| Atlantic Crossroads Festival continued |
| A slew of people from Australia were in attendance at Erin�s and they made it clear they enjoyed the musicians this evening. Colleen was a bit late getting from The Ship to Erin�s, so Jim got up and sang Downtown Girl and told everyone about the Gala on Thursday.
Clare and Niall came back from the Celtic Hearth after their sets to see Colleen play. Colleen has really mixed it up with the songs during her sets. I don�t think she�s sung the same combination any night. The Australians LOVED her and were sad when she was done at 2:00 AM. But they stuck around and got an earful. It was somethin� else! Niall and Clare were joined by Hugh, Darrell, Mike Hanrahan and Ger for one heck of a session. Hugh sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight as the others harmonized, Niall and Darrell sang together, Ger wanted to sing Perry Como songs, he said, but ended up wailing Your Cheatin� Heart. Jim had armed me with the mic and I had a ball walking around, following the guitar, recording the session. Darrell sang I Hate Mondays and another country song in deference to Ger�s country leanings. LOL! Hugh �s voice belted out Ring of Fire, Jim did Redemption Song and Darrell countered with Paul Simon�s Late in the Evening. Niall gave us his own Long Weekend and Clare sang one of hers. We sang Happy Birthday to Clare. Mike Hanrahan ran around playing bouzouki accompaniment to everyone�s songs. Boy, I was impressed he could keep up with songs that were new to him. It was great! Ger brought out a whistle and a harmonica and played along. Jim and Ger sang Curra Road together and Niall sang The Lakes of Ponchatrain accompanied by Darrell and Hugh for harmonies. They also sang a bunch of 80�s songs whose titles and words I didn�t know. I was very busy raising 4 kids in the 80�s and didn�t listen to the radio much. I know nothing of the 80�s music scene. I can�t tell you the joy I felt, being in this room with all these wonderful musician�s singing all these songs together. At some point during the evening Darrell approached me told me there was a guy from Pitcairn Island here and he was trying to convince him to sing something in his native language. He thought maybe if I took a few photos, the guy might stick around and talk or sing a bit so Darrell could hear the language. Darrell graduated from MUN with a dual degree in Education and Linguistics. He�s still very interested in the linguistics. We tried our best and the gentleman sang half a song in his native language but then lapsed back into English. He couldn�t seem to understand why we didn�t want him to sing in English. �I can hear English any time I want!� exclaimed Darrell. The Australians stayed to the very end and I think none of us wanted the evening to turn to day. Darrell made me feel like a friend tonight and I got a big hug from Jim after we left Erin�s. He was just so happy things had worked out so well this evening. We got back to the house about 4:30 AM and I fell asleep a very happy person to have been there this evening. Tuesday, June 28th We all woke up with a bang. Several bangs, actually. It was Ger at the door. He had gotten a taxi to bring him over to Jim�s for to go to the interview at the CBC office with Jeff Gilhooly. (I have become a frequent user of the phrase �for to go.� Used extensively by Newfoundlanders and by some Cape Bretoners, it has crept into my everyday language even when I am not in Newfoundland. It was one of the first Newfoundland phrases I picked up. And when I am talking ABOUT Newfoundland, I will most certainly use it in conversation!) I don�t know how long he banged on the door but eventually we awoke. There wasn�t much time to get dressed and out the door as the interview was scheduled for 8:30 AM and it was now 8:05. We told the cab driver to go and Ger came in while Jim got dressed. I threw on some clothes and rushed the guys out the door, getting to the CBC offices with 5 minutes to spare! They weren�t supposed to be long, so I slipped around the corner and picked up Tim Horton�s coffee for everyone. I waited inside the door and chatted with the security guard who was a big fan of Jim�s. It was cool, �cause I could hear the interview over the speaker system while sitting right there in the lobby. They played a song of Ger�s and one from Jim�s new album and they talked about the festival and about songwriting and music and the similarities between Ireland and Newfoundland. And in less than 30 minutes they were there in the lobby, gratefully accepting their coffee. We sat in the parking space and chatted while everyone finished their dose of caffeine. Somehow we got on the subject of traditional songs we all know and Ger began to sing one in Irish. My ears perked up when I thought I recognized some words and a bit of the tune. I began quietly singing a song I learned in university some 30 years ago. To my surprise, some of the words were the same! And here, at the time I learned it, I thought the chorus was made up of nonsense words! All this time, I�d been sing bastardized Irish! Jim also piped up, singing a version of the same song that Anita Best and Pamela