bacon June 10th, 2007
I had a great time playing tunes with Skip Healy this weekend at a benefit concert for the Juniors Fife and Drum Camp. I was hoping to get a good recording hot off the soundboard, but for a variety of reasons was not able to set it up. Instead I had to settle with recording with a single room mic. This is far from a perfect recording but I think it captures the energy. I had to fade the track out because there was some serious feedback in the later part of the track.
The whole gig was lots of fun and well received. I had never performed with Skip before and, therefore, had no idea where any of it was going, which of course, adds to the excitement. In addition, Skip’s style is to play the tune reasonably straight the first time through, but then begin to use the tune as a skeletal structure and move around it. Sometimes it can get way out there, which is really cool. This track stays relatively close to home but you will here some of the improvisational nature toward the end of the track.
In addition to Skip on flute, Mark Bachand on bodhran and myself on guitar, we invited Roger Hunnewell up to play some additional bodhran. Roger starts the track with a bodhran solo, unsure of where Skip will come in. You will hear rattling behind some of the first beats that Roger plays. The rattling is from the twenty, or so, rope tension snare drums sitting behind us on the stage. They were sympathetically playing along. Also, every so often you’ll here Skip pause for a note and call out a key change. Nothing like having a plan.
Skip and Friends [4:16m]:
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bacon June 5th, 2007
I’m excited to announce that I will be performing this Friday evening with a phenomenal flute player named Skip Healy. Skip is a world class musician who has performed with a variety of legendary musicians such as Paddy Keenan, John Doyle, Kevin Burke and Johnny Cunningham, to name just a few. Skip is also an instrument maker who is turning out some beautiful fifes and flutes at his Healy Flute & Fife Company.
The performance is a benefit concert for The Juniors Fife & Drum Camp at the Company of Fifers and Drummers Hall, 62 North Main St., Ivoryton, CT. There is $10 admissions charge. The concert is on Friday, June 8th and starts at 7:00 PM.
bacon May 8th, 2007
I know, your thinking, ‘Ghezzz, I had no idea Einstein played the bouzouki’. Well, neither did I. But surer than shaving cream he sits in on our session every Tuesday evening at John Stone’s. He, of course, goes by the alias George and will not show me the time warping vehicle he used to propel himself into the present, but I can assure you, here he is. You can see for yourself on his MySpace page where he is seen playing the guitar and includes a few great tunes he wrote.
Einstein … err…George, or as I like to call him, Mustachio, wrote this beautifully mellow tune called Anna’s Dream, which he has graciously allowed me to include on my site.
You can hear more of Mustachio’s playing on a real nice album called The Artery Project. He is the one standing in the middle but since the picture is so small you’ll have to trust me on this one.
Someday, if we are lucky, we may hear Einstein in a Plùc recording (we convinced him to join the band). Until then, come on down to Stone’s for a pint and a glimpse of the genius himself.
Anna's Dream [3:11m]:
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bacon May 2nd, 2007
Mash-ups are all the rage when it comes to web sites. But the idea is not new. People have been taking disparate ideas and mashing, morphing and munging them since the dawn of gray matter.
Well, last night I was morphed, munged and maybe a little mashed. I’m pretty excited about it. My friend Luke found the Screaming Wretch, which Plùc now refers to as Touretts Jig, and molded it into an electronic wonderland. Luke’s instrument, you see, is the computer and with tools like Reason from Propellerhead Software he can make just about any sound he would like.
Within a few hours Luke worked my wretched melody into something entirely new and exciting. He is, of course, very self deprecating about his talents and quips that I was only ‘mildly amused’ when he told me that he was playing around with the tune. This, of course, is a bold faced lie that, in time, I might forgive. Apparently he did not want the fact of my elation get in the way of his good story.
In any case, check it out. Screaming Wretch Redux (Tribal Bacon Mix!) by Luke Stark. It rocks!
Screaming Wretch Redux (Tribal Bacon Mix!) [2:04m]:
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