A cold, crisp morning – perfect for a shufti at the excellent/art projects by Simon at http://www.notquitelight.com I’ve mentioned his work before – it’s a fascinating mix of diverse images and writing If interested, the regular newsletter updates are excellent as well. Fair play to NQL.
Have a good day. It must be great to be back writing the pre gig set lists. Countdown to the new album too – brilliant!
Hello dear Christy,
I’m very happy to read that your gigs are going so well but I’m in tears that I cannot be there. Although Hilary gave me the dates far in advance we are not able to come over. We both work in a hospital and things aren’t still normal yet. Another issue is our climate.
We don’t think its responsible anymore to take a plane just for a few days.
So we have to be a little bit more patient and wait for next year.
Meanwhile your dear brother is coming to our hometown on 27/11 to give as a bit of consolation!
If you like I can try and give him some chocolates for you? Just let me know! 😉
Take good care and see you……?
Chris
Christy's reply
You are right Chris….things are still “far from normal”…..unneccesary air travel is creeping back week by week, crazy ticket prices on offer, covid numbers on a daily increase here…its hard to figure out what way to turn….the poor auld Earth is turning upside down…..ps thanks but I gotta lay off the choclates,
Great to hear about the Newbridge ‘teds’…a bit before my time, but I had some very dodgy Beatles’ fringes a few years later…
Based on similar reasons as yours, there’s no finer venue than ‘The Snailbox’…a great feed and a catch up…wonderful to do – I’m glad new family info has come to light- it’s always fascinating.
Hello Christy,
Ah well, bass and drums is a topic all of its own, isn’t it. I think Donals use of the bouzouki was a big moment in this area. He seems to have moved away pretty swiftly from pure melodies against the mandolin, and found a way to provide a bass line that doesn’t rise up through your feet. Something subtle enough for folk music.
I also like his bodhran playing with the tones of the other hand. But I think your bodhran playing embodies the visceral honesty that folk music needs.it’s so full of raw emotion.
I’m thinking of those songs that are so raw that only a bodhran can match them. Well below the valley. I hope that my bodhran playing will get to a level where I can try this song. It could be interesting coming from a woman?
I’m also wondering if burning times would work with just a drum, I’ve no idea, it just popped into my head.
Every now and again, the drums do get the tune. I played timps in holsts planet suite many moons ago. They get the tune at one point. Lots of acrobatics with the pedals.
If you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you sometime about Marie O’Sullivan. I think she must have had a very sensible approach to coaching a voice. I’d like to know more about it.
If there’s another box set at some point, please see if there’s even a snippet of you playing ‘Jailhouse Rock’… I hope you risked the priests’ wrath by sporting a quiff/ DA as well.
Interesting about the ‘good old days’… we regularly riff on gigs and music from 50/60 years ago. If we’d done similar in the 60s, we’d have been in the early 1900s…wax cylinders and 78s…via ITMA, Cecil Sharp House etc, those delights are preserved for our admiration and inspiration, thankfully.
Good luck with gig prep – hope the strings are boiling well…
Dave
Christy's reply
we were seriously coiffed…luxurious locks of hair brylcreamed back into the duck’s arse, shirt collars tucked , thin ties windsor knotted, trousar legs taken in to 10″. ( by Maisie Behan for a half dollar)….with very little to work on, we did our best to look ridiculous …but we thought we looked “the business”…..no cameras to capture our capers….Bill Haley’s “Rock around The Clock” was our starting point..then came “Blackboard Jungle” in the Odeon and Mrs Dunne got a juke box in her chipper down the back street…..there were 2 gangs down the town …”Super Six” and “Black Arrow” but no one else seems to remember them..
Had a great time yesterday with my two Meath Cousins…we met at “The Snail Box” in Kilmoon ….some great grub & banter….fresh revealations of family history from Slane & Navan and places between… your neck of the woods…..
