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CornucopiaHi folks welcome to my web page, did I write that, sure did. I am very excited by it all and I have to thank Laura for getting it all started up for me. As soon as I get my head around this I will keep you informed and hopefully entertained with my rambles and rambling. By the way, I called this section “Cornucopia” - its from my favorite book” The Tailor and Ansty” by Eric Cross. The Taylor had his seat by the fire which was a box he called cornucopia. In it he kept all sorts of things, so bear that in mind for the future because I have no idea what may appear in my “Cornucopia” but I will let time be the judge of that. I shall get my links page up real soon. In the meantime I look forward to hearing from old friends and the new ones I hope to meet through this incredible medium. All the best, Pat ------------------------------ 2/19/2007 Boy I am not so good at keeping my web site updated so let me do a little catching up here. First I would like to say happy New Year to you all and I hope its everything you want it to be. I am going to back track a little and tell you a little bit to tell you about some of the highlights of 2006. The Hedge band has put a new lease of life with the music exploring parts of it I have been wanting to get into for a while. The Goderich festival in Canada was a big highlite great music great people and meeting heros it don't get better than that. Traveling and playing with Claire Kevill and Pat O'Connor was mighty what lovely music and the crack was mighty too. Chulrua's trip out west in November was great met some old friends enjoyed the weater and gigs in CA then up to Oregon for the wonderful Yachtas festival (check it out) then up to Portland where we finished up the Chulrua recording with the wonderful Bill Oskey and even though it rained quite a bit it had no effect on the great music we had. I also met Sean Tyrrell his one man concert/show about the great John Boyle O' Reilly was increadable it held a spell bound audience Sunday morning at the Yachtas festival, watch out for this a see it if you get the chance. Chulruas new CD the Singing Kettle should be traveling with us this spring so keep an eye out for that. A book deal about the proccess was talked about but will probley not see the light of day. I will keep you posted. 2007 has been great so far been busy lots of good music happening around Baltimore. I am posting some dates so check it out and will be adding more as they come myn way so keep a check on the site. All the best, Pat 22/Nov/2006 Its time to up date and tell you all what is going on. The year so far has been good and busy. Chulrua got the CD recorded and we should have it when we hit the road in February. It was a long process but we got some great tunes and songs on it. I was at the Goderich festival in Canada and had the time of my life made some new friends special mention to Kim Payne, my host, and her family I felt quite at home there. What really made the trip for me was finally after all the years singing his songs listening to him on the radio and waiting for a new recording I met Archie Fisher and what a fine man he is sounding as sweet as ever and a new CD which should be available right now. I sat in on his song writing workshop and watched a true master at work. The Catskills was another success both from a survival and enjoyment point of view again loads of good music and I got to mention Peter Horan he put us all in our place and showed us how to make the most of a week. Seeing Chris Droney perform was magical as was hearing the great Josephine Keegan where in the world do you get such a mix in one place for a week, hats off to Paul Keating. Highlight was the Mike Cooney, Patreek Ourceau and Damian Connolly what a great bunch to be sharing a stage with. The Hedge Band is moving along nicely we have enjoyed our gigs this year and are putting on a Christmas show here in Baltimore Dec 17th at Maggie Moore's. We are talking about recording a CD some time in the new year. I am just back from a great trip out west in CA and Oregon we had a mighty time. A return visit to Yachats for one of the best Festivals in the country happens and I got to see and hear some old friends and meet some new ones. Sean Tyrrell was there and his two hour concert and talk about the Life of John Boyle O'Reilly was both moving and entertaining. Sean's passion for everything he sings and plays and gets involved in is a rare force and when he gets this show on the road I would strongly recommend seeing it you'll be glad you did. Ann Meenaghan spell bound the house with her voice. Gerry Carthy was there and a delightful man to meet he and Sean met up and for an all to brief time exchanged some great stories of the old Galway scene when people like Micky Finn cast a spell in the place. Gerry plays everything and sings some great songs check out his lovely Cd's . There were many more mighty performers at the festival and all of them kept one of the best audiences rapt for the couple of days. A huge thanks to David and all his helpers for a wonderful weekend. Well that is about it there is lots more but I will save it for another time. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will hopefully write again before the new year. All the best, Pat ------------------------------------ 1/31/2006 Where did the last year go. It was a good one for me and I hope it will continue on the same course this year. Chulrua are going to have a new CD out in June I have a couple of good songs in there and Paddy and Patreek pulled out some great selections. I will keep you posted on that. Check out the Chulrua and Blackbird agency links for tour dates for 2006. I am also involved with a new group from Baltimore called “Ish” yes you seen right and what does it mean you ask, a very good question, It doesn’t have any meaning. It would take too much time to explain and I will leave that to the Hysterical books of the future to explain. The group is Laura Byrne(flute) Donna Long ( fiddle and piano) and Billy McComiskey (accordion). Our first concert on the 20th got a great response and we hope to have a recording soon, again I will keep you up to date on all that. I was in Ireland for Christmas and the New year had a great time made it up to Donegal for the Frankie Kennedy Fest the weather was pretty good which made it good for seeing the sights but for music ya kind of have to go indoors but what music there was, and surely the highlight for me was Gay McKeon and his sons Sean and Conor they were joined by there Mum on Piano and the one and only Arty McGlynn on Guitar. Its not too often one gets to hear three sets of pipes together and it was a treat for the ears. Check out their new CD “The Dusty Miller”.
