Yes, fellow Chiff and Fipplers, Bloomfield and I have transcended the realm of mere mortal whistlers; last night we gigged with Altan. Well, no, actually we gigged with part of Altan. Okay, okay, okay, one of the band (guitarist Dáithí Sproule)came to our regular Friday night session at the Harp, and Bloomfield and I were among the 8 odd other musicians whom he played with for about 2 hours.
Be that as it may, you’ll all be glad to know that we did not disgrace ourselves, that, in fact, we disproved the thesis that proposes that to get two whistlers to play together you must assassinate one of them. Much of the music sounded (to my unprejudiced ears) quite decent, although there was one low point that honesty requires be made public. At one point I had the ill-conceived notion that we should do one of the tunes that Altan does and I started up The Snowy Path. Usually we manage to play a reasonably coordinated and soulful rendition of this lovely melody; last night, however, for some reason we sounded like a herd of cattle in the last stages of a collective and extremely painful expiration. Anyway, Bloomfield and I had our fancy, high-end whistles out and if Daithi felt contempt at our pretensions, he was too polite to betray it. He seems like a very nice guy and, of course, is a great accompanist. He also graced the evening with a song in Gaelic.
So there you are.
On 2002-05-18 16:30, Jon-M wrote:
He also graced the evening with a song in Gaelic.
So beautiful! And I will never ever wash my ears again.
The sad news is that nobody cares that we are in the great and the famouns, Jon. :roll:
I, for one, am thoroughly impressed that y’all jammed with Dáithí Sproule. I love Altan. I guess the reason they’re not discussed more on this board is because, unlike the Chieftans, the whistle isn’t really featured in their music.
**An Altan question:**Why does Altan have 2 guitarists, Dáithí Sproule and Mark Kelly, who seem to never appear on stage or on album photos together? Is it because the former tours with them in the U.S. and the latter in Ireland?
I’ve come to believe that silence is the sincerest form of amazement. That helps me make sense of everyone staring at me 
It also helps me to feel better when no one responds to what I felt was a thoroughly entertaining and intellectual post.
Erik
On 2002-05-20 15:30, ErikT wrote:
I’ve come to believe that silence is the sincerest form of amazement. That helps me make sense of everyone staring at me >
“Silent amazement” is certainly the way I’d like to think about the reaction I have gotten to some of my posts… :roll: But Erik, which of your posts were you referring, too? All of your posts are (of course) entertaining and intellectual, except for the ones that are entertaining and, um… faithful. 
(oh, boy, I wonder if I am going to get away with that one… grin.) So let me know which particularly entertaining and intellectual posts I’ve missed.
Mmmh. Mark Kelly v. Daithi Sproule… I’ve never thought about it, but it’s true that when I saw them in NYC, it Daithi playing. He is on several of their recordings though, and I thought that he sorta drifted in out of Altan for a while.
Good job of revivifying, Bloomfield!
Jon Michaels
LOL! Bloomfield.
Ok, you can get away with that one! … I’m still laughing. I guess that my reputation has proceeded me.
Erik