announce
Start your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations early this year. Stoneybatter Band will be performing at John Stone’s in Ashland, MA this evening. Show starts at 9pm.
Come enjoy some tasty food, good beer and fun music.
live music
Saturday night we had a great party at the Bacon house. Lots of friends, both the musical variety as well as the neighbor variety, stopped by for some food, drink and music. I set up a few mics and hoped for the best. Sometimes the best actually happens. We played lots of great stuff all evening for a lively crowd. But the best, as is often the case, happened after most of our fiends left. That’s when musicians are most relaxed, most oiled, and most able to hear and focus on what each other is doing. They are no longer playing for an audience but, instead, each other. That’s when magic starts happening.
So, here we are, past midnight, sitting in my kitchen, I convince Liz, who is ‘draggin’ and opening her fiddle case, to play just one more. Slowly, tunes we had never heard start coming from her fiddle, and we latch on for a four minute ride of some of the most beautiful fiddle playing you’re ever likely to hear.
Liz Alexander, remember her name. This is the first time she has been caught on tape. It most certainly won’t be the last.
Liz Set by baconworks
announce
Stoneybatter, the band with the name that everyone loves to hate, is back at the Fiddler’s Green this Friday for another evening of Celtic music.
It will be our first performance at the Worcester pub with our complete lineup of musicians. Where else will you be able to hear the pipes, flute, fiddle, banjo, bouzouki, guitar and bodhrán all making noise at the same time?
Here’s a few other reasons why you should come along:
We hope you can make it for a couple of tasty pints, a burger or two, and some good music. The show starts at 8:30!
song
Things have been quiet on baconworks for some time. I feel moderately guilty about that. Especially since there has been a lot of good music in the past year.
For example, in April I spent two evenings with my good friends Mustachio and the White Rabbit recording in a chapel at Framingham State College. They were casual evenings that resulted in a set of recordings that I very much enjoy. One track that I was immediately enamored with was the Rabbit’s version of Amazing Grace.
The night this was recorded I came home and played the track for my wife through a set of headphones. She fell asleep listening to it before the track was finished playing. I then took the headphones off her sleeping head, and put them on mine, hit play… was hypnotized by droniness of the concertina, and fell asleep.
The next evening, being inspired by the recording, I sang Amazing Grace to my boys as I was tucking them into bed. They both fell asleep before I was done singing. I can assure you, this never happens and is a small miracle of sorts. Usually I can’t get them to quit the yackin’.
In the morning I was telling my Wife and children that I thought it was funny, not to mention a bit odd, that all four of us fell asleep to Amazing Grace. My animated son quickly replied, ‘Dad, That’s why it’s amazing’.
So, what does it all mean? I have no idea. But sometimes events happen that just mystify you a bit, you’re not sure why and you can’t let them go.
He was right, it is amazing. This popular song was originally published over two hundred thirty years ago and still has the power to move us. Quite amazing.
live music
Our debut performance as Stoneybatter went great. As a band it is certainly enjoyable to get up and perform. But what make an evening really special is when we have friends and the occasional unexpected guest step in for a set or two.
Last night we had both. Our good friend, Katie O’Neill, from Westboro, once again silenced the crowd with her amazing voice. There won’t be a night that slips by where we wouldn’t ask her to sing.
Another friend, Dan Mahoney, had the entire room singing along with one of his great songs.
We also convinced a very talented young fiddler, Liz Alexander, to grace us with a few great sets. All three helped us to mix things up nicely and infuse some great energy into the room while showing off the great talent we have in our own backyards.
During the later half of the evening the crowd swelled with another group of talented musicians and dancers that we would later find out had just finished their performance at the Hanover Theater as part of the Celtic Crossroads.
They also joined us for a few. First, Zac Leger, the multi-instrumentalist, joined us on flute for a lively set. I had never met Zac, but when he sat down he looked familiar. It quickly came back to me that I had posted a youtube video of him a while back, both because I was impressed with his playing and his cool capo. Here’s another nice video of him and some friends. Zac is on the pipes, which is what he plays with Celtic Crossroads as well. Nice guy, great player, keep up the great work.
We then backed a few of the Celtic Crossroads dancers while they entertain the crowd culminating in roaring applause for the dancers. One of them, Kristen, is actually from Middletown, CT.
