The nicest thing just happened to me. I was at the park during my lunch, taking advantage of what may very well be the last warm sunny day for 5-6 months, practicing some slo jam tunes.

As I was packing up to come back to the office, a lady walked by and thanked me for the lovely music. She said she very much enjoyed eating her lunch and listening. I was embarrassed as hell, because I'm working on a couple new pieces (Planxty Irwin and Merrily Kiss the Quaker) and was not doing too well.

That just made my week.

Anyone else have a warm fuzzy concertina story?

No, but I have a "cold shower" experience to share ...

I played a song I know about a young sailor dying at sea at a music school I go to without thinking that a friend of mine and her husband had just heard that her father had died. She very sensibly left the room before I started, but he didn't and was in tears by the time I'd finished. I felt mortified that I had upset him so, but he said that the tune was a good catalyst for his feelings. I still feel bad about it ...

Samantha

Another "warm fuzzie". I was staying at my Sister-in-Law's home in Liverpool, England last year while travelling to/from Ireland. I played my Jeffries in the back garden, just for self-enjoyment for several hours. When I had finished, the woman who lived next door stuck her head over the fence and told me that she was from County Mayo, Ireland, and that the music was like "going home again." Then she asked me if I could play agin that evening for her husband, who was presently at work. Of course I agreed, and we had a most enjoyable evening talking about Ireland!! "Ya never know who's listening."

Hi:

I was on vacation with my family in August on beautiful Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada.
We went to visit the extreme western tip of the island known as North Cape.
It was very late in the afternoon and as the sun set I was felt inspired and decided I had to play as I watched the sun go down and the sky turn deep orange and deep blue.
(Click on my profile to the left to see this amazing event)

I only have a few tunes somewhat memorized and it is those I attempted to play.

I was concerned about emabarassing my wife, my 10-year old daughter, Claudia (whom I'm sure was embarrased anyway. She's at that age, you know, and I'm sure will remain there until she's an adult) and myself but decided I really wanted to do this.

Anyway one of the few tunes I have somewhat down is "Greensleeves"which I played as both I and the sunset were gawked at.

I thought I must sound terrible and must have looked like a idiot.
All I could hear in the quiet of the late afternoon were my few flubs, but continued on to finish the tune which I have down somewhat pretty well.

A few minutes late after the sun dipped below the horizon, a women (another tourist) came over to let me know how much she enjoyed my playing and almost in tears (maybe she was, it was getting dark) told me it was her late father's favorite song and thanked me profusely for playing it and letting me know how beautiful my playing was.

Man, did I feel fuzzy and I was warm!

I'll take compliments and experiences like that at any time of the day, anywhere!!!!!!

I also think her compliments put me in good stead with my otherwise questioning family.

A few days layer we attended our first ever Ceileigh in a small fishing village on the island.
Amazing music, an incredible experience.
I can't wait to go back and do it all over again!!!

Best,
Perry Werner

I am getting all warm and fuzzy just reading

Keep 'em coming.

Sharron

Rhomylly,

What a super idea for a posting (thread, I don't know what to call these thingys to which we are attaching stuff.)

Samantha, take heart. your friend was telling you the truth when he said your playing was a catalyst for his feelings. It's awfully hard to take when someone is experiencing deep emotions, especially sad ones, but it very probably did give him some much needed relief.

Hard for you, though, when someone breaks down because you are playing.

I hope the warm fuzzies keep coming as I am thoroughly enjoying them.

Helen

I go to my local folk music club most weeks, and people are kind enough to say they are very impressed by my playing. However, I must keep reminding myself that I am the only concertina player they see regularly. The problems arise on the few occasions when one or more of them has seen someone of the calibre of John Kirkpatrick or Alistair Anderson.

- John Wild

Before my mother died she was in the hospital following a stroke. She was unable to communicate and probably unaware of anything. Still my brother or I would visit her every day. At some point I started to bring an English concertina with brass reeds that had a quiet mellow sound. I would play whatever came to mind trying to think of tunes that she would have known. My mother was in a private room and I tried to play quietly but after awhile the medical staff would tell me how much they enjoyed my playing. Once some visitors to the patient in the next room peeked into my mother's room and complimented me on my playing then asked if I would play something for there loved one. I'm not a particularly good player but I believe that my playing did have a positive effect on a dificult situation.

Probably one of the the most rewarding musical fuzzies I've had -- twice, actually, didn't really involve the concertina, but did have to do with playing/singing.

Years ago when my daughter was little (now she's in college), I thought she realized how 'hokey' and amateur I was, at my performing (singing, guitar, etc.). I did sing songs with her, though.

