Garrettsville, Ohio--Downtown Fire

Mains Street, Garrettsville

Garrettsville--Main Street

The Village Bookstore, across the street from the fire

There was a terrible fire in Garrettsville, Ohio 8 days ago, burning down an entire block of old buildings. News sources said 13 businesses were destroyed and the fire was fought by some 35 fire departments. I was in nearby Hiram today for an Irish music session (organized by Hiram music professor Tina Dreisbach). One person who often plays at the session is harpist Ellen Eckhouse, who owns The Village Bookstore in Garrettsville. After the session I drove into Garrettsville to take a look. Ellen's store seemed untouched by the fire, but across Main Street everything was destroyed.

Garrettsville is a place important to me. James A. Garfield was around this town because of his studies and teaching at Hiram College. And Garrettsville is the birthplace of an influential American poet, Hart Crane. Hart Crane's father, Clarence Crane, had a huge maple syrup operation in town, said to be the largest in the world, and was the inventor of Life Savers candy.

Irish Music Session at Hiram College(1)

Sheldon Firem , bodhran (Irish drum) player extraordinaire, at the Hiram College Irish music session, organized by Tina and Paul Dreisbach, music profs at Hiram. At the harp is Ellen Eckhouse.

In the above video you can see Ellen Eckhouse playing an O'Carolan tune on her harp. You can also see many of the 14 musicians present, including Tina Dreisbach on flute

I will post one or two more short videos plus the tune list from this session--I'll do that tomorrow.

Hiram Irish Music Session Coming Up Soon!

Got this note from Tina and Paul Dreisbach, music profs at Hiram College:

SEAN MOORE IRISH MUSIC SESSIONS

at HIRAM COLLEGE

Fall date:  Sunday, October 6, 2013

Learn tunes: 2:00

Open session: 3:00

Potluck refreshments—All welcome

Frohring Music Hall Room 102 (recital hall)

11746 Dean St., Hiram Village

Other 2013-14 dates:  February 16, March 30

This is one of my all-time favorite things. I'll bring my whistles and guitar. And I hope we'll see other Irish musicians from the area with their bodhrans, whistles, concertinas, flutes, fiddles, harps, guitars, and other instruments (including Robin Montgomery on the piano).

Hiram Irish Music Session Repertoire/Play List

Here are the tunes that we played yesterday:

Maggie in the Wood
Enchanted Lake
Off to California
Lord Inchiquin (O'Carolan)
Kean O'Hara--1st Air (possibly an O'Carolan tune)
Inisheer (Inis Oírr)--Air in 3/4 time
Haste to the Wedding
Wind That Shakes the Barley
Sligo Maid
Johnny Ward's (with Paul Dreisbach on uillean pipes)
Fanny Power (O'Carolan tune; Ellen Eckhouse played this very well on harp)
South Wind ("An Ghaoth Aneas")
Fr. Kelly's Reel
Drowsy Maggie
Wise Maid
Star of Munster (great whistle tune)
Cape Breton Home (another great whistle tune; by Jerry Holland)
Bride's Favorite
Connaughtman's Ramble (Jig)
Si Beag Si Mor (O'Carolan tune)
Red is the Rose (song; Marlene Connell and Robin Montgomery knew lots of verses)
John Ryan's
Maggie in the Wood
Rights of Man
Roddy McCorly
Far Away

Some tunes we didn't play yesterday but have played on other occasions:

Kesh Jig
Butterfly (Slipjig)
Heights Hornpipe (Dermot Somerville's originaltune)
Frost Is All Over
Geese in the Bog
Temperance Reel
Old Favorite
Rising of the Moon
Over the Waterfall
The Banshee
The Ash Plant
Cliffs of Moher
The Ash Grove
Sally Gardens (song, lyrics by Yeats, Key of C)
Hewlett (O'Carolan)
Maid Behind the Bar
Fr. Kelly's Reel
St. Anne's Reel

And others . . .

Hiram Irish Music Session

The last Irish Music Session of this academic year took place at Hiram College today. The group was smaller in size than normal (9 or 10 musicians and maybe 7 observers), but the music was still wonderful.

