Here’s an earworm–“Tá Dhá Ghabhairín Bhuí Agam,” or, “I Have Two Yellow Goats.” It popped into my head yesterday morning and it won’t leave, which means I’ll need to teach it to myself today. It’s a simple tune, but lovely, and come to find out it’s the air of a song in Irish in which a farmer is complaining about their livestock, and has nothing into which to put their milk but a hat, which inevitably leaks all over the place. Also that the piper Seán Ó Cealla apparently doesn’t know the “Heilan’ Laddie” jig. :) Discussion about the tune at thesession.org.
Tá dhá ghabhairín bhuí agam, is mínseach bhainne, mínseach bhainne, Briseann siad an chroí ionam á dtabhairt abhaile, á dtabhairt abhaile. Níl áit agam go gcrúfainn iad ach síos im’ hata, síós im’ hata, Ligeann mo hata tríd é ar fuaid an bhaile, ar fuaid an bhaile.
Tá dhá ghabhair sa choill agam is caoire geala, caoire geala, Ní íosfaidís aon ní uaim ach barr an aitinn, barr an aitinn. Cuirim i dteannta an chlaí iad le stúmpa bata, stumpa bata, Siúd thar barr an chlaí iad i bhfad ó bhaile, i bhfad ó bhaile.
Sin port ná fuil ag an píobaire, an Hielan’ Laddie, Hielan’ Laddie, Port ná fuil ag an píobaire, an Hielan’ Laddie, Hielan’ Laddie. Seán Ó Cealla’ an píobaire is bíodh sé mar sin, bíodh sé mar sin, Seán Ó Cealla’ an píobaire is bíodh sé mar sin, bíodh sé mar sin.
Some time ago, the original tune spreadsheet somehow got deleted from google drive where it was stored. I have been home recovering from an injury lately so I thought rebuilding it would be a good project to pass the time. It went a lot quicker than I thought. So, here it is, all back minus a couple tune recordings, which I will make in the coming days. All the links are back, and working. I omitted the date and player columns–these are interesting bits of info but not strictly necessary for the document to be useful. If you notice anything that doesn’t work, or notice any entries are missing that were there previously, please let me know. Below is a link to the spreadsheet page on this site, or use the Tunes Spreadsheet tab at the top of this page. Enjoy!
This week, Ted S came and taught us a hornpipe called “The Pride of Petravore,” which is derived from a song of the same name. I also see it online as having the alternate name of “Eibhlín Óg.” HERE is the page dedicated to it on thesession.org. Read the comments there for some great info about it. Also note the many, many variations on this one in both name and setting!
Aaaaand, here’s a quick video link, because you have to!
Hi all! Starting May 9th, the LVISS will be monthly on second Tuesdays, from 6-8 pm. Same location 1365 Northampton St in Holyoke, MA at DeCice Hall in The Marian Center.
Fermoy is a town in County Cork, named 7th cleanest town in Ireland as of 2022. Indeed, it is considered cleaner than European norms of cleanliness. Therefore, one can only imagine that the lads and lasses there are also quite clean and tidy, as would probably be the men, women and children.
Be that as it may, the tune “Fermoy Lasses” comes in a few different flavors. The newest tune to hit out Tunes page comes from the album “Conversation at the Crosses,” recorded live featuring Pat O’Connor and Eoghan O’Sullivan.
Interestingly, all the recordings I could find of Micho Russell playing the tune are not this one, but rather closer to the standard version! Anyway here is a standard version and the version we learned at the session this week. Enjoy!
Hi all, just a quick note to say that I have been updating the calendar today, and I’m sad to say that there are significantly fewer sessions around than there were before COVID showed up. I wasn’t able to confirm 100% of the listings, so you’ll see that some of them say TENT(ative), which means I am waiting for a reply to an email or phone call. That said, I hope you can safely find some tunes near you!
Also known as “The Mourne Mountains,” this is a tune I have heard a million times but never bothered to learn. I finally pulled it out of my head last night and learned it on the fiddle. I like it more after learning it!
In the first clip Oisín MacDiarmad and Seamus Begley shake it out. The second tune in their set is another some LVISS members will know–The Red Haired Lass.
(Disclaimer: As I write this post, Jamkazam has decided to go from a 100% free platform model to a tiered, subscription-based model. Just so you know, I am in no way affiliated with Jamkazam, and do not make money from promoting their products. They still offer a free subscription, as well as paid subscriptions at various service levels. See their website for more information.)
The pandemic. The lockdowns. The social distancing. It’s all anathema to the Irish Music Session. For those of us who love to gather and play in intimate settings, sharing stories, news and tunes, maybe even a drink, it is the WORST!
But–there is hope, for those that have the fortitude to jump through some technological hoops. All you have to do is say the magic word with me now. Ready? One, two three–
Jamkazam is an application for Mac or PC that allows you to play along with your friends online, in real time, by reducing the latency (delay) inherent in internet connections. If you tried to play along with a friend using Zoom, for example, here’s what would happen: you count in–“one, two, three, and…” and you start playing. Three quarters of a second after you play it, your friend hears your first note and starts playing along. Meanwhile you’ve moved on–you’re a measure ahead of your friend, and now your hearing their notes coming back at you with even more delay. Needless to say, this isn’t going to work!
People can begin to perceive delay as short as 10-30 milliseconds (that’s THOUSANDTHS of a second!) Any delay shorter than this is perceived as nonexistent. Jamkazam helps reduce this latency.
To use Jamkazam you’ll need a few things:
A computer running either Windows 10 or Mac OS X 10.8 or higher, connected to your home router using an Ethernet cable (WiFi doesn’t work well).
A microphone–the one built into your computer may work ok if you have a decent sound card in your machine, but if not then you’ll want an external mic. This could be any number of USB microphones, or a standard vocal mic with an XLR cable, and to connect that to your computer you’ll want an audio interface.
An audio interface–a piece of equipment that gets the sound from your external microphone into your computer. The mic plugs into it, and it plugs into your computer, usually via USB. The advantages to this setup are that you get better sound quality and also the interface itself will do most of the audio processing much faster than your computer will, thus decreasing the delay in the system.
Headphones–you can’t use your speakers or they will feed back into the microphone. SQUEEEEEEEAL!
Our anchor Ted and I have used it and we were both amazed at how well it worked. It wasn’t perfect, but that’s mainly because of the limitations of our equipment and computer systems. I hope other members of the LVISS will jump on the wagon and give it a go, so we can play together again, safely and remotely!
Lower Valley Irish Slow Session 