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Goatwhacker's Guide to Irishfest Part 2
The Goatwhacker's Blog to Milwaukee - Part 2 - the festival
 Thanks to everyone who has shared their images and media - It's now the Mil-WIKI Irishfest blog. Keep sending the images and video and I'll flesh it out even more
Click here for the most updated version - See Part 1the pre-fest and summer school blog
Ok so there's not a lot of bodhran reporting here but I hope you enjoy sharing my fest anyway!
Friday - early-ish
As the first day of Different Drums at the festival proper, we were up and ready for business - our first order of the day was to get to the Trinity Dance Studio to Run through some pieces that we had done previously and which were to be included in the Show on the Saturday. Ellen and the gals n guys had been working really hard on the pieces and they came together very quickly indeed.
It's great to work with dancers, not just from the point of view of aesthetics but also from the pure energy they bring to the event. As we have been lucky to have been quite closely linked with Mark Howard and the Trinity instructors team for a number of years, it's all the more fun to see familiar faces and receive a warm welcome. We had our rehearsal in a stiflingly humid dance studio, no wonder they stay so thin! Because the rehearsal went so well we were packed up early and had a half hour before we had to leave, so it was over to the farmers market for some grub. I ate Lebanese as I'm a sucker for falafel & houmous which was lovely, check out the market if you're there!
 Friday Gig - Our first gig at Irishfest has traditionally been to play on a mini stage at the gates just before opening (see image). Normally we've been inside the gates looking at all the people standing outside although this year we were just outside the gates and surrounded. First person we met and who welcomed us was Ed Ward, let's start at the top then eh? Doug and the lads set us up with PA and we were away. It's funny to play with people so close to you, literally a foot away and the early birds at the gate surely received a great view. We saw many people there who had been washed out at the Boerner Botanical Gardens the night before. It's hard to chat when you're playing, but plenty of nods, smiles and waves seemed to communicate the fact the they were happy to have made this wee gig after everyone's disappointment of the day before.
It's strange playing outside as you have the audience so close. They had to open the gates 15 minutes early because the crowd was starting to block the road. People in the carparks hundreds of yards away were able to hear the music and were hurrying to hear what was going on. With the gates open, our friendly familiar faces of 30 minutes all changed in a flash and we had a stream of people coming past as they went through the main gate. Plenty of nodding and smiling, photographs taken, some comments and the odd bit of one handed djembe playing for me as people wanted to shake hands LOL. If you have any photographs of the gate gig, please send them to me and I'll add them to this blog.
Unfortunately the skies had darkened during our wee set and it had started to rain lightly - that really set the main weather tone for the Friday and Saturday of the festival but I don't think there were any dampened spirits. I didn't get to play any bodhran at this gig purely because of the shortened set.
 Our gig over, we were free to enjoy the first day of the festival. There's something special for me (us, everyone) about being back in Irishfest, that first day particularly; a mixture of familiar faces & places and new ones, the happy friendly atmosphere and just the anticipation that the whole amazing weekend is stretching ahead. We stowed our gear at the Old Style where we met up again with our old friends Kevin & Joe King who manage the stage there. Again more welcomes and backslaps from those who were now old friends, even the nice chap in the cart who gave us a lift with our gear was a familiar face on a familiar route, awesome.
We spent a few hours wandering around, down to the Nova Scotia tent via the Tipperary where I stuck my head in to have a quick listen to Micheál O'Suilleabháin and Mel Mercier, on our wanderings we met up with Charlie from Stone Ring, a few of his kilted friends and we bumped into Craig and Diane Scotland, more of the Texas contingent! We hung around with the lads for a while tring to work out what we were going to do that evening and just generally dossing about.
Friday Evening
 I had a conflict of interests for my evening schedule as I had different friends persorming. Rob, Chris and Charlie were on as the Tea Merchants in the village pub and Athas were in  the dance tent. I decided to try and do both but didn't realise that the sets were so short and only really managed to see the Tea Merchants although I did catch Athas for a while after.
