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The Tavern

Hi there!

Despite having finished up there (for the time being) in October, I thought I'd give a wee explanation of our run of gigs we had in the Tavern, a restaurant/bar in Fort William High Street.
By 'we' I mean Liam and I.

Thanks to my mum, yet again, for getting us this fab gig - I swear she's basically my band manager. Liam and I had a lot of fun with this regular gig that started in the summer because it was just us two playing every Thursday night for a few hours with virtually no set-up required at all, no PA system or anything, which I particularly like because sound equipment and I are not the best of friends...
Also because of the cosy, friendly atmosphere which was a lot to do with the really nice folk that work there as well as the sort of customers they get. I think I liked playing in the Tavern because it's more of a restaurant really than a pub, and quite frankly some of the other pubs in town scare me a bit, aha. Well, I'm sure they're great but I prefer not to be hassled by loud drunk people when I'm playing, thank ye very muchos.

This gig got even better once I passed my driving test at the end of July (woo!) because it understandably got a lot easier transport-wise. Having such an informal gig once every week was great to give Liam and I the chance to, like, go over tunes, introduce each other to new tunes and ideas, arrange sets, discuss other gigs AND just get the craic, eyyyyy
Cause right now we don't really meet very regularly to practice (if at all) and I've got a few ideas and stuff for us and I just know his head will be spilling over with new tunes and plans for new sets and what not to present to me, as it always is.

And I'm not gonna lie, the Tavern was goooood monay. Lovely, generous people. Not only with our payment, but the amount of TIPS we got from customers! JEEZO. There was actually a man trying to shove a tenner into Liam's pocket once while we were still playing, I kid you not. It does surprise me sometimes how much people like us/our music, but of course i'm still really grateful for all of the lovely comments and praise we received as it's obviously very gratifying and also very encouraging for us.

So ultimately this was just a really fun gig for us to play, and I really hope we get asked back to play at some point next year!

Yaaay for slightly awkward posed photos!

Irish for Elbow

Despite the actual Ceilidh Trail tour having come to an end almost 5 weeks ago, the band's work is not finished just yet. On Friday the 5th of September we ("Feis Lochabair") joined other youthful, energetic traditional band Hò-rò and slightly less youthful yet more experienced musicians Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson for one of the first gigs of this year's Blas Festival. For those who don't know, the Blas Festival was set up to celebrate the culture of traditional music and Gaelic in the Highlands and consists of various (mainly musical) performances from a variety of different artists/bands in several venues and locations over the area. This year it's running from the 5th - 13th of September.

Our venue on Friday was the local(ish) village hall in Roy Bridge. It was nice to be reunited with the band yet the fact that we hadn't played as a full ensemble in over a month was, I imagine, lurking in the back of all our minds. We had nothing to worry about though as our little opening 15 minute slot consisting of our 3 most polished and entertaining sets (I refer largely to our step-dancing set here, starring Hannah, Joanne and their fancy shoes) went down a treat, despite the odd squeak or croak here and there...

Next up on the stage were Hò-rò, which consists of Crisdean MacDonald, Calum MacPhail, Lucy Doogan and Sean Cousins. I've met some before, seen some play, and played with one myself but I'd never witnessed them performing as Hò-rò before, and they did not disappoint! They really are a dynamic, driven group of musicians with really tasteful style and oodles of talent. They know how to get the audience going (as I've seen in videos from them playing much bigger, more bustling venues) and all of their material is finely and tightly arranged, contributing to how they come across so professional and can keep the crowd engaged. I was particularly impressed when Sean's guitar string broke mid-tune yet he did not fret (pardon the pun...) as he swiftly whipped out a second guitar from behind him after finishing of the set. I wish I was that prepared, aha. Also Lucy Doogan has the most lovely voice that I think everyone needs to hear! A song she did in particular (Mo Ghleannan taobh Loch Liobhainn) I'm doing myself for college so listening to her sing this made my heart break with both admiration and jealousy. Though good hearted jealousy! Really, it was beautiful.


I did manage to get a tiny bit of footage before my phone ran out of battery that I was going to share with you, however there's something wrong with the file and I'm too lazy to figure out what so I reckon you should just go check them oot yourself and give 'em a wee like too:
 https://www.facebook.com/MusicHoro

  It's safe to say I thoroughly enjoyed their performance that night and was left feeling energized by it myself!

Thennn after a wee break for tea/coffee and a raffle Ross and Jarlath took to the stage with their guitarist man Matheu Watson. I could go on an on about the technicalities of how good they were but I'm just going to put it plainly: they're pretty feckin' awesome. I confess that I'd never actually heard of them before we were advertised to be playing at the same gig, and even then I was too lazy to do any research. But, man, am I sorry I didn't find them sooner.
Seriously.
Amazing. 

