Sssh, I think we’re alone…
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
That’s a beautiful picture of the fireside you painted Christy. The peat smoke and cigarette smoke. I guess it was cigarette smoke I saw when I listened to him. Never thought of him being a smoker, but everybody used to be didn’t they.
My only memory of my granddad is of pipe smoke coming out of an armchair. After he and my grandma died I inherited his little side table. The drawer smelt of his tobacco. Its faded now.
Have you ever had a play with a hammered dulcimer? It’s worth it if you get a chance. The way the notes work on it is like magic. I can’t work out how it works like it does. There’s two sets of string, just over an octave but then there’s these bridges and you can suddenly do loads of different notes. About 3 and a half octaves. It’s like magic.
The Flour-Bags turned out and we gave a fair account of ourselves….at least we did until The Dubs turned up the gas and lit the back burner…these sky blues will take some beating….
our lads definitely show promise…but the confidence and accuracy of The Dubs seems neverending…
perhaps that Mayo jinx can finally be laid to rest…
Tssk, Christy, never thought of your St Brendan’s Voyage because I chose music that would last at least as long as the outbound expedition.
Tssk tssk because St Brendan’s Voyage is one of the very rare recordings with the Planxty line-up … so actually Planxty, and kinda comparable to that delightful and rare version of John O’Dreams that’s on YouTube. Only realised that it was Planxty when you recently mentioned, here, Andy riffing on it.
Rebeccah, I think healers heal and the means by which they do it is secondary to the flow of energy. I agree, that it can’t be forced, and needn’t be once the channel is opened. Right, I’ll stop now or HiJack Power’ll be on me case xx
Christy's reply
50 years on from that Summer…
“When we hit the road with Planxty
days & nights in that Transit Van
criss-crossin the Nation
from Kildimo we drove to Kilcrohane
Merrily we kissed The Quaker,lay down with the alligator
as we sailed across The Lakes of Pontchartrain,
O the music and the banter, the sound of Liam Óg’s chanter
will I ever hear the likes of that again”
and of course I will., there will be so much more music yet to come, new sounds forever emerging…romantic notions and emotional recall help us make up verses for those nights ahead….blasts of euphoric recall help lighten the burden of grim reality that bedevils so many ….
Good luck to all gallant ireishmen, playing today. May the lillywhites prevail!
Thanks to Dave for pointing out that amazing poem. I have to post it. I got lost in it.
London Rain
Louis MacNeice
The rain of London pimples
The ebony street with white
And the neon lamps of London
Stain the canals of night
And the park becomes a jungle
In the alchemy of night.
My wishes turn to violent
Horses black as coal–
The randy mares of fancy,
The stallions of the soul–
Eager to take the fences
That fence about my soul.
Across the countless chimneys
The horses ride and across
The country to the channel
Where warning beacons toss,
To a place where God and No-God
Play at pitch and toss.
Whichever wins I am happy
For God will give me bliss
But No-God will absolve me
From all I do amiss
And I need not suffer conscience
If the world was made amiss.
Under God we can reckon
On pardon when we fall
But if we are under No-God
Nothing will matter at all,
Adultery and murder
Will count for nothing at all.
So reinforced by logic
As having nothing to lose
My lust goes riding horseback
To ravish where I choose,
To burgle all the turrets
Of beauty as I choose.
But now the rain gives over
Its dance upon the town,
Logic and lust together
Come dimly tumbling down,
And neither God nor No-God
Is either up or down.
The argument was wilful,
The alternatives untrue,
We need no metaphysics
To sanction what we do
Or to muffle us in comfort
From what we did not do.
Whether the living river
Began in bog or lake,
The world is what was given,
The world is what we make.
And we only can discover
Life in the life we make.
So let the water sizzle
Upon the gleaming slates,
There will be sunshine after
When the rain abates
And rain returning duly
When the sun abates.