For me this was one of the gigs of the festival and really summed up the spirit of Ifest. The merchants were just awesome! I'd heard a couple of recordings last year when Rob had asked me to edit down some audio but nothing prepared me for the show. It amazed me how three people can create so much synergy. I had sessioned with the guys all week but the rehearsed tunes were absolutely rocking and gave everyone ample chance to showcase their skills. I could hear bluegrass and classical in Chris's playing, I heard Led Zepplin and AC/DC in Charlie's riffs and Rob drove the bus, very expertly. It was an amazing gig, including one set of tunes appropriately called 'The Big Set' that just lifted the roof off the place. The punters completely loved it and at the end there was a standing ovation and very, very prolonged applause. Well deserved lads.
Rob played one drum all night, one of his own Metloef melisonorous instruments, the PA was really sensitive to the bass and there was a great full sound. He's handy at those upside down top end noises and I really enjoyed being able to sit back and watch him in his environment. It's no wonder that he was teaching the advanced class at the Summer school, lovely tonality and sensitivity to the topography of the music.
I  scooted off after the show to the Dance Stage and saw the last fifteen minutes of Athas' set. I found out that it's very different watching people play for Ceili or set dancers than a gig, as there's a gap between songs as the instructor explains and demonstrates, or at least that's what I saw. The sound wasn't great I have to say, Amy was playing well and enjoying herself but there was more attack than tone from her drum coming through the PA, and I tried several perspectives to get a better listen, even beside the desk, but I ended up settling for a seat with a good view which it turns out was beside Jeff's lovely girlfriend (Jenny?).
 Standing in line to spend some beer tickets we realised that the Dave Munnelly band were about to start on the new Millar Stage - seems like an excellent place to go so off we went. They were amazing. We'd been on the same bill in the Middle East with them earlier this year but didn't really get to hear them because of scheduling. This time I heard them.
One thing that Irishfest does very well (I take my hat off to Doug, the overall Production manager) is the big stage presentation of celtic music. These can be enormous stages with 4 or 5 wee musicians sitting far apart and giving it loads, but the big sound and the sheer sensation of moving air sends chills up my spine. As a player my experience is that the on stage monitoring tends to be good which negates the distances between players although we do use IEMs in one ear.
The Dave Munnelly band are all of course consumate & renowned musicians and they were watertight in their presentation. Their arrangements were articulate and effective, such that they drew large roars from the good sized crowd at every change of dynamic. There was a jazzy swingy feel to much of the set, clearly coming from their 'Swing' CD. The whole swing theme was topped off by a jazz / tap dancer whose feet would challenge my hands for rhythmic complexity. They were joined by Andrew ? for a song or two, a great voice and a nice addition.
Ciaran Munnelly was playing flute and also a snare & cymbal. He used the RWE Hedwitschak & skewers throughout the set as far as I could tell. Ciaran's great bodhran solo drew massive appreciation from the audience. I enjoyed it tremendously although I was a little disappointed in the sound of his drum as it seemed to be all bottom end and no clear detail was audible. I mentioned this to Ciaran afterwards and it was much better in subsequent gigs. All the same, a tremendous gig, great response and what a surprise to hear the band playing the Tom Waits tune 'Picture postcards'. Lovely stuff
After the Munnelly's we caught up with Rob and the Tea Merchants back at the Village pub. Where we saw some of the set by Máirtín's Fuchsia Band. I greatly enjoyed the half hour of Fuchsia set that I saw, a mixture of songs, tales and general craic. Máirtín is completely the enigmatic character of the band, great fun, great musicianship, it was hard to leave, but...
 We had been invited to join Gaelic Storm for a beer or two after their gig and left the Fuchsia gig early to make our way over to the Millar Stage where we were able to take up the tremendous vantage opportunity afforded from the VIP balcony for the last 20 minutes of the show. They had the whole audience take out their mobiles and bathed themselves in an eerie blue light.
 Steve Wehrmeyer, the bodhran player and my Gemini drum counterpart at the 2004 scattering is sadly no longer with the band although Patrick did play some drum.
The image to the right shows the size of crowd that was there and the noise from them was tremendous, spine chilling stuff I tell you.
I was escorted back to the Park East by Tea Merchants' friends and family (I tell ya, they want to adopt me) and of course we made our way up to the roof to see what was going on. Guess what? a party! and guess what again? another 6am bedtime approached as we sang songs played tunes and hung out watching the craic unfold.
