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!

Swannanoa 2015

This July started out with our yearly trip to North Carolina for Swannanoa Gathering. We broke up the trip this year with a couple days in the beautiful mountains of Virginia visiting Haley's friend, Kitty, and her mother, Noel. Haley experienced her very first Old Time jam, we took a hike in the local park looking for beautiful spots, stopped to see Wayne Henderson's guitar shop, and barbecued. 

Haley's first Old Time jam experience.

Cool tree at Grayson Highland State Park!

What a view!!!

From the mountains of Virgina, we drove through Bristol, TN and made a quick stop to see our friend, Tom, for lunch and a walk through the Bristol Sessions museum. The museum was being built last year when we were in Bristol so we were excited to see the finished product. It was a really neat museum.

From Bristol, we went to Knoxville, TN to spend the night so we'd be there the following morning. The kids played on the WXPN Blue Plate Special to promote their new CD. 

After the kids' "gig," we had lunch with friends then drove to Asheville, TN for a house concert featuring Open the Door for Three. If you haven't heard this trio and like Irish music, then find them and listen. They put on a wonderful show! After the show there was sessioning and Haley had a chance to fiddle around on Liz's Hardanger fiddle for awhile. She loved the instant accompaniment the drone strings provided!

Sunday we woke and headed over to Swannanoa Gathering. I love doing volunteer work and get to help out with registration all day on Sunday then take a period in the office each day. Swannanoa is our favorite week each year. We look forward to seeing our Swannie family and the kids favorite part is staying up nearly all night playing tunes with fabulous World Class musicians. I don't think Haley and I slept more than 4-5 hours each night and she helped out in the early morning guitar accompaniment class by fiddling tunes for them so had to be up early every day. Not quite sure how she ran on so little sleep all week but she was always ready to go the next day. Here are some pics of the week.

Dylan chilling between classes.

Porch session with John Doyle watching Dylan and Quinn on guitar.

2:30am session in Bryson gym.

St. Clair impromptu house session with Liz and John.

Haley helping out with the ceili band. Can you see her in the back behind Cillian?

Haley with John, Kevin, and Quinn.

Haley had great fun meeting Quinn again and sharing tunes!

Alan, Haley, Liz, and Dylan at doing a performance at the Student Showcase.

John invited Haley to play with him and Eamon on stage for the final staff concert of the week.

Haley was very single-minded in her pursuit of great playing opportunities at camp. She never wanted to leave if a session was going strong no matter how early in the morning. Dylan had the perfect roommate for him during the week. Both boys liked to stay out nearly all night and play tunes. He made a few really good friends this year. Even though we barely slept, the week went by way too quickly and we were headed back north.

We stopped to see my new baby grand-nephew and his brother (my 1st grand-nephew) on our way north. Then drove about halfway home because the kids were invited to play on a radio show in Charlottesville, VA (WTJU).

WTJU radio program host Peter with Haley and Dylan.

Gigs, sessions, CDs, and more gigs...

So much has happened the past couple weeks….

Haley and Donie Carroll open the event in NYC.

 Haley was lucky enough to be invited to two Sober St. Patrick's Day events this year. The Sunday before St. Patrick's Day was the event in Philadelphia and on Tuesday was the Sober St. Patrick's Day event in Manhattan. After our first St. Patrick's Day outing in a pub when Haley was five years old, I must say what a pleasure it is to have dry events for her to enjoy playing the music she loves. The Sober St. Patrick's Day events are a wonderful celebration of true Irish culture, dance, and music. Such a great idea Bill Reilly had a few years ago!

In Philadelphia, Haley played with her Méara Meara bandmates, Dylan and Keegan then the three of them joined all the other fabulous musicians for the finale. In Manhattan, Haley and Donie Carroll opened the show then she performed with her Converse Trio mates, Keegan and Alex, for a set before they joined the All Star Ceili Band on stage for most of the rest of the program.

The All Star Ceili Band in NYC

Haley and Dylan's CDs, "Heart on a String" arrived and they began selling them online on their website www.towheads.org and for digital download on CDBaby.com.  Here they are autographing the CDs for their customers.

Last Thursday, Haley, Dylan, their friends Livia and Emily, and I drove out a night early to beat the snow storm here at home because they had a performance in Vermont as part of the Sligo Six. We had to leave after Dylan got home from work at 10pm, pick up the girls and their van, and I drove until 2am when we stopped at a hotel for the night.

We work around 8am and enjoyed out free breakfast before completing our journey. We took our time, stopped a few places for Dylan to take photos, and arrived in Vermont in time for supper with Mark, his wife, and our hostess for the weekend, Jesusa. After supper, we drove to Jesusa's where the girls swam in her family's indoor basement pool for over an hour! Fun! They went to bed at 9pm and fell asleep before their heads hit their pillows.

Saturday morning, the kids got up and ate a delicious breakfast before rehearsing for a couple hours with Patrick (the trio coach). Then we headed to a session a few towns over before sound check for the performance.

Sligo Six sound check.

The kids did a great job in the performance! Everyone did their best and it went really well! We got up really early in the morning Sunday and drove to White Plains, NY for fiddle lessons for Haley and Livia before making our way back home.