My wishes now come homeward,
Their gallopings in vain,
Logic and lust are quiet,
And again it starts to rain;
Falling asleep I listen
To the falling London rain.
Oh what about
Plankton and the randy mares of fancy?
Helen, it’s an interesting question about healing.
In my 30s and early 40s I learnt, and then taught Reiki. Half a dozen of my students became teachers themselves.
I can see the connection you’re making and I think we’re back to the conduit thing.
Some healers do talk about directing energy but for me it was never like that. It was more of an openness. The less I did the more it worked. Giving and receiving were one.
I have no idea how else to, describe it.
As to the triangle of song, singer and listener. None of the three are passive, to me. And it’s always different and based on perspective. Christy once said something like, everyone is at their own gig.
Sorry, it’s the best I can do. Words words words.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
I love to see the chat flow…
Its as near as I gets to sittin around that old open-hearth fire …
sparks fly up the chimney towards the shining stars….cigarette and turf smoke mingle sweetly…black kettle forever on the hob…lamps trimmed..low light as we gaze into the embers…
Nannie reminding us “that fire has not gone out for 300 years”…..Uncle Frank talks only of Joe Louis & Lester Piggott….Granny always sad….
It’s postmarked 21 July, Dave, and I was careful to only order one FDC and one book of stamps: if I’d ordered two of each, the cost plus the extra charge for international delivery _might_ have taken me over the nil-duty threshold, or summat. Hang in there, Impatient One, because Monday’s not a public holiday on the bigger island.
Rebeccah, I’m fascinated by the third side to your triangle. One healer told me that she channels energy from herself out and onto the recipient, a process that gives her a surge of healing too (my words, not hers). That’s the equivalent of the performer directing the performance to the listener, I suppose. What I’d not thought about is that a reciprocal energy flows back from listener to peformer – is that (sort of) right? It’s hard to articulate stuff that can’t be conveyed by words alone.
Won’t comment on acting / stagecraft as I’m not a performer etc.
Apols, Christy, if I seem to be hijacking your guestbook stream xx
Christy's reply
Hi-Jack attempts welcome….our swat team always ready to respond if things get out of hand
Hi C,,, no Fleadhs or Festivals or Folk Clubs indeed, but certainly no shortage of Sport across so many codes. I guess some of us are hoping Tyrone will prevail today !! and of course many eyes will be on Cill Dara and the BIB, some divided houses even maybe !!! This weekend 5 years ago a few of us were ranged across the front row of the Cambridge Folk Festival, those times will roll around again. Tuam Beat is a great Festival song https://youtu.be/lHBWfDCz-KI Beir bua agus beannacht. H
Christy's reply
“O The Tuam Beat goes Sugar Sugar
and the heart beats, How’s your Mother
O The Tuam Beat goes shimmy shammy
and the heart beats, Hows your Mammy
…Singin The Song,Singin The Song, Singin the same old song “….
“Anyone for the last few choc ices” ( Hogan Stand Aug 1956)
No sign of An Post’s goodies, Helen -I’m trying to be patient! I like the sound of your expedition to the Planxty studio – it reminded me of my pilgrimage to Windmill Lane a few years ago, without the dramatic sunset.
Rebecca – I reckon ‘conduit’ sums up the role of the performer/ audience reaction – ‘mojo’ as well…
I got the latest ITMA newsletter earlier – what a great read. The organisation does such ace work – 2 song collectors that are new to me, so explorations to be made now…I’m looking forward to your interview being shown – but it might already be on the site somewhere – waiting to be discovered.
Enjoy the sport, Christy – good to know that you’ve got dubbin on the boots and togs ready…no gigs for the smell of aftershave to waft into the dressing room, but there’ll always be a place for ‘Wintergreen’ in the work room!
