Back in the Bay after a fantastic trip to the homeland at long last. Next time i’ll fly further to a gig ! Happy Birthday dear Christy may you have a lovely day with family and love around. Abrazo compañero, take care, Maryline
CM 77 beannachtaí agus grá mór chugat léi do lá breithe amárach a mhac bán.
The cuckoo has landed and brought a grand drop of rain.
Maybe you could smuggle some turf home from Lullymore, watch out sleepy Éamon will get you!!
CS
Christy's reply
First up, best dressed CS
“This is the day the Cuckoo likes
and So Do I,
when the rain puts a shine on the chestnut spikes
hear the Curlew cry”………(Wally Page)
Was asked to play at a commemoration service for Ruth Ormsby this afternoon in Sligo, a very brave nurse who lost her life during the Spanish Civil War. The song that they wanted me to sing was, ‘Viva La Quinta Brigada’, which I adapted slightly to include Ruth’s name. It was a massive privilege to be asked to perform one of your own great songs, and to be involved in the occasion. Cill Dara Abú in the Wesht, and we remember all of those brave people who lost their lives fighting on the side ‘truth and love’ in different combats down through history.
Christy's reply
Well done….good to hear that Ruth Ormsby has been remembered in the song…thank you….
Hi Christy and all, before I fly off again.
Christy, so glad you read the sign and followed on through. I was lucky enough to see the Stray Birds play live in a small venue on their short tour of the UK a few years back in the short time they were in the limelight. The real McCoy.
And to all, happy to have brought things to help feather the nest and thankyou for taking in and welcoming this wayfaring stranger. Until I pass this way again ,
Yours aye,
Aileen
Rebecca/ any interested parties…if you do an online search like ‘Berkeley Uni- Peregrine falcons’, there should be a link to ‘Calfalcons’ via the Uni in California – also, youtube/ social media.
I picked up on them in 2020 via a post here (Lizzie, I think – apols, if wrong..)Each year there’s more interest and the web cam managers have increased the coverage. It’s fascinating to monitor the speed at which the chicks develop and eventually fledge. Enjoy…
Hello Christy and All and welcome Aileen to the nest. We’re all strays here, buffeted by the wind and swimming against the current. Reading Christy’s comment about getting out of the scratcher, I wonder if we all lie in bed on a morning reading and writing on the guestbook and other places. It’s a good start to the day to talk with kindred spirits.
I’m a new collector of vinyl so I don’t know much about record shops but I’ve always loved a good secondhand book shop. The smell of them, the hours spent on knees and up ladders, the precious finds. There used to be a great one in the Piece Hall in Halifax. So many books that some of them were outside on the windowsill.
I have two old hardback copies of Irish Street Songs and More Irish Street Songs. One stays open on the piano on Limerick Rake.
Any chance of xa link to the peregrines Dave?
Rebecca
Christy's reply
“if I happen to go to the market of Croom
a cockade in my hat and my pipes in full tune
I’m made welcome at once and brought up to a room
where Bacchus is sporting with Venus”
we dont write ’em like this anymore
I take it as a sign that this should be sung in Limerick next week
Agreeing about ‘Stray Birds’, Christy…fab sounds – and thanks to Aileen…
Corny link of the day goes from that band to news that for the third time, I’ll be following the growth of the newly hatched Peregrine falcons in the bell tower of Berkeley Uni campus in California (they’re on Twitter!) via webcams/ youtube etc – absorbing and cathartic viewing…
time for some Nick Drake now…
enjoy the day
Dave
Christy's reply
you ,most certainly, are a man who refuses to waste precious time..
thanks Dave….you are a one man University of sights and sounds, of deep rabbit holes, vital news and good tea shops all wrapped up in a spirit of good cameraderie
I hope your filming goes/ went well.Hopefully, the piece will be widely available in due course.