Of course I had to buy their CD after the gig, and I would like to think that if I gave that CD to anyone who claimed they hated bagpipes that they would be converted and could really appreciate the sounds made by these incredible musicians. Like, seriously, I have tried and failed to work a set of small pipes before and they remain a complete mystery to me... It amazes me how anyone can even get one proper note out of them never mind play them like these guys do.
Here's a video I found that gives you a little taste of what they can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UJwh7tR36o


And, like always, you've got to have a big stramash at the end when you've played with other bands. So all 15 of us squeezed onto the little stage (it was quite cosy) to play a big finale set together and get very hot and sweaty. All the while I was being punched in the ribs by the box player on my right and elbowed in the chest by the fiddler on my left. It was great fun! (Genuinely not sarcasm.)

So overall I had a fantastic night and I would imagine everyone else did too. 
And seeing these great musicians that I'd never heard of before has made me realise how much other good stuff there probably is kicking about that I'm missing out on just because I haven't looked hard enough.

I'm away to explore.




I apologise for the lack of media/pictures on this post, so please enjoy this silly picture of our fiddler (Eddie), box player (Michael) and piper (Ewen), which is one of about 800 I found after they hijacked my phone one night... thanks, guys.

Ceilidh Trail highlights! (Pt 2)

Greetings!

So we return to my 2014 Ceilidh Trail highlights. To continue in linear order (note that these are not completely in order of preference), the next gig I shall highlight is

 Glasgow Green

I think it's safe to say this was the biggest stage I've ever played on...

This wasn't it on the day, there were actually people there when we were. 

But here we are looking quite the part in our swanky blue Lochaber Ceilidh Trail tshirts (which, I'll admit, did take some time to grow on me):

So this gig was obviously memorable due to the scale of it and also because it was just pretty cool to be part of the Commonwealth Games which obviously isn't something that comes round too often, so we were quite lucky. However, each group (Cairngorms Ceilidh Trail, Argyll Ceilidh Trail, and us) only played for, what, 8 minutes each I think? Which doesn't sound like a lot but we also did a big joint set at the end, which went okay I think considering we'd only had one practice at it together beforehand, aha. We were also on a bit of a tight time schedule that day, after taking the minibus down to Balloch, getting the train from there to Glasgow and then having to walk through the bustling city centre in the icky sticky heat with instruments in hand. 

AND THEN...

We had to literally run away from Glasgow Green, obviously not quick enough though because our impatient taxi drivers went away without us, thus leaving us to speed-walk back to the train on which multiple sessions were had! Which was pretty cool. I personally didn't join in because I was too tired but the tourists (and locals probably, too) were LOVING it. 30 traditional musicians crammed into a train for an hour or so; it was bound to happen. I actually heard a lady exclaim as we all piled off of the train "There's so many of them!" which I found amusing as it was as if we were some kind of different species that had infested the carriages.

So all of this rushing about was to get back to Loch Lomond shores where we all joined Breabach onstage! Despite it being literally for about 3-4 minutes at the end of their set and only a few people being able to grab mics if they could reach one, it was still a good experience. Breabach are one of my favourite bands and it's pretty cool to be able to say we've played with them. 

And to finish off this highlight, I present you with a photo that I found particularly scary:

Glenfinnan

The next gig that stood out for me was our night time session in Glenfinnan House Hotel. I am no stranger to music sessions here and they're usually always great nights to be had but this one in particular on the 31st of July was kind of extra special for me, aha. The whole day actually was because... *drumroll* I passed my driving test! Woop woop. I was obviously stoked on that for the rest of the day so that night I went and picked up the boyf myself and drove to Glenfinnan to have nice meal beforehand with some of my fam. AND THENNNN to top off a great day/night, not only was this the last gig with all 8 of us (Ewen was leaving us to go on holiday) but my good pals Kevin and Natalie who did the Ceilidh Trail last year showed up too! I hadn't seen or played with them in aages and was so so happy to see them. I guess I just generally had a really enjoyable night overall, I hope everyone else did too!

The only picture I have of that night is a very poor quality selfie of Kevin, Natalie and I looking very, very happy:

                                      Photobomb?

       Isle of Eigg

I have no idea why we didn't go here last time. 

This was my first trip to the Isle of Eigg, and, like Muck, the weather was great! People should go to the Small Isles more often. So beautiful. 

After a day of sleeping on the ferry over, lunching at Eigg's only cafe and then hanging out at our surprisingly nice accomodation, we headed over on foot to the hall where there was a sound man already waiting to set us all up. This is always good because we don't have to do much and they actually know what they're doing... 

The hall was so nice though! It was all in the forest and wooden and had pretty paper decorations hanging around the place and lots of, like, organicy eco-ey stuff as Eigg is the first place to be completely powered by renewable energy- woop!

The concert/ceilidh itself was great too, with a good turnout and very enthusiastic dancers. (I have heard that they are eager partiers on Eigg).

And that kind of leads us onto the bird man...

When we were first on our way to our house we came across a couple of girls who asked us if we'd happened to see a man dressed as a bird at all... Understandably we apologized and said no we hadn't with slight confusion and amusement, then brushed it off and continued on our way. But then later on when we were mid ceilidh and the floor was full, something caught my eye and right enough, there he was: the Bird Man. He was dancing about the hall quite the thing in his feathery suit, beak and all.