Back to ‘The Celtic Poets’ now – Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart 1997 album – Ronnie Drew – spoken voice and singing. ‘Bagpipe Music’ and ‘London Rain’ are superb – and I really hope that somewhere there’s a band who have coined the moniker ‘ Randy mares of fancy’…
Dave
Christy's reply
August the First
The Sandwiches are made
White Flags ready to unfurl
tank is full.oil dipped, 32 all round
we’ll win the Leinster or die tryin
Checking in, partly to let Dave know that today I got an envelope from AnPost’s Irish Philatelic Service. Hope his white envelope has now come, because I think I ordered after he’d done so.
Also, I wanted to tell Christy’n’all that our mutual friend McGurgle was able to find the postcode and trusty Brenda the Satnav took me into the Bermuda Triangle that contains where Well Below The Valley was recorded. Sooner or later, and after surviving allsorts with assorted cars, vans and tractors rushing headlong towards the setting sun – only to find a dithering little car coming out of it – I found the place. It’s very … manicured … around those parts these days. It all took so long that petrol had gone up by 4p per litre, by the time I got back.
The adventure was made even more surreal because Brenda kept blathering during the Brendan Voyage. There must’ve been a hiatus because she’s stopped talking to me since that evening.
Take care, all’n’Christy, and remember to stay safe and smiilng xx
Christy's reply
Everythin was goin grand the place was chocker block
love nor money would’nt get your nose inside the shop
That Samuel Beckett passage, the way he used the words. It made me think of “40 verses note for note”
Also thinking about the triangle, song, singer, listener. Feeding each other.
It looks like it’s a thinking day.
Christy's reply
Fair play to Beckett and Pádraic Stevens…they give us plenty to sing about
Hello Christy and All,
Your comments, Christy, about Ronnie Drew got me thinking. Sorry if this isn’t the most coherent, I don’t thinks it’s crystallised yet.
Its the acting while singing thing. I’m not sure what actors do, really I just notice what I do. These days it’s all down to the song, as long as I can get rid of the bloody self awareness enough. Do you feel as if you step consciously into the acting role, or is it something that the song does? Kind of like what i think “the song sings the singer” means.
Whatever is going on in the song, if I can let go enough, I just go there and do that. It’s like being superhonest. Sorry about the lack of clarity. Ed made me laugh when he said he’d take my word for it. That’s me talking shite again then, I thought.
I’m connecting this to what you said in the speech project about being a conduit. The song’s the thing. If it can pass through intact and not touch the sides then the job is done.
Incoherent babbling brook.
This will makes sense one day, I hope.
Looking forward to the rugby this teatime. Its the most amazing team. Owen Farrell is on the bench!
Rebecca
Christy's reply
What an awful game….not one back movement in 80 minutes….Rugby in crisis
Hope you have the flourbag flying high there in Dublin. Our lads are written off by the “experts”, but we will shout for them louder….. Looking forward to a live concert with yourself, maybe in some venue that you have not played……. Cill Dara abu.
Christy's reply
Ready to roll John….
10 of us travelling to Croke Park in Beggs McCormack’s Bedford Van
We’ll probably stop in Naas, Johnstown,Kill, Rathcoole and The Red Cow.
This long haul travelling can be thirsty work.
ps
Got sidetracked by the Clancys (not for the first or last time…) and forgot to mention the brilliant reviews for ‘Love Yourself Today’ – the film based on Damien Dempsey at Vicar Street, 2019. Cleverly intercutting/featuring 3 members of the audience…
It sounds excellent – emphasising the power of music and interaction between artist and listeners – everyone has a story to tell – great that they’re so well featured.I’ve seen a clip and hope to catch the whole film.Also, hope to see a full DD gig – caught him twice on gigs featuring a large number of performers. Damien’s version of MacColl’s ‘Tunnel Tigers’ was astounding at The Lowry, a few years back. D
Christy's reply
Hardy Bucks
you and Ed hammering the keys in the a.m.