Dear Christy
I heard a discussion about singing with your own accent or with a borrowed American one and wondered if there was ever a time when it was ‘right’ to use a mid atlantic twang?
I cannot imagine John Spillane, for example, singing about cork or even chicago in a Texan tone, nor can i suspect that yours truly has ever descended into a sinatra accent when throwing shapes and singing chords.
What say you…..mind you maybe on the new album you have a version of Jailhouse Rock delivered in fluent tennesseean?
Regards
Rory
Christy's reply
51 years ago I recorded an album which included two American songs….in retrospect,the accent I adapted left a lot to be desired……earlier still I used to do a Kildare version of Jailhouse Rock with Little Richard piano chops….Father Flanagan put a stop to that gallop circa 1958….
Fully agreed with your comments about 100 not out/ PA systems etc…our band was up to six at the max – wonderful to feel the drive of the rhythm section and piling on the layers of sound. But, I’ve not found a music high as enjoyable as playing acoustic/ singing harmonies in a quiet folk club room – when the ‘monitor’ is in your head as the sound pings off the back wall.
Rebecca and others interested in the changes/ evolution of folk/electric etc, might find the following books useful (both have available CDs too)’Electric Eden’ by Rob Young and ‘White Bicycles’ by Joe Boyd… the latter is a shorter book and fascinating reading…Boyd’s career is incredible, featuring his work with so many big names from his times as tour manager/producer etc…a very smart guy who always seems good hearted too…
I’m with you, Christy – I’m indebted to so many musicians from the 1950s/60s onwards…often building on the work of Victorian song collectors and the folk they met – thankfully… Time for a cuppa and some John Reilly here…
happy days down memory lane…
Dave
Christy's reply
Cool Water, Green Door, 16 Tons, Walk Right Back, Lipstick on your Dipstick….Songs of an innocent youth
the good old days were the days when we did not talk about the good old days
Talking of being bamboozled, I bet you a euro I could teach you hoe to wiggle you vocal chords so much that you can see them doing it from the outside. There’s nothing like a classical music education for learning a range of useless party pieces.
Christy's reply
never had such an educ as this…did have some singing lessons as a kid which still stand to me 65 years on…Marie O’Sullivan sang in the Dominican Choir in Newbridge …a good friend of my Mother she coached my soprano voice and got me to sing in some local concerts….
Hello Christy,
I think I get what you’re saying, coming from the classical side, I’ve been bamboozled by plenty of teachers over the years. Including one guy who suggested that standing on a plank that was balanced on a beach ball was a good way to improve your technique… Thinking back now with a little more maturity I’m not convinced he was raking about singing. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you’re respected in the classical world. There should be a name for the opposite of imposter syndrome.
I do still think that the voice is a very complicated thing. Mainly because we can’t see the bits of it and it’s affected by so many things, practically everything. Working out a way to make it deliver consistent takes a long time and a lot of sensitivity. Am I being too pure here?
I’m also wondering about the electric thing. It’s mentioned quite a lot here. It sounds like going electric was a big issue? I’m trying to understand what happened. Isn’t it just to do with the size of the room, how to balance lots of different noises, plus how the audience behave? It’s thrilling to hear an unamplfied voice bouncing off the back wall back at you, but this is another of those pure things, isn’t it. Once we need a pa then going electric simplifies things, I think. Most folk bands are kind of a hybrid these days? For me, there’s nothing like fully acoustic, but that usually needs a bit of help, doesnt it.
This has gor even longer than usual. I’ll stop rambling on now.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
everything changes when we plug in…it is invariably accompanied by the arrival of Bass & Drums……
I remember the arrival of PA systems into clubs..we mainly resisted but gradually succumbed…since we’ve learned to work with good PA systems and sympathetic,skilled engineers, good PA systems have enhanced our work…for me, its a joy to be able to sing and play very softly, when required …..
