Hey guys-
I don’t really have any control over what goes on session-wise here in Salt lake, but I also would like to move them to a Saturday. Oh well…I go where the music is.
As far as our gathering this year, I’ll give you a little background on what happened last:
Mack Hoover was our kind and generous host for the first RMS and as such we all met up at his place. Well…Tom and me anyway. Ron Rowe was unable to make it out from Denver for work related reasons if I remember right. Anyway, when I pulled in, Tom was already there and Mack had a ripping session already started in his front room.
I HAD to join right in of course, and so we played for a couple hours I think. Then it was over to Mack’s workshop, where we were given a crash course in building the world’s sweetest sounding whistles. After a positively wonderful dinner prepared by none other than Mack’s lovely wife Joan, we were off to “invade” the local bluegrass session and see if we could interject some Irish tunes in during the breaks.
We made it down and Tom, with jaw harp twanging away, was hands down the show stealer. (Did I mention he plays a mean whistle too?) So we played for probably another hour or so, and then things started to break up.
So from there, it was over to Bill Tiernan’s place. Bill’s a great uilleann piper, and all around nice guy, who by sheer dumb luck, I had met at a session in Greenfield Mass, about a month before. Small world!!!
Once at Bill’s place, the heat was turned WAY up, and we cooked the tunes for probably another two or three hours. The craic was mighty, and the whole day unforgettable!
(This was on a Ssturday we did all this. Tom and I headed back to Mack’s place in the wee-small hours of the morning, and as I took up my residence sleeping on a corner of Mack’s front room, Tom doggedly headed outside to sleep on the gravel in his tent which was pitched beside Mack’s garage. (Guess we’re suckers for roughing it!)
After a good night’s sleep, we woke Sunday to Joan busying herself in the kitchen making us a breakfast that puts all the Denny’s Grand Slam’s you’ve ever eaten to shame. After breakfast, Mack was adamant I follow him to his workshop and offer “a hand”.
What turned out, was that I soon found myself making my own first whistle! What a great experience. And I’ll tell you right now…it gives a new respect for even the poorly made one out there. It may not be rocket science, but it’s not something you can guess at much either.
With a heavy heart, and some WONDERFUL memories, I sped back to Salt Lake, where I has another session to play that evening.
So, to summise, it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! And I don’t know what we’ll be able to do this year to top it…Suggestions? 
All the best,
Bri~
Cees if anything comes up in SLC let me know!