop by and say hello! (I’ll be the one with the fiddle – and the guinness )
The sculpture beneath the hat is called “Blinded by Reggae” and was made and cast by Swaziland-born Western Australian artist Terry Thomas in 1981. I have taken to calling it “The Procrastinator!”
St Patrick is of course the patron saint of Ireland – it appears St Patrick was a real historical figure who lived in the 5th century (Christian Era). Interestingly, while he is said to have used the three-leafed clover, or shamrock to explain the Trinity, the shamrock had long been held as the symbol for Brigit – a pagan goddeess of healing, she was later appropriated by the church as St Brigit!
With an electric fiddle and a bodhran (Irish frame drum) as gifts what else must one do other than pass a little time on Christmas Day recording some tunes, with my daughter Eve on mandolin for her Will-o’-the-Wisp fire show that she is taking to Queensland tomorrow for the Woodford folk Festival!
I’d appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on the manufacturer of the electric violin – I believe it was made in Guangzhiao in China but there is no maker’s label. It sure sounds great though! The closest visual seemed to be the Zeta violin, but I’d love to know more about it.
And here is the bodhran
It wasn’t all laying down tracks and burning CDs, Eve managed to test her modified stilts to her satisfaction – the modification worked! You see, when I made the stilts, it seems that I had over-estimated her foot size so the straps were too loose. But a little re-routing appears to have solved the problem, so now we have a very serviceable pair of strap-on stilts (see my previous posts on this subject).
Sharon was most impressed with her new silks and beads 🙂
Aside from that it was a pretty quiet day – a good chat with the folks, an excellent Christmas dinner last night with a few friends, and a bit of a play with the new toys – a good time had by all 🙂
Merry Christmas everyone!
cheers
Jerry