I love to hear good rhythm sections in their proper environment…
all that said…its hard to beat the sound and feel of human voices gathered together in unfettered acoustics
‘Nomadland’ sounds brilliant. It’s on my list to see – thanks…
Following the youtube posting of ‘Clock winds down’ (with hopefully, even more than the usual interest, linked to Cop 26) – and an awareness of the superb art of David Rooney.I just wanted to mention that Mr Rooney is also a talented musician. Quite a few of his youtube entries under ‘Echotal’ – also on Spotify etc (not that I know much about that tech!)- most recently, ‘Endless Fields’…
As ever, ‘ art is resistance’ – raising awareness too, hopefully…
Have a good day
Dave
Christy's reply
Just returning from Rebecca’s “100 not out” link, such diverse abundance …feels like I’m just home froma 4 day festival….my head full of verses, choruses, riffs and breaks…brought me right back those early Folk Revival days, a place in time that I like to re-visit
I was about to prattle about music, but my attention was caught by a wonderful piece on local tv news…there’s a welcome visitor to the North West…in support of refugees via a brilliant arts project… check out http://www.walkwithamal.org for info, but it doesn’t look like there’s a substitute for the ‘real thing’…
Back to music ramblings… your recall of Monday singer’s nights had me mentally making a list of musicians that influenced our generation – many, giving over a half century of inspiration… I’m now playing a 3 CD set ‘New Electric Muse’.which also has an excellent booklet with details of ‘the story of Folk into Rock’…it’s a few years old, but still available/lots of info online… it’s a goldmine…right now, Ewan is sounding mighty on ‘Shoals of herring’ – lots of gooduns to come to brighten a gloomy day.
Keep well
Dave
Christy's reply
just back in from “Nomadland”…..a stunningly beautiful film…
Hello Christy,
It was lovely to listen to your Chat with Miriam yesterday. Many great Ballads were played … Wave Up to the Shore is such a beautiful song!!! Did you ever consider to sing ist again?
Autumn greetings,
Traudel
Christy's reply
Hi Traudel,
Farewell Autumn…here comes Winter….
I’m considering it now…..
I’m focusing now on introducing some new songs to the set…
that said…cream of the crop will rise to the top..
Hi Christy,
I’ve just published a wonderful book called ‘From Suir to Jarama, Mossie Quinlan’s Life and Legacy’. Your fellow Kildare man, the writer and broadcaster John MacKenna describes it as ‘A wonderful, beautifully written and important book’.
The book combines research and scholarship with narrative vision to tell the compelling story of a young Waterford man who diedd heroically with the Fifteenth International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, and of the key role of Irish volunteers in the critical Battle of Jarama, in February 1937. You can find out more about the book by Googling ‘From Suir to Jarama’.
To thank you for keeping the flame of memory burning brightly, I’d like to send you a signed, complimentary copy, but I don’t have an address. Could you or one of your team reply to the email I’ve registered on this site with your address please?
I greatly enjoyed your chat with Miriam this morning and I’m delighted you’re bringing out your old, classic tracks again. Planxty was the sound track to my ‘coortin’ years in the early ‘70s. I still remember that wonderful concert in Liberty Hall in 1974.
Salud!
Liam Cahill
Christy's reply
Good man LIam…I look forward to reading about Mossie Quinlan….
…..remind me of that 1974 Liberty Hall gig
Mornin’ Christy/ all
A cold, crisp morning – perfect for a shufti at the excellent/art projects by Simon at http://www.notquitelight.com I’ve mentioned his work before – it’s a fascinating mix of diverse images and writing If interested, the regular newsletter updates are excellent as well. Fair play to NQL.
Have a good day. It must be great to be back writing the pre gig set lists. Countdown to the new album too – brilliant!
Dave
Hi christy.wonder if u ever heard this ballad from doc Watson.
https://youtu.be/bl63N_gxhPg
Sure did Marty…..always a pleasure to see and hear Doc…..Planxty did a gig with Doc in the Gaumont State Theatre, Kilburn,London in late 70s
Hello dear Christy,
I’m very happy to read that your gigs are going so well but I’m in tears that I cannot be there. Although Hilary gave me the dates far in advance we are not able to come over. We both work in a hospital and things aren’t still normal yet. Another issue is our climate.
