Santa Claus

So…did he bring anybody any instruments? Or musical accessories? I got me Mommy’s old guitar (I’m a singer too, and I’ve been thinking for a long time that it would be good to learn some basic things for accompanying (?) myself and others…anyway it was her first one from years ago and (I think) has a nice sound, she just doesn’t play guitar much anymore and I’d expressed interest… and my Dad played it at church last night in a Celtic trio with me and a hammered Dulcimer…

I also got a nice tuner and some CDs…how about anyone else?

I got a credit card bill and a whole day’s worth of flickering eyelid due to general lack of sleep.

Who is this Satan Claws, anyway?

I was a very good girla and Santa left me the Jay Ungar instructional video Waltzes, Airs and Haunting Melodies AND a DVD player to go along with it.


Mary 🙂

He brought me an ipod nano!!!! I am so exited!!!!!! and a stereo that it plugs into- and also Natalie’s latest cd.

gee thanks santa, what a great haul…

I got the full Breandán Breathnach collection, two Dervish albums (Spirit and The Boys of Sligo), Cd Holder, Michael Holmes World Rallying Book and the best surprise I could hope for…Vega Little Wonder! :D

A June McCormack/Rooney CD and Mike Rafferty-Old Fireside Music 🙂 Very happy about these.

Also a cooperman fife for working on my embouchure.

I got coal (again).

O‘Neill’s 1001, fair play Santa! Oh and Joe Mhicí Jimí’s album https://thesession.org/recordings/1963

I didn’t get any musical instruments but my grandchildren bought me a bodrhan !!

Seth Gallag- I mean.. Santa called me up the other day to tell me that my pipes are ready!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! DRONES DRONES DRONES DRONES!! VROOOM!!

Cheers,
Armand

I got O‘Neill’s and the Paddy O’Brien tune collection. 500 jigs and reels on button box. Not bad.

I got some FM headphones so I can plug them into the computer and play along in the bathroom and not wake the kids or the compulsive soapwatcher. I will also get some fantastic kitchen implement, thanks Mum.

What I got for Christmas was caught in the middle of a big fight between my wife and her sisters over cooking the christmas dinner. The eldest (Ugly) sister ( i.e. Margaret) attacked the two younger ones and ruined the day for my gentle 80 year old lovely father in law. Aint Christmas great !!PHEW!!!

Santa brought me cash, which (as we speak) I am wasting on violin stuff. I just ordered a Pusch tailpiece with tuners built in, a center-mounted chinrest, and some new strings.

Father Christmas (and all year round - thanks Dad!) also gave me cash - which is helping me pay off the credit card which I ticked up a whole lot of fiddle stuff on too the last few months… cornerless guitar shaped fiddle, electric fiddle, new strings.

No fights here…..we get the food out fast…..and then everyone is dopey with post feast lethargy….and avoids the washing up.

i got a new tuner (oh, i’m a loser), three CDs (one Irish, one Cape Breton, one Celtic Fiddle Festival), a nice little ornament in the shape of a baroque violin.

my dad bought me a 32-page music book from 1908, oddly written for piano. B flats everywhere!

--DtM

Yeah! I got a dobro, very excited! My sister got a bodrhan!

I got a new son, born just after Christmas day.

A rubber fiddle
A CD of Central Siberian ear-singing
A CD of traditional English Saturday night street sounds
A glass eye
A one-way ticket to Hartlepool
A can of Fried Onion and Sausage Aftershave
An unsolicited photo of myself, on the pavement after a session

Can’t think of any more just yet, soon will…

Hooray!
I always knew there was a Santa Claus!

Hey Nicholas…think I’ve seen your photo on the net with the tag line ‘priceless’!

A Shaky Egg

I knew I had forgotten something vital

A book of simple fiddel tunes, with a cd, which is good cos simple is all i can manage right now. And the discovery that if i play in the bathroom no one in the house can here me, which is fine by me and great for the rest of the house.

i got a set of syn whistles……great!

Santa arrived a bit early for me this year and brought a newly refinished Paramount “Special” C banjo - awesome! (In return, my Eastman mandolin disappeared - via eBay… but I never played it anyway). It was also very nice of her… erm… him… to bring me a new hard case for for the banjo, since the original 1930’s case was in tatters.

