Today began with the gathering of guitar playing souls attempting to break the Guinness World Record. This event took place in Emmet Square located directly in front of the entrance way of our hotel and overlooked wonderfully the windows of our second floor room. In fact, I set up my video camera to overlook a portion of the area to get moving record of this unique event.
We worked our way down to the square at around 11:30 am and meandered through the progressively growing crowd that consisted of folks of all ages and guitar persuasion. One observation John and I have made is that the Irish are so genuinely friendly. They are easy to engage in conversation even if the varied accents are at times difficult to decipher. If you engage with someone they treat you as a friend. In fact during the world record attempt we again met Richey, he was the accordionist we listened to during our first evening in Clonakilty. Richey was photographing the event and he did take some shots of John and I together. Currently John has grown out his mustache and is styling it as a handle bar. He also was wearing his favorite hat a brown derby. John’s appearance did attract some attention and I caught a few other cameras swinging his direction.
Eventually, Richard and Beverly showed and we split our attention between monitoring the progress in the square and getting Richard setup for his gig in the Emmet Hotel. On the stage across the street from Emmet Square, John Spillane began to get everyone geared up for the world record attempt. I enjoyed his unique way of getting all of these guitarists in tune and on the same page. He went through sounding the tuning each string individual and then played a tune in the key of the string. Richard wrapped up his sound check just as the record attempt began. We had just enough time to shift ourselves across the street and join in on the opening bars of Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile, an Irish rebel song with which everyone seemed very familiar.
Eventually, Richard and Beverly showed and we split our attention between monitoring the progress in the square and getting Richard setup for his gig in the Emmet Hotel. On the stage across the street from Emmet Square, John Spillane began to get everyone geared up for the world record attempt. I enjoyed his unique way of getting all of these guitarists in tune and on the same page. He went through sounding the tuning each string individual and then played a tune in the key of the string. Richard wrapped up his sound check just as the record attempt began. We had just enough time to shift ourselves across the street and join in on the opening bars of Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile, an Irish rebel song with which everyone seemed very familiar.
. Sadly the record was not broken but everyone had a tremendously good time during the process. With this event completed we turned our attention back to the bar and made sure all was well for Richard’s gig. Then Steve Housand, guitarist from The Little River Band, arrived. He and Richard had agreed to play two tunes together so they went off to another room and rehearsed for a bit. 2:00 pm arrived and Richard took the stage and played a fantastic one hour set that was enthusiastically received by a crowd that jammed itself into the tiny bar.
Once Richard’s concert finished, I helped him break down the staging area and pack his gear and we went off to the Parrish Hall where he taught a one hour workshop. I participated in this workshop even though it focused on material I have done previously done. Even so I found my weaknesses on the concepts and came away feeling I need to focus more on timing, one of my stumbling blocks. At least the other participants actually needed even more
help.
help.
After an early evening break we returned to Clonakilty and started another tour of the town with the goal of seeing more of the scheduled performances. Some of the acts we wanted to see drew huge crowds and we could not work our way in to the venues. We did manage to see Jim Murray,Richard Lucey, and Neil Ni Chronin perform at one of the more famous pubs, Shanley's, This was an excellent concert of traditional Irish music. When they took a break Richard picked up the slack and played a few well-received tunes for the audience. In an absolute switch of gears we then went to DeBarr's where an extremely heavy metal and very loud rock band from Japan was producing penetrating rhythms. Electric Eel Shock were raw,rehearsed and provided an auditory jolt to listeners. They were so incredibly loud that my husband and I drifted away after about 30. I truly was worried that my hearing would be damaged. By this time we were exhausted and headed back to the Emmet with the expectation of grabbing a good night's rest. It was the sound of Gypsy Jazz that drew us away from the plan. As we walked past the Clonakilty Hotel we were attracted to dramatically different sound of Van Django, a Gypsy Jazz band from Canada. The atmosphere was far more relaxed within the Clon hotel. Still it was difficult to find seating and we found wall space to lean against and spent better than hour absorbing this intriguing mix of jazz and gypsy style guitar work. We became instant fans.
It has been so incredibly rewarding to have both Richard and Beverly here to steer us in the right directions and to help us make heads and tales of the events. Richard has made a point of introducing me to several people, performers, CIGF organizers etc. They all seem to enjoy the story of how I got here and that I am writing a blog about my experiences. They are committed to having the festival grow and having it be a worthwhile experience for everyone. Two significant performers I have met are Steve Housand, formerly from The Little River Band and John Spillane, an Irish icon of traditional and modern folk tunes. I witnessed, from a distance of less than 12 feet, Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth create his sonic sculptures using electric guitar and sound effects and watched true Irish traditionalists like Jim Murray perform the music they were born to play.
It has been so incredibly rewarding to have both Richard and Beverly here to steer us in the right directions and to help us make heads and tales of the events. Richard has made a point of introducing me to several people, performers, CIGF organizers etc. They all seem to enjoy the story of how I got here and that I am writing a blog about my experiences. They are committed to having the festival grow and having it be a worthwhile experience for everyone. Two significant performers I have met are Steve Housand, formerly from The Little River Band and John Spillane, an Irish icon of traditional and modern folk tunes. I witnessed, from a distance of less than 12 feet, Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth create his sonic sculptures using electric guitar and sound effects and watched true Irish traditionalists like Jim Murray perform the music they were born to play.
No comments:
Post a Comment