Last night I had the pleasure of being invited to the home of one of my former students to play some tunes and sing some songs with him, his wife and their two border collies. John and Holly have a wonderful little shop in Standardsville, Virginia called Noon Whistle Pottery where they offer their own pottery, but also the art of over 100 other artists from around the country including pottery, sculpture, jewelry, glass, woodwork, and paintings. They are a delightful couple and I very much enjoyed their hospitality. I instantly took a liking to John in my class as someone who dabbles in lots of interesting stuff. Be sure to check out the “after hours” section to their website for pictures of the making of his hand crafted guitar, Holly’s beekeeping, and on-going construction on a cottage in Ireland that John and his brother have been working on in recent summers. On the way out the door, John showed me his latest project that was lying in the back of his van – two curved pieces of cherry that will soon become a table. So more to explore with him next time when we discuss sawmills and handmade tables. Hope he makes it over to Ireland this summer as I’d love to see the cottage he’s working on in person!
Ireland and Sleep
I couldn’t resist re-posting this link on sleeping habits mixed with the writer’s trip to Ireland. In our family, we have an extreme mix of late-nighters and early birds, so it struck a familiar chord. Who knows, maybe in Ireland all clocks reset. No doubt the Guinness and disconnect from our electronic tethers allows us all to leave what keeps us up at night or wakes us early back in the states. Can’t wait!
Long Night’s Journey into Sleep (NYT Article)
I’ve been working on some new tunes recently and will record and share them next week!
Busking
As part of our fundraising efforts for our upcoming trip to Ireland, BRIMS delighted a crowd of folks at Fridays after Five on the downtown mall in Charlottesville. Fast paced tunes and dancing by our students created a family-fun atmosphere for all who came by. Here (hear?) is just a snapshot of part of our group in action. (Thanks to Sara for the picture!)
Come see us this Friday, May 21st at 7pm. It will be a slightly different group of folks, but still loads of fun! Look for us around the fountain / Paramount. And, if you enjoy the music, please donate to help us defray the costs of our trip!
BRIMS Fundraiser at C’ville Coffee Friday, May 14th at 8pm
St. Paddy’s Day in May!
Come on down to C’ville Coffee and enjoy a wonderful evening of Irish music and dance. Along with BRIMS Trad ensemble, there will be a bunch of fabulous guest musicians to round out the evening. Also a silent auction to check out. Many thanks to all who set this up and donated their time and energy… sure to be a great evening!
Recital
Well, our class did a bang-up job at the recital! Such a fun group. There were over 100 people who came out to hear all the various student classes… a fabulous turnout. Hard to say bye to Mimi, but excited for her new adventures and look forward to hearing about life in Turkey. Many thanks to all our BRIMS teachers – Mimi, Alex, Marina and Lori. Here’s a picture from our fiddle class… yes, apparently we like to sleep while playing (or maybe concentrate).
Next stop on the BRIMS tour will be busking on the downtown mall on Friday 5/7 at 7pm to raise funds for our upcoming trip to Ireland and then our annual fundraiser and silent auction 5/14 at C’ville Coffee. Hope to see you all there!
First of May
In honor of Alex’s May Day party, we learned the hornpipe, “First of May” last week in our combined class finale. I’m sure it was a wonderful party again this year, sorry our family had to miss it. I wasn’t able to track down the sheet music for the tune, but will look some more when I get the chance. If anyone has a transcription of it, please send it on.
Thanks for another wonderful 12 weeks of class, Alex!
Humours of Trim
Catching up! So here is this clever little jig called Humours of Trim (or Humors for this side of the pond perhaps). Which naturally brought up the question, “what exactly is a humour, anyway and why are there so many tunes with it in their name?” Good question you might say. I agree.
First, according to some very diligent person on thesession.org there are:
3 Polkas
3 Slides
8 Hornpipes
12 Slip Jigs
31 Reels
48 Jigs
with “Humours” in the title. So clearly it is not related to a particular rhythm.
Just as in our class, there seemed many theories but no hard answers. The one that worked for me was that the comes from the Middle English word for “fluids” or “moisture”. Based on the balance of 4 fluids in the body which determined one’s emotional state. So, in effect, the Humours of someplace would mean the general temperament of a particular area (or in the case of Humours of Whiskey, presumably one’s temperament after enjoying a good snort). I’m feeling rather sanguine about this explanation, so feel free to add to the discussion 🙂
Apparently it could be considered a precursor to the somewhat popular Myers Briggs temperament sorter – enjoy the background reading.
O’Keefe’s Slide
I missed last week’s class due to not getting started on my taxes early enough (for the record, I did get them finished without an extension). So here is last week’s tune, a delightful slide. Thanks to Alex for staying a little late to get a recording of it.
Also, Update on recital. Just Mountain Road and Cliffs of Moher. And Chris, don’t forget to practice your jig steps 🙂
[Note: Notation updated 5/4/10. I had the incorrect tune previously. Sorry about that. Also, this one seems to be in a different key than Alex taught us – Am here instead of Em from Alex]
The Butterfly
Here’s last week’s tune, the well-known slip jig, The Butterfly. Featured in the movie, “The Secret of Roan Inish” (which is a wonderful movie). Interesting bowing patterns on this one. Up (stop) Up on the first two notes of the A part. Different to begin with an up bow, but there you have it. Listen for the other slurs in the recording below.
Also, good reminders about tone from the recent lesson – the triangle: position, speed, and pressure. Hmmm… now there are 6 things to remember while playing along with the tune… ack my brain hurts! Also, remember, no class next week for Spring Break. Work on Mountain Road/Silver Spear (reel set) and Cliffs of Moher for the recital.
Timmy Clifford’s
Happy belated St. Paddy’s Day! My apologies for the delay getting Tuesday’s class recording posted. Played a whole bunch of tunes on Wed at Fellini’s as part of a BRIMS fundraiser and as part of our usual KGB St. Paddy’s celebration. Btw, there are some great shirts left over from the party… just let Jacie know you’d like one next time you stop by Fellini’s for dinner or a drink. We always have such a good time there… but I have to admit that my body can’t handle it like it used to. Anyway, here are the recordings of Timmy Clifford’s, one of my favorite jigs. Really glad Alex taught it. It was the first tune Katherine learned from Alex, so I’m sure that is one of the reasons I’m partial to it. Enjoy!
Listen to Timmy Clifford’s (fast)
Listen to Timmy Clifford’s (slow)