To end the evening we were graced with Marianne Knight from County Mayo. Marianne is a stunning vocalist with Celtic Crossroads. She joined us to sing Caledonia. George and I did our best not to embarrass ourselves as we tried to back her on a song we’ve never played. You can decide for yourself about her talents in this video of her performing with Celtic Crossroads. Really amazing.
We, Stoneybatter, would really like to thank all our friends that came to the show and joined us for some all-around phenomenal music. I hope we will all get to do this again soon. We also wish good luck to Celtic Crossroads as they make their way around the U.S.
announce
Stoneybatter is the newest, baddest band in town. Organized in Ashland, MA. Playing wooden instruments. Smokn’ tunes. Brilliant songs. Find out why people are raving about them. Be the Buzz.
Here’s a few of our favorite fan comments:
refined & rehearsed
outrageous facial hair
I felt like I should have paid to watch ’em
Stoneybatter will perform this Friday, October 9th, at Fiddler’s Green in Worcester. No cover charge. Show starts at 8:30pm but get there early!
All the cool kids are going. Don’t miss this anticipated event!
Here’s a clip of them from a few weeks back.
song
Baconworks has been kind of a wreck for a few weeks and, consequently, all the music on this site is in a state of disarray (missing). So, going forward, the music you see on baconworks.com will be hosted at soundcloud.com. You can find my music there as well as here. One cool thing about soundcloud is that you can comment on the music within the music, which is a neat way to pinpoint what you like or don’t like.
Soundcloud also makes it easy to share music that you find and like with others, so don’t be afraid to try out this feature!
It will take a bit of time to get everything moved over to soundcloud so please be patient. But, to get things started, I’ve uploaded a recording of Mustachio and I from early summer. We were just finishing up a recording session with our friend, the White Rabbit, and decided to try this song just for fun.
When I first learned this song I was hesitant to play it because I thought the guitar part sounded cheap. I told Mustachio how I felt and he replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll make it sound more expensive”. He was right.
Here it is – straight from soundcloud – give it a try:
Pretty Fair Maid by baconworks
new music
It is probably not fair for me to do a review of last nights show at John Stone’s. What I can say is that those of us that played had a lot of fun. Much of that fun was due to the fact that we had lots of friends and family that came out to listen. So, thank you! I hope we get to do it again!
I was able to record the entire night, except, sadly, for one set of tunes. The recording was done with my pair of KM184’s. So, naturally the charm of the crowd noise has been captured as well.
The set that I’ve included with this post is a nice representation of what the evening sounded like. The set includes a couple of well known session tunes called Lark in the Morning and The Cliff of Mohr. Sandwiched in between these two tunes Joey Sullivan leathers into a bodhran solo. One thing I like about this track is that, in typical session style, the instruments trickle in. First the guitar and tenor banjo. Then the fiddle. Then flute and bouzouki. Finally the uilleann pipes and the bodhran. It’s funny, tunes like these can make your Guinness taste twice as good.
announce
Clear your schedules, The Electric Seisiun is coming to town this Friday!
We’ll be setting up the L1’s in John Stone’s for an evening of fun music. Come on out, grab some dinner, have a couple of Perfect Pints, and enjoy some of the finest traditional music outside of Boston. We will be looking forward to seeing you there. It will be a special night at John Stone’s!
author profile
A lot of folks have been asking why I’ve not posted about Mariner Week. Well, I have, just not here. I’ve started and will continue to post over at themariners.org.
In short, the week was great. Here is a photo of me mugging with a Fasnacht mask after all the festivities and just before getting into my Jeep to leave the Deep River Muster. Although I was smiling, it really was a sad moment.
Just to whet your appetite about themariners.org I’ve included one recording here from my week with the Mariners. This is a set of two tunes called In the Back Seat and McGowan’s Motorcar. Both these tunes were written by the founder of the Mariners, Roy Watrous. Joe, myself and a few others had planned on performing it at the Mariner Muster, but when it came time to play it, the announcer skipped right past the piece. Oh well.
This recording is at Dan’s Firehouse late one evening. Joe and I played it for our Swiss friends since they never got to hear it during our concert.