Towersey Morris Christmas 09

There was a packed programme over the Christmas period for Towersey Morris and for me playing my most recent instrument aquisition - the English Concertina. On 20 December we performed at Cecil Sharp House's Festival of Christmas Carols and Customs in London.
Boxing Day saw us at our local - The Three Horseshoes, Towersey with a large crowd in the sunshine.

Boxing Day at the Three Horseshoes

Boxing Day

New Year's Day found us in very cold but sunny conditions at The Mayflower, Hazlemere, Bucks as guests of North West Morris side Taeppa's Tump from Maidenhead. I was under some pressure as I was the only musician apart from a guitar accompaniment. My 9 months since taking up the concertina was fully tested!

New Year's Day at the Mayflower

The following day, our final performance of the Christmas period was at the Haddenham Village Ceilidh.

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

Traditional Music Sessions

There are a number of traditional music sessions in Bucks and Oxfordshire where musicians regularly meet to play tunes together. They all vary slightly in what goes on and who goes. Most include the occasional song - some include quite a few!
The sessions I like the best are those where it's mostly traditional tunes played by a variety of instruments (not too many accordians or melodions!) by good players. I usually take my Gold Tone tenor banjo so that I can play the tunes rather than accompany them.
My favourite traditional music sessions are:
1. The White Swan at Whitchurch, Bucks which takes place on the 3rd Monday of the month. Some really good musicians turn up here and many tunes are played during the evening (and hardly any songs). The Landlord (from the Czech Republic) serves up loads of free food to the musicians during the evening. The photos below show the session from last Monday at the White Swan.


I'm at the back of the photo on banjo with Matt Morton (from Kinderhook) next to me on flute.


Concertinas together! Pippa with the Anglo Concertina and Pete with the English Concertina - both excellent players. I see Pete North at the Killigworth Castle session mentioned below.

2. The Killingworth Castle Inn, Wootten near Woodstock, Oxfordshire which takes place on the 1st Monday of the month. There are always plenty of musicians in this pub which is well known for its live music, particularly traditional.
3. The Cuckoos Nest, Gawcott, Bucks which takes place on the second Monday of the month. This is a new session which started in April.
4. The Rose and Thistle, Haddenham, Bucks which takes place on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. This is an Irish session run by Tony Blay. It started in January 2008 and is struggling a bit with numbers. I hope it survives.

There are other sessions which I have been to in the past but don't go to now:
The Gardners Arms, Tackley, Oxfordshire, 2nd Sunday.
The Cherry Tree, Steventon, Oxfordshire - 3rd Sunday - English only - quite a long way for me;
The Eight Bells, Long Crendon, Bucks - 1st Wednesday - very local for me but too much reading music and singers.

Details about traditional sessions can be found in the free publication 'Shire Folk' a guide to folk and roots music within a 30 mile radius of Oxford (http://www.shirefolk.org.uk/)

Mouse and Trousers

On Friday evening I played a barn dance with 'Mouse and Trousers' at the Wovercote festival (near Oxford). I play with them when one of the regular band members can't make the booking. Mostly I 'dep' for the bass guitar player but this time I was playing the tunes on the tenor banjo to dep for a melody player.



In this photo are: Chris Mills (guitar) me (tenor banjo) John Winterbottom (bass guitar) Gareth Morris (drums & calling) Stephen Passey (fiddle).
The photos below show the last time I played with Mouse and Trousers at Wheatley, Oxfordshire on the May Bank Holiday weekend.



Pictured (looking very serious!!) are: Tom Bell-Richards (fiddle) Gareth Morris (drums) me (bass guitar) Heather White (whistle) and Chris Mills (guitar)

Pictured here (the only one smiling!) is Marilyn Mills on English Concertina