Animaterra

I first met Sam when my friend Bill Sables brought him over with Ian Stephenson to play around the eastern US a bit. They came to my school, charmed my preadolescent daughter, delighted my friends and students with their music. I saw Sam again this past summer when I was in Yorkshire. He played for a couple of ceilidh dances Bill was calling. (And he drove us to the best chippie I have ever been too- in Snaeth- they were using fresh new potatoes and I want some right now!)

My school district is authorizing me to get an Ipod for school use, and I'm wondering about the voice recorder that can be used with it: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...nMore=T9635LL/A Has anyone here tried it? What works for you?

Sam is one of the nicest young men of my acquaintence, and a brilliant musician and a fine teacher. You can't go wrong listening to him!

Oh, Alan, please come to my school!! We'll even let you sing Christmas carols! Mark, tell your benighted colleagues and community that the national standards state that as long as the music is taught in a cultural context, and not teaching that any one is true, and as long as a variety of cultures are represented over a given period of time, carols are allowed. To quote the Music Educator's National Conference, "(1995), U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene dismissed a lawsuit (Bauchman v. West High School) filed by 15-year-old Rachel Bauchman over Christian songs performed by the choir at Salt Lake City's West High School. Ms. Bauchman claimed that the songs were sung prayers and therefore constituted a violation of the establishment clause. Rejecting this argument, the court said that music has a purpose in education beyond the mere words or notes in conveying a mood, teaching cultures and history, and broadening understanding of arts and that the selection of the music had a primarily secular purpose of teaching music appreciation." http://www.menc.org/publication/books/relig0.html So, rock on with the carol singing already! Oops, and I meant to second greenferry's suggestions! She and I have had fun via email finding out that we already know each other, or at least know of each other and have a lot of shared friends and background. Nym Cooke is one of the finest choral musicians I know, with an infectious personality as well. (Barbara, thanks for reminding me about the book- my choir director is tearing her hair out over Christmas Eve and I'm going to pull it out of the music cabinet right now!)

Welcome, Greenferry- it's delightful to find another singer in our midst! My voice is just about in the same range of yours, and I'm just getting adept enough at my anglo to feel comfortable using it to sing (I started out playing morris, then Irish airs, and just kept concentrating on melody). However, I am blessed with a Jeffries (which I inherited), and there's no comparing it to anything else. However, I do find the lower range quite suitable to work with my voice, leaving the right hand for melody and a bit of counter-melody. Before it came, I had a little Marcus and was perfectly happy with it. You call the Button Box "our local "- where are you? If it's local enough, by all means take a trip and sit in their sales room, playing with their stock. Doug and Becky and the gang are very helpful, and can show you where your fingers should go. If you do, send me a personal message or email through this forum and if I can I would be delighted to come spend some time with you at the shop- it's a little over an hour's drive for me. Besides, I really need to spend some time with the Morse baritone anglo and convince myself that no, I don't really need it, no, not at all!!!

Dear Santa, I wouldn't say no to a baritone anglo...

My goodness, Wendy, but haven't you been the busy one! I'm impressed! I wouldn't begin to try all those chords- not on an anglo, or at least, not yet! Good for you!

I think I'm glad I don't know what happened here to necessitate this conversation. My experience with trolls elsewhere on the web confirms the advice: NEVER FEED THE TROLLS!!

Fantastic site! I agree with Helen- I mean, it's not like I have anything else to do....

I'll be at the NOMAD festival in New Haven, Connecticut, tomorrow. My duo Seanma will be performing. If I could figure out how to post URLs in HTML with this new format, I would. But here's the old-fashioned way: NOMAD: http://www.nomadfest.org/ Seanma: http://www.anglo-concertina.net/seanma/ And many thanks to Henk for the web design help- and for putting it on his site so we don't have annoying pop-up ads! Allison

Isn't "doctrine of signature" a homeopathic term? I've never seen it applied to concertinas before! Very funny picture, Wendy!

What a list of cds, Morgana- very impressive! I'm impressed with your site, too. Easy to navigate, quick to get to the pages, even with my antiquated land-line connection!

Thanks, Henk!

Just read the article- thanks for the link, Mark! Allison

I don't see it listed at the Button Box as yet...

Where do you live?

Congratulations on your newest friend! I understand about the sleep deprivation! I've been known to get up in the early, early morning and sit in the cellar next to the furnace, squeezing away, since the others in my house keep very different hours (my son goes to be at 2 am, I get up at 5:15!). Meeting other player is more inspiration. good luck in all the ways you find to continue to enjoy your Edgely! Allison

Garsh, thanks, Mark!

As for a cd, well, we're working on it. We do have a demo cd that's about 15 minutes long! Maybe this weekend I can submit a coulple of files to the Tune-o-tron, now that I'm beginning to figure out the technology! But for now, I gotta get to my job!

We play what we call "Ancient Irish music and beyond" meaning from the collections of Edward Bunting, George Petrie, P W Joyce, some Carolan, and anything that sounds old and lovely, such as pieces by Michael Rooney. And we do play some English Country dance music, but not at a concert billed as Irish! Thanks for the kudos and the photos, Wendy- they're great! And Mark, the fine balance in sound is due largely to your careful wizardry and to that marvelous hall. It was a fun day! Allison

Well, I've got mine and I must say the assimilation is complete! What a wonderful gem of a recording! Thank you so much Alan and Graham for putting it together! Bravo! (I lay in the bath with the booklet, reading about each artist as the music played. Bliss!)

Don't worry Wendy- We'll be there! My gig bag is all packed, and we'll be setting off at 9:30 am- we're looking forward to it! Allison

Great photos, Wendy! Most are just north and west of my town in the hills.

Yes, we're quite worried about a few dams around here. I'm luckily high and dry (for now- unless Highland Lake Dam goes...) but a lot of my students were evacuated over the weekend.

I'm saving my pennies- I'll be ordering mine in a week or two!!