Aileen’s post revived a good memory. Passing The Bridgewater Hall a few years ago. Out of the corner of my eye, saw Nick Drake’s image on a large poste – it was an ad for a tribute gig, featuring several artists,curated by Joe Boyd (involved with many of my favourite musicians over aeons).Got a ticket, saw a superb gig, chatted to some interesting folks and bumped into Mr Boyd…so a chance for a chat and a ‘thanks’ handshake…spot on about the power of a poster, Aileen! ‘Led by Donkeys’ – genius too…
Have a good day
Dave
Christy's reply
Hey Dave…
get a load o’them “Stray Birds”
there is a Band I’d love see
in the MSG
that Joe Boyd lad was at the helm of some great recording….a fine pair of ears on him
Hi Christy, I’m coming to see you on Sunday 8/5 with your greatest fan my 8 year old daughter Penny Conboy, she was wondering could you sing Sail on Jimmy?
Cheers
Oz
Christy's reply
Hope You and Penny have a lovely time at NCH…..I’m gonna get up out of this scratcher now and get rehearsin her song
“In the wee hours of the morning,we were howling at the Moon” (Albert Niland)
Hi Christy, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I feel a great sense of joy and relief being able somehow to pass on Michael’s thanks. It kind of felt like he was standing by my shoulder as I pressed the submit button. Agree with everything being said about tech these days and would never have normally posted somewhere like this being a bit of a technophobe. Maybe this shows though that serendipity still has its way if you are in the right time and space and you drown out all the “stuff” on the internet which is like the tick tocking of a clock in an empty room.
Smiling too at Dagrab’s comments. I too need the look and feel of “stuff”. Yes Michael’s ticket stubb is still in there as a bookmark.
Rebeccah’s comments about things hanging on walls also resonates. Michael knew the power of a poster hanging on a wall, not in the commercial sense, but in the gifts of live music. In his later years he set up a music gig postering company in Edinburgh doing much of the postering himself. As for serendipity I wonder how many people stopped by a poster on their way to the loo in a bar and went to a gig they might not have have gone to only to serendipidously bump into old friends, find new ones, a new love in their life, new songs to sing or an artiste to follow.
As for the losses from things like spotify I fear for the second hand record shops and dealers , the keepers of back catalogues. Full of stuff to rummage through, touch feel and get lost in. An American band Stray Birds sadly now disbanded say it best in their song Best Medicine..” music is the best medicine I sell” The you tube video of it reminds me of one such one in Edinburgh.so.crammed to the gunnels the owner often sat outside.
Anyhow Christy thanks for everything. Great to know you are touring again and happy trails,
With love Aileen
Christy's reply
Aileen,
“Stray Birds”….what a gorgeous trio, I love them after 2 songs … “Best Medicine”song & video, perfect tonic to start the day,
Thanks for the signpost
Poor old Ciaran, I was once in a similar place myself. The backroom jof the Beck Inn with me and a accompaniment of 8 guitars. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t be heard at all.
I guess tuo be a good accompanist it’s more important to be a good musician than a good player.
Got to agree with Dave and you on the ele tronic world thing. I see lots of people on the bus with babies. Some spend the whole time ignoring the child for a phone. The other day I saw a girl who spent the whole time talking to her baby. It was wonderful.
I love paper books, music made of gut, vocal chords and vinyl and looking at real art in real art places. I guess it’s the reality of size and texture. Vangogh’s deep brushstrokes were a highlight of this.
Ironic to be writing this on a mobile phone. But they’ve given us a whole new world of possibility for communicating, haven’t they. Maybe we need less cat pictures..
Always uplifting to read a poignant post and your kind response…
Long may we live in homes full of ‘stuff’…books, music, photos… a real book with a gig ticket bookmark – that’s my valued copy of ‘One Voice’.
I’ve been reading about http://www.bobdylancenter.com opening in Tulsa, USA. It looks amazing, but I think my Dylan ‘shrine’ will suffice to keep me occupied… it’s always good to have ‘real’ galleries and museums ‘out there’…
Have a good day
Dave
Christy's reply
I still dip in to O’Lochlainn’s “Irish Street Ballads” and the subsequent “More Irish Street ballads”, both books full of gems, accompanied by simple melody lines and lovely woodcut illustrations……by now both books well worn by the thumbs of time…both travelled with me back in my Folk Club travels and survived the rigours of the road….one went missing for a few decades only to be returned by the kind Son of the man in who’s house I’d left it 30 years previously….
Hello Christie,
Serendipity led me here. I was listening to your music with a copy of One Voice lying open only to find my way here to fall upon your discussing it.
