Sessions on Sunday, Monday Afternoon
Last night we went out for tunes. We started in the afternoon at O’Donoghue’s, a real famous place on Baggot St, where we had kind of a bad time (Gail in particular). It was impossible to hear, and the musicians made music that was very much geared to a particular kind of audience (one that Gail and I don’t have–or want–much experience with). We were asked to start a couple of sets. The first one went okay, but there were some crossed wired during the second one and it turned into kind of a train wreck. It happened at the right time, though, because we’d agreed to meet Padraig over at The Cobblestone and it was just about time to go when it happened. We hopped in a cab and made it over in short order and found Padraig playing with Seamus, Owen and a woman (whose name I can’t remember, other than that it begins with an “S”). It was nice and relaxed and they were all lovely players. Just what the doctor ordered. We were there for a couple of hours, and Padraig had to leave we went on over to The Duke. Eugene and Brian were back at The Duke again. They were joined by Darra and a banjo player named Colm Green. Colm was a real impressive player. (He won a senior All-Ireland in 1998.) Here’s what he sounds like (linked from a page on the Comhaltas site):
After the session he offered to have me over at his place for tunes, so this morning I called up and went by (not too too bad a walk from where we are). I ended up spending most of the afternoon there. We chatted for a long while about playing, played for a while (mostly, I listened) and talked about banjo styles in general while listening to a bunch of recordings. He has lots of constructive, principle-based ideas about banjo playing. Great stuff, actually…
…which calls to mind a story from Willie Week. On Friday I got hungry, so we stopped at a street chipper called “Great Stuff” and I ordered a fish and chips (it was great). After I’d ordered, a (very drunk) guy walked up and ordered a fried chicken sandwich. The guy turned around grabbed one that had literally come straight from the fryer. It wasn’t two seconds. The guy who’d ordered was surprised and had a “are you sure this hasn’t been sitting around for a while?” look on his face and said “wow, that was fast. Thank ye.” They chipper turned around and pointed to the logo on his shirt and said “that’s Great Stuff.”
I thought it was funny, anyway.