Saturday - Early(ish)
A sluggish start to the morning as you might imagine, perhaps they're even becoming more sluggish as the week wore on but, hey, for me this is my first fest in 2 years and whilst there's not much craic at 9am, there is plenty to be had at 4am so hang the jetlag, let's live in the mid-Pacific timezone. :)
The band met at the Pabst Old Style stage at 12.00 to get our equipment together and to organise the timing for the day, The gig was scheduled for 5.15 and "see you back here at 4" was the basic plan. I went down to the Tea Merchants early gig and heckled from the back as Rob would expect me to. I darted back to the Old Style after and I spent a little while tying knots in my djembe behind the cyc at the Old Style to try and counter the very humid weather and the effect of the rain from the Boerner gig. Leahy's luck were on stage however I didn't really get to pay any attention (sorry guys) apart from timing my tuning check strokes to co-incide with the pulse of whatever they were playing. After sometime I became aware of masses of wee curly heads starting to gather outside - Trinity, I thought! I've been behind the curtain at a Trinity show before and it's somewhere you don't want to be unless you have to. These kids and seniors fly from wing to wing and there is always a constant queue of the next ones ready to go on. I don't know how they co-ordinate it all but it always looks great from out the front, especially the wee baby ones with brilliant cheesy smiles that would part even the darkest of clouds - lovely - good for the soul that!
I had an hour or so and was on my way to the south side of the grounds when Mark Howard came up to me and handed me a parcel. It had been sent down by our friends Scott and Molly up in Boulder Junction, the box contained a Native American rattle made from a turtle, a real, but dead, turtle. I was admiring one like this in their shop, the Homestead a few days previously and I now have one of my very own for my collection of musical artefacts - awesome, thanks Molly. I caught a little bit of Athas at the dance stage then saw some Stone Ring at the pub stage.
I ventured into the Waltons tent to have a look around and I was disheartened to see such poor instruments. I know that Waltons is a major sponsor of the festival and I'd love to be proved wrong, but these drums just weren't capable of sounding like a bodhran, sorry.
To cheer myself up I went next door and visited with Simon O'Dwyer, that seemed to work and I wound my merry way back to the stage for the 4pm rendezvous.
  Saturday Afternoon gig - 5.15pm Old Style Pabst stage.
We met up for our agreed 4pm rendezvous in the dressing room at the back of the stage and spent the next half hour finalising the setlist, running through cues for the dancers and just mentally getting ready for the concert. As soon as Trinity had cleared the stage we were straight on to get set up for our performance. The turnaround time for a band is about 30 minutes to include setup and soundcheck. It's a bit of pressure to get it done althoughit is definitely worse for other bands, but the ultra-professional crew at the old Style have always been great and there's never been a problem in making the start slot.
 Be cause of working with the dancers from Trinity, we have to place the band further back from the front of the stage than we would otherwise like to do. For this reason we decided to try placing risers under us so that we would be a little more elevated. We understand that this positioning isn't the best for the audience but the dancers add so much to a performance that we hope you agree that it was the right move to make.
At one stage I looked around and saw Ellery and Ryan from Gaelic Storm standing to the side of the stage, I spoke briefly with them when I was off during Dolores' solo but they were only able to stay for a wee while and left shortly afterwards still, very cool to have them come check us out, many thanks guys.
 The show was awesome and the crowd were extremely responsive which is always such a buzz for us. It is ver y heartening to start the gig and see the numbers grow during it, it means we must be doing something right :) If you were there, thank you for adding your voices. Your support makes the whole event effortless for us, a little piece of Milwaukee magic and yet again the Old Style did us proud. Thanks to Joe, Kevin and the crew for making it so.
After the performance we will always be found at one of the merchandising stalls. Playing always leaves us on a high, it's physically demanding and generates lots of adrenaline. It's a real buzz for us to meet with everyone, it is humbling to receive your oh-so-positive comments and to know the effect that we have on many people who speak with us.
We always end up spending much more time that we're supposed to at the stalls but it's fascinating to speak with every one who has a story or who wants simply to know more about the band. Some people bought Cds without even seeing the band just because of the large queue. LOL, for us that's livin' it, lovin' it, lappin' it up!
Thank you again for buying the CDs, supporting us and, through CD sales, helping pay for the cost of bringing us to the US to perform for you. If you want to see us or any artist back again, I'd encourage you to email or write to the fest and feedback to them what worked for you.
