Ireland 2007-2008 Part II: Portstewart
Portstewart: Dec. 31 and Jan 1
On December 31, 2007, we left Dun Luiche with our friends Paul Marshall and Rob Forkner and headed for Portstewart, Co. Derry. Our mission was to record some tracks to benefit the Paul Phillips Scholarship.
A bit of background before we move on. The world unfortunately and very unexpectedly lost Paul Phillips last September 16. Paul was a phenomenal bodhran player and teacher and was just a class act in general. At laster year’s Irish Fest, I think it was Rob who said something along the lines that if Clare musicians were to accept any bodhran player, it would be Paul Phillips: his style was rhythmic, melodic, driving, and sensitive. It was an tremendous pleasure being able to be in Paul’s company last summer as he came to Wisconsin for the Irish Fest Summer School, starting with athas’ jaunt up to the La Crosse Irish Fest and ending up with the final session in the Park East to finish Irish Fest week. Fondest memory: quoting Kelly’s Heroes with Paul at Ma Fischer’s.
So it was up to Portstewart with us on New Year’s Eve, but we made a brief detour to the home of Roy Arbuckle in Derry. I’d spent a day in Derry back in 2005 during my last visit to Ireland, but this was a much more fun experience. Roy is the singer/guitarist for Different Drums of Ireland, and it was great fun hanging out with Roy, his wife, his in-laws, and his children for a few hours. We played tunes in the living room and were blessed with a couple songs from his father-in-law. Good stuff!
We arrived at the Marshall’s Portstewart home early in the evening. We retired to the upstairs lounge, since it was the fastest room to warm up. Here we watched some videos, played tunes, and rang in the New Year in the company of some great friends. Good times!
The next morning Paul treated us to an Ulster Fry. Talk about great food! I didn’t think I’d be able to ever eat again. The Ulster Fry is a traditional Ulster breakfast, complete with every kind of breakfast type meat you can imagine, eggs, black pudding, and other assorted goodies. Mmmmm.
The rest of the day was spent lounging around (and for me, trying to recover from my cold so I wouldn’t be coughing during the recording process). Later that night we began playing through some tunes and doing recording checks with our engineer, Tom Newman.
Tom is an amazing engineer and a joy to work with. He has an terrific ear and spirit, and he certainly made the recording process comfortable and enjoyable for everyone. Plus, the man has a great sense of humour and the best accent! And for me, it was a treat not having to worry about sound gear and recording and just to be able to focus on making some music.
Recording: January 2nd and 3rd
Again, these days went by in a great blur. All told, we recorded a total of 11 tracks to benefit the Paul Phillips Scholarship. Some of the other musicians we played with and became fast friends with include:
Patricia Daly: a wonderful harpist who played with Paul Phillips in a group called The Spanish Lady
Micheal Sands: phenomenal guitar player. A great treat for me to play with such a great backer–really got some ideas brewing for myself!
Catherine Sands: Micheal’s wife and a brilliant flute player. It was a real joy recording Maid in the Meadows/Humours of Trim/Lilting Banshee on flute along side Catherine. I hear she’s a great box player as well, so hopefully next time we meet she’ll bring the accordion out as well.
Kevin Sharkey: former drummer for Different Drums. Kevin played the high tech pizza box on a couple tracks and contributed some fancy mooing to “Shady Grove.”
Roy Arbuckle: Roy came over and recorded bass on a couple tracks (go bottom end!) as well as a new song that he recently wrote. Great stuff!
Some highlights:
Paul P: his spirit guiding the energy of the sessions
Insominia: spending one restless night from my cold listening to the soundtrack to Once which led to the grove behind the Jessica’s Polka/Banshee set.
Engrish.com
Gollum: Tom yelling “IT’S MINE ALL MINE!!”
Tank Commander: Heather’s brilliant new slip jig coming to life to honor Big Paul.
Where’s the Cat?: brilliant set of slides coming together with Patricia, Micheal, and Catherine.
We finished the recording sessions early in the afternoon of January 3rd and began packing up all the equipment. Next stop: Belfast, more specifically Bangor, the home of Paul Marshall.