Damo’s film a great insight into the power of song..
he’s a hardy buck himself
into the ocean every morning before his porridge
hope all readers and correspondants have a good August weekend
no Fleadhs or Festivals or Folk Clubs so we gotta make our own fun
Rugby today from S.A.
GAA tomorrow as the Lily Whites face the Boys in Blue in our Leinster Football Final
I have my boots cleaned and togs pressed in case I get the call
Fascinating Clancy chat here in recent times…I was surprised to find Wikipedia entries for Tom and Paddy. If Wiki is accurate, both were established actors, before finding music fame.
Tom had a lot of post war acting gigs in England, so was very experienced by the time he (later Paddy)hit the stages of Canada and the USA. The fact that they all had such singing talent to ‘fall back on’ makes their stories even more amazing…
Have a good day – all
Dave.
Christy's reply
yes Dave..they surely were a fascinating foursome..and they had a great array of backing musicians along the way…Arty McGlynn, Nollaig Casey and Archie Fisher among them
I think two or three of the original four went and got jobs in Greenwich acting. We’ll take Rebecca’s words as regards that term. You’d work at anything basically, and acting provided one opportunity in the Greenwich of that era. As distinct from Dublin, population too small; London, acting too much like ‘culture’, opportunities limited. Greenwich village at that time provided openings for them. By the way, music, acting, performing was in the family and by Tom’s performance in this clip you can see these guys had acting experience. I think that term, well as Rebecca says, it depends from who says it. They began singing together, maybe on some nights off from the stage, probably to supplement their slim income, I gather one of them sold(!) Bibles. It was from there on, someone say them singing and offered them a gig and it moved on from there.
In that clip, that’s the four brothers, no Tommy Makem.
Christy's reply
Thanks Ed…your post reminds me of a conversation I had with Ronnie Drew… on a long bus trip in Australia we got talking about acting and singing…Ronnie had experience of both disciplines….we came to the conclusion that both jobs are closely linked….when a singer walks out on stage the act begins…all of us employ it to a varying degree…its very rare for a singer to remain itself for the duration…many of us assume a new identity for each and every song… few manage to remain “themselves ” for the duration….
Liam Clancy certainly acted every song…I’ve sat thru many Dylan gigs watching him thru binoculars..he is a superb actor…albeit with one of the greatest scripts ever written…
other singers give nothing away, they manage to sing without any apparent emotion…Brian Wilson comes to mind….
when I spoke of Clancy & Makem acting being subsequent to singing I was thinking of them growing up in Carrick-On-Suir….Peggy describes the household beautifully when she recalls the sound of song reverberating thru her childhood memories…(not unlike our own house when we were young) ….while young Tommy Makem grew up at the knee of Sarah Makem, one of our greatest exponents of song..
most of them gone now but their songs still echo…and we need them more then ever
Thanks for the laughs Rebecca. I spoke with a folkie outside a Westport club some years ago and mentioned artists I’d heard on Fiona Ritchie’s ‘Thistle and Shamrock’, asking which part of Scotland they were from. He knew Fiona and Dougie. Told him I had to repress my urge to try putting on a Scotts accent after listening, knowing unpleasant sound of Americans putting on Irish, and how I was now more forgiving of that. I didn’t get to his show as I was only in town a couple of hours, but I did have bread and tea at Matt Malloy’s (like visiting a sacred chapel). Irish and Scotts taking off Americans is amusing in a friendly way, so much as I’ve heard them.
Christy's reply
“Repressing the Urge” …. sounds like you were building a Dam across a German River
I’m meant John Reilly, oops.
Sssh, I think we’re alone…
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
That’s a beautiful picture of the fireside you painted Christy. The peat smoke and cigarette smoke. I guess it was cigarette smoke I saw when I listened to him. Never thought of him being a smoker, but everybody used to be didn’t they.
My only memory of my granddad is of pipe smoke coming out of an armchair. After he and my grandma died I inherited his little side table. The drawer smelt of his tobacco. Its faded now.