Saturday - Post gig and evening
I had promised that I'd catch Athas at the dance stage and after packing up, I wandered over to see them, in my previous fest I'd never spent much time down at the southern end of the site so it was great to have a wander around there. I found the band and watched for a while, I think they were having fun just making the people jump about, but the whole thing apparently was very co-ordinated (it's much more structured that I give it credit for here! :)
I met up with Rob and Steff and next on our to-see list was Grada, one of the hotly recommended bands on the Aer Lingus stage. I hadn't seen them before, but going by Colin's performance at the session in the Park East I was certain that we'd enjoy the show, and that we did. We were joined by Paul Flynn from the NI Arts Council, some of the Athas guys and some of their friends, seemed to be a popular show then!
The band were great, lots of new tunes that I'd not heard before and loads of energy. Their bodhran player was Nicola the lead singer, a top end player but I couldn't make out what kind of drum she was playing. Nice tasty playing that complimented the music and lots of creativity in her choice of percussive noises beyond the usual skin sound. During the gig Paul F had asked Dolores to mind his phone because he had no room in his pockets. Do then went to the ladies room and we waited for her to return. The gig finished and our friends went on to their next gig whilst we waited for Do to return so Paul could get his phone and make his own arrangements. About an hour after she left I texted Do to ask if there was a very long queue or something and she replied "oops, I met Roy and I'm back in the Park East" LOL, eejit . (Paul did get his phone back but later that evening BTW) SO I wandered down to my next port of call. Gan Bua on the Village Pub stage.
Gan Bua are a great local (Chicago) band, last time I heard them Tim Fleming was playing guitar but this time there was a new lineup. Local legend Jackie Moran was playing bodhran as well as the occasional djembe lick and a second bodhran arranged as a kick drum. A great full sound and some lovely tasty playing from Jackie. The tent was inundated with bugs, the first time I'd seen that at the festival and they seemed to have a taste for my head, although I was assured that they'd not bite the wee bug-gers really started to annoy me. The gig was great though and superb playing throughout. Nice one guys.
By the end of their gig, the evening was winding down and on our way back to the vehicles to go back to the hotel, we decided to stop off and check out the last few numbers of the Munnelly set again. One of the elements of being a 'headline' act is that the last spot of the evening is yours, sounds great you might think, however it can be the graveyard shift and this was the unfortunate scenario at the Munnelly band's second gig. The crowd had dwindled, heading on their way home but there were still several hundred very enthusiastic supporters there and we added our not-insubstantial voices. Great gig again, tight band, Ciaran's drum sounded much better and my second time to see them in 2 days.
Back at the hotel I met Rob and crew wandering the corridors on a beer run having stored their drink in Do's room so we went up to the roof for a while but it was absolutely bunged to the gills and clearly a few people had been sampling the local and imported beers :). There were a couple of sessions going on but it was hard to get near them with the crowds. I did notice Maggie [?] from St Paul keeping the beat at one of them and I bumped into my old and dear friend Dave Draeger for the first time that fest, I think his hug nearly broke me in two. I also had a brief chat with Albert Alfonso.
 Pat Roe and I figured that it may be time to see if we can gather a few at the 2nd floor landing which is another favourite session spot, it's also somewhat warmer. It took a while to come together as people drifted down  from the roof but were were treated to some great tunes from the Athas guys. It's not often that I've seen Roy Arbuckle participate in a session but this was one of those times.
The session seemed to wind down at one point and several players, figuring that was the end, packed up and left (to their loss), it seemed that immediately they left (but co-incidentally), another group of players joined the group a banjo player, guitar player, Grada's Colin, Paul Flynn, Stephen from Diff Drums, Andreas Transo and others so it all started again. We were all to well aware that we had an 11.15 gig in the morning so we intended to be sensible but the music was so good that it was up on about 6 when I called it a night, the Russian folk-blues guy showed up wanting to do his thing and that was enough to send me to bed, for a couple of hours anyway.
