Some Irish songs to keep ya going

I know it’s been a while. Here are some of my favorite song performances.

8tracks mix

Favorite Flute Recordings

I’ve put together a mix on 8tracks. Enjoy, and don’t forget to “like” it.

Eleanor Plunkett (O’Carolan)

A gorgeous O’Carolan tune in 3/4 time, played and accompanied both by yours truly. I’m playing the Eb-body of my Grinter, and I love how both the warmth and the edge of this amazing flute come through.

Eleanor Plunkett

A neat site for ABC users

For those of us using and reading ABC, there is an awesome new site. Drawthedots.com renders ABC interactively and lets the user collect and share an online tune book.

Three Jigs

I have an Eb body for my keyed flute, and it may sound strange, but that half-step up completely changes how the flute feels – much brighter and more responsive. So I talked my son into tuning up his fiddle, and here’s the result. Three jigs – Tobin’s, The Sunnyside and the one that comes after whose name I’m too lazy to look up.

Chicken Coop

This is one of those rare non-ITM related projects – we’re trying to keep a few chicken in the city, as a balance for our kids and the occasional eggs. Being the geek that I am, I decided to model the thing in Blender first. This is how it looks so far:

Those cones are my abstraction of the hens. I had to make sure somehow that they’ll fit.

New Flute!

Finally, after a wait of nearly two years, and three months after the projected completion, my new flute arrived. It’s a 6-keyed made from African blackwood by Michael Grinter. She’s a beauty to behold, and I’ve put together a photo set while the new sheen is still undisturbed:

New Tunes

Here are some new tunes I’ve learned and recorded:
Palmers Gate (reel)
Seamus Ennis’ / Whelan’s Old Sow (jigs)

Tune of the Month by Shannon Heaton

For a couple of months, Shannon Heaton* has been producing a monthly podcast of her teaching one tune at a time. She does it at a relaxed pace which not only conveys the tune well, but also showcases her own playing style. Hop on over here for the goodness. Make sure to see Matt and her live when you get a chance. They’re awesome.

* famous for being my former flute teacher

The Sunnyside

My son and I had a spare minute and decided to try recording a tune on my new multitrack recorder. The heavy reverb wasn’t meant to be there, I only discovered it when all was done. We’ll do better next time. This is how it turned out: The Sunnyside