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Irish Traditional Session NewsIn Santa Barbara, California, & wherever our friends are playing |
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Irish Traditional Session NewsIn Santa Barbara, California, & wherever our friends are playing |
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The Santa Barbara sessions are every 1st and 3rd Thursday, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. or so, at Muddy Waters, 508 East Haley Street. Click for a map to Muddy Waters. The legendary James Joyce sessions are no longer happening, but we still have the photos! Morro Bay: Blue Skye Deli Cafe, 699 Embarcadero, has a traditional Irish session every Wednesday evening from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It is right on the Embarcadero, overlooking the harbour and Morro Rock. Very picturesque! The deli is closed, but there’s bottled beer available for sale. For more information, contact Blue Skye Deli Cafe at 805-772-8988. Google map: Blue Skye Deli Cafe. Ashland, Oregon: The Black Sheep Pub, 51 North Main St., has a session on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact the Black Sheep Pub at 541-482-6414. The pub is on the I-5 freeway corridor, conveniently located for those traveling between the Seattle/Portland area and the SF/LA area. (Nice web site they have!) Several sessions are happening in the Los Angeles area:
Social Aspects of Sessions: Stewart Hendrickson’s Session Etiquette page is recommended reading for those wishing to avoid embarrassment. He’s also written about the history of session playing, which is more recent than we might have thought. Wikipedia describes the social, cultural and musical aspects of the Irish traditional music session, including this charming quote from Barry Foy’s Field Guide to the Irish Music Session: “… a gathering of Irish traditional musicians for the purpose of celebrating their common interest in the music by playing it together in a relaxed, informal setting, while in the process generally beefing up the mystical cultural mantra that hums along uninterruptedly beneath all manifestations of Irishness worldwide.” 
The Virtual Session Tunes: The BBC’s Virtual Session is a collection of sets of tunes played by Ian Carr (guitar), John McCusker (fiddle), Michael McGoldrick (flute and whistle), Tomai Taylor (bohdrán) and Karen Tweed (accordion), with the sheet music and chords displayed so you can play along. The subtle background images are a delightful accompaniment. Michael Eskin’s TradLessons.com offers “a collection of short videos demonstrating tunes commonly played in San Diego and Los Angeles Irish sessions.” Andrew Kuntz’s The Fiddler’s Companion is a valuable index of tunes and tales for performers looking for something to say to introduce the next tune. Many of the entries give the history of the tune, a list of printed and recorded sources, and one or more versions in ABC notation. See The Earl’s Chair, for example. The Session has links to sessions, tunes in ABC and traditional staff notation, as well as discussions and info about the music and recordings. “The exchange of tunes is what keeps traditional Irish music alive. This website is one way of passing on jigs, reels and other dance tunes. Some of the tunes are well known, and some are more obscure. It’s this mixture of the familiar and the new that makes for a good session.” ABC music notation is a simple way to type out a tune using the letter names of the notes. John Chambers’ ABC Primer is an easy-to-understand introduction, and Chris Walshaw’s ABC Music Notation site has a more complete tutorial and links to tune collections and ABC music software. Language: Michael Robinson’s Beginner’s Guide to Irish Gaelic Pronunciation is a simplified guide for “traditional musicians, radio announcers and anyone else who is interested in traditional Irish music.” Google has a language translator that does a nice job going from Irish to English. You can even enter mixed Irish and English, though the results are sometimes amusing! A better translator for single words and some phrases is Irishionary.com, a collaborative dictionary with hundreds of members continually adding words and translations. Irish Gaelic Translator.com offers free help on its Irish Gaelic translations forum. Here’s a discussion of the chorus of Siúil a Rúin, one of our faorite songs, for example. Irish Culture and Customs has, among many other interesting things, a Basic Irish Language reference, handy for a quick word or phrase (with pronunciations) such as “ceoil na hÉireann” (Irish music), “Slán go foill” (“Bye for now”), or “As Béarla led thoil?” (“Could you say that in English, please?”) Et cetera: Michael Eskin’s Traditional Irish Music page has lots of interesting links for session players. The bi-monthly newspaper Folkworks has calendars of ongoing sessions and suchlike, and all of the Folk news you need (including dance, music and art) for the greater Los Angeles area. You can find Folkworks in print at libraries and music stores. In Santa Barbara, Folkworks can sometimes be found at the Sunday evening contra dances at the Carillo Recreation Center, corner of Carillo and Anacapa streets. Our friend Patrick tipped us off to these two programs on the web: The Late Session, a weekly program with Áine Hensey on RTÉ; and Clare FM Trad Podcasts, several weekly programs each about two hours long. “This is seriously the best trad music online,” says Patrick. The Roadtunes Sessions, hosted by Andrew Doerr, features Irish music and a variety of other genres, with singer songwriters and tunes, both acoustic and electric. The time and date have changed: it’s on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 10 p.m. on KCSB 91.9 FM in Santa Barbara. Roadtunes Sessions is simultaneously webcast at KCSB’s Webcast page. The phone number in the studio is 805-893-2424 for questions, comments, or suggestions for future shows. Thistle & Shamrock, Fiona Ritchie’s weekly radio program of music from Celtic lands, is no longer broadcast locally but is available streaming on the web for 3 weeks after broadcast. Thistle now has its own website with a listing of stations carrying Thistle & Shamrock in California and elsewhere. FolkScene, hosted by Roz Larman, is still on the air, Sunday nights 7 to 9 p.m. on KPFK-FM, with traditional and contemporary live music, interviews and remote recordings. Tune in at 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, and 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara. See the Folkscene web site for more information, and how to hear the Folkscene webcast. |
