As the year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on the past 12 months.
Attempts to form a band have been a failure. There is too much conflation between band and session material and personnel. Finding a practice time and venue that suits us all has also been a huge problem.
The sessions, however, have gone well. We had ten during the year. We got off to a bad start because the January session was cancelled due to a spike in Covid cases, and we did not do a session in August because of the summer holidays. Our next one is January 15th, so I will update the details on www.thesession.org once I have posted this.
I sent the music for January & February to those who are on my session mailing list. I have also compiled all the sets we did between October 21 and December 2022 including our May session in Athens. Irish music is an infinite variety of mix and match. A typical tune with the repeats amounts to no more than 64 bars in a gig setting and maybe 96 in a session, whereupon we’re supposed to segue seamlessly to the next tune, which is usually marked by a change of key. Therefore, in the compilation there is a fair amount of repetition, the Irish Washerwoman, for example, appearing in two sets. Nonetheless, the compilation contains 49 sets! I will email those on my mailing list and offer the compilation. I don’t expect to be overwhelmed with requests.
One of the most enjoyable experiences this year has been listening to young European musicians playing Irish music. Here are a few:
The Good Tune from Denmark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fB17jMiF4U
Shelta from France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJ4_RIizFQ
Gadan from Italy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE8pfvztm90
The Lowland Paddies from Holland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDRytDcNnkQ
The Skelligs from Croatia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZTmuECB4io
Finally, in searching for the clips I noticed our Grevena Green Fields of America/Reconciliation clip has garnered 55 views since March. For some reason YouTube pitted us alongside Miley Cyrus’s cover of Bob Dylan’s You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go. She’s brilliant and has enjoyed 18 million views in 10 years. 55 in 8 months versus 18 million in 10 years – maybe we can catch up!
I think that’s it for 2022. Happy Christmas and Happy New Year.