Stevenh

I had a similiar experience ( although it was while playing a band gig using my banjo). We played a tune that had been recorded by Earl Collins. After we played, a woman came up to us with tears in her eyes, thanking us for playing that tune as she was the caretaker for Earl at the end of his life. It was quite touching for us as well.

If you own an I-Pod touch or an I-Pad, there is an app available from the "App store" called Music trainer". It will allow you to instantly "import/download" any tune you have in your I-tunes library into this app. You can then slow it down, change pitch, etc. I like it because i can pull up the app on a whim, like when I'm thinking of a tune and import it on the spot. I have never used other "slow downer" programs so don't know how this compares, but it works just fine for me and my wife. -- Steven

I had one of those concertinas some years ago. I was consistently having this problem which I found was due to there being too much play in the button mechanism. What was happening is that the the action arm ( or whatever it's called?) would often not return correct;y after button was pushed which caused the the tail ( end of spring) to get hung up on an adjacent button arm thus keeping the lever open so the pad was not seating . This was the cause of the air leak and continued sounding of the reed. What i needed to do was bend back the spring tail with a needle nose pliers. But this was only a temporary fix as the same thing kept happening. My permanent fix was to get rid of the thing.

Mark-- thanks much for this link. Wow! what a great find. It contains some wonderful films. I've watched a few and they were quite enjoyable. There were a few of the American old-time music ones that I have seen but many that I haven't. Besides playing concertina , I play banjo so have strong interest in many of the films. --Steven

My first band was called "Empty Pocket String Band" as money from our gigs was are only source of income . My favorite band name was for a Klezmer band I played in= " The New Shtetl Ramblers" in homage to the New Lost City Ramblers. Alternative klezmer band names were: " The Garment District Kapelye" ( cultural references to both New York City and Utah), and " Two Jews, One Goy, and a Gurl" My current Old time band is called " Public Domain String Band" as at the time when we were first performing in restaurants, the owners were getting hassled by ASCAP. My current contra dance band is called "Loose Shoes" I think that coming up with band names is great fun--but takes time as it typically takes inspiration> that veritable "AH HA!!" moment.

Speaking of Pyewackett, I bought a couple of LP's (vinyl) of theirs > one was : " Ten Cents a Dance" ( I think that was the title) -- which I quite enjoyed. I would love to have it on CD or MP3. Does anyone know if any of their albums have been released in those formats?? ---thanks, Steven

Greetings--From talking with a friend today who has a concertina on order, this question popped to mind: The concertina he has on order has a myler (plastic-type material). valve. My concertinas ( Wheatstone English and Dipper Anglo) use leather material for the valves. Are there differences/advantages to the use of either material? -- Steven

I was able to pull up this program through a link I have to TV.4 On-line, which I bookmarked a while back when some wonderful person on this forum made a posting that allowed me to save the link. When I clicked the link it brought up a page on TV.4. On the top left their were some listing for different types of programs. If you click the one (second from the top) = Ceol- Cartlann, it will bring up a page with several archived music shows. The one Peter was referring to was the first listing. I haven't watched it yet but plan to soon. Other shows that I have watched in the past have been wonderful. --Steven

Hi- Why would you want to order a case for your Dipper? If it is a new one ordered from Colin it will come to you in a nice case. Mine did and I would imagine that that this is still the case (pardon the pun!) -- Steven

> < Edited due to my stupidity> I couldn't quite figure out how to make my comments?? I have been a member for quite a while but rarely enter a post= due to too much computer use at my day job. Hopefully this will work?? : I had the great plesure of seeing the Buille concert live at the Utah Livng Tradidtions festival. All I can say is WOW! They also did a workshop which was great fun and I got to meet Niall who was wonderful to talk with. If you ever have a chance to see them live- don't hesitate. Also If you're ever in Salt Lake City in mid- May do attend this festival= it's free, well organized and lots of fun. -- Steven

FYI to all those who enjoy the "Wind Among the Reeds" CD. A while back I was looking through the Ossian.USA website and found a tune book for that CD, also one for the solo CD of Tommy Mc Carthy, and one for the CD "Hidden Note" (I think that 's the title?) by Jacqueline McCarthy. From what I remember the cost were reasonable and the transcriptions are good. I would recommend them. I have learned several of the them. They work well on the anglo. -- Steven