tuesday night shoot the crows pub session

after a nap and a hearty vegetable lasagna dinner (thank you joan!) we ventured out with rick to attend our first trad music session at shoot the crows, a pub in the near by town of sligo.  rick and two other musicians have been the pub's tuesday night source of entertainment for the last three years, and tonight were joined by three others; completing the circle of two fiddle players, one who played both bazouki and tenor banjo, an accordion player, a mandola player and rick who brought along and irish concertina and five harmonicas which he built and tuned himself. in a dark corner, the six gathered 'round a small pub table close to the busy entranceway to shoots.  one tune melded into the next with seldom a word to indicate key or melody, which was visually demonstated by rick, who frequently switched between differently tuned harmonicas to be able to keep up with the churning melody.  the six took turns starting the medleys, and rick told us later that all the tunes were traditional irish and the majority originated from county sligo. when we arrived at 10pm the crowd was slim, but just a few minutes later when the group had played through no more than a couple, it was difficult for us to maneuver over to the bar for another round (we did manage, not to worry!). the entire pub, focused on the music, stomped their feet, closed their eyes, laughed and sipped their choice fluids till around half twelve (as they say). next week we'll be joining rick again for another session - and hopefully by then we'll find some better internet to post a video clips of the good time tuesdays...