Another Wonderful Irish Music Session in Harpersfield (near Geneva, Ohio)

John Foyle on bodhran. Maureen McGuire on button-box.

For the second month in a row, we've had an Irish music "session" at the Kosicek Winery in Harpersfield, Ohio (that's about 4 miles south of Geneva). A session is when Irish/Celtic musicians get together and play tunes (and sometimes sing songs) for a couple hours. These take place anywhere, from Galway, Ireland, to little towns in Montana, to Harpersfield, Ohio. There is a corpus of tunes that everyone seems to know--jigs, slip jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, waltzes, polkas, etc. At yesterday's session there were about 3 guitars, maybe 5 whistles, a concertina, a button-box accordion, 3 mandolins, 2 tenor banjos, a few bodhrans (Irish drums), a set of "bones," and a few other things. There were 15 musicians total (many with multiple instruments), sitting in a circle. I know some of the names: Kyle Smith (fiddle), John Foyle (whistle, bodhran, bones), Jack Lewis (banjo and guitar), Maureen Reich (fiddle and banjo), Maureen McGuire (button box accordion), Sheldon Firem (bodhran, whistle, guitar), Jule (spoons). There were many others I don't know. Musicians came from all over Northeast Ohio--Mayfield, Wickliffe, Chardon, Hambden, Girard, Conneaut, Youngstown, and points unknown. I was there with my whistle.

I tried to write down the names of most of the tunes:

1. Swallowtail Jig
2. Morrison's Jig
3. Fox Hunter's
4. The Rattling Bog
5. Merrily Kiss the Quaker
6. Planxty Irwin (O'Carolan)
7. Irish Republican Army (song, sung by John Foyle)
8. John Ryan's Polka
9. Haste to the Wedding
10. Dennis Murphy's
11. Si Bheag Si Mhor (O'Carolan)
12. Irish Washerwoman
13. Bally Desmond
14. Higgins'
15. The Butterfly (Slip Jig)
16. The Rose of Mull . . . (didn't get all of the name)
17. Rights of Man
18. May the Road Rise to Meet You (song)
19. Whiskey Before Breakfast
20. Off to California
21. Banshee Reel
22. Maid Behind the Bar
23. Drunken Sailor
24. Donneybrook Fair

And many others! Oh yes. And John Foyle did a fine rendition of "Danny Boy."

Hope to play with these musicians again, maybe at the Hiram College Session, in Cleveland, in Niles, Ohio, wherever!

Kyle on fiddle. Sheldon on bodhran.

Wonderful Irish Music Session In Harpersfield, Ohio (Near Geneva-on-the-Lake)

The session, in Kocicek's Winery, Harpersfield, Ohio

Sheldon Firem on the Bodhran (Irish Drum)

Maureen Reich, on fiddle

18 Irish musicians, crowded into Kocicek's, a new winery in Harpersfield, outside of Geneva, Ohio, on Saturday, February 1st. Snow still deep on the ground, some cold rain falling--didn't bother musicians, who came from Greater Cleveland, Chardon, Youngstown, Warren, Conneaut, Girard, and God know where else. Bringing fiddles, whistles, guitars, drums, a buttonbox accordion, an autoharp, ukulele, 2 tenor banjos, bones, voice, mandolin, and whatever. What a great way to spend a winter Saturday afternoon!

Great Tune Heard at Irish Festival: "Come Give Me Your Hand" by Rory Dall O'Cathain

I heard Maureen Reich (on fiddle), Dennis Doyle (on celtic harp), and Sheldon Firem (on bodhran) play this beautiful tune yesterday at the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival at an "open session" (I was there playing too, but not on this particular tune). The tune, called "Give Me Your Hand" (Tabhair dom do Lámh in Irish) was composed by the blind harpist Rory Dall O'Cathain around 1603. 410 years later it was played in a Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds building in Berea, Ohio. Below is a version from Youtube by the Chieftains: