Homeschooling When You're Hardly Ever Home...

One might wonder how Haley possibly finds any time for school with all her musical travels. One key is online schooling. For the past year and a half, Haley has been doing dual enrollment courses online through the local community college. She started when we were in New Jersey and has continued this past semester by transferring to the local community college here in North Carolina. (One benefit of moving to NC was free dual enrollment for high school students.)

After a busy summer of travel, including another year of Studio2Stage this time as a member of the staff, Haley spent two weeks at the end of September touring down the west coast from Seattle, WA to Tucson, AZ with accordion master, John Whelan.  The key for Haley in getting schoolwork completed on time is working hard and getting ahead in her subjects prior to leaving home. This is easier to do in subjects where the professor keeps all weeks open rather than opening the course week by week. She was helped a bit by Hurricane Florence. The hurricane came through our area the weekend before we were due to fly out to Seattle and caused us to be evacuated and shut the college down for three weeks. Haley had planned to get ahead on schoolwork before the tour but with everything pushed back three weeks, she was even more ahead than she originally planned. During the tour, days were spent on the road traveling from one town to another and nights were spent performing. Haley did school in the car using her phone as a hot spot and any time off was for  school work.

We spent a few days at home following the tour then traveled to Midlothian, TX for O'Flaherty's Irish Music Retreat. Haley was invited to attend. She performed in a couple concerts and played music for the dancers at the ceili. Again, school was fit in whenever she had a free moment though there weren't many free moments between classes, workshops, rehearsals, meals, and performances.

We flew from Texas to Boston, MA then from there to Ireland. Between flights and on planes, she worked on her subjects. She downloaded chapters of textbooks prior to boarding planes so she could read and take notes then did any online quizzes or writing whenever she could fit it in. She had a bit more down time in Ireland because she didn't have any gigs.

We never really adjusted to the time difference...just slept until late morning then stayed up until the wee hours at sessions most nights. We visited friends, ate some delicious vegan food, Haley played lots of music, and we did some touring of Belfast, including the Titanic Museum.

Haley took 1st at the Fiddler of Dooney Competition competing in the senior age group, the first American to do so in 50 years! The local news did a nice story on her (link here) and had her come in to play a bit for the morning show.

After Ireland, Haley spent two days recording with her Shared Madness trio for a CD project they have in the works then we had a quick trip to New York City where she was invited to perform at the Irish Arts Center by Bill Whelan. She had a long day of rehearsals/creating the program then two nights of  shows. After the rehearsal day, we were supposed to drive to White Plains to spend the night with her fiddle mentor but an unexpected snow storm caused huge travel delays, accidents, and fallen trees all over the city. We got stuck in the city for the night but the Irish Arts Center staff were fabulous finding us a place to stay. Haley had a blast working with the other talented musicians and even went out on their one morning off to play more tunes with Alan and his friend. I think she never gets enough of Irish music.

After NYC, we've had time at home for the holidays. We spent Thanksgiving with the Richardson clan then took a quick trip to NJ to see the boys. Haley spent her weeks writing term papers, taking exams, and finished up the last of her fall semester courses today.

She's registered for next semester but looking forward to a few weeks to have time to work on her writing, learn her new classical assignments, do some drawing, and get ahead on her vegan blog (www.theversatilevegans.com)

March Madness 2018...or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

After enjoying some quiet weeks at home...okay, not quite quiet...we sold our home in preparation to move 500 miles south and spent the weeks cleaning out, donating and selling unwanted items, packing, and moving wanted items into storage.

Let me start again.

After enjoying a few weeks at home following the Christmas Sojourn, Haley and I began St. Patrick's Month (yes, for Irish musicians it is a month not a day) a little early with a trip to Charleston, SC for a couple nice gigs. We met some new friends, musicians and non-musicians alike, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We took a train down and flew home, only to fly a couple days later to Dallas, TX for the North Texas Irish Festival.

This was our first trip to the North Texas festival and Haley was scheduled to perform with her guitarist friend, Don Penzien, whose band, Gailfean, with Haley's fiddle teacher, Brian Conway, and accordion friend, John Whelan, was scheduled to perform as well. When we arrived Friday afternoon, we learned that a snow storm had stranded Brian in New York City, so they asked Haley to fill in for him with Gailfean. There was a bit of rehearsing and set building then performances for her to do and others she wanted to see with an Irish session thrown in here and there. Haley's friend, Sarah, and her family who we'd met in Laredo about three years ago came up and Sarah danced with Haley and Don for a set.  It was a busy couple days. The festival was well run and well attended and the people were wonderful.