One day, when she was about...what, um, five or six years old? She picked up my copy of a Joni Mitchell album, which I'd been playing, looked at it for a moment, then at me, and said, "Mommy -- is that you?"

She also thought I was on the cover of the album made by some notable storytellers.

I don't really look much like either of these artists, but... whatever. I just thought it was cute that, to her, I sounded that good!

And that's no small compliment, maybe...lol...she's already recorded on her own CD, with her (former) rock band.

(Me, I don't really have any interest in making a CD, I just do hokey cassettes.)

Further to John Wild,
We were playing in a restaurant and someone said - "I didn't know you were actually playing it - it sounds jsut like the real thing".
I am still confused as to what she meant.

We have a small group (a guitarist and his wife on flute, my wife on djembe and vocals, and me on Anglo concertina) that periodically plays at a local retirement community . Our music comprises a tour of Europe, with tunes from Italy, Germany, Austria, England, and (my influence) Ireland. This time around, we even did a Tango.

The Irish numbers we played, which I found in various compilations, were
*Wheels of the World,
*Daniel O'Connell the home ruler/Tomgraney Castle medley,
*Shandon Bells/Ship in Full Sail medley,
*The Humours of Ennistymon/The Bride's Favourite medley,
*The Eavesdropper/Cuil Aodha jig/Johnny O'Leary's Slide medley,
and of course
*Danny Boy.

We also have a nice 'tina/flute version of Ashokan Farewell (I know--it's not technically part of the "tour".).

The reaction of the audience was truly gratifying--they really appreciated our being there. One can never overestimate the effect that live music has on people, even if it isn't played perfectly.

For my own part, I enjoy observing how I think in the situation where I'm both responding to the other instruments and making eye contact with members of the audience. Normally, I can't talk and play at the same time, but while preparing for this performance, I found myself able to whistle the flute part while playing the concertina and coaching the djembe! (Actually, this is a major reason I took up the 'tina four years ago--to find new ways to make my brain work.)

Greg Passty

At a weekend music gathering last spring, an eagerly-awaited friend, a prominent fiddler, was late showing up. Then the news came: she had been killed in a highway wreck in the night on her way to the gathering. Every tune anyone played all weekend made them think of her, especially old bandmates and people who were to be in the studio with her the following Monday. Sunday morning we all put together a service. At one point I launched into Neil Gow's Lament for his Second Wife, and a harp-playing friend joined in. It was the best I had ever played it, it really hit the spot where everone was at, and I _still_ get complements about it from people who are better musicians than me.

-Eric Root

Hello

This is my favorite topic on the Forum. Eric: your compliments probably came from those who recognized that you were a better musician than they -- at least that day. The good musician is the one who can evoke feeling, everything else is a means to that end, or irrelevant. On a good day, she or he is a conduit through which something flows that belongs to all of us.

Eric,

I am so sorry about you friend.

Paul,

What a nice way to put what I was feeling, but didn't know how to say.

My dear old Aunt died about a year ago,she was a lovely lady who looked after me a lot when I was younger and even when I was older she allways wanted to fatten me up.Shortly after she died I wrote Auntie Ada`s Waltz in her memory and I cannot express my feelings when after about three times playing it in a session all the musicians joined in.Unfortunately her sister Jean my mother died a few months later and I now play the two waltzes together.One strong way I can keep their memory alive.
I am sure you feel the same way Eric whenever you play your friends tune,I can fully understand your emotions.
Kind regards
Alan

QUOTE: Neil Gow's Lament for his Second Wife

My sometimes malicious sense of humour prompted the thought that perhaps he did not think so much of his first wife! (My excuse - it is halloween!)

On the contrary. It's the second wife he considered lamentable, not the first.

Try Neil Gow's 'Lament on the death of his brother Donald', I found this tune two or three weeks before of the sudden death of my closest and dearest friend, played it in a club the night before his funeral. Not wishing to be morbid, but I had found it particularly haunting even before Roy died, more so than Gow's 'Lament for his Second Wife'.

Music and emotion, I don't play the tune much any more, but I would recommend it for those more introspective moments.

Interesting though, brothers have names, wives have numbers....... OooCh

Dave

Sometimes brothers have numbers. My nephew has a half brother.

Top half, Bottom half, Left or Right?

Sounds messy to live with - no offense intended.

Dave

Jim,

Does your niece have the other half?

Helen

None of the above. It's more like every other atom, so the result resembles a (warm) fuzzy halftone image.

Hi All,--I'm the new kid on the block-(that is to the forum)- and this is the first time I have ever sent anything to any discussion group. I dont have any "warm fuzzy,s" to give you other than reading your's, but I do have a question. I would very much like to know if anyone of you live any where near my location. I live in central Nebraska and would really like to get together and do some jamming. I have been playing the concertina for several year's now but have never met anyone around here that also play's play's or own's one---Ronf

Hey Jim,

You made the half brother into a warm fuzzy. How slick. And apt.