Have you ever had a play with a hammered dulcimer? It’s worth it if you get a chance. The way the notes work on it is like magic. I can’t work out how it works like it does. There’s two sets of string, just over an octave but then there’s these bridges and you can suddenly do loads of different notes. About 3 and a half octaves. It’s like magic.
Rebecca
Cill Dara abú agus ádh mór a Christy.
The Flour-Bags turned out and we gave a fair account of ourselves….at least we did until The Dubs turned up the gas and lit the back burner…these sky blues will take some beating….
our lads definitely show promise…but the confidence and accuracy of The Dubs seems neverending…
perhaps that Mayo jinx can finally be laid to rest…
Tssk, Christy, never thought of your St Brendan’s Voyage because I chose music that would last at least as long as the outbound expedition.
Tssk tssk because St Brendan’s Voyage is one of the very rare recordings with the Planxty line-up … so actually Planxty, and kinda comparable to that delightful and rare version of John O’Dreams that’s on YouTube. Only realised that it was Planxty when you recently mentioned, here, Andy riffing on it.
Rebeccah, I think healers heal and the means by which they do it is secondary to the flow of energy. I agree, that it can’t be forced, and needn’t be once the channel is opened. Right, I’ll stop now or HiJack Power’ll be on me case xx
50 years on from that Summer…
“When we hit the road with Planxty
days & nights in that Transit Van
criss-crossin the Nation
from Kildimo we drove to Kilcrohane
Merrily we kissed The Quaker,lay down with the alligator
as we sailed across The Lakes of Pontchartrain,
O the music and the banter, the sound of Liam Óg’s chanter
will I ever hear the likes of that again”
and of course I will., there will be so much more music yet to come, new sounds forever emerging…romantic notions and emotional recall help us make up verses for those nights ahead….blasts of euphoric recall help lighten the burden of grim reality that bedevils so many ….
“two bumps Josie”
“Dow dill dumptee doo dill diddley eye dill doodle dum dill”
Hello Christy and All,
Good luck to all gallant ireishmen, playing today. May the lillywhites prevail!
Thanks to Dave for pointing out that amazing poem. I have to post it. I got lost in it.
London Rain
Louis MacNeice
The rain of London pimples
The ebony street with white
And the neon lamps of London
Stain the canals of night
And the park becomes a jungle
In the alchemy of night.
My wishes turn to violent
Horses black as coal–
The randy mares of fancy,
The stallions of the soul–
Eager to take the fences
That fence about my soul.
Across the countless chimneys
The horses ride and across
The country to the channel
Where warning beacons toss,
To a place where God and No-God
Play at pitch and toss.
Whichever wins I am happy
For God will give me bliss
But No-God will absolve me
From all I do amiss
And I need not suffer conscience
If the world was made amiss.
Under God we can reckon
On pardon when we fall
But if we are under No-God
Nothing will matter at all,
Adultery and murder
Will count for nothing at all.
So reinforced by logic
As having nothing to lose
My lust goes riding horseback
To ravish where I choose,
To burgle all the turrets
Of beauty as I choose.
But now the rain gives over
Its dance upon the town,
Logic and lust together
Come dimly tumbling down,
And neither God nor No-God
Is either up or down.
The argument was wilful,
The alternatives untrue,
We need no metaphysics
To sanction what we do
Or to muffle us in comfort
From what we did not do.
Whether the living river
Began in bog or lake,
The world is what was given,
The world is what we make.
And we only can discover
Life in the life we make.
So let the water sizzle
Upon the gleaming slates,
There will be sunshine after
When the rain abates
And rain returning duly
When the sun abates.
My wishes now come homeward,
Their gallopings in vain,
Logic and lust are quiet,
And again it starts to rain;
Falling asleep I listen
To the falling London rain.
Oh what about
Plankton and the randy mares of fancy?
Helen, it’s an interesting question about healing.
