July

Well I started out July on a good note (well ended June, more like).  Mike and I went to a new open mic night and it was fantastic!

In the first half I played The Morning Star and The Temperance Reels and the Eleanor Plunkett / The Rights of Man.  In the second half I played She Moved Through the Fair / Cooley's Hornpipe and Black is the Colour / Nellie Your Favour I'm Afraid I'll Not Gain.

 I stuck with familiar stuff because no-one would have heard me play it before since it was a new venue in a different town *and* familiar material is best when I may be confronted with new things that will throw me off like dim lighting (I can't see!),  a red floor (my red strings disappeared) and lots and lots of black tangled wires (my blue strings disappeared, too!) everywhere!

Anyway, I did fine with only a few minor mess-ups.  Practice does help--a lot!

Week 2  I'm getting an hour set together for two performances coming up.  One is the little performance at Kirkstall Abbey in August, the other is The Saltaire Festival in September.  I need an hours' worth of material polished up.  Saltaire is only 40 minutes, but I can pick the best from the hours' worth.

I think I'll have more airs for the Abbey gig and knock some of them out for the Saltaire Festival because of the different moods of both gigs.

Did I mention I have put the finishing touches on Lament for Limerick?  It's really pretty.

Here's a pic from the open mic night at The Sparrow in Bradford from two weeks ago.  Some guy did a review of the evening and said I was one of the highlights (wow!)!

I'm right now gearing up for our usual open mic night.  I think I'll do Lament for Limerick and The Mist Covered Mountain / Cliffs of Moher in the first half.  Not sure what I'll do in the second half yet...

I did Father O'Flynn / MacAllistrum's March and She Moved Through the Fair / Cooley's Hornpipe.

All went well, hardly any mistakes.  Now only a week and a half until we go to Ireland for two weeks!

End of July  I played through my hour long set yesterday with an eye (ear?) to what needs working on the most and what I've got to do in order to get it polished.  Afterwards I found out that Mike's friend can't play that day (Mike and his friend Brian--known as Craig & Wylie--were supposed to play from 3-4 after I play from 2-3).  So now my perfect set list will have to be re-arranged a bit and maybe a couple more sets of tunes thrown in.  Mike will do some of his songs and play with me on several sets so I won't have to add *too* many more pieces.

We're off to Ireland tomorrow morning!