Ireland 2007-2008 Part I: Dun Luiche
It’s difficult for me to sum up my travel experiences in retrospect. For one thing, I’m not one to keep a travel log or diary while on a trip; hell, I don’t often have the time to actually send out postcards while on these trips. Also, it’s difficult just to put into words the actual experiences that you run into while doing an 11 day journey through Ireland. A full narrative will never do justice to actually being there. With that being said, I’ll attempt to highlight my recent trip from December 26, 2007 to January 6, 2008. Or something like that.
Day 1 (12/27/2007): The easier part to narrate
Amy, Heather, and I landed in Dublin on the morning of December 27th to find the sky still dark, the weather damp, chilly, and rainy. But hey, no snow, so how could we complain? Through Heath’s familiarity with the International Code of Fiddlers, we met Nathan, a mighty fiddler from the Twin Cities, at the bus stop, and quickly found out that Nathan plays with a friend of ours, Brian Miller. Small world! After waiting a good hour or so for the bus to Dun Luiche, a fellow traveler from Gweedore named Mairead phoned the bus company only to find out that (because of the St. Stephens Day holiday), the bus wouldn’t be coming for another 2 hours. Sigh. After waiting things out in the airport cafe, we caught the bus and were on our way to Donegal.
Nathan managed to convince the bus driver to drop us off at Dun Luiche Cross. Now, the crossroads area at night is an interesting experience. The complete darkness of the countryside, compounded with area drivers flooring the pedal on the open country road along with two very sharp curves makes for a Brown Trousers Award winning crossroads. The driver suggested we stand as close to the crossroads sign as possible; I took that suggestion, sacrificed my travel pillow to whatever gods traverse the mountains of Dun Luiche, and twenty minutes or so later, one of the owners of our hostel arrived to pick the five of us up. Luckily we were all graduates of Clown College and managed to squeeze into the car and arrive safely at Errigal Hostel.
The rest of the night was spent meeting a bunch of people that formed and became a tight group of friends during our stay at the hostel for the Frankie Kennedy Winter School. This included Nate (a snazzy accordion player living in France by way of New Hampshire), Sophia (who took dance classes at FKWS and is from Germany), and Sarah (from St. Louis, and a grand flute player).
Days 2-5 (12/28 to 12/31/2007): the blur
The thing with this kind of trip is that days just seem to blur together. I had a blast these days and wish I could repeat them (even with the stupid cold that I caught). The highlights reel:
Classes with Harry Bradley: I got enough tunes and technique ideas to keep me busy on flute for many moons to come. Harry is a great teacher and has a great sense of humor. He even bought me a cup of coffee–what a guy! He passed on some significant life lessons as well (”don’t eat the kabobs from the hotel at the top of the hill”).
Night in the Snug: Even though the posse didn’t go out one night (I think it was Friday?), we still managed to have a blast hanging out in the Snug at the hostel. Good tunes, good times. We didn’t even light the place on fire, although a couple of us had to fan some smoke out with our jackets.
Je le peche: Best phrase ever–thanks Nate!
Day in Bunbeg: Walking around the beach, taking pictures of shipwrecks, playing football with a dog (who got mad at me when I picked up the ball).
Night at Teach Huidi Beag: Wonderful sessions. Big group one with some kids in the main pub–the accordion player and little whistler were adorable! Had a nice hot whiskey to soothe the throat. Great session on the other side with Ames, Heath, Sarah, and a bunch of others.
Noel Hill and Tony Linane: Two of my favorites in concert at Ionad Cois Locha. I could listen to Mr. Hill play slow airs on the concertina all night, absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately I missed seeing him later on at the hotel all decked out in his Playa attire. We know how he rolls.
Late nights in the kitchen: Making food with the homies. Hanging, chillin, being goofy. Can’t top it.
Well, we all know what they say about good things. Our time was up for our stay at Dun Luiche on the 31st, as Paul and Rob had made their way over to Donegal the day before to pick us up and zip us away to Portstewart for some recording. After saying “slan go foill” to our new friends in Donegal, we hopped in the car and headed for the North.