Weekend Ramblings...January 2015

This weekend started a little early.

On Friday, Haley and I drove to Cranford, NJ to meet with our friend, Mike, who was putting us up for the night because we had a concert together in Westville. After a quick stop at Carlos' Bakery for some treats, we met up with Andy at the church for rehearsal. They rehearsed all afternoon, adding in musicians as they arrived, then did a sound check and had some pizza before the concert.

Sound check...

The concert went really well. There was a variety of music…some O'Carolan played renaissance-style with harmonies on violin (Haley) and viola (Mike) to go along with Andy's whistle and they also played a slow air like a round similar to the way they recorded it on Andy's soon-to-be-released CD.

After the concert, we spent the night with Mike and Noreen. It snowed about five inches overnight which caused a rescheduling of Saturday night's concert to Sunday afternoon. We hung out at Mike and Noreen's until the roads were clear, around noon, then drove up to Brian's in White Plains. Haley spent the afternoon practicing violin then she had a lesson with Brian. We watched a movie before bed.

Sunday was a lazy day. Haley practiced for a couple hours and we hung out listening to lots of fiddle music (Brian was teaching all day).  We drove to CT for the concert. Pride of New York is one of our favorite ensembles. We love their music and interactions on stage. 

Pride of New York.

Haley joined Brian on stage for a little Sligo fiddle duet.

Haley and her teacher, Brian. Photo courtesy of Bernard Keilty.

As is usual after this concert, there was a bit of ceili dancing. Haley took Brian's seat to play for the dancers.

Ceili Band

She and I drove home very late at night because a blizzard was on the way. The snow started this morning around 8am. Maybe we'll be snowed in for a day or two before we head out for another long weekend of fun and Irish music. On the way home last night, Haley exclaimed, "Playing Irish music is the best thing I ever started doing!"

Here's a little video of Haley and Brian…