I just love this photo of Haley with John Whelan. They have so much fun playing together!!

Here's a little video of the fun...




A week after arriving home from Texas, we were flying off again. This time to New Orleans. Haley's classical violin teacher is living in New Orleans this year for her husband's work. Haley was so excited to have a couple days to spend with Madi. We did some sight seeing, rode the street cars, ate some delicious food and in the evenings Haley gave a solo house concert one night and taught a fiddle workshop the next.

Teaching a fiddle workshop

This woman actually had an autograph from a 7 year old Haley!!

Our friend, Steve, and his wife, Sandy, along with a wonderful singer/dancer Noel showed up on Friday to drive us first to pick up Don and Megan (the other 2/3 of Haley's trio Shared Madness) then on to Lafayette, LA for the Celtic Bayou Festival..more fun, performances, a ceili, sessions, and some awesome cajun music.

Celtic Bayou ceili band

Session fun!

Haley and Noel sharing a laugh!

Shared Madness!

From the festival in Lafayette, we dropped Megan at the airport so she could get back home to her sweet, little girl. We then drove to Tuscaloosa, AL where Haley and Don played a house concert at our dear friend, Jil's home.

The following morning Steve, Don, and Noel drove us to Atlanta, GA so Haley and I could fly back to NJ for a concert with Andy Lamy's Hudson-Shannon Line sponsored by the NJ Symphony. A huge winter storm was forecast for the evening of the concert and the entire next day.

The snow held off for concert night but during rehearsal and the show, I was receiving messages about cancelled and rescheduled flights until finally all flights out of Newark airport were cancelled the following morning. I looked for a train and found they were cancelled as well. Haley needed to be in Greensboro, NC the next day (Weds) to rehearse for TEDx Greensboro on Thursday.

A bit panicked I messaged Don and Steve who had dropped us off in Atlanta and driven to Don's home in NC near Greensboro. Steve, bless him, offered to drive up and take us back to NC but after some searching, I discovered I could drive north and west away from the storm track to the airport in Albany, NY to fly out. Don and Megan booked us new flights and reserved us a car from Newark airport and after the program, Mike (who had hosted us the previous night), drove us to Newark airport where we picked up the car and drove 3.5 hours through the night to Albany. We arrived around 2am, took showers in a hotel room, dropped the car off at the airport, and boarded our 5am flight. We did not sleep for 48 hours but we made it in time for the rehearsal.

Immediately after their performance in Greensboro, hit the road again, back to Tuscaloosa for a night at Jil's then off the following morning for a lovely house concert in Pass Christian, MS with the Máirtín de Cógáin Project.

House concert rehearsal

The next morning back on the road again to Jackson, MS for CelticFest Mississippi. Haley had a really busy day playing sets every other hour, either as a duo with Don or with the Project.

She then played for the ceili that night in the first hour and last hour (because there was no way she was going to pass on the chance to play with her friends who were playing last). We got in the car after the ceili where she and Sean McComisky took out their instruments and played all the way back to the hotel. They all took a little break while they decided where to set up a session then began playing music and kept playing music until 5:30am. Musicians called it a night here and there until by about 3am only Haley, Alan, and Sean remained. Haley and Sean played one set of jigs that lasted 1 hour 20 min. At some point during that time, Alan broke a string on his bouzouki, left for about 20 minutes, came back with a guitar, and joined them again.

Here's a little sample of the music....



From Mississippi Celtic Fest, we drove back to New Orleans to spend the night with Noel before our flight home early Monday morning. It was a whirlwind tour but Haley had a blast and is looking forward to the next time!

Christmas in Boston 2017

One unexpected "perk" of being Haley's mom is the amount of travel we get to do together.

These trips lead to meeting wonderful people, making new friends, and amazing opportunities for music collaboration for Haley. For me, the opportunity to watch entire shows put together from the moment the musicians meet until the last run of the show is the best and always fascinating! Though so much work and planning goes into a show before we even arrive, I will never cease to be amazed by what can be accomplished by talented musicians who enthusiastically work together. They go from not knowing each other to putting together an entire show in a few days.

Last spring, Brian O'Donovan invited Haley to be part of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn 2017. These Christmas shows are larger with a much longer run than the St. Patrick's Celtic Sojourn Haley did two years ago...three days of rehearsal followed by fifteen shows in various venues around the Boston area all within a two week period!