We don’t think its responsible anymore to take a plane just for a few days.
So we have to be a little bit more patient and wait for next year.
Meanwhile your dear brother is coming to our hometown on 27/11 to give as a bit of consolation!
If you like I can try and give him some chocolates for you? Just let me know! 😉
Take good care and see you……?
Chris
You are right Chris….things are still “far from normal”…..unneccesary air travel is creeping back week by week, crazy ticket prices on offer, covid numbers on a daily increase here…its hard to figure out what way to turn….the poor auld Earth is turning upside down…..ps thanks but I gotta lay off the choclates,
Having wondered for years – finally looked at http://www.snailbox.ie and found the brilliant reason for the restaurant’s name… what a fab place! D
Hi Christy
Great to hear about the Newbridge ‘teds’…a bit before my time, but I had some very dodgy Beatles’ fringes a few years later…
Based on similar reasons as yours, there’s no finer venue than ‘The Snailbox’…a great feed and a catch up…wonderful to do – I’m glad new family info has come to light- it’s always fascinating.
Have a good day
Dave
You know, it’s great to see you happy.
Guitar string soup, anyone?
Hello Christy,
Ah well, bass and drums is a topic all of its own, isn’t it. I think Donals use of the bouzouki was a big moment in this area. He seems to have moved away pretty swiftly from pure melodies against the mandolin, and found a way to provide a bass line that doesn’t rise up through your feet. Something subtle enough for folk music.
I also like his bodhran playing with the tones of the other hand. But I think your bodhran playing embodies the visceral honesty that folk music needs.it’s so full of raw emotion.
I’m thinking of those songs that are so raw that only a bodhran can match them. Well below the valley. I hope that my bodhran playing will get to a level where I can try this song. It could be interesting coming from a woman?
I’m also wondering if burning times would work with just a drum, I’ve no idea, it just popped into my head.
Every now and again, the drums do get the tune. I played timps in holsts planet suite many moons ago. They get the tune at one point. Lots of acrobatics with the pedals.
If you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you sometime about Marie O’Sullivan. I think she must have had a very sensible approach to coaching a voice. I’d like to know more about it.
Rebecca
Mornin’ Christy/ all
If there’s another box set at some point, please see if there’s even a snippet of you playing ‘Jailhouse Rock’… I hope you risked the priests’ wrath by sporting a quiff/ DA as well.
Interesting about the ‘good old days’… we regularly riff on gigs and music from 50/60 years ago. If we’d done similar in the 60s, we’d have been in the early 1900s…wax cylinders and 78s…via ITMA, Cecil Sharp House etc, those delights are preserved for our admiration and inspiration, thankfully.
Good luck with gig prep – hope the strings are boiling well…
Dave
we were seriously coiffed…luxurious locks of hair brylcreamed back into the duck’s arse, shirt collars tucked , thin ties windsor knotted, trousar legs taken in to 10″. ( by Maisie Behan for a half dollar)….with very little to work on, we did our best to look ridiculous …but we thought we looked “the business”…..no cameras to capture our capers….Bill Haley’s “Rock around The Clock” was our starting point..then came “Blackboard Jungle” in the Odeon and Mrs Dunne got a juke box in her chipper down the back street…..there were 2 gangs down the town …”Super Six” and “Black Arrow” but no one else seems to remember them..
Had a great time yesterday with my two Meath Cousins…we met at “The Snail Box” in Kilmoon ….some great grub & banter….fresh revealations of family history from Slane & Navan and places between… your neck of the woods…..
Hi, Christy, hope you are well.
Stumbled upon an amazing woman:
MARYBURKETTART.COM
First person I thought of was you.
thank you
Dear Christy
I heard a discussion about singing with your own accent or with a borrowed American one and wondered if there was ever a time when it was ‘right’ to use a mid atlantic twang?
