Austin Celtic Festival
Now that's been almost three weekends...
Saturday
We left in the morning to minimal fanfare. Alright, there wasn't fanfare at all. There were two brief stops - one for breakfast for us and another for breakfast for the car. Otherwise...it was a drive down to Austin. I suppose I should take in more of the scenery now that it's become so costly as to render such jaunts a bit infrequent. I did, as we passed them, remark at which trees were turning colours. So I wasn't completely switched off. :D
We arrived in Austin, paused to check into the hotel (where I realised that I must have left my driver's licence at the polls the night before), and after that had been sorted out, we drove to the festival. Amberhawke were still playing when we found their stage, so we sat to listen for a while. The last several festivals I've attended, I've been playing and Shaddow's been running a sound board. It made for a pleasant change to have nothing to do but wander about, browse the vendors, and decide which bands we wanted to see. And drink beer. We did that too. :D
We saw:
Andy M. Stewart (that one, yeh) and Gerry O'Bierne
Amberhawke (this is in no order, really)
Gilmer and Moore (who we know from THSP)
And...I think that was all for that day - oh, and a bit of Ed Miller (an Austin mainstay)
Mark was there - completely bedecked in UT colours. He and his wife (also done up in burnt orange and white cow heads) had planned an evening of Indian food and college football. He was at the festival teaching a workshop, but if he played with Heather and Jeff, he must have done before their later set (which we saw). My feelings concerning Mark can be summarised thusly: if he were to call me 'Grasshopper', I would reach for the pebble. We crossed paths a few times that day - in one of them, I saw him and recognised the shape of him before Shaddow (who'd turned his head to look at the stage) did. Mark played at trying to trip him up, and because Shaddow's attention was elsewhere, he nearly succeeded, much to his surprise. Fortunately, nobody lost an eye or too much face. :D
We met up with Amberhawke (sans Candy and Toar, who'd gone out for the evening with friends), and we all decided that Mark's glowing report of the Clay Pit was too tempting to pass up, so we went there as well. The place was rammed with people, and at first, it seemed as though we'd have quite the weight till they found a place to put us all. In the end , it was perhaps a quarter of an hour before we were ushered to a table in the corner.
I was and wasn't surprised when our path led us past Candy and Toar - of course they'd choose that place. We waved, chatted briefly, and then assumed our Table in the Corner. At some point, during the course of the evening, they Had an Idea. Toar tells it better We called her over afterwards to give her a round of applause. Good times.
We all drove back to the hotel for the usual festival seisiunna (which, I'll admit, was one of the primary reasons I wanted to go). Heather and told me there would be a song seisiun. For the last...Jesus, how long ago was it the Celtic Quill gave up the ghost? 1999? Nine years, I think. For the last nine years, I've mostly avoided song seisiunna. Others may identify me as a singer, but I identify myself as a bodhranaí first and a singer second. 'S how it worked out, really. I've been going to more song seisiunna (admittedly, they're quite rare) of recent, so I decided to go to this one.
We had present:
Myself
Lisa (who I'd met at O'Flaherty a couple of years ago)
Lisa's fellow (I'm sure he's got a name, but I don't know it)
Linda
Jeff
Heather
Deanna
Mairtín (briefly)
Two other people whose names I never knew
One tenor guitar, which only Lisa could play.
We went round in a circle for a few times, but as we were all mostly fagged out, the seisiun sort of degenerated into filthy limericks. None of which I intend to repeat, but you can ask Jeff. :D Sniggering ensued. In all, I stayed in that seisiun longer than I'd planned I'd do - even though the choonz being played in the other room were making me fidget. By the time I gave in, I was too flat to do anything but Make Noise. Liz Carroll and John Cunningham were there, and it was grand just to listen to them. Ken took the room that the singers had been using for his own little seisiun a bit later on, but that was well after I'd decided I'd no more to offer and was likely catching cold (residual O'Flaherty exhaustion; it happens), so I went to my room. :D
And speaking of that room - it had a little balcony! And it was within sight of the pool! And if it had been warmer... :D I was really pleased.
Sunday
I was feeling more like hammered shite and less like a refreshing burst of sunlight. I'd go for a little while, and then I'd sort of stop going. We heard a few more bands, talked with Mark for a while (thanking him profusely for the restaurant recommendation - I could have wallowed in the korma), and I bought Irish language books. Actually, Shaddow bought them for me. :D I've got screeds of work to do between now and April, so... it's time I got to it, eh? Afterwards, we bought some sort of Food on a Stick (likeyado), sat beneath a tree, and listened to Needfire for a while before heading for home.