Haley and I arrived in Boston two days prior to the start of rehearsals. We decided to do a couple college/conservatory visits while we were here. So we came up on the train and stayed with our friends, the Coynes, for a couple days. Brian knew we were arriving a few days early so he also asked Haley to participate in a fundraiser for the Summerville Homeless Coalition at the Burren Backroom on Wednesday evening when we arrived. It was a fun night with singers, storytelling, and instrumentalists in a variety show format.

We had scheduled one college visit for Thursday and one for Friday but at the last minute Brian asked Haley to do a short interview/performance slot on WGBH Boston on Friday so we rescheduled Friday's tour for Thursday and got them both tours done in a day. The schools were within walking distance to each other so it worked out perfectly.

Friday morning we checked into our hotel early and were delighted with the beautiful room on the 17th floor with an amazing view of the city!

We didn't have long to take in the view because we had to walk to the Boston Public Library (whoa, what a fabulous library I hope to someday have longer to visit) for Haley to do the live radio broadcast on WGBH.

We spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on groceries and shopping...it was Haley's day to do what she wanted because the next two weeks will be very busy for her! She finished up her Christmas shopping then we found a vegan restaurant and took food back to the room to veg out the rest of the night...literally.

Morning came and along with it...a snow storm!!! Thank goodness we had only a 10 minute walk to the rehearsal venue.

They began the day with introductions then started right in with learning and putting together the music for the show. They had provided some music ahead of time but most of the numbers were assembled and arranged the first couple days of rehearsal. They rehearsed each number on separately and in no particular order.

The show opened in Rockport, MA on Tuesday. The entire cast was transported to the Shalin Liu Performance Centre early in the day where they rehearsed, sound checked, and blocked each number then performed two shows. I watched the shows from a balcony seat and loved seeing all their hard work come together. The music was incredible. The singing heavenly and the stories beautiful and heart-felt.

A few pics of rehearsals in Rockport...

Wednesday was another day of rehearsals but because everything had gone so well in Rockport, the call time was 4pm for rehearsal, giving us most of the day to ourselves. In the morning, Haley finished up the last couple assignments for the two college classes she had finishing that day. Haley's friend, Quinn, had seen a post on social media about her being in Boston where he goes to school, so we met up with him in the middle of the day and they had some tunes in a pub  then Haley and I picked up some groceries. It was sooo cold and windy that day. Rather than walk back to the hotel, we called an Uber to take us back with our groceries.

The production staff had watched the shows in Rockport, which was a sort of dress rehearsal, and decided to rearranged the order of the show for opening night at the beautiful Cutler Majestic Theater. (Each night of the show, Brian likened the theater to being inside a Faberge egg...a perfect analogy.)

They performed shows at the Cutler, Thursday, Friday, and two shows each on Saturday and Sunday before going on the road for shows in Worcester, MA, New Bedford, MA, and Providence, RI. Each day on the road, we'd have a late morning bus call, arrive early at the theater with a bit of time to take a walk around the town, then sound check/rehearsal, dinner, and the show.

Haley and I found a number of funny signs during the run of the show...

Haley was treated as trash accordingly.

Someone was very confused when putting up this sign in New Bedford.

We never did see a tiny kitten...or find out his purpose.

After the three days of travel, they were back for four shows in two days at the Cutler Majestic in Boston. I watched all the shows from backstage or on the television in the green room until the very last show.

We had invited our friend Kira to come to Boston to see the final show. She arrived mid-morning on Friday the 22nd. We all took a walk to see the Christmas Village put up near the Boston City Hall and get lunch then we dropped Haley off at the theater for the matinee show while Kira and I did a little more shopping, walked through Boston Common to dinner at an Irish pub, then went to see the final performance.

I had not seen the performance at the Cutler complete with lighting and the sound (what you hear backstage is nothing like what is sent out to the audience)! It was amazing and brought tears to my eyes! Every part of the show was just perfect and beautiful. Here's Haley's solo from one of the nights I watched from backstage.

After the show there were heartfelt goodbyes and a small after party where some of the musicians just had to get in a few tunes together...

It snowed Friday during the day and then rained with ice through Saturday. Kira drove Haley and I home through the icy mess. We were sad to be leaving after such a fun couple weeks with incredible people but happy to be heading back home to the boys and the pups.

I posted a photo of the icy roads in Connecticut as we drove through and our dear friend, John Whelan, messaged asking if we were close to his home (he recently moved to Seattle but was "home" for Christmas with his boys). We stopped by his house for a quick break, a cuppa tea, and some tunes then finished our journey home for Christmas.