I cannot imagine John Spillane, for example, singing about cork or even chicago in a Texan tone, nor can i suspect that yours truly has ever descended into a sinatra accent when throwing shapes and singing chords.
What say you…..mind you maybe on the new album you have a version of Jailhouse Rock delivered in fluent tennesseean?
Regards
Rory
51 years ago I recorded an album which included two American songs….in retrospect,the accent I adapted left a lot to be desired……earlier still I used to do a Kildare version of Jailhouse Rock with Little Richard piano chops….Father Flanagan put a stop to that gallop circa 1958….
Hi Christy
Fully agreed with your comments about 100 not out/ PA systems etc…our band was up to six at the max – wonderful to feel the drive of the rhythm section and piling on the layers of sound. But, I’ve not found a music high as enjoyable as playing acoustic/ singing harmonies in a quiet folk club room – when the ‘monitor’ is in your head as the sound pings off the back wall.
Rebecca and others interested in the changes/ evolution of folk/electric etc, might find the following books useful (both have available CDs too)’Electric Eden’ by Rob Young and ‘White Bicycles’ by Joe Boyd… the latter is a shorter book and fascinating reading…Boyd’s career is incredible, featuring his work with so many big names from his times as tour manager/producer etc…a very smart guy who always seems good hearted too…
I’m with you, Christy – I’m indebted to so many musicians from the 1950s/60s onwards…often building on the work of Victorian song collectors and the folk they met – thankfully… Time for a cuppa and some John Reilly here…
happy days down memory lane…
Dave
Cool Water, Green Door, 16 Tons, Walk Right Back, Lipstick on your Dipstick….Songs of an innocent youth
the good old days were the days when we did not talk about the good old days
Talking of being bamboozled, I bet you a euro I could teach you hoe to wiggle you vocal chords so much that you can see them doing it from the outside. There’s nothing like a classical music education for learning a range of useless party pieces.
never had such an educ as this…did have some singing lessons as a kid which still stand to me 65 years on…Marie O’Sullivan sang in the Dominican Choir in Newbridge …a good friend of my Mother she coached my soprano voice and got me to sing in some local concerts….
Hello Christy,
I think I get what you’re saying, coming from the classical side, I’ve been bamboozled by plenty of teachers over the years. Including one guy who suggested that standing on a plank that was balanced on a beach ball was a good way to improve your technique… Thinking back now with a little more maturity I’m not convinced he was raking about singing. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you’re respected in the classical world. There should be a name for the opposite of imposter syndrome.
I do still think that the voice is a very complicated thing. Mainly because we can’t see the bits of it and it’s affected by so many things, practically everything. Working out a way to make it deliver consistent takes a long time and a lot of sensitivity. Am I being too pure here?
I’m also wondering about the electric thing. It’s mentioned quite a lot here. It sounds like going electric was a big issue? I’m trying to understand what happened. Isn’t it just to do with the size of the room, how to balance lots of different noises, plus how the audience behave? It’s thrilling to hear an unamplfied voice bouncing off the back wall back at you, but this is another of those pure things, isn’t it. Once we need a pa then going electric simplifies things, I think. Most folk bands are kind of a hybrid these days? For me, there’s nothing like fully acoustic, but that usually needs a bit of help, doesnt it.
This has gor even longer than usual. I’ll stop rambling on now.
Rebecca
everything changes when we plug in…it is invariably accompanied by the arrival of Bass & Drums……
I remember the arrival of PA systems into clubs..we mainly resisted but gradually succumbed…since we’ve learned to work with good PA systems and sympathetic,skilled engineers, good PA systems have enhanced our work…for me, its a joy to be able to sing and play very softly, when required …..