Sunday - Gigtime
Arising at 9am wasn't as difficult as it should have been. At home I'm a divil for the snooze button but here I just jumped up and into the shower, not wanting to run the risk of falling back to sleep. I learned the last few times that if I want a decent cup of coffee in the US, I need to bring my own. Not that good coffee can't be found but that hotels give you one sachet of weak-ass coffee, one sugar and one creamer whereas I need maybe three times that strength, sweetness and creaminess to even think about opening my eyes. I was prepared and within a half hour I was ready to go. Others with much more sleep, were a little less awake :)
 11.15 is areally early slot in Milwaukee given the late night festivities, one could say cruel! I' m sure the organisers do it for punishment :). On the Sunday, it follows on from the big mass at the Stadium so there is a good crowd within the grounds by that time. This was the first day that the sun really came out and we had a beautiful day. Excuse the sunglasses when we were playing but the sun was reflecting off the beer booth roof right into my eyes for most of the gig.
 It was nice to play on the Miller stage, man is that a big space! It was good to be there first in the day because we had more set-up time. Brian, Jeff and the tech crew guys helped us tremendously. We had a visitor backstage in the form of Kim Greyson, a drum builder from WI with whom I had shared some emails in the preceeding year, nice to meet you Kim and thanks for the photographs. We only had a few seconds to chat and then it was stage call, before we knew it, we were into the gig.
Part way  through, my in ear monitors decided to fail on me, disaster! because I couldn't hear whistles, voices, guitar, all the landmarks that keep us tight. I borrowed Dolores' set and was able to get back to business. When Do was doing her solo slow air I decided that I'd switch on my camera and take some footage from the stage. I set it up near the monitor desk and you can see some of it below. When I was doing that the band all decided that we would come on and do a 'we are not worthy' for Dolores; Well, how often do you see a piper smile :)
The gig was great and again it was wonderful to see the audience grow despite it being so early in the day. Again we went to the merchandise stall and were delighted by the number and enthusiasm of the people who came to see us. Old friends, new ones and those who just loved the music "I've never seen or heard of you guys before but WOW!!" is a common phrase - thank you, it's great to know that we've managed to reach inside and have an impact.
Not content with performing once, I had been invited to guest with the Tea Merchants for their Sunday early gig as had Dolores, Simon O'Dwyer and Amy Richter. I arrived when the band were in full swing and found my friends has kept a seat for me. We sat and watched again as the Tea Merchants rocked the place, repeating their Friday night performance. I could see spare chairs and microphones and thought hmmm, maybe this is going to happen.
Toward the end of the show Rob motioned Dolores and me to the stage,sat us down and really there was no turning back. There was a chair for Simon but he was nowhere to be seen... We started to count the tune after Chris had called for him a couple of times and lo and behold, he appeared, clutching his precious Charlie Byrne drum. One, two, one two three and we were away. This was the 'big set' that they had played on Friday and had raised the roof - oooh let me at it!! You can hear and see a little snippet in the wee video to the right which doesn't do it justice but we did have amazing craic and the egg drum just loved down in the bottom end punching the rest along. Great stuff, thanks for the invitation Rob.
 There was one number left after that and Rob and Amy joined forces to beat the drum, It was the polka set if I recall correctly but then again at my age the aul memory.... It's not hard to see why Amy was to compete in the all Ireland bodhran finals, if you want to see how to play polkas on a bodhran look no further... Great stuff. Thanks to the Merchants and everyone for the great experience.
One of my annual things to do at the fest is to take a trip on the skyglide, the cable car that runs most of the length from the Old Style to the Celtic Roots stages. Sorry about the feet, they're a constant with me when I'm taking video because usually I'm behind the camera. The track is the Polka suite from the new Different Drums live CD.
 I had to go backstage at the Miller to leave my egg bodhran with the rest of my gear so it would all be easier to pack. I bumped into Ciaran Munnelly "WTF is that?" he asked. Duly informed, he took the drum and several blistering rolls later, asked me 'Can I play it?'. Of course I said, and that's the reason why you saw both Ciaran and Jackie Moran egg- beating on the last Dave Munnelly band show of the festival. For posterity, I took a few seconds video of Jackie playing the drum. Hope this is cool with everyone.
I was in the audience of course but poor Tea Merchant Charlie had to catch an early flight back to the Lone Star and wasn't able to stay for the full show which was excellent again. Clearly the band were in grand form and at one stage I saw Tony throw in a few augmented suspended something or others which drew a wry smile from the keyboard player - all good craic don't you know!
