Songbirds back on TV

I"m really excited to tell you that our TV series, Songbirds - the First Ladies of Irish Song which we made for Irish TV about 7 years ago, is going to be shown across Ireland and the UK next month.

Delia Murphy

A small satellite station , Showcase TV, are going to show the series starting on the 19th June at 9pm.   If you're based here, the station is 191 - Showcase TV, which is under the banner of Irish TV.   There are 6 programmes in total and they'll be shown for 6 weeks, Thursday nights at 9pm.

A while back I wrote a post about the series which I narrated and was involved in making.  You can read more about it here ...

I had recorded a lot of songs that were popular when my mum was young and that I learned when I was a child.   After the CD was done we realised that most of the songs had first been recorded by one woman, Delia Murphy, between the mid 1930s and the mid 1950s - and she in turn influenced countless other female (and male) singers.   To cut a very long story short, we got to make a TV programme about her life for RTE based around my songs, and the one programme suddenly became 6.   At the time I was very unsure about using my recordings rather than theirs, but from the point of view of paying out huge royalties that we couldn't afford, it made sense.  So there are guest performers working with me and recording a song that pertained to each of the women in question who all had different styles of singing, but who all in essence sang the same repertoire.
I'll tell you more about each lady as the programme comes up for screening, but for now, here's a role call of them all.

1. Delia Murphy - the first person recorded singing in her own accent
2. Bridie Gallagher - the mother of Irish Country music
3. Margaret Barry - a street singer and traveller who became a huge part of the British Folk Revival
4. Mary O'Hara - harpist and classical style singer
5. Ruby Murray - the pop singer who still holds the record for having 5 songs in the UK pop charts on the same week.
6. And the 6th programme is an overview of all their lives - sometimes this is shown first.

Mary O'Hara

Ruby Murray

Bridie Gallagher

Margaret Barry

Wow!   I'm both nervous and excited - it'll be interesting to see the response.

Do you vote?

What a strange election this has been - for the first time in my adult life I didn't make it to the polling station before it closed...


All those women who campaigned for us to have a vote a century ago have always been whispering in my ear - "go and use your vote"  

But this time it wasn't that t couldn't be bothered - I was away and didn't get back in time, but there was no-one to vote for anyway.   Our wards have changed and not one of our campaigning would be councillors made it down our lane to introduce themselves ...

Here in Northern Ireland we still have tribal politics - one side or the other.    For years it used to annoy me that we had no real say in the Westminster elections, yet we are governed from there - we couldn't decide Labour or Tory and had no influence on the outcome.   But watching the results come in this time, it would not have made one bit of difference ....   Such an overwhelming vote against Europe, right across the continent.   What good will it do?   What changes can be made?

Do you vote?

Liebster Award

Wow, I was really chuffed to nominated for a Liebster award for my blog the other day - it's like a daisy chain to highlight some blogs with less than 1000 followers.

So my first job is to say I accept 
and then to give a huge thank you for nominating me to 
Sandra at Faerie Embassy.  
She's in Australia and has a brilliant blog - go and check her out.

In Sandra's words  

The Liebster is "A kind of daisy chain made from hearts with words"   

I love that description.

So now I have to 

1. answer some questions that Faerie Embassy set me
2. Tell you 11 random things about me
3. Nominate at least 5 more people
4. and make a set of questions for them and 
5. Tell them about it and give them the option of whether or not to accept

Full details of how the Liebster works are further down the page.

So to start, here are the answers

to Faerie Embassy's 

Questions for the next lot of sweet hearts

1. tell us something that you honour about your Self
Definitely my voice

2. ...your family
my father was a potter and I love that, plus all the generations of musicians that went before me.

3.  ...your home
I live in a cottage by the sea - it's tiny, quite old and quaint.  I love and honour it by filling it with music and flowers and colour

4. ...your community

From our recording studio window

Oh I'm like the Tourist Board when it comes to honouring my village (s) - both the one I come from and the one I've moved to.  We live on the coast at the foot of the mountains and I feel like I'm permanently on holiday here.   I've recently joined a women's group, and run a community choir for people who say they can't sing - it's the highlight of my week.   Plus we have a world class folk music festival here in the Summer that everyone gets involved in to some degree or other.

5. ...your country
I sing my country's praises wherever I go - I sing her music, tell her stories and lament the fact that she's being destroyed systematically by the greed and corruption of the people who have been charged with caring for her.  Ireland is my soul and epitomises Mother Earth for many people.  

6.What brought you into the world of writing?

I've written press releases and biographies for artists for many years - and a long time ago it was suggested that I try automatic writing, but I chickened out - eventually songwriting became a necessary part of my trade.  Now blogging is my fun time.

7.What keeps you writing?
The state of our world needs to be talked about but so does her beauty.  And besides I have a new album to record and it needs new songs :)

8.What enlivens you?

Lovely sunset last week

Singing.   Sunsets.   New places and friends, a lovely cup of tea, summer rain showers, taking photos of my world.

9. How and where do you engage with nature?
Mostly by looking out at it ... watching the sea change every day ... walking in the woods, listening to the birds in my garden.

10. Do you feel connected to a particular place
Ireland in general, Rostrevor in particular.

11.and /or do you feel that you write out of this place?
It is certainly an inspiration and I carry it with me on my travels.

And 11 random things about me ...

