Best/Worst [Virtual] Saint Patrick’s Day Ever!

This is not the St. Patrick’s anyone imagined. I doubt it’s an exaggeration to say this is one helluva cliff hanger. So, perhaps, “Cliffs of Moher” is a tune for today.

What’s your best & worst takeaway for living through the pandemic of 2020?

Worst:
- It will impact pubs, sessions are in limbo, most gigs are cancelled (who knows for how long?).

Best:
- No requests for Danny Boy, Lonesome Boatman, Shipping Up To Boston.
- Hopefully we will be safer for a semi-annual St. Paddy’s celebration on Sept. 17th, 2020.
- Tons of time to practice without any disruption from session wreckers.

Happy {bittersweet} St. Patrick’s!

Session players and pubs here are pretty much in synch with the stay home and practice thing. Circulating lists of common tunes to the new people (“Here, try these…”)via FB or texts. So the “Best” takeaway here is a renewed sense of community, of being part of that little Irish village in the midst of wacky suburbia. Worst is pretty much as you describe- lost gigs, empty pubs. And a host of terrible toilet paper joke memes. Ah, well, maybe we can do small sessions via Skype or FaceTime?

On social media musicians have been livestreaming home concerts and posting clips playing tunes and having meaningful online interactions with friends and fans. So yes, this has been hard on a lot of musicians who have been hurt economically by the coronavirus shutdown, but many are trying to stay positive in any way they can. And like Mackeagan has said, a renewed sense of community which I am ever so greatful to be a part of.

There’s this youtube concert you can watch right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Cb43ch2WE&feature=youtu.be

play video

Cheers,

Melany

“ I doubt it’s an exaggeration to say this is one helluva cliff hanger. So, perhaps, ”Cliffs of Moher“ is a tune for today”. A great tune for sure. I love it, but I’d seriously not like to find myself hanging off those cliffs. I don’t think that life is quite that bad yet.

Melmo, cheers! I would be a liar to say I’m not in the last noisy establishment open tonight before
Chico joins the complete lock-down, tomorrow. But while I can hear Kevin Crawford & Cillian when they are playing tunes I cannot hear if Kevin says who is the guitar player. I swear I will shelter in place
before it’s the law; but if anyone knows the name of the guitarist please post it.

No worries about identifying Joanie Madden & Dylan Foley. Her voice comes through well enough.

@AB Patrick Doocey is the backer.

Cheers,

Melany

Thank you, Melany. You made my day posting the entire YouTube. Which I will listen to in earnest when I am home again.

AB

Really, playing music is perhaps more important then ever right now. The fight at present is personal, so keep playing and practicing and consciously look forward to when we can all get back together. Stay positive and play your instrument. Us musicians are more fortunate than the rest.

COVID-19 has really made me realize that we need to be grateful for the people and activiies we take for granted. Things like going out for food, seeing friends, going to the gym, etc., are fun, but are not essential for (physial) survival.
I miss my friends, especially with it being my senior year and with the whole rest of the year being closed, but not as much as I thought I would. It really puts things into perspective when I think about these with family or friends at high risk, who aren’t even sure if they’ll survive. Plus, my closest friend, who is from another state, will be living relatively close to me in the near future, so I’ll get to see her when things clear up.
I’m grateful for my family, especially for the fact that we all get along. And I can read, write and listen to a lot of music, which is fun.

My local coffee shop asked me come on down and play some trad yesterday. I kept getting asked what kind of banjo or guitar my bouzouki was though.

I was playing once with two mandolin players and a few of the people listening were calling them tiny guitars.
Funny thing is we were at the house of a piper so I bet most of the listeners knew he played uilleann pipes.
He always gets lots of question, just not on that night. Mandolins were the novelty.

And there’s always someone who asks the fluter, what kind of clarinet is that? No, really, isn’t it a clarinet? It’s got black wood…

Thanks Melany for posting the virtual concert video. Just enjoying it now and it has made my day! Thank you!