Sunday - Evening
I decided after the Munnelly show that discretion would be the better part of valour and retired to the Park East for a couple of hours sleep. I managed maybe 30 minutes before someone came in "paul are you asleep?" was enough to break my slumber and ensure that I'd not see any shut-eye until about 8.30 am the next morning. We got ourselves for the madness that is the scattering and proceeded back to the festival grounds about 8pm.
We joined with everyone else at the back of the Aer Lingus stage and chatted some, had photographs taken (send them to me if you have some) and I even signed the Gaelic Storm wellie boots that were being auctioned for charity. We could hear the artists already on stage, the fireworks seemed to go off early but were beautiful and then we got the call for the biggy. The biggy (my term) is where they cram many many artists on stage for a jam You can see a video exerpt on the right hand side (thanks Lee).
Rob Forkner had asked me to bring a drum for him as he had packed all his away, so I did. I had forgotten that the only way to make the scattering is to be an instrumentalist and of course I had promised mine to Rob so I was like hmmm.
 I made it to the stage anyway and clapped the first minute of the first tune but felt slightly out of place. Amy was standing directly in front of me so I said "I'll take the right hand and you take the left" and so we did. You can see her cracking herself up laughing in the wee photo I cropped from a bigger one. A little piece of personal Milwaukee history for me there, as my last scattering I did the Gemini bodhran dance with Stevie W from the Gaelic Storm brothers, this time here I was again with two players on one drum. It was fun of course but before the next song I nipped down and grabbed Simon O'Dwyer's Charlie Byrne. Simon was fine with giving his forgiveness as I didn't really have time to ask for permission, thanks Simon.
So all that remains after the scattering is the final event of Irishfest, not one that is officially endorsed but certainly one that the musicians have managed to maintain. This is the 'all nighter'. Basically, the flight to Ireland with most of the musicians leaves Chicago on the Monday afternoon and some wise spark believed that staying up and sessioning to breakfast is the best way to beat jetlag. Who was I to argue?
When we arrived back from the fest. the lobby was jammed and there was a session going on just inside the door, there was another one in the aqua bar (Dave Munnelly & others) there were a couple on the roof. There was one also in the second floor conference room but the musicians (local I think) were not at all welcoming so it was avoided generally. The aqua closed at 2am and things just shifted elsewhere in the hotel.
There was a fiddlefest in the lobby which was fun to listen to but which, (for me) was spoiled by a couple of young fellahs with identical drums playing together, identical patterns, fills and without any kind of feel for the music at all, a one-size-and-one-volume fits all method. It's sad to see soulless playing and it was the first time I had come across it then entire week despite watching players of all grades. Maybe I was just tired but that kind of put me off participating further so I stood around talking with a few people I hooked up with Twigger from GS and a couple of others  and spent a while chatting and then Andreas, Randy and I went to see if we could find better music or more craic. We ended up hanging out for the rest of the evening until about 6.30 when we ran out of cigarettes and went up to the roof to see what was happening there. We knew it was 6.30 because from the roof we could see Pat Roe leaving the hotel and he had been telling me that 6.30 is his all nighter target. The photo is a little shaky, I reckon that's Pat and nothing to do with me :) We gave him a little obligatory abuse from the rooftop and let him go on his way.
The sun was just above the horizon and we spent 20 minutes just hanging out and watching the lake as the day unfolded. About 7 or so we went downstairs, figuring that the breakfast room was probably open.
The lift doors opened and guess what? the session was still going at 7am. There were maybe a dozen or so people in the  executive lounge still playing away full tilt, I only knew Chris from the Merchants, Twigger from G.Storm and Lauri whom I had not seen all weekend.
I ran up to my room and and grabbed my drum. I managed to play maybe two sets of tunes before the week finally caught up with me and I reached saturation point. I bowed out and went to get something to eat whilst the walls vibrated from the music next door. It must have been 7.30 when the management put an end to it. Chris & Stevie were officially two of the last men standing and because Chris was the first player I saw - I commend you sir and hereby award you my first last big little man award for perpetual endeavour at Milwaukee 2006 (that gets you a pint BTW).
I managed to get cigarettes at after 8 but had to walk 4 blocks to get them, isn't the sun very bright at that time of the morning? I came back to the hotel and crashed. The drive to Chicago was uneventful and I slept most of the way home on the plane which is really rare for me as I can never sleep on planes but then again that's what the all nighter is for.