Helen

Warm Fuzzy: Yesterday morning I went for a walk with my mother and grandmother. When we returned we were standing in the driveway, just talking and enjoying the morning when my mother asked me to get my concertina and play a few tunes. After doing so my Grandmother (she's 88) asked if I knew any "older tunes". I asked her to give suggestions. She began singing different songs, some I remembered as a child, others I had never heard before. I play by ear so am able to pick out a tune, at least the simple melody, very quickly. We sang and played several old tunes and the look on her face as she sang them along with my simple playing was priceless. It was so evident in her expression that she was enjoying the fond memories that the songs brought. It was also creating a memory for me that will always be "warm and fuzzy".

Steve,

Thank you for another heartwarmer. I have had similar experiences and know several concertina players who often sing (and lead sing-alongs) at retirement homes and care facilities. Concertinas are perfect instruments for the popular songs of that generation due to their portability, volume, expressiveness, and even their "period" (with the different types originating in the 19th through early 20th centuries).

Can you share with us where she grew up and some of the songs the both of you remembered?

Paul

Ronf-

You may not find any concertina players in your part of town, but you might have better luck searching out fiddle players. Concertina and fiddle is a much nicer combination (to my mind) than more than one concertina playing together.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

She grew up in Alabama, in a small town east of Montgomery. The songs that we were singing/playing were "Let me call you sweetheart"(her favorite), "Tennessee Waltz"(my departed Grandfather's favorite), and several songs that she used to sing to us as children that I just don't know the names of. They may have been made up by her or another family member. Also a couple of old instrumental tunes, "Turkey in the straw" and one that I think is called "Under the double eagle".

Yep. Under the Double Eagle, originally an Austrian military march, is a favorite bluegrass or old country instrumental tune, often as a flatpicked guitar solo.

It is strange this music and emotion.As an English man the American National Anthem does nothing for me, but I must admit when the Queen asked for it to be played soon after 11/9 in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, I joined in with the tears of the American visitors and others that stood outside to watch.
Regards
Alan

I agree, Alan. I think sometimes music has context.

Eric, I didn't know Under the Double Eagle was originally an Austrian tune. I've played it on my hammer dulcimer in the mountains of West Virginia.

Helen

Steve,

Thanks! Do you think you could unobtrusively get a portable tape recorder near her for the next one of these "remembered tunes" sessions? Particularly the unique family songs may prove precious to you and others (even outside the family). But also the homemade versions of more familiar tunes may have their own uniqueness that should be preserved - if you can do it without spoiling the moment. Sometimes a few days after a session like this, an older person will come back with even more music.

Paul

I have it on a tape of German and Austrian regimental band music I picked up in Germany years ago. It's been so absorbed into the tradition in America, most folks think "double eagle' refers to the old U.S. 20-dollar gold piece, but actually it refers to that two-headed bird you see on old imperial logos from central Europe. Unter dem Doppeladler (grammar?) is the original title, I believe.

Wow, Eric, that's great.

It just seems so odd to me that something I learned in the back woods came from so far away.

Do you know anything about Blackberry Blossom? I really love that tune and I learned it in West Virginia also.

Helen

PS I realize you knew about the other tune because you had it on a tape, but who knows, you might have hidden reservoirs of knowledge. Or someone else might.

Thanks again.

Not strange at all. *Lots* of common Appalachian tunes came originally from Ireland, Scotland, or elsewhere. In other parts of the US tunes might have come from Germany, Sweden, or some other European country, as well, yet remain in circulation after more than 200 years. Soldier's Joy is my favorite for this, since it seems to be considered a "local" tune almost everywhere, including not only England, Ireland, and Scotland, but Finland and Poland, that I know of.

Sometimes independent origin can't be entirely ruled out. I have a recording of the Moisieyev Ukrainian Dance Company where one of the dance tunes is precisely that of the children's song I know as I'm a little teapot. I belive that one really is an American tune, but I have no idea of the exact origin.

Oh boy, I'm gonna regret this, but I tap danced on television to I'm a little teapot when I was a very little child.

Maybe David won't see this and harrass me forever. ANYWAY, I'm responding to Jim.

I knew Appalachian tunes came from Ireland and Scotland, I just never thought of Austria as an origin. That is so neat.

And Soldier's Joy being thought of as original in so many countries is awesome.

I've spared the forum and done my harassing via another medium.

Fie on you, David. Fie Fie.

Why don't you spare me and harrass the forum?