In my 30s and early 40s I learnt, and then taught Reiki. Half a dozen of my students became teachers themselves.
I can see the connection you’re making and I think we’re back to the conduit thing.
Some healers do talk about directing energy but for me it was never like that. It was more of an openness. The less I did the more it worked. Giving and receiving were one.
I have no idea how else to, describe it.
As to the triangle of song, singer and listener. None of the three are passive, to me. And it’s always different and based on perspective. Christy once said something like, everyone is at their own gig.
Sorry, it’s the best I can do. Words words words.
Rebecca
I love to see the chat flow…
Its as near as I gets to sittin around that old open-hearth fire …
sparks fly up the chimney towards the shining stars….cigarette and turf smoke mingle sweetly…black kettle forever on the hob…lamps trimmed..low light as we gaze into the embers…
Nannie reminding us “that fire has not gone out for 300 years”…..Uncle Frank talks only of Joe Louis & Lester Piggott….Granny always sad….
Good luck with the pre match nerves, Christy – good to know the sandwiches are packed and the van revving…
Stackallan pitch and putt is my only experience close to golf – but the Olympics bronze medal play off is some tension – McIlroy still in the mix…
Have a good day
Dave
well Dave…at least the sandwiches were nice… and we got the last few choc ices
PSs for Dave and Rebeccah:
It’s postmarked 21 July, Dave, and I was careful to only order one FDC and one book of stamps: if I’d ordered two of each, the cost plus the extra charge for international delivery _might_ have taken me over the nil-duty threshold, or summat. Hang in there, Impatient One, because Monday’s not a public holiday on the bigger island.
Rebeccah, I’m fascinated by the third side to your triangle. One healer told me that she channels energy from herself out and onto the recipient, a process that gives her a surge of healing too (my words, not hers). That’s the equivalent of the performer directing the performance to the listener, I suppose. What I’d not thought about is that a reciprocal energy flows back from listener to peformer – is that (sort of) right? It’s hard to articulate stuff that can’t be conveyed by words alone.
Won’t comment on acting / stagecraft as I’m not a performer etc.
Apols, Christy, if I seem to be hijacking your guestbook stream xx
Hi-Jack attempts welcome….our swat team always ready to respond if things get out of hand
Hi C,,, no Fleadhs or Festivals or Folk Clubs indeed, but certainly no shortage of Sport across so many codes. I guess some of us are hoping Tyrone will prevail today !! and of course many eyes will be on Cill Dara and the BIB, some divided houses even maybe !!! This weekend 5 years ago a few of us were ranged across the front row of the Cambridge Folk Festival, those times will roll around again. Tuam Beat is a great Festival song https://youtu.be/lHBWfDCz-KI Beir bua agus beannacht. H
“O The Tuam Beat goes Sugar Sugar
and the heart beats, How’s your Mother
O The Tuam Beat goes shimmy shammy
and the heart beats, Hows your Mammy
…Singin The Song,Singin The Song, Singin the same old song “….
“Anyone for the last few choc ices” ( Hogan Stand Aug 1956)
Hi Christy,
Farmer Michael Hayes, great song.
Regards
Rory
Ps respect to the Beechmount boys
he was back in Doolin
pikin cocks of hay
Hi Christy/ all
No sign of An Post’s goodies, Helen -I’m trying to be patient! I like the sound of your expedition to the Planxty studio – it reminded me of my pilgrimage to Windmill Lane a few years ago, without the dramatic sunset.
Rebecca – I reckon ‘conduit’ sums up the role of the performer/ audience reaction – ‘mojo’ as well…
I got the latest ITMA newsletter earlier – what a great read. The organisation does such ace work – 2 song collectors that are new to me, so explorations to be made now…I’m looking forward to your interview being shown – but it might already be on the site somewhere – waiting to be discovered.
