Aisling Irish Traditional Music: September 2007

August 3, 4, 5 - 2007: The best party in the country is the Dublin Irish Festival. We had two stage times and Andi did two hammer dulcimer workshops. Members of Aisling also helped with stage management, the ceili tent, sessions, and committee work. We love the festival!

Friday evening:

1.

As a warm-up to the festival, we performed at the Ohio State Fair on Thursday, August 2nd. This is a pic from setting up our sound system on the stage.

2.

Steve and I did a five hour stint as stage managers at the Dublin Pub stage on Friday evening. The first act up is always O'Kelly and Cotter - namely, flutist Morton O'Kelly and drummer Eddie Cotter Jr.

3.

Morton is a professor of geography at OSU and it was fun to hear the tunes of Ireland through his geographer's ears. He picked tunes from different counties and had the audience participate in a geography bee based on the tunes played.

4.

It's always a treat to hear Eddie play bodhran.

5.

Ditto for Morton - he played a nice variety of flutes and whistles for this set.

6.

Every year at the festival there is a sand castle built during the weekend. This year's theme was on the sponsorship of Bob Evans. I never did see the finished sculpture - I don't know how it fare after the big storm (more on that later).

7.

O'Kelly and Cotter always have to take a long break during their set to accommodate the opening ceremonies and speeches at the Emerald Club. Morton took the opportunity to play through some tunes while he was waiting in the wings.

8.

The pipe and drum corps pipe in the opening ceremonies.

9.

I always like to hear the pipes . . . .

from about a mile away.

10.

The opening ceremony - lots of patriotism (US and Irish), congratulations, welcomes, and remembrances.

11.

The view from backstage.

12.

A quiet moment for Eileen Ivers, who was waiting to go on stage.

13.

Sue Mogan sang the national anthems (US and Ireland).

14.

Eileen Ivers played a beautiful air in memory of Tommy Makem, who had passed away just a few days before the festival.

15.

John Whelan and the Cape May Ceili Band were next up on the Dublin Pub Stage. I think this picture captures the joy John has in the music. It's such a pleasure to hear him play dance tunes.

16.

Cape May Ceili Band

17.

Cape May Ceili Band

18.

Cape May Ceili Band

19.

Beth Patterson posing with Steve and I. We hadn't met Beth before this festival, and it was a real pleasure having the chance to talk to her and listen to her music.

20.

Beth Patterson - queen of the bouzouki and one of the fastest wits in town. Her playing is brilliant, her songs are great (some very moving, some extremely funny), and she knows how to work a crowd.

21.

There's never a dull moment when Beth is on stage.

22.

Steve, lending a hand with the mic.

23.

What is it about Irish music that draws characters such as this? Look back through the blog archive to our St. Pat's day gigs and you'll see more of the same. . .

24.

The Ladies of Longford performing on the Sports Pub stage on Friday night.

25.

The Ladies of Longford and friends.

26.

Niamh Parsons and Graeme Dunn on the Pub Stage, Friday night.

Saturday:

27.

Stuart Brand (Aisling) - Saturday in the entertainer's lounge before our first stage time.

28.

Craig Caldwell (Aisling) watching Randy Clepper try out Craig's new bouzouki.

29.

Bob Kirby holding court in the entertainer's lounge. The festival volunteers do a wonderful job each year.

30.

Randy Clepper

31.

Craig Markley and Craig Caldwell, backstage at the Dublin Pub.

32.

Sue Mogan on the Pub stage.

33.

Sue Mogan, Craig Markley, Pat Mogan, Sid O'Masta.

34.

Ditto

35.

Flutio, aka Brian McCoy, and the rest of the Kells doing a flute workshop.

36.

Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul on the Traditional Stage. Wow! What a show! This is a band you just have to hear. The crowd was overflowing and very enthusiastic about this act ("SOMEBODY SCREAM!!!!!").

37.

Michael and Steve Wolfe (Aisling)

38.

The crowd for Eileen Ivers

39.

What line are you in?

40.

Saturday night the festival broke the Guinness World record for the most people doing a jig simultaneously. Knot Fibb'n and friends played in the Sports Pub to help the crowd get into the dance.

41.

Ed Norris (The Hooligans) and Tim O'Neil (Knot Fibb'n)

42.

That's a lot of help for playing a jig.

43.

I'm not so sure that everyone was actually doing the real steps to a jig, but everyone was moving.

44.

This is the jig that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friends,
Somebody started doing it,
Not knowing what it was . . .

well, you know the rest of that story. . .

45.

NO! Make it go away!

46.

"They're still doing it! Make it stop!"

Sunday:

47.

My annual picture with John Whelan. What a great guy!

48.

Aisling was scheduled to play at the Sports Pub from noon to 1:45. While we were setting up the pipe and drum corps were warming up in the tent. Ouch! My ears hurt! They're loud!

49.

Well, we were supposed to play until 1:45, but Mother Nature had other plans. We had a huge thunderstorm come through the festival grounds - big enough that the organizers called for an evacuation. The rain was so heavy that the stage flooded - not a good thing with all the electrical wires on the ground.

50.

What to do, what to do? Follow the orders for evacuation or wait it out? We weren't given an option - everyone had to leave.

51.

We thought about leaving the gear up on chairs so we didn't have to haul everything through torrential rain, but we ended up lugging everything back to the rec center. Ouch! No carts to help. We managed to get everything back in one piece and not too wet. What an adventure. The sad part is that we lost out on CD sales since we didn't get to finish our set. Sigh.

52.

The silver lining of the evacuation is that we had a fantastic session going on in the entertainer's lounge during the wait for the all-clear.

53.

We still had a hammer dulcimer workshop to get through and so Craig, Steve, Stuart and I went to the session tent to warm up. My camera was fogged up from all the moisture.