My partner Michael and I were in the audience Queen’s Hall Edinburgh 12th April 2011.He loved your music since Moving Hearts days and introduced me to the heart and soul. I was not alone. For years he worked in music shops and played you over the airwaves and spread it by word of mouth. Doubt he ever missed a local performance. He never would have asked anyone for an autograph even though he often could. Having worked for the promoters on the concert publicity postering this night he arranged for his copy of One Voice to be signed. I will never forget the smile on his face when Mark brought it out from backstage to his seat signed by you “For Michael….” He knew how much it meant to him.
Michael passed away unexpectedly five months later aged 49. Thank you so much for giving him that moment of pleasure and so many more. He treasured his copy which lies open beside me now and remembering that smile is “a spark that lights up the night ”
All the best.
Serendipity is a magical thing.is it not.
P.S. It is a beautiful hard backed copy.
Christy's reply
Hello Aileen….Thank you for sharing that memory of You & Michael (and Mark) at the Q.E.H. in Auld Reekie….sorry to read of your loss …and Michael so young….
you got me wondering about “serendipity”…..will it survive in the emerging new world ?….as lives become dominated by ever present devices will we be available to notice whats happening around us….I see people in beautiful places locked onto their mind numbing wee screens…Parents wheeling infants oblivious to the presence of their wee babógs…
Yes, Serendipity is indeed a magical thing
I’m thinking, no albums will ever be signed on spotify nor books autographed on kindle….
I send best wishes to you ,Mark @ principle and songsters in that beautiful City….again, Thanks for sharing
Just wishing you a very happy birthday Christy. Many happy returns of the day.
thank you Sue
Hi C. Go maire tú céad. La breithe sona duit. Beir bua agus beannacht. H
shocked a shocked….where does the time go….lets keep goin for another while..le cónamh Dé
Happy Birthday, Christy
Have a fab day – tomorrow, enjoy the first gig of your new year.
Dave
had my 22nd in Moss Side…
ended up dancing in a smoky Shebeen
I wish you a happy birthday! Have a nice day,
Nice One Moeke
Penblwydd Hapus Christy,hope you had a nice and relaxing Day,Shine on.
sound man Geraint
Back in the Bay after a fantastic trip to the homeland at long last. Next time i’ll fly further to a gig ! Happy Birthday dear Christy may you have a lovely day with family and love around. Abrazo compañero, take care, Maryline
great start to the day
petit dejeuner in the scratcher
CM 77 beannachtaí agus grá mór chugat léi do lá breithe amárach a mhac bán.
The cuckoo has landed and brought a grand drop of rain.
Maybe you could smuggle some turf home from Lullymore, watch out sleepy Éamon will get you!!
CS
First up, best dressed CS
“This is the day the Cuckoo likes
and So Do I,
when the rain puts a shine on the chestnut spikes
hear the Curlew cry”………(Wally Page)
Howya Christy,
Was asked to play at a commemoration service for Ruth Ormsby this afternoon in Sligo, a very brave nurse who lost her life during the Spanish Civil War. The song that they wanted me to sing was, ‘Viva La Quinta Brigada’, which I adapted slightly to include Ruth’s name. It was a massive privilege to be asked to perform one of your own great songs, and to be involved in the occasion. Cill Dara Abú in the Wesht, and we remember all of those brave people who lost their lives fighting on the side ‘truth and love’ in different combats down through history.
Well done….good to hear that Ruth Ormsby has been remembered in the song…thank you….
Hi Christy and all, before I fly off again.
Christy, so glad you read the sign and followed on through. I was lucky enough to see the Stray Birds play live in a small venue on their short tour of the UK a few years back in the short time they were in the limelight. The real McCoy.
And to all, happy to have brought things to help feather the nest and thankyou for taking in and welcoming this wayfaring stranger. Until I pass this way again ,
Yours aye,
Aileen
Drop in anytime Aileen
Hi Christy
Rebecca/ any interested parties…if you do an online search like ‘Berkeley Uni- Peregrine falcons’, there should be a link to ‘Calfalcons’ via the Uni in California – also, youtube/ social media.
