songs of a coal miner’s son 5

EPISODE 5 With Gene Christy & Rod MacDow

Have a listen! JUST CLICK ON THE ARROW!

LEAVIN’ OF LIVERPOOL
Irish Traditional

episode five . . .

Just got a phone call on my cell. It’s Eileen Markland, beautiful blonde fiddler of the Berkshires’ best-known Irish pub-band, Rakish Paddy, where Eileen shares the stage with lead singer Perry Daniels—it seems Perry has to be late for the gig at The Shamrock in Dalton, tomorrow night. So, Eileen called me! Could I fill in for a set? I sure could!

Well, gang, that was last Wednesday night . . and then came the Thursday following. And here’s Eileen herself, with her reaction: (and I quote)–

I love love love loved this past weekend! Highlights:
1. Bob’s amazing wings at The Shamrock Restaurant & Pub and breaking it down with Gene Christy!

Don’t believe it? Well, just listen to this:

DENIS MURPHY’S / JOHN RYAN’S
a pair of traditional Irish reels

performed here by Eileen Markland of Rakish Paddy on fiddle
plus The Dossers’ own Gene Christy on Roland all-digital piano-accordion
at The Shamrock, 645 Main Street, Rte 9, Dalton, MA
recorded on a TEAC VR-20 digital recorder!

fiddlers: you can find the sheet music in O’Neill’s big yellow book called “Music of Ireland” . . .

FOR MORE ON EILEEN, PERRY AND THEIR BAND, RAKISH PADDY, Click on the link below:

http://www.rakishpaddyband.com/

to continue our theme of history-in-the-making, where we swing back and forth from now to then and sashay round to full circle in the end . . .

. . . here’s what we sounded like back a few years ago doing a show at the ski resort in Killington, Vermont, on stage with Billy Mac and Geoff Roman and their band, Revel’s Glen, in 2008 (Billy Mac = lead singer, Bill McElaney, from Donegal) . . .

ON THE VERY SAME SONG AS THE ONE AT THE TOP OF TODAY’S BLOG!

Have a listen! AND COMPARE!

LEAVIN’ OF LIVERPOOL
Irish Traditional
performed here by Revel’s Glen plus The Dossers
on stage in Killington, Vermont, 2008
recorded on Sony SX-25 digital recorder

and the rest, as Billy Mac says, is history!

Now let’s take the same ingredients, scramble ‘em up, put ‘em back in 1988, down on Cape Cod – – and this time you’re listening to a band called The Ramblin’ Rovers, with Billy Mac on lead vocals and 6-string, myself, aka as “Christy on the Box,” and the incredible, tall, young, good-lookin’ girl-magnet, Tom Neville himself, on vocals and electric guitar!

And out of the audience steps the “UNKNOWN STRANGER”

who asks Bill Mac, can he borrow his guitar—as Bill had said he was stepping down from the stage for a moment to visit the loo or smoke a cigarette or something,

and the “UNKNOWN STRANGER”

proceeds to sing this – – – !!!!

Have a listen!

BLACK WATER
The Doobies . . .
performed here by The Ramblin’ Rovers
recorded live on analog tape 1988 on Cape Cod
transferred to digital by Mike Regan in 2005
enhanced into stereo by myself using Audacity 24 jul 2013

All this was nothing in comparison to the highlight of the weekend, by far, which was none other than

Old friend

Bobby Sweet

Friday night . . . at the Dreamaway Lodge, in Becket, MA, in the beauty of a Berkshires summer evening, with Abe Guthrie, Arlo’s boy, on keyboards, playing a wicked left-hand bass-line on a Yamaha, and Andy Crawford on drums . . .

Abe Guthrie

I have pictures! But I did not record anything of the evening—

Andy Crawford

Much preferable to me recording Bobby live on a TEAC VR-20 is for you to go yourself to Bobby Sweet’s own website! Click on the link below:

http://bobbysweet.com/

Once there, you can learn more about this amazing artist, and I recommend his latest album, from earlier in 2013,

COWBOYS AND POETS

Or my personal favorite album of Bobby’s DAYS ROLL BY

Just listen to “Valley Road,” or “Conquest,” or “Sailors,” all from the latter album – – and you, too, will become a Bobby Sweet fan . .

Tune in next week! Same time, same station!