Saturday
We left in the morning to minimal fanfare. Alright, there wasn't fanfare at all. There were two brief stops - one for breakfast for us and another for breakfast for the car. Otherwise...it was a drive down to Austin. I suppose I should take in more of the scenery now that it's become so costly as to render such jaunts a bit infrequent. I did, as we passed them, remark at which trees were turning colours. So I wasn't completely switched off. :D
We arrived in Austin, paused to check into the hotel (where I realised that I must have left my driver's licence at the polls the night before), and after that had been sorted out, we drove to the festival. Amberhawke were still playing when we found their stage, so we sat to listen for a while. The last several festivals I've attended, I've been playing and Shaddow's been running a sound board. It made for a pleasant change to have nothing to do but wander about, browse the vendors, and decide which bands we wanted to see. And drink beer. We did that too. :D
We saw:
Andy M. Stewart (that one, yeh) and Gerry O'Bierne
Amberhawke (this is in no order, really)
Gilmer and Moore (who we know from THSP)
And...I think that was all for that day - oh, and a bit of Ed Miller (an Austin mainstay)
Mark was there - completely bedecked in UT colours. He and his wife (also done up in burnt orange and white cow heads) had planned an evening of Indian food and college football. He was at the festival teaching a workshop, but if he played with Heather and Jeff, he must have done before their later set (which we saw). My feelings concerning Mark can be summarised thusly: if he were to call me 'Grasshopper', I would reach for the pebble. We crossed paths a few times that day - in one of them, I saw him and recognised the shape of him before Shaddow (who'd turned his head to look at the stage) did. Mark played at trying to trip him up, and because Shaddow's attention was elsewhere, he nearly succeeded, much to his surprise. Fortunately, nobody lost an eye or too much face. :D
We met up with Amberhawke (sans Candy and Toar, who'd gone out for the evening with friends), and we all decided that Mark's glowing report of the Clay Pit was too tempting to pass up, so we went there as well. The place was rammed with people, and at first, it seemed as though we'd have quite the weight till they found a place to put us all. In the end , it was perhaps a quarter of an hour before we were ushered to a table in the corner.
I was and wasn't surprised when our path led us past Candy and Toar - of course they'd choose that place. We waved, chatted briefly, and then assumed our Table in the Corner. At some point, during the course of the evening, they Had an Idea. Toar tells it better We called her over afterwards to give her a round of applause. Good times.
We all drove back to the hotel for the usual festival seisiunna (which, I'll admit, was one of the primary reasons I wanted to go). Heather and told me there would be a song seisiun. For the last...Jesus, how long ago was it the Celtic Quill gave up the ghost? 1999? Nine years, I think. For the last nine years, I've mostly avoided song seisiunna. Others may identify me as a singer, but I identify myself as a bodhranaí first and a singer second. 'S how it worked out, really. I've been going to more song seisiunna (admittedly, they're quite rare) of recent, so I decided to go to this one.
We had present:
Myself
Lisa (who I'd met at O'Flaherty a couple of years ago)
Lisa's fellow (I'm sure he's got a name, but I don't know it)
Linda
Jeff
Heather
Deanna
Mairtín (briefly)
Two other people whose names I never knew
One tenor guitar, which only Lisa could play.
We went round in a circle for a few times, but as we were all mostly fagged out, the seisiun sort of degenerated into filthy limericks. None of which I intend to repeat, but you can ask Jeff. :D Sniggering ensued. In all, I stayed in that seisiun longer than I'd planned I'd do - even though the choonz being played in the other room were making me fidget. By the time I gave in, I was too flat to do anything but Make Noise. Liz Carroll and John Cunningham were there, and it was grand just to listen to them. Ken took the room that the singers had been using for his own little seisiun a bit later on, but that was well after I'd decided I'd no more to offer and was likely catching cold (residual O'Flaherty exhaustion; it happens), so I went to my room. :D
And speaking of that room - it had a little balcony! And it was within sight of the pool! And if it had been warmer... :D I was really pleased.
Sunday
I was feeling more like hammered shite and less like a refreshing burst of sunlight. I'd go for a little while, and then I'd sort of stop going. We heard a few more bands, talked with Mark for a while (thanking him profusely for the restaurant recommendation - I could have wallowed in the korma), and I bought Irish language books. Actually, Shaddow bought them for me. :D I've got screeds of work to do between now and April, so... it's time I got to it, eh? Afterwards, we bought some sort of Food on a Stick (likeyado), sat beneath a tree, and listened to Needfire for a while before heading for home.