Enjoy the sport, Christy – good to know that you’ve got dubbin on the boots and togs ready…no gigs for the smell of aftershave to waft into the dressing room, but there’ll always be a place for ‘Wintergreen’ in the work room!
Back to ‘The Celtic Poets’ now – Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart 1997 album – Ronnie Drew – spoken voice and singing. ‘Bagpipe Music’ and ‘London Rain’ are superb – and I really hope that somewhere there’s a band who have coined the moniker ‘ Randy mares of fancy’…
Dave
August the First
The Sandwiches are made
White Flags ready to unfurl
tank is full.oil dipped, 32 all round
we’ll win the Leinster or die tryin
Checking in, partly to let Dave know that today I got an envelope from AnPost’s Irish Philatelic Service. Hope his white envelope has now come, because I think I ordered after he’d done so.
Also, I wanted to tell Christy’n’all that our mutual friend McGurgle was able to find the postcode and trusty Brenda the Satnav took me into the Bermuda Triangle that contains where Well Below The Valley was recorded. Sooner or later, and after surviving allsorts with assorted cars, vans and tractors rushing headlong towards the setting sun – only to find a dithering little car coming out of it – I found the place. It’s very … manicured … around those parts these days. It all took so long that petrol had gone up by 4p per litre, by the time I got back.
The adventure was made even more surreal because Brenda kept blathering during the Brendan Voyage. There must’ve been a hiatus because she’s stopped talking to me since that evening.
Take care, all’n’Christy, and remember to stay safe and smiilng xx
Everythin was goin grand the place was chocker block
love nor money would’nt get your nose inside the shop
That Samuel Beckett passage, the way he used the words. It made me think of “40 verses note for note”
Also thinking about the triangle, song, singer, listener. Feeding each other.
It looks like it’s a thinking day.
Fair play to Beckett and Pádraic Stevens…they give us plenty to sing about
Hello Christy and All,
Your comments, Christy, about Ronnie Drew got me thinking. Sorry if this isn’t the most coherent, I don’t thinks it’s crystallised yet.
Its the acting while singing thing. I’m not sure what actors do, really I just notice what I do. These days it’s all down to the song, as long as I can get rid of the bloody self awareness enough. Do you feel as if you step consciously into the acting role, or is it something that the song does? Kind of like what i think “the song sings the singer” means.
Whatever is going on in the song, if I can let go enough, I just go there and do that. It’s like being superhonest. Sorry about the lack of clarity. Ed made me laugh when he said he’d take my word for it. That’s me talking shite again then, I thought.
I’m connecting this to what you said in the speech project about being a conduit. The song’s the thing. If it can pass through intact and not touch the sides then the job is done.
Incoherent babbling brook.
This will makes sense one day, I hope.
Looking forward to the rugby this teatime. Its the most amazing team. Owen Farrell is on the bench!
Rebecca
What an awful game….not one back movement in 80 minutes….Rugby in crisis
Hope you have the flourbag flying high there in Dublin. Our lads are written off by the “experts”, but we will shout for them louder….. Looking forward to a live concert with yourself, maybe in some venue that you have not played……. Cill Dara abu.
Ready to roll John….
10 of us travelling to Croke Park in Beggs McCormack’s Bedford Van
We’ll probably stop in Naas, Johnstown,Kill, Rathcoole and The Red Cow.
This long haul travelling can be thirsty work.
ps
Got sidetracked by the Clancys (not for the first or last time…) and forgot to mention the brilliant reviews for ‘Love Yourself Today’ – the film based on Damien Dempsey at Vicar Street, 2019. Cleverly intercutting/featuring 3 members of the audience…
It sounds excellent – emphasising the power of music and interaction between artist and listeners – everyone has a story to tell – great that they’re so well featured.I’ve seen a clip and hope to catch the whole film.Also, hope to see a full DD gig – caught him twice on gigs featuring a large number of performers. Damien’s version of MacColl’s ‘Tunnel Tigers’ was astounding at The Lowry, a few years back. D
Hardy Bucks
you and Ed hammering the keys in the a.m.