I love to hear good rhythm sections in their proper environment…
all that said…its hard to beat the sound and feel of human voices gathered together in unfettered acoustics
Mornin’ Christy/ all
‘Nomadland’ sounds brilliant. It’s on my list to see – thanks…
Following the youtube posting of ‘Clock winds down’ (with hopefully, even more than the usual interest, linked to Cop 26) – and an awareness of the superb art of David Rooney.I just wanted to mention that Mr Rooney is also a talented musician. Quite a few of his youtube entries under ‘Echotal’ – also on Spotify etc (not that I know much about that tech!)- most recently, ‘Endless Fields’…
As ever, ‘ art is resistance’ – raising awareness too, hopefully…
Have a good day
Dave
Just returning from Rebecca’s “100 not out” link, such diverse abundance …feels like I’m just home froma 4 day festival….my head full of verses, choruses, riffs and breaks…brought me right back those early Folk Revival days, a place in time that I like to re-visit
Hi Christy/all
I was about to prattle about music, but my attention was caught by a wonderful piece on local tv news…there’s a welcome visitor to the North West…in support of refugees via a brilliant arts project… check out http://www.walkwithamal.org for info, but it doesn’t look like there’s a substitute for the ‘real thing’…
Back to music ramblings… your recall of Monday singer’s nights had me mentally making a list of musicians that influenced our generation – many, giving over a half century of inspiration… I’m now playing a 3 CD set ‘New Electric Muse’.which also has an excellent booklet with details of ‘the story of Folk into Rock’…it’s a few years old, but still available/lots of info online… it’s a goldmine…right now, Ewan is sounding mighty on ‘Shoals of herring’ – lots of gooduns to come to brighten a gloomy day.
Keep well
Dave
just back in from “Nomadland”…..a stunningly beautiful film…
Hello Christy,
It was lovely to listen to your Chat with Miriam yesterday. Many great Ballads were played … Wave Up to the Shore is such a beautiful song!!! Did you ever consider to sing ist again?
Autumn greetings,
Traudel
Hi Traudel,
Farewell Autumn…here comes Winter….
I’m considering it now…..
I’m focusing now on introducing some new songs to the set…
that said…cream of the crop will rise to the top..
Hello Christy,
There’s a link in the latest itma newsletter to a article by Catherine Cullan about the balladeer Joseph Sandler.
https://www.itma.ie/blog/dark-man-of-dublin-songs-finding-joseph-sadler
He was around in the mid 19th century.
She’s included a few short recordings she’s made too.
Hope all is well with you. I’m back to work today after 2 weeks bumming around being a si ger. I’ll be singing later.
Rebecca
Thank you Rebecca, Thank you Catherine Cullen…. Joseph Sandler…another old Balladeer remembered….”Green Grows The Lily O”
Rte link
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22024012/
a repeat broadcast…it first went out last year…thanks for posting
Hi Christy,
I’ve just published a wonderful book called ‘From Suir to Jarama, Mossie Quinlan’s Life and Legacy’. Your fellow Kildare man, the writer and broadcaster John MacKenna describes it as ‘A wonderful, beautifully written and important book’.
The book combines research and scholarship with narrative vision to tell the compelling story of a young Waterford man who diedd heroically with the Fifteenth International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, and of the key role of Irish volunteers in the critical Battle of Jarama, in February 1937. You can find out more about the book by Googling ‘From Suir to Jarama’.
To thank you for keeping the flame of memory burning brightly, I’d like to send you a signed, complimentary copy, but I don’t have an address. Could you or one of your team reply to the email I’ve registered on this site with your address please?
I greatly enjoyed your chat with Miriam this morning and I’m delighted you’re bringing out your old, classic tracks again. Planxty was the sound track to my ‘coortin’ years in the early ‘70s. I still remember that wonderful concert in Liberty Hall in 1974.
Salud!
Liam Cahill
Good man LIam…I look forward to reading about Mossie Quinlan….
…..remind me of that 1974 Liberty Hall gig
100 not out
https://youtu.be/Jkk489RTTJE
So Old and yet so New…..Carthy & Swarbrick….together like Horse & Carriage