The amazing accordion player, James Keane (Haley's buddy Paraic's uncle), attended their weekly Monday night session. Wow! He played some amazing tunes and there were musicians all over the pub.

Last night Haley and I attended a small private house concert with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. I can tell you this is the very best way to hear Irish music…up close and personal and acoustically…nothing separating us from the musicians. Martin was on top of his game!

He was invited up for an encore and instead of playing, asked Haley if she'd use his fiddle to play a few tunes (she didn't have her own).  Haley said initially, his fiddle felt difficult to get sound out of but once she played the first tune and got used to it, she loved the way it sounded. Fiddle envy. She might have played all night if she could have.

A few years ago, while driving to the airport on our way to Ireland, we were listening to NJ101.5's Dennis and Judi who were doing a "Where Are You Now?" topic hour. Haley called and told them she was on her way to Ireland to compete in the All Ireland. They asked her to fiddle them a tune over the phone then looked her up on youtube. She called again about a year ago to talk to them about homeschooling.

Yesterday, they were doing an hour about "Titles You Hold." Haley called to tell them about her All Ireland fiddle title and they invited her and Dylan to come in today for lunch with them and to play some Irish music on air. So we did.

The kids have played on a couple other radio stations over the years but this was the largest. The hosts, Dennis and Judi were so nice to them and there was a huge spread of food brought in by Biagio's.

Here's a link to the radio station's post about the hour with video.  

Bethlehem Celtic Classic 2014

For the past six years, Haley and I (and often Dylan though not this year) have attended the Bethlehem Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, PA. It is one of our favorite Celtic fall festivals and celebrates all aspects of culture and heritage from Ireland and Scotland. There is everything from the "showing of the tartan" parade, pipe band competitions, dance competitions, the US National Highland Athletic Championships in the main field, Haggis eating competition, fiddle competition, workshops, a kids area with crafts, and music on a number of stages from the huge Grand Pavilion to quieter, more intimate stages in venues throughout the festival grounds and the main street of town. Add to that vendors selling all sorts of wares from kilts to swords to hand-made jewelry, food from haggis to corn on the cob on a stick, and about 30,000 people and you have one really cool festival.

For a number of years, our main reason for attending was the fiddle competition and hanging out with Haley's fiddle playing friend, Alex and his family. Last year, Haley was asked to perform during the fiddle competition rather than compete (she had already won the under 14 age division four times and had three more years to go). She liked the idea of being able to perform rather than compete because she still had a reason to go and hang out with her friend, Alex, and Livia (who was going for her 1st time) plus Patch and Alanna.

This past spring, John Whelan invited Haley to perform with his band in the Grand Pavilion at this year's Classic. She jumped at the chance….she loves to perform with John as part of his band. After months of waiting, we rose super-early on Saturday morning to drive to Bethlehem so we'd arrive in time to watch Livia compete and Alex perform during the break in competition (he'd won the under 18 age division a couple years and had a few more years to go so performed rather than competing). Livia did a great job and won the under 14 age group.

After Livia and Alex finished, we walked into town for our yearly lunch at the Brew Works. We had the biggest table in the place...table for sixteen, please! Lunch took a really long time but we all had fun.

From lunch, or maybe "lupper" by the time it was over, Haley and I checked into our hotel, she made herself beautiful for the night's performance, and then it was time for rehearsal. She still thinks rehearsal is as good as the performance itself. The band was minus a fiddler, Kathleen, this gig so they had to divide Kathleen's "parts" between Haley and Genna and they had a new flute player, and awesome dancer, Jonathan. They worked hard for a little over two hours putting together the set.

Haley and I rode back into the festival with Genna, had a bite to eat, then watched the Glengarry Bhoys performance. They packed the huge Grand Pavilion tent with more people, unable to fit inside, lined up around the perimeter and had them waving their arms and screaming. Incredible!

Glengarry Bhoys

Haley with D'Arcy, the fiddler for Glengarry Bhoys

The John Whelan performed the final act of the night (9:30pm).  They were high energy and fun with great music, most of which John has written himself. At the finale, John invited Haley's friend, Alex, on stage to play a slow air then join the band for a few tunes.

Here's a little video I took of their first set…

After the performance, everyone walked back into town for a late night session on the 2nd floor of a pub. It was a huge session with a lot of great musicians/performers and ran until the wee hours of the morning…we left around 2:30am and it was still going strong.

Session

Sunday morning, Haley and I slept in a bit then went to breakfast with John and the Srour family. John left to head back to CT for a day of teaching and the Srours took Jonathan (flute player/dancer) to the train for NYC. Haley and I went into the festival to enjoy the day. Haley wanted to see her friend Rose's band Burning Bridget Cleary so we headed to the Grand Pavilion first. Rose asked her to join them onstage for a set during their show and afterward we watched the rest of the performance. 

Haley and Rose

We walked around the festival for while, looked at all the vendors' displays, watched a bit of Timlin and Kane's performance…

…and caught a little of Mick Moloney and friends before we had to be at the Highland fields for Haley to receive a scholarship from the Bethlehem Celtic Cultural Alliance. Exhausted after the awards presentation and our day in the crowds and sun, we walked back into town and headed home.