A Happy New Year to anyone reading this.
November was a frustrating month. One step forward, two steps back. We have practiced the new material only once. Ken wants us to play on Dec 22nd, but I am unwilling to perform if we are under-rehearsed.
Sunday, 5th January 2025. I am happy to report that we finally got our act together. Our December session went well, and our gig on 22nd December was well received. We incorporated six Christmas songs, four in English, two in Greek. Unfortunately, apart from the Christmas selection, we did not have the rehearsal time to risk playing new material.
I have been communicating with a British guy who lives in Akbuk, Turkey. It’s about 160 km south of Smyrna. He also makes – if it is not a contradiction – wooden tin whistles. (I have just checked his website – he calls them wooden whistles.) He wants to join our February session. We seem to be the nearest viable and regular session to Akbuk.
Our 2025 sessions kick off next Sunday (12th). Because of Christmas and New Year, I have made very few changes to the January playlist. However, our February/March playlist, while not containing too many new tunes, has several rearrangements of sets to accommodate some suggestion our visitor has made.
Rob, one of our guitarists, sent a link to Spotify, an album called Graffy Sessions by a Fermanagh group called The Tumbling Paddies. Here is their cover of Dirty Old Town https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK_QUjZsCkM&list=RDEM-bIHFzQBfMvF6ai1b7GR5Q&index=2
For some reason, it got me thinking of a great band from Ennis, Stockton’s Wing. In my opinion, they were as good as Planxty, the Bothies and De Danann, but they are not as well known today. Here they are playing The Kerry Reel (aka The Green Fields of Rossbeigh) followed by one of our session and gig favourites, The Reconciliation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STvhj6Bf8Vw
Finally, going back to the Tumbling Paddies, they did an intriguing (i.e. not to my taste) cover of Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice into which they incorporated Fred Finn’s Reel. It does not appear to be on YouTube, but this brilliant version is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNLlw9B0pBI
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