Just returned from Willie Week, posted some photos online:
http://www.pbase.com/eskin/willie_clancy_2003
Enjoy!
Michael
Thanks for posting the pics. It gives me a better idea of what it might be like. I’ve heard that its very crowded and hard to find sessions to play in. Could you give some of your thoughts on the experience?
It was a very intense experience, both good and not so good. The piping instruction and demonstrations were fantastic, as well as the opportunity to meet and interact with the very best uilleann pipers in the world.
The session scene in Miltown Malbay is extremely crowded, and unless you find a spot at 4 PM and stay there until after midnight, you may not find a place to play. All the pubs in town are completely packed, and if you play the pipes, it can be rather dangerous to your drones as people often stumble through them. I did have one good session with Thomas Johnson, Patrick D’Arcy, and Peter Laban at Queally’s on Monday night.
My friend Patrick did most of his session playing out of town. I think next year I won’t even consider trying to find sessions in town and will go see what’s going out a few miles down the road, but this year, I decided to just stay in Miltown Malbay to have the experience.
Cheers,
Michael
Great pics! I always get a kick out of seeing trad. music photos.
Background: I’m a single, 27 year old embryonic piper of three years.
The goods: I found the week to be excellent. Sure there were drawbacks: the smoking in the pubs killed my throat, the sessions became harder and harder to get into and harder and harder to hear anything in, the number of totally drunken individuals in the streets was annoying. But that chippery on the street with those lovely girls from Limerick made it better. chuckles
I found the lessons in the morning to be very good. The reedmaking workshop was very informative and I found Martin and Dave to be very open to questions and what-not. I hung out there several times and was just a fly-on-the-wall and learned much.
I attended, as an observer, Ronan Browne’s regulator classes and I learned much from them. Brilliant stuff! Glad to know that he got his baritone regulator working for the concert.
The piping recitals (afternoon) were brilliant although I wish they had turned the sound system volume UP a little bit. The piping concert was also wonderful.
As was mentioned, I believe some of the best sessions happend in Mullach, Spanish Point, at the Crosses of Annagh, or at McCarthy’s – all outside of town. I did get to the Crosses but, sadly, not to the other places. And yes, the end-of-the-week sessions IN town were a joke – couldn’t hear anything.
I met some incredible people – “big-time” traditional musicians, “internet buddies”, friends, set-dancers, singers, and folks like me, walking around with their mouths agape – “Hey, that was Tommy Kearney, there goes Ronan Browne, etc.” Anyone who says Willie week isn’t worth it has either experienced it many times before or has a weak heart. chuckles
Just my personal experience on things,
Jonathan
I think next time I might spend only the first week-end at Willie week, and then head somewhere else in Clare. This year was my third Willie week in a row, and I think I’m slowly getting saturated with the over crowded pubs. What drives me nuts is the people who come to talk, and not to listen. It’s like, there’s thousands of pubs in Ireland where you can just sit down and talk, why would you wait to be 'round a session to start talking?