Would I do it again? You betcha! I do hope that we receive a return invite next year to the Summer School or the Fest or preferably both. I'm delighted to see the bodhran element of the school catching up with what's happening in the rest of the world, it's a great opportunity for local players to get in touch with the drum's developments in an environment where they aren't separated by a stage or trying to pick up what to do from a CD.
Nice one Irishfest dudes - This is absolutely the best festival in the world.
Paul
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1:14 PM
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We rocked down to Milwaukee with a few stops on the way, IHop (very important), Guitar Centre (fun) but we didn't make the Apple Store. We arrived at the university and parked up. By the time we oriented ourselves and I tracked down the bodhran class, I was only in time for the last 15 minutes of Rob's second session. I waited for a while and watched from outside, lots of concentration going on there and plenty of practical examples given.
There was a range of bodhrans there, some drums I recognised, others I didn't. There was only one O'Kane as far as I can recall which surprised me. Most of the players seemed to have been used to the the Kerry style, others were working on a more upright attitude to the drum
After saying Hi, Rob finished off the class by looking at printed music and how the dot placement on the staff could be interpreted as one type of tonal map for bodhran. He had printed examples to hand out and clearly was much better prepared than I :) Chris Buckley, the fiddler from Tea Merchants played through the tunes on the sheets whilst we followed the tune and its tonal shifts. A great teaching tool and well executed. I had my Settles/Metloef egg (smegg?) with me and played along which was fun although I could see people watching me closely which is strange :).
So... can someone tell me why the Summer school 'official' sessions are held in a Sicilian restaurant? Great food and great people but...well...I have to ask. 
I hadn't brought my egg bodhran so I played one of Rob's melisonorous drums all night, lovely wee drum, some lucky person bought it before the fest was over. As the session went on, the numbers grew and we ended up with about 14-16 players? a fair amount of drummers (6-8) and a scattering of fiddlers, fluters and assorted box, banjo, mando & guitar type melodicians. The instrument mix stayed fairly even most of the evening, with some people staying put and some seats rotating. The session, being open on to the street attracted a passing crowd outside and the evening was a convivial and fun event. I hope the neighbours agreed.
I also had my first chance to speak with Amy Richter. I had noticed her playing when I was standing outside Rob's class earlier. Amy is a natural top-ender and double downer like myself. She was a little retiscent to join the session but I think Rob gave up his seat, ushered her in and there was no holding her back. It turned out that the weekend following the Fest she was due to compete in the All Ireland bodhrán Finals, which she did. Congratulations. Amy was playing a Paul McAuley with a treated white skin but I have it on authority that she came back from Ireland with an O'Kane hand picked for her by Paul Phillips and Seamus together. That'll be a nice drum.
Memorably, we were introduced to the one and only Simon O'Dwyer. Simon specialises in 
This was my day to speak to Rob's class. The basic theme of my bit was my own approach to sticking, citing that as one example of what could be termed a top-end style. Also due to speak in that class was Máirtín de Cógáin, the enigmatic frontman and bodhran player with the Fuchsia band. 
I spoke for about 40 minutes or so explaining what I do when I play. I talked about about the drum and developments in design and technique and answered questions as they were put on a variety of related subjects. It was fun and I could have talked all day. 
BTW I'm missing one of my personal violin bow tippers it didn't come back after I handed them out in the that class, it's about 7.5" long and has the gum and wrapping around one end as shown. Can you check maybe that it didn't come home with you by mistake. I had given it to Rob as a gift and I'd like to get it back to him. Thank you.
Although I caught only a small glimpse of the summer school I was very heartened to see that Irishfest are sufficiently aware to embrace the development of the drum as an articulate and sensitive instrument. I support the move toward exemplifying the contemporary application of the drum because that's what's happening here in Ireland, now. It is also what is appearing on the stages by touring bands and there is great interest in a sizeable bodhran community that is largely poorly served. Irishfest provides a great opportunity for study, application and immersion in a central location. I look forward to attending the summer school in future years and to watching it and the players develop.
Big Top's an amazing place to play. The whole experience of playing in that amazing setting to such a responsive audience conspires to bring out the best in the band. This recording really captures that energy and the connection we feel. If you've been part of the 900 member Chautauqua Rhythm Orchestra, You'll know what I mean. We'd love to hear of your experience.