D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
July
2008
Bayou Seco's Rolling Postcard
Page: 2
After three days we moved down the road to other friends of Rus Bradburd, the Las Cruces writer who lived in Tralee for two years coaching the Tralee Tigers basketball team, while writing the wonderful book called Paddy on the Hardwood. We played another gig in Castleisland at a pub called the Kingdom Place about 15 kilometers away. Local hero Paddy Jones joined us for some fine tunes, and while it wasn't a quiet listening crowd, it was a lot of fun to play for everyone. Some Americans we had met on our first night in Ireland came to see us. The Irish especially liked our Hank Williams numbers — country music is big here.
Our second hosts live in a huge rambling old Georgian house right on the Tralee Bay. One could get lost in all those rooms! We had fun playing tunes in the kitchen, and cooking; one night we made a Cajun gumbo. We found Polish sausage in a small Polish store in Tralee. It was perfect for the gumbo. For dessert, our host Dierdre made a chocolate and Guinness cake. If you Google "Rich Stout Cake" for the recipe you will find it comes from the Green and Black's cookbook. We had tasted this in England at a cafe, and were mightily impressed. Actually, she used Beamish Stout, which is sweeter than Guinness or Murphy's. It is an amazing combination of tastes.
Another "seisiun" that night in Tralee was small and intimate, only 10 musicians crammed into a little room, knee to knee, powered by the ever-present pints of foamy black stout and occasional whisky and water — all supplied by the pub, which also sent a cab to pick us up and send us back to the house at the end of the evening. Fortunately, we are here in the time of No Smoking in the Pubs. We don't think we could have survived a music session in a pub with all that smoke of the old days. Now the streets in front of the pubs are filled with smokers, and at the end of the night the pub crew must sweep up mountains of butts. The smokers say they smoke much less this way, and they don't seem to mind being displaced to the streets.
The next day we went to visit Paddy Jones himself in his mountain cabin, very spare and neat and clean. He heats it with a handmade stove he welded together, which can burn coal, peat, wood and even motor oil. We had the most wonderful midday meal: Irish soda brown bread, smoked salmon from his daughter's fish shop, pure Irish butter and of course a pot of tea. Simple and sublime.
We then wended our way north to Feakle in County Clare near Ennis to find the Wednesday session at Pepper's Pub. This is the hometown of the great fiddler, Vincent Griffin, whom we met that night. I had heard him play in Mendocino, Calif., in 1975, and I surely thought I saw him levitate right off the stage floor in the middle of one of his lightning-fast reels. He is a dairy farmer, and at age 80-plus he'd been working with silage all afternoon and was too tired to play. But there are always other musicians willing and ready, and so we listened, and shared a little of our musical part of the world as well.
The next day we landed south of Sligo for the last bit of our two weeks in Ireland, with old friends Rick and Joan Epping. Rick is an amazing musician — harmonica and concertina (at the same time!). We played a gig together at the Merry Monk Pub in Ballina — west of Sligo, at the mouth of the Moy River and the Killala Bay — along with his guitar/fiddling buddy Samie O'Dowd, who has played with Dervish and many other groups. The four of us played for four hours, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., without a break, swapping tunes and songs and supporting each other or just listening.
The next day we did some sightseeing in this area, including the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, which dates to 2900 to 3400 BC. The extensive site consists of 30 passage tombs — circles of large boulders with a roofed chamber at the center. The weather had been truly amazing for the past 10 days, and this day was no exception: hot and sunny and blue skies dotted with lovely fluffy clouds. Our new CD, "Sunnysidem" seems to be a magic charm with the weather and is selling well.
A barbeque on our last night in Sligo at Cathy Jordan's (the fine singer who came to Silver City in November 2006 with Dervish) was a very musical affair with songs from everyone there, including her two young nieces and some of their friends. The evening was warm and dry, but the chiminea fire kept away the chill. Rick told us the party lasted until dawn, but we left around 1.
The next day we wended our way back to the Southeast by way of Limerick to Cappamore, just west of Cashel (home of the great blue cheese), and one last cracking good session at the Bridge Pub. The many late nights of music were now over, and we tumbled into bed exhausted at 6 p.m. on our last night before catching the ferry back to Wales. Alas, two weeks in Ireland disappeared into a dream like the fog along the coast. But we will be back.
The next three days were spent driving, starting with 600 kilometers across England to Canterbury, where we spent the night with "The Happy Trails" folks who will visit Silver City in September for the Pickamania Festival, Sept. 13-14. Then we caught the boat to Calais and drove another 700 kilometers to La Baule near St. Nazaire. I was thrilled to see the salt flats where the famous Guerande "fleur de sel" salt is harvested. We met a German friend for an evening supper of crpes and stories, and we played a bit of music in the morning at the march. Finally, on the third day, we made it all the way down to Villandrault, south of Bordeaux.
We spent the weekend immersed in the beautiful fiddle music of the region of Les Landes, the Pyrenes and le Lot — rondeaux, scottisches, bourres and more. There was a Rassemblement de Violons in a little town near Cahors with about 25 fiddlers of all ages playing together. Beautiful! And the dancing was spectacular. Local folks danced the local dances with great style and finesse. We shared a few of our tunes, and they seemed to really enjoy our New Mexico polkas and Cajun two-steps, as a change of pace.
For the next month and a half, we will be in both France and Germany visiting friends and playing gigs, as well as returning to England and Wales for another week of festivals in July. It's a nice way to spend the summer. Traveling with our own little pillows and a lightweight down blanket is our secret to sleeping well in so many different situations and staying sane.
We'll be back home to play at "Music in the Parks" in Young Park in Las Cruces on Aug. 10, and the Silver City Pickamania on Sept 13. See you then!