Rhomylly

And, of course, I'm already looking for local (semi-local) players (waves at Joe!) We'll be in Manitowoc, on Lake Michigan, some time after the first week in August. Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Green Bay, Appleton, these are all doable locations -- and I already have plans to attend the Irish school events next summer.

Yes! It's the elusive Rhomylly coming out of hiding (i.e. school, packing to move, etc. etc.) We're moving to eastern Wisconsin in a week, and this is useful information to know. I was thinking about learning some polka music (probably on the PA), and now I know that this is a good place to avoid. As always, C-Net has the best information!

Sorry I couldn't make it either. With a definite household move this summer, the travel funds just weren't there.

Re the job: Won't know if he'll be invited to an on-campus interview for another couple weeks or so.

Almost exclusively social, at a session here in town I started myself.

Well, if you're really into driving...we have a jam in Portales (far east central) the second and fourth Sunday of each month. A little Irish, a little old time, a little bluegrass, whatever we feel like playing that day.

Your English is fine! Welcome to this online family of concertina players!

Cross your fingers, spit in your hat, and light a candle. My spouse has applied for a professor job at UVa Wise starting fall 2008.

I'm not Helen (alas), but I haven't been posting much lately either... I too have been considering (seriously considering) adding a piano accordion and/or a button accordion to my instrument shelf. I am now going to go check and see if I can find Luca Music online.

That picture is priceless! think anyone will post a write-up of the week?

What's the status of the tour? Am I still on the list of stops?

Is it just me, or does the guy on the far right of the photo Stephen posted look a heck of a lot like that wild and crazy freereeder Lawrence Welk?

Well now. When my overly-controlling mother finally shuffles off this mortal coil and I start getting "trust fund" money -- I know who to donate it to! P.S. I've found in the last few days I'm quite good at ferreting out who holds copyright to what music.

The magazine is based in Maryland. Apparently the editor is quite the regular at the Maryland Renaissance Faire. I was quite pleased with the layout, other than lack of captions for the pics I sent.

I just got my contributor copies today of the Spring Issue of Pirates! Magazine which features an article (by me) about a brief history of concertinas and their connection to Hollywood pirate and other nautical movies. http://piratesmagazine.com/ Sadly, the article is not available online. As soon as this issue of the magazine is off the newsstands, I am going to ask the editor for permission to reprint it in the article section of C-Net. I'm tickled with the layout, including a lovely photo of my Edgley and my student Wheatstone. How the Stagi got in there, I do not know. Frank, your copy is on the way, as promised. At the end of the article, I invite interested readers to check us out here. Prepare for a pirate invasion

Noah did.

Some quick clarifications: The book is aimed at people with no previous exposure to this material. They will all be beginners. My one advantage is I've been to Pinewoods several times, grew up going to Berea Christmas school and been on various morris teams, part of ECD performance groups, etc. etc. I think the iTune list is to give groups with no musicians (or musicians who can't read dots) the music. I do not expect the people who are interested in this stuff to be interested in performing it in public. I do expect them to incorporate it into their personal or small group religious practice. That's the focus of the book. The only morris dance in the book is Shepherd's Hey, which, fortunately, I have done...a lot. What I'm looking for is discussion on difference in emphasis, (Oom vs. Pa, etc), phrasing, tempo. That sort of stuff When I play in session, the "audience" (other musicians) is different than an audience of people "using" the music, i.e. dancers. Hence, my wondering

After a telephone conversation yesterday with a certain American publisher, I can now announce with some confidence that some time next year there will be a book out that takes some basic British folk dances(longsword, morris, English country, and Abbots Bromley), seasonal mummer's plays, and some seasonally appropriate songs, and gives directions, music, scripts, etc. for each. One season of the year per section of the book. Written by, um, me. Also planned is an iTunes list that purchasers of the book can download with all the dance tunes. Possibly played by, um, me. For which I am going to need a crash course in playing for dancers. With no dancers of any of the above dances for several hundred miles in any direction. My father, (a professional musician who is picking a really inconvenient time to step back and let me be the family musician) who has been playing for dancers since 1972, says only, "it's easy." Advice?

If my costume history professor was correct (and she almost always was), it looks Edwardian to me, too.

Dan, There is another option. My anglo is a 24 button made by Frank Edgley. There are 6 buttons per row. The layout is exactly like a 20-button except for the extra buttons at the "top" of each row, which contain accidentals. If this makes no sense, let me know and I will come up with a better explanation. I waited about 6 months for Frank to make mine.

"Easier" is relative. I've been playing an anglo pretty seriously for almost 4 years. I had piano lessons as a child, so the anglo layout of "low tones on the left gradually getting higher as you go right" makes sense to me. I also have an English, and I have not yet managed to make it make a lick of sense to me. But I keep trying I think the system you start with is the easy one.

I miss the Washington Folk Festival.

Not that I watch the Ghost Hunters series on SciFi Channel (too scary!), but last night as my spouse was getting ready to watch the new episode, and I was getting ready to leave the room, I noticed that the previous episode (an older one) had taken place at Bucksteep Manor, home of our beloved Northeast Squeeze-in. Did anyone see the episode? Did the Ghost Hunters find anything?

I'm in Portales, which is about 4 hours southeast of Albuquerque. I play anglo, mostly Irish, some English. Ken, are you visiting family? Any chance to meet?

Don't forget the option of indoor sites. I have had great luck with a local bookstore that has a coffee shop in one corner. Of course, check with management first In that venue, tunes played quietly enough that the patrons can talk to each other comfortably seem to work the best. And consider this: the last Harry Potter book is coming out this summer. I made a respectable amount of money ($25) dressing up as one of the characters and playing (mostly) Irish tunes at my local Hastings bookstore during the release party for Book 6.