I even spoke to a nice American lady in the break who was very bewildered about the Bird Man and told us that nobody had even blinked an eye when he entered, yet nobody actually knew his story. I guess they just accepted it.

(I'm hoping this video actually works as I am still new to this blogging business and it's being a bit weird)

I also wish I got a proper video because, as you can see, this was saved from my snapchat but it's the only evidence I have of the mysterious Bird Man.

AND SO

my 2014 Ceilidh Trail highlights come to an end. There were so many other good experiences and great things that happened but these are just the ones that stood out for me. 

I hope this has entertained you a little and it will hopefully not be as long until my next post as I have been kept very busy with lots of other gigs recently!

Adios!

I'm not sure what my privacy settings are like on Facebook, but just in case you missed it there, here's a link to my beautiful photo album of sleeping Ceilidh Trailers which I take great pride in:

https://www.facebook.com/lauren.byrne.165/media_set?set=a.917732764919776.1073741828.100000491831407&type=3

Ceilidh Trail highlights! (Pt 1)

Well, well, well

I was kind of planning on keeping an account of the 2014 Ceilidh Trail while it was happening but I'm quite happy that I didn't because I don't think would've had the energy or concentration to even construct one simple sentence during the past 3 weeks due to how drained I was from the tour. 

So for those of you who don't really know, the Ceilidh Trail is put together by Feisean nan Gaidhael and it's basically a ceilidh band (with a maximum of 8 members) that different people, aged 16-25, can audition for each year and they go on tour around their area for maybe 3 or 4 weeks in the summer. It changes each year. So there are many ceilidh trails for different areas of Scotland, for example Lochaber (woo!) or Stirling or Argyll and loads loads more. 

This year they TOTALLY crammed in the gigs for us, with us only having one day off in the whole 3 weeks, including 2 gigs a day sometimes and a few overnight stays. We had, say, like, 20 gigs overall? It was hard going but also extremely fun! And since I did it last year and enjoyed it so much I found it hard not to keep comparing this year's to last's, though I wouldn't be able to make a decision to say which was better because I kind of knew what to expect this time and there were different people and different gigs and what not, so they were different, yes, but I enjoyed them the same for all different reasons!

Since there were so many gigs and so much that happened throughout the whole tour, I won't bore you completely with my account of the whole entire thing (plus I think that would be impossible for me to type out) so I'll pick out my personal highlights of this year. 

        Arisaig - Astley Hall

Monday the 21st of July was our first proper concert gig (the others before were all sessiony) and the reason I liked this one is largely because of the overall success of the gig! Considering it was pretty much all us- we just hired the hall and got on with it. We did have our good parents helping out with raffle tickets/drinks etc. which was handy. So we did some of our arranged concert sets at the beginning then moved on to a proper ceilidh, which were both well attended largely thanks to our local Arisaig fiddler Eddie (3rd along) who got all his pals to come, and who seemed to get a noticeably louder cheer than the rest of us when the band was introduced...  

            Isle of Muck

For those unsure of the location/size of Muck, here is where it is and how we got there (with a nice big handy and probably unnecessary red arrow)

 

It's pretty darn tiny! 

Although we got such good weather for Muck! The reason I liked this one so much was probably not so much for the gig itself but for the swimming! We basically just hung out at our own wee private beach all day, which isn't actually as seaweedy as it might look. It was so, so nice- almost felt like we were abroad. However a few of us, who are probably so used to swimming in rivers and freshwater lochs, may have forgotten that the sea happens to be a wee bit salty... bleh. And the people of Muck are so friendly and hospitable- I think most small communities tend to be. I so wanted to stay longer there!

And here we all are on the ferry over, featuring our new friend in the centre, the King of Photobombing. He totally wanted to be in the band.

Aaaaand I'll stop here for now and continue with my favourites in my next post because I don't want to rush it and cram it all in at once. I'd say there's another 2, maybe 3 gigs I'll highlight, including when we played at the Commonwealth Games! 

So bye for now, and I hope this was at least a little bit interesting to read!

To be continued................. (haha)

I stole a few of these photos from fellow band members, hope y'all don't mind!

First post

Let's see how this goes.

So last night we played the Thursday night session in the bar at Glenfinnan House Hotel! Glenfinnan sessions have to be my all time favourite as it's so close to home and I'm so familiar with the hotel itself (my Mum's worked there since I was born). We had the usual lot with us: Liam on the box, myself on guitar, Hannah on the fiddle and Matthew on the... cajon? We like to call it the Slappy Drum Box Thingy. Oh and Liam's brother joined in for a few sets.

This group's played a good few sessions there over the winter and the past two weeks in the Easter holidays and usually it's such a great atmosphere in the pub there, however last night it was particularly quiet for most of the night. BUT a few more folk arrived later on and of course just as we started packing away at half 11 an encore was requested! So we happily obliged and played another lively set of jigs for the very appreciative audience.

No more gigs lined up for Glenfinnan at the moment but we'll surely be asked to play a few sessions in the future! 

Next gig for me: Saturday night, Highland Hotel