T'was the session before Christmas

Whistle
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On as many Sunday afternoons as I can, I go to our local pub to listen in on the session, which John Williams leads. They’re always great, but several have been especially memorable. One was the day I drove to the pub through a wild rainstorm, trees swaying madly, yet the sun was shining, and a glorious rainbow suddenly arched across the sky. It wasn’t only the weather, though, that made that day memorable: it was also my first time ever joining in a session, and I played my just-arrived new flute.

But this past Sunday’s session, right before Christmas, topped even that. The place was full of both listeners and musicians. One of the regulars, a whistle player and great guy, brought a sumptuous spread of food for all to share, including his homemade-with-a-recipe-from-his-relatives-in-Miltown-Malbay shortbread: yummmm. The music was wonderful, of course, especially lively and driving, and no surprise: the guests that day—in addition to the 8 or so regulars–were Kieran O’Hare (pipes and flute), Liz Carroll (fiddle), Joseph Sobel (cittern), and…oh yes, Jean Michel Veillon. After about an hour of ensemble playing, John Williams introduced the guests. Joseph Sobel recited “A Christmas Childhood” by Patrick Kavanaghwhile John played the accordion behind him. The pub was as quiet as a church, people so gratefully listening to the treasures offered up. Veillon then treated us all to a solo Breton set, and EVERYone was moving by the end of it: tapping feet and fingertips, swaying shoulders, carried away by it all. And then, in one of the sweetest moments of the afternoon, John invited a young student (maybe 8 years old) to the center of the circle with her accordion, and the two of them played Planxty Irwin while the crowd listened with as much attention as to Veillon himself. (By the way, through most of the session a young boy I assumed to be Veillon’s son sat next to him, having to duck from time to time as Veillon swung his flute enthusiastically during tunes!) The final solo was from Jim Craig, a tall and lanky deep baritone, proprietor of Hogeye Music (slogan: “50 years behind the times”) where I take my whistle lessons with Jim Conway. He had to be coaxed to the center, but he borrowed a guitar and played and sang a sweetly simple version of “Chestnuts Roasting on the Open Fire.” And after the solos, another rousing hour of ensemble playing as the winter darkness deepened outside. It was a wonderful way to spend the Sunday before Christmas, feeling connected to this great tradition, and connected to those friends and strangers on this board who I knew would enjoy reading about it.

Any favorite session stories to share?

Happy holidays!

Carol


[ This Message was edited by: cskinner on 2002-12-24 16:21 ]

[ This Message was edited by: cskinner on 2002-12-24 16:23 ]

[ This Message was edited by: cskinner on 2002-12-24 18:36 ]

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Great story, Carol! Thanks for sharing it!

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You make me feel as though I had been there, Carol!

Merry!! :slight_smile:

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My latest pre christmas session on sunday night ended with a candle sitting on the mantlepiece over the fire setting my only coat on fire. I was talking to pipemaker Geoff Wooof before going home myu back got a bit warm, when looking over my shoulder I saw flames.

The session was an extended version of the usual sundaynight one, heavy on the accordeons this time maybe with both Jacky Daly and Conor Keane playing, two concertinas, two fiddles, myself playing whistle and and Conor’s wife Maura on flute.

Myself and Kitty Hayes played our usual duo set on flat pipes and concertina, Kitty back after seven weeks away sick and short stint in hospital, in flying form again. She’s a tough old lady.

Sets were danced, there were endless sandwiches and sausages, there was a recitation, lots of good singing including Kitty Hayes who did a lovely melancholy ‘The water is wide’ and John Tunney who sang one of his father’s songs.

[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-12-25 04:54 ]

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Carol, what sort of flute did you get?

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Peter:

It was bad enough reading your coat caught on fire, but then to learn you were wearing it! Sorry! The rest of the night sounds wonderful, though; thanks so much for sharing it with us, and glad to hear Kitty Hayes is well.

Jim:

The flute is an antique refurbished by Patrick Olwell. It’s a 6-keyed boxwood, R&R style, small holes, made by Wolf Co. c. 1840. It’s a honey.

Cheers!

Carol

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Carol, it sounds like heaven. Thanks for sharing the story. At the risk of sounding like Scrooge, The ‘Session before Christmas’ in my neck of the woods went something similar to how it usually goes even without the impending holiday. Ten or so people started out about 9pm, by 10, the group of ‘better’ musicians showed up and hijacked the session for their ‘band practice’. Played sets they all knew together at lightning speed. Boredly ignore most everyone elses playing. At one point the bodhran player called out the tunes and then said “you’re welcome to play along if you know them”. “Thanks, I said, how thoughtful to invite us, since it is a session…” lol. Anyway, it continues on like this until they pack up at 12, obviously quite bored with the rest of us and my friends and I play “Christmas Eve” at midnight with fiddle, whistle, flute and guitar at a reverent speed and it’s wonderful. That 10 minutes was my great Session before Christmas! Across town, the “best” musicians are playing together, they don’t even like people to sit in with them just to listen, it crowds things up you know. Not being able to travel much, sometimes I wonder if it’s like this, competitive and closed, everywhere, or just LA. It doesn’t sound like that in Miltown for Peter, but I don’t know how it was for him when he was coming up. Maybe that’s a good subject for another thread… err, since I didn’t mean to hijack this one. It sounded much better wherever Carol is, don’t know what city, wish I could’ve been there!