Damo’s film a great insight into the power of song..
he’s a hardy buck himself
into the ocean every morning before his porridge
hope all readers and correspondants have a good August weekend
no Fleadhs or Festivals or Folk Clubs so we gotta make our own fun
Rugby today from S.A.
GAA tomorrow as the Lily Whites face the Boys in Blue in our Leinster Football Final
I have my boots cleaned and togs pressed in case I get the call
Mornin’ Christy/ all
Fascinating Clancy chat here in recent times…I was surprised to find Wikipedia entries for Tom and Paddy. If Wiki is accurate, both were established actors, before finding music fame.
Tom had a lot of post war acting gigs in England, so was very experienced by the time he (later Paddy)hit the stages of Canada and the USA. The fact that they all had such singing talent to ‘fall back on’ makes their stories even more amazing…
Have a good day – all
Dave.
yes Dave..they surely were a fascinating foursome..and they had a great array of backing musicians along the way…Arty McGlynn, Nollaig Casey and Archie Fisher among them
I think two or three of the original four went and got jobs in Greenwich acting. We’ll take Rebecca’s words as regards that term. You’d work at anything basically, and acting provided one opportunity in the Greenwich of that era. As distinct from Dublin, population too small; London, acting too much like ‘culture’, opportunities limited. Greenwich village at that time provided openings for them. By the way, music, acting, performing was in the family and by Tom’s performance in this clip you can see these guys had acting experience. I think that term, well as Rebecca says, it depends from who says it. They began singing together, maybe on some nights off from the stage, probably to supplement their slim income, I gather one of them sold(!) Bibles. It was from there on, someone say them singing and offered them a gig and it moved on from there.
In that clip, that’s the four brothers, no Tommy Makem.
Thanks Ed…your post reminds me of a conversation I had with Ronnie Drew… on a long bus trip in Australia we got talking about acting and singing…Ronnie had experience of both disciplines….we came to the conclusion that both jobs are closely linked….when a singer walks out on stage the act begins…all of us employ it to a varying degree…its very rare for a singer to remain itself for the duration…many of us assume a new identity for each and every song… few manage to remain “themselves ” for the duration….
Liam Clancy certainly acted every song…I’ve sat thru many Dylan gigs watching him thru binoculars..he is a superb actor…albeit with one of the greatest scripts ever written…
other singers give nothing away, they manage to sing without any apparent emotion…Brian Wilson comes to mind….
when I spoke of Clancy & Makem acting being subsequent to singing I was thinking of them growing up in Carrick-On-Suir….Peggy describes the household beautifully when she recalls the sound of song reverberating thru her childhood memories…(not unlike our own house when we were young) ….while young Tommy Makem grew up at the knee of Sarah Makem, one of our greatest exponents of song..
most of them gone now but their songs still echo…and we need them more then ever
Will reply a bit later on.
Thanks for the laughs Rebecca. I spoke with a folkie outside a Westport club some years ago and mentioned artists I’d heard on Fiona Ritchie’s ‘Thistle and Shamrock’, asking which part of Scotland they were from. He knew Fiona and Dougie. Told him I had to repress my urge to try putting on a Scotts accent after listening, knowing unpleasant sound of Americans putting on Irish, and how I was now more forgiving of that. I didn’t get to his show as I was only in town a couple of hours, but I did have bread and tea at Matt Malloy’s (like visiting a sacred chapel). Irish and Scotts taking off Americans is amusing in a friendly way, so much as I’ve heard them.
“Repressing the Urge” …. sounds like you were building a Dam across a German River
https://www.facebook.com/342313952615281/videos/255634686083481 Singing Session Videos·
Castleisland County Kerry.
306 The Lakes Of Pontchartrain by the one and only Sheila Heery from Castleisland County Kerry.
Whatever happened to Woody’s