I picked up on them in 2020 via a post here (Lizzie, I think – apols, if wrong..)Each year there’s more interest and the web cam managers have increased the coverage. It’s fascinating to monitor the speed at which the chicks develop and eventually fledge. Enjoy…
Dave
our feathered friends..
Hello Christy and All and welcome Aileen to the nest. We’re all strays here, buffeted by the wind and swimming against the current. Reading Christy’s comment about getting out of the scratcher, I wonder if we all lie in bed on a morning reading and writing on the guestbook and other places. It’s a good start to the day to talk with kindred spirits.
I’m a new collector of vinyl so I don’t know much about record shops but I’ve always loved a good secondhand book shop. The smell of them, the hours spent on knees and up ladders, the precious finds. There used to be a great one in the Piece Hall in Halifax. So many books that some of them were outside on the windowsill.
I have two old hardback copies of Irish Street Songs and More Irish Street Songs. One stays open on the piano on Limerick Rake.
Any chance of xa link to the peregrines Dave?
Rebecca
“if I happen to go to the market of Croom
a cockade in my hat and my pipes in full tune
I’m made welcome at once and brought up to a room
where Bacchus is sporting with Venus”
we dont write ’em like this anymore
I take it as a sign that this should be sung in Limerick next week
Agreeing about ‘Stray Birds’, Christy…fab sounds – and thanks to Aileen…
Corny link of the day goes from that band to news that for the third time, I’ll be following the growth of the newly hatched Peregrine falcons in the bell tower of Berkeley Uni campus in California (they’re on Twitter!) via webcams/ youtube etc – absorbing and cathartic viewing…
time for some Nick Drake now…
enjoy the day
Dave
you ,most certainly, are a man who refuses to waste precious time..
thanks Dave….you are a one man University of sights and sounds, of deep rabbit holes, vital news and good tea shops all wrapped up in a spirit of good cameraderie
Shine On dagrab…..
Mornin’ Christy/ all
I hope your filming goes/ went well.Hopefully, the piece will be widely available in due course.
Aileen’s post revived a good memory. Passing The Bridgewater Hall a few years ago. Out of the corner of my eye, saw Nick Drake’s image on a large poste – it was an ad for a tribute gig, featuring several artists,curated by Joe Boyd (involved with many of my favourite musicians over aeons).Got a ticket, saw a superb gig, chatted to some interesting folks and bumped into Mr Boyd…so a chance for a chat and a ‘thanks’ handshake…spot on about the power of a poster, Aileen! ‘Led by Donkeys’ – genius too…
Have a good day
Dave
Hey Dave…
get a load o’them “Stray Birds”
there is a Band I’d love see
in the MSG
that Joe Boyd lad was at the helm of some great recording….a fine pair of ears on him
Aileen has landed here with some fine guidelines
Sending good JUJU to United City
Hi Christy, I’m coming to see you on Sunday 8/5 with your greatest fan my 8 year old daughter Penny Conboy, she was wondering could you sing Sail on Jimmy?
Cheers
Oz
Hope You and Penny have a lovely time at NCH…..I’m gonna get up out of this scratcher now and get rehearsin her song
“In the wee hours of the morning,we were howling at the Moon” (Albert Niland)
At your brother’s gig at the Roma.
When will you come?
I love that old venue….
Happy to have played there …
Ride On Luka…keep the Moorefield flag flying…
Hi Christy, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I feel a great sense of joy and relief being able somehow to pass on Michael’s thanks. It kind of felt like he was standing by my shoulder as I pressed the submit button. Agree with everything being said about tech these days and would never have normally posted somewhere like this being a bit of a technophobe. Maybe this shows though that serendipity still has its way if you are in the right time and space and you drown out all the “stuff” on the internet which is like the tick tocking of a clock in an empty room.
Smiling too at Dagrab’s comments. I too need the look and feel of “stuff”. Yes Michael’s ticket stubb is still in there as a bookmark.
Rebeccah’s comments about things hanging on walls also resonates. Michael knew the power of a poster hanging on a wall, not in the commercial sense, but in the gifts of live music. In his later years he set up a music gig postering company in Edinburgh doing much of the postering himself. As for serendipity I wonder how many people stopped by a poster on their way to the loo in a bar and went to a gig they might not have have gone to only to serendipidously bump into old friends, find new ones, a new love in their life, new songs to sing or an artiste to follow.