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LAWhistle…I could have sworn you were describing one of the regular sessions in Toronto…

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On 2002-12-26 15:03, lawhistle wrote:
It sounded much better wherever Carol is, don’t know what city, wish I could’ve been there!

lawhistle,

I’m in the Chicago area, which my whistle teacher considers to be one of the hottest Irish music “scenes” around. I’ve heard some stories of other sessions in town with a bit–or more–of what you describe, though. Glad you had those 10 minutes, at least! They sound wonderful.

Carol

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Well, I’m happy to say that the sessions I attend are much better than that. Yes, we have some professional musicians in the group, and yes, they do organise it and set the pace for it. However, while they don’t do strict rotation for whose turn it is to start the tune, they do make sure everyone gets their fair chance. Nobody seems to take themselves too seriously.

I’ve only been practicing the whistle seriously for six months now, and I haven’t a prayer of keeping up with them on a reel or jig. however, they’re more than gracious about letting me fill in between with slow airs and such. Certainly because of them, my confidence, skill, and drive to keep improving has markedly increased.

Maybe in another six months or so I’ll be able to keep up on the reels. :slight_smile:

The session before Christmas, however was interesting. We usually get at least eight musicians and a couple (2-4) of Irish dancers that show up to sessions, and we’ll usually play a few tunes for them to dance to. Last week, at least twelve dancers showed up, a full pub of patrons, and only four musicians, one of whom was feeling so poorly that she had to leave early. Even when we were working well, the noise of the pub was a bit more than we could overcome.

This week’s session was cancelled (would have been ON Christmas). But we’ll be there for New Year’s Day. Should be interesting…

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On 2002-12-26 15:03, lawhistle wrote:
It doesn’t sound like that in Miltown for Peter, but I don’t know how it was for him when he was coming up. Maybe that’s a good subject for another thread… err, since I didn’t mean to hijack this one

I can elaborate a bit on that. When I moved to Miltown six years ago, I went to the sunday night session to listen. At the time Junior Crehan was still heading the music with Conor Keane playing the accordeon, Michael Downes and Eamonn McGviney in the ‘core group’ playing the fiddle and Kitty Hayes was just getting back into playign the cocnertina so she played a few tunes every now and again. All sorts of people would show up irregualrly as well and join.
I mostly keep a low profile and my pipes are in C so there’s not much point in sitting in with anybody. After some six months one of the ‘regular drinkers’, folklorist Tom Munnelly, heard me play the pipes during a Lahinch folklore weekend, he told Junior I played and from then on Junior put the pressure on me to ‘join the band’ as he thought I was ‘terribly lonesome looking’ when not playing. Pipemaker Geoff Wooff gave me a Rowsome D chanter which I used for a while but I was very unhappy with that, one night we had Liz Carroll playing with us and I was sitting there with that foghorn hoping I would be struck by lightning or something.
Concert pitch pipes are not suitable to play with fragile subtle fiddleplayers. I returned the chanter so and started sitting in in the corner taking up the tin whistle after not seriously bothering with it for a long while. After Junior died we kept the session going for a while Conor Keane emigrated to France briefly and Jackie Daly came in and we’ve been playing there since, I have gotten a bit more handy with the whistle since. I can only say Junior and others were very encouraging and still everybody able to play is encouraged to join.
Jackie calls the tune though, especially on busy nights we are supposed to keep the music going for the dancers.

Other local players have also been very friendly, Tommy McCarthy, Brid Donohue and loads others.

Mind you, I have been to sessions in Clare where people tried to take the Mickey out of the stranger, encouraging me to get the pipes in and play a few tunes on my own [expecting me to make a bollocks of myself]. That doesn’t work, I can play my pipes to frighten the life out of that sort of crowd. So they try that only once. I wouldn’t bother with people into that sort of behaviour anyhow.

An article about Junior and the session is at

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/crehan.htm

there’s one photograph of the original group, the seat taken by John Joe Healy in the photograph has been mine every week for the past five years.



[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-12-27 07:19 ]

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Thanks Peter, hearing your story heartens me. I can’t wait until I’m well enough to get out and find other people to play with (I told the last lot to go jump in a lake). Somewhere comfortable like that, with people you like and respect, somewhere, you know, where a girl can go and set her coat on fire with some friends. hehe I know I’ll find it, maybe in time to have a really great ‘session before Christmas’, next holiday. Thanks again, LA

[ This Message was edited by: lawhistle on 2002-12-27 19:30 ]