Last July my dear old Uncle Bill died after a long decline. As is usual in our family, we took his ashes to my childhood home on a small coastal river. From the family rowboat we poured the ashes into the river while the rest of the gathering watched from the deck of the house. I played The Banks of Sullane while the deposition went on. It is one of the most mournful and beautiful tunes that I have.
When his time comes I will put my father there; when it's my turn, I too, will wash downstream to the Pacific. Maybe someone will be kind enough to play for me.

Well, in the case of Under the Double Eagle, I doubt that it's part of any Appalachian family's ancient immigrant heritage. Popular songs and tunes can work there way into tradition from outside, too, and I'm pretty sure that Under the Double Eagle has been popular with marching bands from John Philip Sousa's time (if not before) up to the present. In fact, when I played in a marching band as a kid, I thought it was one of Sousa's own.

Robert your posting reminded me of words that were said at a non religious funeral I went to recently.It was a quote by George Bernard Shaw and I am sorry that I cannot quote the words exactly but it went as follows,
That life is like a river,its starts as a stream quickly darting twisting and turning down a mountain side,until it joins a river and then steadily and sedately moves through the countryside at a slow leasurely pace until it opens up into the sea.
Alan

Alan, that was lovely.

Jim, is the marching band where you played the tuba?

No. Trumpet and French horn in marching bands. Tuba was independent and later in life.

I love the idea of the tuba. Was it just for fun?

It was, but I never got very good at it. Still not sure whether the problem was me or the tuba, since I did learn to play my brother's trombone.

I decided to try it after hearing a couple of tuba players on separate occasions do beautiful work with traditional dance music. E.g., string band with fiddle, mandolin, and tuba, and the tuba doing much more than "oom pahe.g., running bass lines and even sometimes melody.

Maybe I'll try again, some day. I have this fantasy of a tuba-uilleann pipes duo. Maybe an anglo instead of the pipes?

Hey Jim,

Is that an invitation?

I'll have to start practicing!

I'm still blown away that you tried the tuba. I'm fooling around with an alto sax. I like the fact that it is so different from everything else I play.

Helen

Again I shall stray a bit off topic, but, it IS about a marching band...

I have to brag SOMEWHERE...didn't want to start a whole new thread...about my daughter's accomplishments in the UMASS Minuteman Marching Band.

(Re the Minuteman/Bunker Hill reference...my apologies to those of you ('Redcoats') in the UK, the mother country, but....well, it's all just history, now....there WAS a move a while ago to try to change that name to the Grey Wolves or something, but, nobody went for it.)

Anyway, she's in the Drumline: http://www.umassdrumline.org/

Click on the 'Media' link, then, listen to the sound files if you want....see where you'd put in the concertinas? Hahah

I love 'Birdland,' but, my daughter (Rainy) recommends the 'Conga' one or 'Cadence.'

BTW, the football team is so far undefeated! So is Rainy...she just keeps marching, even when it's cold....

She is one of the cymbal players, in the cymbal line, and you can see her in the pics but it's hard to explain here which one she is. She's shorter than most of the players, has her hair dyed red/pink here, and has it in short ponytails...

I do have some more recent, clearer pics, but not able to post them yet.

I am so impressed with how hard these players work. I go to most of the home games to hear them and see them march.

The training has just about been like the military! But, once you make it throught the 'boot camp,' band camp, things get better.

So...the concertina...

Should we have a concertina boot camp? Oh, no...

Hi--I'd like to share my warm fuzzy experience: While on my honeymoon, which was a 3 week cross country trip, my wife and I brought our instruments with us. While we were staying at my parent's home, we had a dinner party with some of my relatives and old family friends. They asked us to play some music for them, so we played some old time and Irish tunes-which they liked okay (i think?). But then a neighbor of my parent's brought down a tune book of old Yiddish folk and Yiddish theater songs. As we started to sight read through the tunes, they all perked up and started clapping and dancing, and singing along--Wow -it was groovy--When I think about this experience,it brings joy to my heart. Unfortunately, most of these relatives are now deceased.. Luckily, a friend of mine,
who was there, made a video of it--so I can revist this memory--when the mood strikes---Wow- I haven't shared this story in a long time--thanks for the oppotunity---Steven---

Great story Steven.

What instruments do you and your wife play?

Hi Helen- I play 5-string banjo (old-time clawhammer), English concertina, Anglo concertina, and Bodhran. My wife,Ruth, plays fiddle, Celtic harp,and piano accordian (and over the years has played some flute, clarinet, and mandolin. We are currently playing in an old-time band called :"Public Domain String Band", and we occassional perform and play for dances as a duet. I also play in a contra dance band called: "Loose Shoes".--Steven--