Morgan had recorded. What an unusual chorus we were! All singing the version we knew, slightly different tunes, in different languages, but with it all blending together. What a delicious song it was! It intrigued me that we could grow up in 3 different corners of the world, separated by thousands of miles and all have this common base. I came back home and looked it up on the Internet, and this is what I found. The song Ger sang in Irish was called Shule Agra a 17th century Irish song. The words are similar to those of Shule Aroon, an 18th century American song, which is similar to the one I learned in the 1970�s, called Johnny�s Gone for a Soldier. Go here, http://www.contemplator.com/america/jonsldr.html, to check out the song as I learned it. The other versions are there on the website, too! It�s worth your while to see how the three of us came to sing a 16th century Irish song in 2005. We stopped at Michelle�s bakery on the way home and picked up the makings of breakfast. Lillian created some most delicious ham & cheese croissants and then I dove her to work. I picked up some flyers and posters there and delivered them to various places around town. Who should I see walking down Water Street but Martin! I pulled over and asked if he needed a ride anywhere. He told me he was headed over to Ron Hynes house and forgot how to get there. He and Mick were doing some songwriting and wanted Ron�s help. Ron had all the Irishmen over a couple nights ago. He introduced them to the Signal Hill Trail and everyone climbed to the top. Several of them mentioned how windy it was. It�s always windy on Signal Hill. I told Martin I knew how to get to the general vicinity where Ron lives, but I didn�t know exactly where he lived. Martin said he could get me to the house if I drove there. So off we went to the Battery. I had never been in the narrow winding streets of the Battery before and I was sure glad it wasn�t winter. I can�t imagine having to slip and slide my way around in the winter. No thanks! Martin gave great directions and we found ourselves outside Ron�s, greeted by his little dog, Iris. She was adorable! Iris looked a lot like my old dog, Sniffles. The size of a small Maltese and a good guard dog. It was also the first time I had seen Ron without his trademark hat. But it wouldn�t be the last this trip. Viewing the harbour from Ron�s house made me want to go over to the Fort Amherst side and snap some photos, which I did! The water was incredibly blue today. It was a deep powder blue, if you can imagine that. The photos don�t do it justice. The Scademia came by as I was there. One time I rode on the Scademia and got to steer her over to Cape Spear from the Narrows. What a thrill that was! I took several photos of the Rooms, way up there on the hill. It commanded attention just like it was supposed to. I sat on the fishing docks and took in the scene, happily sniffing the air, which smelled of fish. It was the way it should be. I must have sat and enjoyed the scene for 30 minutes or so, then went over to the city side to check out an unusual boat docked there. Turned out to be the Iceberg Vodka harvesting barge. Very interesting indeed! I was able to talk to one of the guys on the barge for a bit. He told me he loves the job but you have to be careful, around the icebergs so they don�t roll over on you. He enjoyed being able to work �close to home.� But he told me something I already knew � that there were no icebergs near St. John�s and that was unusual. My iceberg hunting was for naught this June trip. They knew I was coming! Yesterday and today I noticed all these big trailers and movie-making trucks in and around St. John�s. I found out they are here to film a mini-series about the bombers sent from Gander to England during World War 2. Newfoundland is certainly becoming a film mecca these days. When I got back to Jim's house, I had the job to send out the press releases by email. There were about 800 to send out. It was a challenge trying to do it without the ISP accusing me of spamming. *sigh* Something that should have taken an hour at the most ended up taking 6 or 7 hours because I had to wait between mass mailings. Jim had everything organized very well though and I was grateful for that. Then we picked up Lillian and wound our way to the Arts and Culture Centre at MUN. It was the first of many trips I would take to the Centre this week. The performers were scheduled to come over a two-day period to rehearse with the band so everyone could figure out what things would sound best for the Gala. It's a beautiful venue! I had never been there before and was awed by the inside. It was also the first time I had been backstage anywhere but a high school auditorium. I felt pretty privileged to be there at that point. I had brought my camera but was reluctant to take photos. I didn't know if it would be considered an invasion of privacy. I've been trying to only take photos of people in public places, saving the private moments and conversations for my memory or personal album, not the Net. I'm sure there will be some exceptions along the way, but I used that as my guideline for publishing photos. |