London Bridge Session in Monterey

The Monterey Bay area has a lot of music happening all the time, much like Olympia, Washington. A new Irish Session venue is about to kick off Wednesday nights, 8pm-10pm at the London Bridge Pub and Restaurant. I talked to the manager of the London Bridge, and Marc Rush, the local lead for the "Clifford-Hoban Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann" has put out a general note to local Irish musicians. We'll get this train rolling and see where and how far it takes us.

First session is this Wednesday, the 29th of March. It will be a nice weekly break from college!

BBC Virtual Jam Session

The BBC Virtual Session is the best internet jam partner I've found. Folks who play at Irish sessions look for inspiration from all quarters, both online and off. If you can't get out to enjoy Celtic music in its natural habitat, then this is a good alternative.

The tunes are grouped by type (Reel, Jig, Hornpipe, etc.), and are all played three times through. You can print out the tune, and control the playback so you can go over that particularly difficult reel as many times as your sanity will permit.

Whoever put this together, kudos. You guys rock.

The Galway Hornpipe

Fiddle, Key of D. I heard Florie Brown play this on "Best of Irish Fiddle." Man, it sounds great when SHE does it. :) This is my first attempt--you veteran sessioneers let me know if you even recognize it.

St. Pat's at Monterey Youth Center

I had the good fortune of playing with an enthusiastic local céilí band for an Irish dance recital at the Monterey Youth Center. A lady by the name of Shannon (who actually competed against Michael Flatley in Irish dance) led her youthful students through several numbers in a nicely decorated community building adjacent to the park. It was a fun evening and a fine way to cap off another great St. Paddy's Day.

The jam rolled right along, courtesy of Shirley and Robin on fiddle, Cory on guitar, and Laura on mandolin. Yours truly did the Dr. Seuss thing and played the fozzlewonkers and bingleboppers in the background. I'd like to play again as soon as possible (who said you can't keep up the St. Pat's musical momentum?)

Nostalgia time. Two whole years ago, I celebrated St. Pat's at the Task Force Olympia Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC) in Mosul, Iraq. A fellow Civil Affairs officer, MAJ Stephanie Gerber, organized the shindig with decorations and green tea. A local oud-playing youngster named Bilal joined us, and he got his first (and hopefully not his last) exposure to Celtic fiddle and mandolin.

The Olympian newspaper ran a cover story that day back home in Washington that focused on the human side of the campaign in Iraq. My music-loving friends from Olympia sent me all sorts of small musical instruments (harmonicas, tin whistles, kazoos, etc.) which I distributed to children in Northern Iraq.

As you can see, St. Patrick's Day has special meaning to this soldier...