Who are the folks who play at the Auld Dubliner in Long Beach?

[Dieppe]

What the title says... Who are the folks who play traditional Irish music at the Auld Dubliner in Long Beach (CA) on Sunday evenings? Once in a while I see someone there with a concertina, usually an English, but sometimes an Anglo. Lots of fiddles, a pipe once in a while, and tin whistles. Need more drums! Do they practice anywhere, or just meet up? Do they have a song set list, or just pick random Irish tunes?

 

Patrick

[Michael Eskin]

Hi Patrick,

 

Well, if you were there on a Sunday between 4 and 8 PM and amongst the players were two guys at the end of the table, one on the Anglo (also played the Uilleann pipes/whistle), and the other guy on an English (also played guitar/whistle), that would be me and my friend John O'Hara. We're two of the rotating hosts for the Sunday session at the Auld Dubliner in Long Beach. It's a standard trad Irish session, there is no set list, and we play whatever tunes we're inspired to play at the moment. I was there on my own this past Sunday playing mostly Anglo and flute. Other hosts have included All-Ireland 2nd place Uilleann piper Joey Abarta, Bella Issakova (fiddle) and Patrick D'Arcy (Uilleann pipes), Kira Ott (fiddle), Melanie Nolley (fiddle), LeeAnn Gorne (Anglo concertina), Barry Fisher (guitar), and Frank Simpson (flute/whistle).

 

As far as I know, John is the only English concertina player to come to the Auld Dubliner, and if there was also an Anglo, it was almost certainly the two of us. Next time, please introduce yourself!

 

It's always a great session with fine players. John and I drive up from San Diego to host (about 120 miles), it's just that good. The room itself has a very nice sound, is a real pleasure to play in that space.

 

Here's some photos from the session this past Sunday (I took them, so I'm not in any of the photos...):

 

 

We seldom have a drum at this session, but there are extremely talented bodhran players in SoCal who sometimes show up. Generally they also play other instruments. This includes Joey Abarta (before he moved to Boston), Christa Burch (amazing voice), and Ben Power (also a phenomenal flute player).

 

Cheers,

 

Michael

Edited September 23, 2010 by eskin

[Ken_Coles]

I may just have to drop in the next time I'm visiting my parents in Pasadena...lately all I've had access to there are the Monday sessions at the Celtic Center in the San Fernando Valley.

 

Ken

[Michael Eskin]

John and I will be hosting this coming Sunday! (Oct 3)

 

Session will be from 5-8 PM

 

Cheers,

 

Michael