On a sad note I would like to mention Dan Curtis who passed away. Dan was someone that suddenly appeared at the Irish sessions here in Baltimore and left a feeling and impression that is hard to describe. He was a Bluegrass musician played just about every instrument but Mandolin was his main gig. To say he loved music would not even begin to describe him. He came to the session every night and paid more attention to the music than anybody I have known. His encouragement and love inspired and touched us all. It's funny how someone like Dan can come into your life for such a short time and leave such an impression, I think that says a lot about him. We will miss him and send our condolences to his family and friends.
I wish you all a Happy and peaceful new year and hope to meet a lot of you along the road and at the gigs. Drop me line if you have a question about Chulrua or gigs or any thoughts about the site or indeed whatever you want to talk about. As the Tailor said, “Life is like a blue bag knock a squeeze out of it while you can” All the best. Pat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/5/05 I warned you all I would keep this updated as often as I could, but I admit this is a little ridiculous. What this means though is I have lots to tell ya, so read on. Firstly, I would like to thank all who wrote and said they liked the site, Thanks a million. I reconnected with old friends, which is so wonderful. I also have added some new web sites to my links page please check them out. Now for all the news... I have been keeping pretty busy between Chulrua and some gigs here in Baltimore. Going to be starting up a new gig here in Baltimore at Maggie Moore’s across from the Hippodrome on Eutaw St. We are going to be there Wednesday nights from 7:30 to 10:00pm. I will be playing with Laura Byrne and Rosie Shipley, am I lucky or what? You know sometimes its really good to be playing Irish music. I am still playing Ryan’s Daughter on Sunday’s - that’s in Belvedere Square from 5pm to 8pm. It a great place to play and the food is pretty good too, try the Boxty yaw'll think you’re in Ireland. We get a lot of families in and the little kids love to dance. We must be doing something right. I am also playing J Patrick’s every second weekend the Friday and Saturday with the one and only Jimmy Eagan and Laura Byrne. We always get a couple of dancers, so if ya feel like swinging your legs come on down have a pint or better still ask Joe for the shy dancer’s special or the two left feet fixer upper - one or two of either should get you dancing. Now some Chulrua news: We got the recording part of our new CD finished and we are mixing the tracks - we should have it out early 2006. I will keep you posted on that. I have some great songs that I am mixing with lots of help from Paul McKeown, by the way, we recorded all of the tracks in Paul’s Studio. Two of the songs are from Mick Fitzgerald, a mighty man with the pen, check out his web site on my links page. Other news - a new group that’s being put together with some mighty players here in town. I will be announcing all that very soon so keep checking out the web site. I am also getting started on my own CD. With great encouragement from a lot of good folks and the help of Paul once again I will be working on that through the winter. I will let you know how that progresses. I have some gigs coming up in November with Michael “The Piper” Cooney. For those of you that might not know him. Michael and I are neighbors from the same parish of Gorthnahoe in Co Tipperary. Michael is one of the finest pipers out there and well worth checking out. I will be posting up the gig info so check it out. Going to be teaching and playing at the Upper Potomac Irish weekend the weekend of Oct the 21st. Anyway all info is on the web site. Before signing off, I'd like to wish a special congratulations to my good friends Alex Caton and Dave Contini on their wedding day. It was a beautiful and joyous occasion. As the Tailor used to like saying “ Glac bog an saoghal agus glacfaidh an saoghal bog tu” Take the world fine and aisy and the world will take you fine and aisy. |
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