As for the losses from things like spotify I fear for the second hand record shops and dealers , the keepers of back catalogues. Full of stuff to rummage through, touch feel and get lost in. An American band Stray Birds sadly now disbanded say it best in their song Best Medicine..” music is the best medicine I sell” The you tube video of it reminds me of one such one in Edinburgh.so.crammed to the gunnels the owner often sat outside.
Anyhow Christy thanks for everything. Great to know you are touring again and happy trails,
With love Aileen
Aileen,
“Stray Birds”….what a gorgeous trio, I love them after 2 songs … “Best Medicine”song & video, perfect tonic to start the day,
Thanks for the signpost
No cat pictures banks of accompanists here.
https://youtu.be/aCMevXd5Evs
Hello Christy,
Poor old Ciaran, I was once in a similar place myself. The backroom jof the Beck Inn with me and a accompaniment of 8 guitars. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t be heard at all.
I guess tuo be a good accompanist it’s more important to be a good musician than a good player.
Got to agree with Dave and you on the ele tronic world thing. I see lots of people on the bus with babies. Some spend the whole time ignoring the child for a phone. The other day I saw a girl who spent the whole time talking to her baby. It was wonderful.
I love paper books, music made of gut, vocal chords and vinyl and looking at real art in real art places. I guess it’s the reality of size and texture. Vangogh’s deep brushstrokes were a highlight of this.
Ironic to be writing this on a mobile phone. But they’ve given us a whole new world of possibility for communicating, haven’t they. Maybe we need less cat pictures..
Rebecca
Mornin’ Christy
Always uplifting to read a poignant post and your kind response…
Long may we live in homes full of ‘stuff’…books, music, photos… a real book with a gig ticket bookmark – that’s my valued copy of ‘One Voice’.
I’ve been reading about http://www.bobdylancenter.com opening in Tulsa, USA. It looks amazing, but I think my Dylan ‘shrine’ will suffice to keep me occupied… it’s always good to have ‘real’ galleries and museums ‘out there’…
Have a good day
Dave
I still dip in to O’Lochlainn’s “Irish Street Ballads” and the subsequent “More Irish Street ballads”, both books full of gems, accompanied by simple melody lines and lovely woodcut illustrations……by now both books well worn by the thumbs of time…both travelled with me back in my Folk Club travels and survived the rigours of the road….one went missing for a few decades only to be returned by the kind Son of the man in who’s house I’d left it 30 years previously….
Hello Christie,
Serendipity led me here. I was listening to your music with a copy of One Voice lying open only to find my way here to fall upon your discussing it.
My partner Michael and I were in the audience Queen’s Hall Edinburgh 12th April 2011.He loved your music since Moving Hearts days and introduced me to the heart and soul. I was not alone. For years he worked in music shops and played you over the airwaves and spread it by word of mouth. Doubt he ever missed a local performance. He never would have asked anyone for an autograph even though he often could. Having worked for the promoters on the concert publicity postering this night he arranged for his copy of One Voice to be signed. I will never forget the smile on his face when Mark brought it out from backstage to his seat signed by you “For Michael….” He knew how much it meant to him.
Michael passed away unexpectedly five months later aged 49. Thank you so much for giving him that moment of pleasure and so many more. He treasured his copy which lies open beside me now and remembering that smile is “a spark that lights up the night ”
All the best.
Serendipity is a magical thing.is it not.
P.S. It is a beautiful hard backed copy.
Hello Aileen….Thank you for sharing that memory of You & Michael (and Mark) at the Q.E.H. in Auld Reekie….sorry to read of your loss …and Michael so young….
you got me wondering about “serendipity”…..will it survive in the emerging new world ?….as lives become dominated by ever present devices will we be available to notice whats happening around us….I see people in beautiful places locked onto their mind numbing wee screens…Parents wheeling infants oblivious to the presence of their wee babógs…
Yes, Serendipity is indeed a magical thing
I’m thinking, no albums will ever be signed on spotify nor books autographed on kindle….
I send best wishes to you ,Mark @ principle and songsters in that beautiful City….again, Thanks for sharing