Ellen Eckhouse, on harp, with one of her students

Sheldon Firem on guitar, with Robin Montgomery on piano

Sheldon also is a terrific bodhran and whistle player

Paul Dreisbach on whistle (his uillean pipes on his lap); Tina Dreisbach on Irish flute. Tina also plays the concertina

Who know more tunes and song verses than Robin Montgomery? (No one!)

Not pictured: me on whistle and guitar, Marlene Connell on bodhran; and a fiddle player (don't know his name). Marlene was married to the late John Connell, County Cavan native and terrific button box player and singer. Among those in the audience--Kathleen O'Neill Webb and her husband Rick Webb.

I'm going to try to list all the tunes played--[coming in a later post].

O'Carolan's Beautiful Tunes

A couple weeks ago I attended the Hiram Irish Music Session organized by Professor Tina Dreisbach and her husband Paul. At this particular session Ellen Eckhouse played her harp. Among the songs she played was the O'Carolan tune "Eleanor Plunkett." I don't have a video of Ellen playing, but I found a nice video on Youtube of a fellow playing the tune, alterntating these instruments: Low D whistle; regular D penny whistle; and guitar. Here it is:


Turlough O'Carolan lived from 1670 to 1738 in Ireland. He was born in County Leitrim and grew up there and in County Roscommon. O'Carolan was struck with smallpox at age 18, which left him blind. To make a living, a patron apprenticed him to a harper. Three years later, with a horse and a guide, O'Carolan began traveling Ireland and playing and composing for his living. Often he would compose "planxties" to honor a patron--lots of these are extant and played throughout the world today. His tunes were accompanied by Irish lyrics. But what has survived to the present are the tunes; I've never even heard his lyrics sung.

It is said that his first tune was "Si Bheag, Si Mhor," which translates something like "Little Fairy Mound [or Hill], Big Fairy Mound." It is a magnificent tune, and one of my favorite. I first heard it around 1975 while at an old-timey fiddler festival near Union Grove, North Carolina--I was there with Timmy Jenkins (who, as far as I know, lives in Gays Mills, Wisconsin now). I can play this tune on piano, guitar, and whistle.

Other favorite O'Carolan tunes include:

Loftus Jones
O'Carolan's Draught
O'Carolan's Farewell to Music
Planxty Irwin
Hewlet
Fanny Power

I've heard these tunes on many recordings, including the works of Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen, Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies, Patrick Ball, and many others. Many O'Carolan tunes are played at the Hiram session.

Irish Music Session at Hiram College

Yesterday there was another Irish music "session" at historic Hiram College (some 35 miles or so southeast of Cleveland). The sessions take place three or four times a year, on Sundays, 2-4 PM in Frohring Hall. Yesterday was a bitter cold winter day, which might have held down the number of participants a bit. Still, there were many fine musicians there and a few observers.

The organizer of these sessions is Tina Spencer Dreisbach--helped out by her husband Paul. Tina plays Irish flute (a simple-system flute) and concertina; Paul plays tin whistle and the uillean pipes (Irish elbow bagpipes). I'm pretty sure Tina and Paul play many other instruments too!

Also there was master bodhran player and whistle player Sheldon Firem (he lives a mile or so from me near Chardon, Ohio). We also had a piano player, a woman who played autoharp; an excellent guitarist; me, with my whistle and guitar; Bill Kennedy, emcee of the radio program "Sweeney Astray," on WCSB, 89.3 FM--Bill was playing a mandolin. There was also a fiddle player and the harp player, Ellen Eckhouse, of the Garrettsville Village Bookstore.

So not bad for a cold and snowy winter's day in Northeast Ohio! A wonderful Sunday afternoon of Irish music.

Irish Music Session at Hiram College

Yesterday we had a rather small but wonderful Irish music session at Hiram College (located in the small college town of Hiram, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland). We have these sessions about three or four times a year, organized by Professor of Music Tina Dreisbach and her husband Paul Dreisbach. Tina plays several instruments, from whistle to Irish flute to concertina; Paul plays whistle and uilleann pipes (he is also a fine oboist, but doesn't bring out the oboe in the Irish session). Yesterday, to our surprise, another uilleann pipe player came--a fellow named David from Cuyahoga Falls (possibly David Daye). There were also two harp players, Ellen Eckhouse from Garretsville, where she owns the Village Bookstore, and one of her students. So two harpers and two uilleann pipers at the same place and same time--incredible!

