I know it's been ages since I updated this. Everytime I sat down to start, something else would demand my attention and well, being a fickle creature, I would immediately move to accomplish whatever minor thing had distracted me.
So recently Kitty, Danny, and I (along with sometimes Stokely, Tommy, and Chris) have been upping our tune knowledge. It's always great to know as many tunes as you can remember -- which despite sounding terribly difficult, is surprisingly easy. At some point tunes become surprisingly intuitive and playing them becomes more an exercise in muscle memory than any cognizant effort.
No one ever asks me about tunes. Maybe because I'm the singer, and play my whistle to mostly augment vocal melodies than to tear into a scorching whistle solo. But in all honesty I love playing tunes. I love going to a good session (my favorites ever being ones at Murphy's Irish Pub in the Wallingford community in Seattle, O'Reilly's in North Beach, San Francisco, Tigh Choili in Galway, Ireland, and Sandy Bell's in Edinburgh, Scotland.) There's something truly pleasurable about knocking back a pint or two and playing the same music (from memory!) with five, eleven, even twenty plus people!
At the moment I've been putting together some tune sets for a future recording and live gigs. I don't wanna get too testimonial here, as I want what ends up on the next record to be a surprise -- hell, I don't even want to perform the music from the next record until it's released. But I do want to talk about some of my favorite tunes.
First up:
"Rathlin Island." I first heard this exemplary whistle tune played by the lovely Sharon Shannon. Although primarily known as an accordionist, she's an amazingly talented whistler and fiddler too. This tune is deceptively difficult, full of triplets and fast flying fingerings. Sharon's version stands among my favorites. She gave it quite the bouncing, jaunty arrangement that is guaranteed to get your butt moving.
"O'Neill's March." Yeah it's hokey. Yeah, the Horslips used it as the fucking amazing guitar riff on their song "Dearg Doom." This tune makes me want to pogo and bounce and jump and skip and rage all night long. My friends in Culann's Hounds use this tune to great effect in their arrangement of "Follow Me Up To Carlow," and if you've never heard "Dearg Doom," go download it now! It's on iTunes. So's Culann's Hounds.
"An Gaoth Aneas" (or 'The Wind from the South') This is a beautiful waltz, mystical and airy. Totally wonderful. The Chieftains still have the best arrangement of this tune.
"Fully Rigged Ship" We use this in our updated version of "Star of the County Down." I love playing this tune. It's so fantastic, a rip-roaring tune that's played all over, from Ireland to Northumbria, from O'Reilly's to Murphy's and all places in between.
So recently Kitty, Danny, and I (along with sometimes Stokely, Tommy, and Chris) have been upping our tune knowledge. It's always great to know as many tunes as you can remember -- which despite sounding terribly difficult, is surprisingly easy. At some point tunes become surprisingly intuitive and playing them becomes more an exercise in muscle memory than any cognizant effort.
No one ever asks me about tunes. Maybe because I'm the singer, and play my whistle to mostly augment vocal melodies than to tear into a scorching whistle solo. But in all honesty I love playing tunes. I love going to a good session (my favorites ever being ones at Murphy's Irish Pub in the Wallingford community in Seattle, O'Reilly's in North Beach, San Francisco, Tigh Choili in Galway, Ireland, and Sandy Bell's in Edinburgh, Scotland.) There's something truly pleasurable about knocking back a pint or two and playing the same music (from memory!) with five, eleven, even twenty plus people!
At the moment I've been putting together some tune sets for a future recording and live gigs. I don't wanna get too testimonial here, as I want what ends up on the next record to be a surprise -- hell, I don't even want to perform the music from the next record until it's released. But I do want to talk about some of my favorite tunes.
First up:
"Rathlin Island." I first heard this exemplary whistle tune played by the lovely Sharon Shannon. Although primarily known as an accordionist, she's an amazingly talented whistler and fiddler too. This tune is deceptively difficult, full of triplets and fast flying fingerings. Sharon's version stands among my favorites. She gave it quite the bouncing, jaunty arrangement that is guaranteed to get your butt moving.
"O'Neill's March." Yeah it's hokey. Yeah, the Horslips used it as the fucking amazing guitar riff on their song "Dearg Doom." This tune makes me want to pogo and bounce and jump and skip and rage all night long. My friends in Culann's Hounds use this tune to great effect in their arrangement of "Follow Me Up To Carlow," and if you've never heard "Dearg Doom," go download it now! It's on iTunes. So's Culann's Hounds.
"An Gaoth Aneas" (or 'The Wind from the South') This is a beautiful waltz, mystical and airy. Totally wonderful. The Chieftains still have the best arrangement of this tune.
"Fully Rigged Ship" We use this in our updated version of "Star of the County Down." I love playing this tune. It's so fantastic, a rip-roaring tune that's played all over, from Ireland to Northumbria, from O'Reilly's to Murphy's and all places in between.