West Cork, Ireland - Easter 2011

I've just returned from two weeks in West Cork, Ireland where there was plenty of music going on. The Ballydehob Traditional Festival took place on the weekend before the Eatser. Ballydehob is a picturesque village with five friendly bars and many very good traditional players living nearby. The weather was gorgeous throughout the weekend. I played in sessions at Levis's Corner Bar on Friday evening, The Sandboat on Saturday and Rosie's on Sunday. See http://www.ballydehobtradfestival.com/ for more information.

Welsh dancers performing in the open air at the Ballydehob Festival

Irish dancers in the street outside Levis's on Suday afternoon

The session in Rosie's on Sunday

The following weekend, Easter weekend brought more music. On Good Friday I was booked to play at the Boathouse, Ahakista. Luke, a local fisherman and boatbuilder transforms his boathouse into an unofficial bar every Friday evening for locals, friends and family to enjoy a drink and good company. This is particularly popular on Good Friday when all the bars in Ireland are closed.

Performing at the Boathouse, Ahakista

Views from the Boathouse

The annual 'Ceoil on the Coast' Musical festival at Kilcrohane took place on Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I took part in the tradional session in Eileen's bar on the Saturday evening.

Frank, me, Paul Finbar (with hat) who unfortunately had his spoons with him!

Special Birthday Surprise

Last Saturday, I had the surprise of my life when I was whisked away, blindfolded, to a secret location. It turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me organised by my family. It certainly was a surprise - I knew absolutely nothing about it and as the blindfold was removed there were friends and musicians (not that the musicians aren't also my friends!) dating back to my schooldays. As this is a music blog, I won't dwell on the wonderful food, drink and friendship but concentrate on the music. Being led by son to the venue

The blindfold is removed. Absolute shock at 70 people in front of me

The session started after lunch.

Joining in were members of the Oxford Fiddle Group, The Haddenham Shamrocks, 8 past and present members of the Kinderhook Barn Dance Band and a few others!

3 generations of musicians in this picture - Andrew on whistle in the middle, his father on banjo in the foreground and his grandfather on accordion in the background.

The session continues

Adrian and Rita

The Ian English Boodlum Band doing a spot - keyboard, washboard kit, guitar and phono fiddle!

@'The Sailor with the Navy Blue Eyes' - making me rather wet after attempting to vent and drink water at the same time??

Stuart, all the way from Exeter to play the musical saw. Stuart led the jug band I joined in 1967. You can see a picture of him in 1967 on the 10 Oct 2010 blog. He's on the extreme right, next to me on the double bass.

A duo waiting to do their spot! Eve with her great-grandfather.

Something different for a Saturday morning

These blogs are not so frequent now because it's not easy to find something different to write about. However last Saturday morning offered a different music experience.
Burnham Beeches Rotary Club invited Towersey Morris to wassail some apple trees that they had planted in a park in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire.
The weather was not kind - cold and persistent drizzle but this did not deter the Morris men or the others that had gathered for the ceremony.

Musicians leading the Wassailing

Playing under my invention - the hands free umbrella. I must patent it!

Placing toast on the apple trees and soaking it in cider to ensure good growth!

Jug Band Music revisited

In 1967, I was one of a group of boys at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, Bucks who formed a Jug Band and performed in concerts at school and for other local organisations such as Youth Clubs, The British Legion, Women's Institute, Folk Clubs, Charity Groups etc.

Jug Band Music, for those who don't know, was American Music played in the twenties and revived in the sixties. It's a mixture of blues, ragtime and jazz played using some improvised instuments like a jug, washboard, washtub bass as well as easily obtainable instruments like guitar banjo, harmonica and kazoo.

School friend Trevor Toms was in the jug band and I've played in bands with him ever since.

A chance meeing with Roger Martin-Fagg, another 1967 jug band member in August 2010 has caused us to get together to play and record some of those old tunes. Below is a publicity photo of the jug band taken in December 1967. Trevor is on the extreme left reading a book, Roger is in the centre with his hand up and I'm next to him with the double bass.

Roger has a recording studio in the loft of his garage so yesterday we had our first session and put down four tracks - Jug Band Music, Boodle-Um Stomp, Take Your Fingers Off It, and San Fransisco Bay Blues.

In the recording studio
The instrumentation is Roger - keyboards, Trevor - guitar, banjo, ukulele, jug, backing vocals and me - double bass, mandolin, phono fiddle, swannee whistle, watering can and lead vocals.

The afternoon can only be described as tremendous fun bordering on schoolboy hysteria!

Trevor and Roger
Two more recording sessions are planned to complete a CD. Watch this space!

Roger with me, reunited musically for the first time in 41 years! Trevor trying to relive his talents on the jug!

Oxford Fiddle Group in Leiden, Netherlands

Leiden, Netherlands is twinned with Oxford and the Oxford Fiddle Group went to Leiden 26-30 August 2010 primarily to take perform in the Rapenburg Festival. However, we did seven performances in four days ranging from bars and music venues to a performance for a group of Special Needs youngsters.

We stayed at the picturesque Stochemhoeve Campsite in the Cronesteyn Park on the edge of the city. Individuals in the group had varying levels of accommodation at the site - staying in the house, a chalet, trekking hut, tent etc. Mine was definitely the lowest level and can be seen next to the trekking hut below where group members are getting ready for breakfast. It's the orange dot under the gazebo needed for rain protection.

We played in three bars in various parts of the city as performances or sessions including The North End English Bar.

On the Friday evening we performed at the Q-bus Music Venue. The photo above and the two below show the performance.

We played twice on the streets around the Leiden canals. The two photos above show us playing outside the Town Hall.

The highlight of the weekend was taking part in the Rapenburg Festival - playing on a huge stage on a barge on the canal. The audience was made up of people on either side of the canal and people in various boats. There was even a wedding reception boat listening! Although there was plenty of rain during our stay, the sun came out for our Rapenburg Concert performance and there were even people dancing on the canal side.

Our hosts from Leiden Twinning Association gave us a wonderful time and the people of Leiden were friendly and welcoming. Our fiddle music from The British Isles and North America went down really well wherever we played and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the weather and my tent!

Cuddington Fete July 2010 - always a special day

Cuddington Village in Buckinghamshire always goes "to town" with its fete. There's always a theme and all the village gets involved. This year's theme was medieval and unlike many villages, the fete starts with a procession from the Village Green to the village hall. In Cuddington's case the hall in question is The Bernard Hall, made famous in numerous episodes of the television series "Midsommer Murders."

This year was no exception and the photos show this year's band 'Balance the Straw' of Matt (whistle) Penny (fiddle) me (bouzouki) and Tim (some sort of homemade instrument!) Some of us managed more of a medieval theme in our costume than others but it was a great day and our traditional music played on these instruments seemed to be appreciated.

I have been involved in providing the music for the fete for a number of years in various forms - playing for dancing from the Appalachian Dance team The Haddenham Hoofers, playing in the procession and entertaining the visitors taking cream teas at Tirringham Hall.

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere leading the procession through the village

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.