We also had a piano player (his name doesn't come to mind--but he is very good; he must know hundreds of tunes) and the premier bodhran player, Sheldon Firem. Sheldon also brought his guitar and his bag of whistles. He can play the whistle as sweet as anyone and I can't imagine a better bodhran player. I was there with my homemade guitar and my Susato whistles. Another man, Denny (from the Akron area, I think) had a button box accordion. And a young woman was there with her fiddle. She is an excellent player and also seems to know many many tunes (she loved playing polkas).

So it was a small group, but well-balanced with the mix of instruments. And we had a wonderful two hours at this historic little college.

Wonderful Irish Music Session at Hiram College

Last Sunday, February 13th, twenty-two Irish musicians, a couple of Irish dancers, and about 10 onlookers met at a Hiram College music room for a "session," organized by Hiram professor Tina Dreisbach. The musicians included a harper, a player of uillean (Irish) pipes, a mandolin player, several fiddlers, players of Irish and classical flutes, whistle players (including a "low D" whistle player), a bodhran player, a bongo player, two players of concertinas, guitarists, a piano player, and so on.

I sat on the edge of the circle, but was able to join in on a few tunes (this time with my guitar). We played a lot of traditional tunes, but were treated to two new tunes: "The Heights Hornpipe," by Dermot Sommerville (who also played guitar and flute during the session); and a beautiful tune called "Ottinger's Lament," played by fiddler and composer John Reynolds. Both tunes were spectacularly beautiful. Toward the end of the session, two fairly young girls did some Irish dancing. I was really pleased with the number of young musicians at this session--there is a future for this beautiful music!

Thanks to all the musicians and organizers: Tina Dreisbach (and her husband,Paul, the uillean piper); Ellen Eckhouse, harper who played O'Carolan's "Morgan Megan" so beautifully; Sheldon Firem, bodhran player extraordinaire; Mike Mazur, a cultural force in the Cleveland Irish community; and all the other wonderful Irish musicians whose names I do not yet know.

One of the beautiful tunes we played at Hiram was the slip jig "The Butterfly." I located a youtube version of this tune, which can be accessed below or by clicking on the title to this blog entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKkeXBY-emA

Irish Music Session at Hiram College--April 11, 2010

There was a wonderful Irish music session at Hiram College on April 11th. The term "session" implies a rather informal gathering of Irish musicians, where tunes are played and songs sung for two or three hours. I think the organizer of the session was Tina Dreisbach, a music prof at Hiram. I caught the names of many, but not all, of the musicians. On harp was Ellen Eckhouse, who owns the Village Bookstore in nearby Garrettsville, Ohio. Tina's husband played uillean pipes (the Irish elbow bagpipes) and tin whistle. Mossie Moran, the well-known Irish musician and singer from Eastlake (and before that, from County Waterford or Wexford, Ireland), played his guitar. A fellow named Sheldon, from Chardon, played whistle, spoons, and bodhran. There were a couple of fiddle players; Tina played the simple-system Irish flute; a man played the Steinway piano; there were several guitarists and whistle players. I sort of hung in the background playing my whistle along with the 6-7 tunes I knew (there were probably 25-30 tunes played between 2 and 4:30 PM).

I'll list some of the tunes played at the Hiram session:

The Ash Plant
The Banshee
Cooley's Reel (one of my favorite)
Cronin's Hornpipe
The Bucks of Oranmore
Drowsy Maggie (a favorite)
The Frost Is All Over
The Geese in the Bog
Haste to the Wedding (a good one)
Fanny Power (O'Carolan)
Eleanor Plunkett (O'Carolan)
Sheebeg and Sheemore [Sí Beag, Sí Mór] (O'Carolan)
The Bride's Favorite
The Cliffs of Moher
Kean O'Hara
Lorfd Inchiquin (O'Carolan)
Harvest Home
Temperance Reel
Rights of Man
Swallowtail Jig
Old Favorite
Kesh
Rising of the Moon

Wow, what a wonderful afternoon of music at Hiram College!