Haddenham Shamrocks

The Irish session at The Rose and Thistle, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire (every second and fourth Tuesday of the month) continues to develop.

We now meet in the main bar so there's always an audience for the session. It's a cosy atmosphere with log fire in the Winter months and a very supportive landlord.

There's a core group who are regular attenders and so the repertoire, social atmosphere and hopefully the overall sound have developed positively since the sessions started last January.

Songs are now included in the Irish repertoire but everyone joins in every tune and song unless they need a rest!

A third of the 15 regulars live in Haddenham itself and just over a third come from Thame and local villages. 3 travel all the way from Oxford to be with us.

This is the last session before Christmas. In the background you may be able to see Bodhran Bev - unable to play because of a broken arm!

Haddas at Haddenham

I live just 3 miles from Haddenham in Buckinghamshire, a village full of traditional music and dance, mostly centred around the village green.

The Village Green, Haddenham

The Duck Pond and Church by the Village Green

The Red Lion, looking out on the green, has a traditional music session on the last Wednesday of each month.
The view from the side of the Red Lion across to the village green.

The Rose and Thistle (affectionately known locally as The RAT!) hosts an Irish music session on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month.

The St Mary's Centre, opposite the Red Lion and a stone's throw from the the Rose and Thistle (which can be seen in the background) is the home of the Appalachian step dance group, The Haddenham Hoofers, who meet every Thursday evening.

The nearest Saturday to May Day sees a procession from the village hall to the village green and displays of Maypole dancing, Haddenham Hoofers dancing and Morris Dancing by the occasional Haddenham Morris side and other local sides.

On the evening of the 3rd Friday in June, a dance around the village takes place involving Haddenham Hoofers and various members of Haddenham, Owlswick, Long Crendon and Towersey Morris sides. It starts at the Kings Head and finishes at the Red Lion, usually with a tune session after the dancing.

There's also The Haddenham Ceilidhs, held on the 1st Saturday of the month in the large village hall. The first Saturday in December becomes the Haddenham Folk Festival.

Behind the duck pond is the Manor Farm Barn, a marvellous barn which is used for barn dances and other community events. In April I played in a barn dance for a 60th birthday. Last night I did a barn dance with Haddas Band, the Haddenham based band.

Haddas Band in the Manor Farm barn, Haddenham

The Haddenham Schools pupils are included in traditional dance. Many take part in the Maypole dancing. Haddenham Hoofers have gone into the Junior School to do Appalachian dance workshops. In July, Haddas Band ran a barn dance for pupils at Haddenham St Mary's Infant School. Some former pupils now dance with the Hoofers and lasts night's barn dance had local children from 5 - 17 taking part.

Irish in Haddenham

Yesterday evening was the twice monthly meeting of the Irish session at the Rose and Thistle in Haddenham, Bucks.
It is unlike a normal session. It takes place in the back room of the pub so there are only the musicians in the room.
In the first half of the evening we try out more obscure Irish jigs, reels, polkas and hornpipes collected by Tony Blay. This is more of a workshop session led by Tony. The tunes are arranged into sets and rehearsed so that they become part of the group repertoire.
The second half of the evening is more in the traditional session style with different musicians playing Irish tunes and others joining in.


There is a good variety of Irish folk instruments played at the session: fiddle, whistle, flute, concertina, accordion, banjo, mandolin guitar and bodhran.
Pictured above are Dave, me and Penny.


Pictured above - Tony and Tim.
There are fourteen members of the group with about 8-10 attending at any one session.



Bruce
The session takes place on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month starting at 8.15

Searching for Folk Tunes

If you are trying to find the 'dots' for folk tunes, here are some web sites and information that maybe helpful.
For English, Irish, Scottish and American tunes try http://www.thesession.org/ You can search for the name of the tune. If you find the tune and would like to print it out or send it to someone else, I suggest the following:
click ABC, Highlight all the text & copy
Go to http://www.concertina.net/
click Tune-a-Tron
click ABC Convert-A-Matic
paste, submit, PDF sheet music
You can save it as a PDF file to print off or send to someone else.
Another site for Irish tunes is www.ceilidhsoc.org/music.html

http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/ has nice versions of a whole lot of Irish standard tunes to listen to played at sensible but not patronising speeds.
There's a lot of other nice stuff on the Comhaltas site too. In particular some excellent videos.
If you've not come across it before Comhaltas is the main Irish traditional music organisation - Full name - Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Association of Irish Musicians)
This pronounced something like Kool-tas Kool-tori air-ann
There's a pronunciation guide with sound samples as well so one can find out how to say "Buíon Cheoil Fheadóg Mhór" properly!

Please let me know via a comment if you have found this useful.

Many thanks to Tom Bell-Richards (Oxford Fiddle Group and Mizen Ramblers) Matt Morton (Kinderhook) and Tony Blay (Haddenham Irish Session) for some of the above information.