Oh, and another Santa sent me 6 custom bridges to try out on the Paramount… you know who you are 😉 (and THANKS! They actually arrived in the mail yesterday, believe it or not. The holiday blizzard of ’06 made the poor mailmen have to deliver on xmas!)

’Twas a very good year for presents!

Pete

Santa gave me and the SO the same cd ( good thing I kept the receipt ) - Rogues Gallery - only heard most of the first cd so far - Richard Thompson does a cracking guitar solo on his track, several people sound like they’re trying to sing like Tom Waits ( not so good ), more to hear yet, no sleeve notes on individual tracks, so uncredited fiddlers, etc..
I think this Santa thing has reached it’s sell-by date; the worst case I ever heard was of a man who woke in the small hours of Christmas morning to find his father-in-law standing at the foot of his bed !
Family are sitting downstairs watching a Marx Bros movie; think I’ll join them.

Whadda you mean, Sanity Clause ?
Everryabaddy know there ainta no Sanity Clause…..

I caught Santa Claus out once in my miss-spent boyhood.

Being mad on fishing at the time, I had an electronic bite-detector, which buzzed loudly when activated. I connected it with the stocking outside my door with a length of nylon.

Come the hour, it went off a treat. There was a tremendous squawk and kerfuffle outside the door. I forget what my mum put in the stocking, except there was a reproachful note.

I got a mandolin! I’m very excited! I played it all day yesterday, and it’s coming to our local session with me tonight!

A two-legged bar stool
A roadkill recipe book
A lifesize photograph of Ken Livingstone
A bus pass for central Baghdad
An invitation to a stag night in Latvia
“St. Patrick’s Pythons Sing Sean-Nos” (on the Green Nugget label)
The Bodhran Lover’s Joke Book
A CD of 75 original tunes played on jews harp
This is getting me down, I’ll call a halt…

“Why Santa! You don’t have claws atall!”

He brought me 2 new pairs of zldjian dipped sticks for my snare. And a new tune book from home as well great stuff.

A set of uillean pipes, 3 anglos and a mandolin ……… unfortunately, their owners also came with them, but we had good house sessions on both Christmas day and the feast of Stephen.

coal

I got a keyless wooden flute which is lovely.

i also got the complete Sharpe collection, a collection of the best spaghetti westerns and the dirty harry series. SO overall, i’m pretty chuffed

a kerry low whistle : ) and a nice capercaillie CD. my brother got his much longed-for drum kit. god help us!

Santa not only gave me a pass to spend Christmas at home with the family this year but managed to wrangle younger daughter back home from college and older daughter in just another couple of days. Son and wife are pleased to have everyone around (I think…). Santa also managed to bring me an accordion, a bodhran, and a couple of fiddles -- complete with their respective players -- which we all put to good use at last night’s session. Thanks, Santa!

I got a completely unexpected fiddle. I visited an old friend, who had just recently acquired, in a very favorable trade, the most beautiful sounding fiddle I’ve ever played or stood close to. It must’ve put him in a generous mood, because he gave me one of his “extra” fiddles. It’s one of the several cheap clunkers he collected just for experimenting and learning (he’s a luthier) and it’s moderately ugly, but he’s taken it apart and revoiced it and it sounds really good. And it doesn’t even have decent strings on it, yet.

I didn’t get a a fiddle from Mrs. O. (I shouldn’t have given her that fridge magnet saying “Of course Iove you, now get me a beer”!) - But I did get the RTE "Come West Along The Road’ DVD. Some wonderful stuff there …

After spending the whole year when I was four years old running to the TV or radio anytime I heard Uileann pipes, Santa intervened and delivered a concertina. Clever man🙂 I’ve been playing ever since. And since my fingers never grew much more after that year, I shudder to think what a haims I’d of made of the pipes🙂

I was the recipient of a no-name 20-button Anglo C/G concertina. Probably one of the Chinese variety, but it plays well enough to let me see what all the pushing and pulling is about…. It’s a nice diversion from my piano accordion playing and flute/whistle work. Always enjoy something new!

a hangover