One of the things I learned at Neffa today was that Tom Hall had heart valve and bypass surgery last week. The long thread on www.mudcat.org forum (try searching "curmudgeon" which is Tom's online name) makes it sound like he is recovering, albeit slowly.

If you don't know Tom I give him credit for keeping the song torch burning in a fair part of New England. The weekly Friday night and monthly Saturday shanty sessions are among the best music jams I have been to anywhere, and I have been to a few. So my best wishes (and yours, I'm sure) to Tom for a speedy recovery and return to singing and playing English concertina.

Ken Coles

I certainly enjoyed hearing Tom and the other people in Portsmouth sing and play, hope to hear more, sometime. I do hope he recovers well and quickly!

Here's a link to the Mudcat thread: Curmudgeion Hospitalized

I went to the New Hampshire session last night and it was great to see Tom back. He is still recovering, but singing pretty well already. Music speeds healing, as they say.

Is this a regular thing? I'd loveto know when it is. I live in Maine and go to N.H. to see family and would love to pop by!

Good news about Tom. My mom had the same surgery 12 years ago and is still going stong. Modern medicine is miraculous.

Lisa,

Somehow I had the impression you (and most down easters on C.net) knew all about this. Two different sessions:

Fridays start (officially) at 4:30 P.M. and run until 9 P.M. A wide-ranging mix of songs and tunes, very well done and chosen, a credit both to the taste and skill of the participants and to Tom for nurturing this mix over many years. A few folks choose most of the songs and tune sets, but anyone is welcome to give it a try and we all do before too long, it is that positive an atmosphere.

Once a month (generally the third Saturday) there is what is called a "shanty session." Other types of songs (both ballad and chorus songs) are also done, but many are nautical. This starts at 3:30 P.M. and runs to 7:30 P.M. These sessions are always announced a few days in advance on www.mudcat.com; go to the forums and search on "shanty" or on "curmudgeon", Tom's online identity.

Both are at the Press Room on Daniel St. in downtown (historic) Portsmouth, N.H. I forget the exact address but Daniel Street is only two blocks long. Allow yourself time to find a scarce parking space at the street meters, and on Saturdays be prepared to run outside and feed coins if you attend the entire session -- the police have absolutely no mercy. They even ticket tow trucks. Or you can spend more and park in the municipal garage a few blocks away. The Press Room is convivial, but often noisy (though now that it is warm, the crowds don't come in until dark). The A/C was on this week and is very loud. There is adequate food and a great selection of drafts.

Concertinas are common at these meetings (about the only sessions in all the U.S. where I have met other concertinists more than once). You may at any time bump into Jeff Warner (Aeola T-T and Edeophone baritone), Emery Hutchins (several nice anglos), and other accomplished players of both EC and AC (as well as beginners and dabblers). I won't make it on a Friday for at least two weeks (trip to Chicago next week for a fellow concertinist's ordination - I wrote a tune for the occasion!, Father Tom's hornpipe - and the Mystic Sea Music Festival in early June) but expect to be at the June shanty session.

It now looks like I will be leaving New England this summer for a new job elsewhere, and these sessions are something I will miss as much as anything else I've done in my short time here.


Ken