1. I learned to knit when I was 4 and won a prize for an Aran jumper when I was 8
2. I believe that cats are humans with fur
3. I sat in a psychic circle for a while years ago
4. Green is my favourite colour
5. Fil is short for Philomena but names have religious significance here and I didn't like people making assumptions about me before they knew me so I shortened it.
6. I did publicity for the Bolshoi Ballet and for Queen and Bob Dylan :)
7. And as Fringe Festival Director the year I left Uni, I put on a concert with Squeeze as the headliners, supported by Dr Feelgood, and the fresh faced young band who did the opening spot were U2 making their first appearance in the North of Ireland :)
8. I have sung in operas, pop bands, rock bands and folk groups
9. My biggest regret was to have turned down the job of singing with a really cool soul band
10. I lived in Dubai for a couple of years and after that in England for a while
11. I speak French, German,  some Irish and a tiny bit of Spanish.

I nominate the following blogs for a Liebster 

Pempi's Palace

Stephanie's Studio

Aileen's Clarke's Crafts

The Slightly Eccentric Diary of Rob Z Tobor
Maybe It's Just Me




There are lots of other lovely blogs that I'm following and enjoying getting to know, but some have already received this nomination or have already got a lot of followers.

And 11 questions for my lovely nominees

1. Do you have a ritual that you love?
2. How does music influence you?
3. Why did you start blogging?
4. How do you get your ideas for it?
5. What do you love about blogging?
6. And what do you not love about it?
7. Where did you get the name for your blog?
8. Where is your favourite place when you need quiet time?
9. Do you connect with Nature and how?
10. Do you like social media and which is your favourite?
11. What are you reading at the minute?

Here's how the Liebster works.  In case you have never heard of it - I hadn't - here's a link to Wording Well who explains it in more detail.

The Official Rules Of The Liebster AwardIf you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:
1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Google+ (which I can't figure out how to link to) or at my website.

West Coast of Clare

I had a wee post ready to go today - about being overwhelmed and out of focus and stuff ... I posted it and then thought, you know I'm only putting that up to put something up ...  and I hate putting a whine into writing ... It somehow makes it too real ... so to cheer myself up I thought I'd post a few pics from our wee trip down South last week.

The view from our room at Croc an Oir

Our first stop was in Tipperary - our friends John and Monika have a self catering farm house and rooms for people to rent  - it's called Croc an Oir which means (I think) the Hill of Gold. .... and it has a gorgeous wee music room /theatre as well.  

All our concerts for the last few weeks were for the older part of our community and at this gig, I think the average age was about 85 and we had the best of craic .... They sang with every song and we all had a cup of tea together afterwards.


Then it was on to County Clare - on the West Coast.   Clare's a beautiful part of the country and steeped in traditional music and for once it wasn't teeming with rain.
Tom was messing about with my iPhone and took this panoramic view of the horseshoe beach there.

The horseshoe beach at Kilkee

and my less adventurous pic of the same place 

Our view from the stage in Kilkee

The venue in Kilkee is in a library and part of the place has been converted into a 2 tier theatre with precisely 103 seats!  It was quite interesting because the audience here were much younger and it gave a totally different feel to the evening - still very enjoyable for us, but the very elderly have no qualms about talking back to you on stage whereas a younger audience, regular seniors as opposed to senior seniors, are more reserved and it becomes more of a theatre show.

And like a proper theatre it has real dressing rooms .... I love playing in theatres ... the lights around the mirrors in the dressing rooms make me feel like I'm in a black and white movie!

Our last stop was also in Co. Clare, in the County town of Ennis ....There's a huge Arts Centre there call Glór - and all the big bands play there - I really thought we'd never be in it so it was real treat to be there.   Our audience came in from a few centres out of the town and sang with everything we did and bought loads of CDs afterwards ... We were well pleased with the day.

Some of the audience in Glor!!!
Getting ready for a pageant of some sort 

I've been changing my focus over the past few weeks - away from everyone else's music and onto my own ..... something that I've learned out of the A to Z challenge ....I was flailing around a bit between students and choir and sessions and trying to write, and organise tours and events and recordings .... But my head's clearing a wee bit now - it's left me with a stinking cold (snuffle, snuffle) but a sense that we'll cope with everything that needs doing.  And I can finally remember the words of my own songs :)

So we have one more concert left of Just A Song At Twilight - that's next Thursday afternoon in Dublin - then we're off to Germany for 6 concerts at the start of June.   But before that I have choir starting back tonight, and one of my students has her A level practical tomorrow and I'm playing piano for that .... so that's enough to think about for today...

Focus on the details ... one thing at a time.

How do you cope with the various strands of your life?   I know many of you have jobs and families and still produce amazing art and books and projects .... Any tips?

How a comment can change your perception

Winter Tunnel David Hockney

I remember seeing an interview with David Hockney a few years back where he talked about the light in a series of paintings he had done of the same point on a Yorkshire road at different times of the year.

Spring Tunnel David Hockney

And what stuck in my mind was his comment that, by far, Summer was the darkest season .... with all the trees fully clothed, festooned with leaves blocking out light from above; while the Winter landscape covered in snow with bare naked trees was full of light.


I rejoice every year with the extra light that comes with summer, but I can't help noticing how dark the green hedges and trees are.

(Photos from Mr Hockney's website)


Have you ever noticed how one comment can change your perspective?

Morning pages

I love writing morning pages ...

To sit and let my thoughts work themselves out on the page - sorting the confusion of too many commitments into a manageable mess, like combing out the knots in my hair.

It's hard to get time alone to do this sort of practice when we're away on tour - I pack my journal in the vague hope that if I spot it, the time will magically appear.  But it rarely does.  And I don't seem to need it as much at those times anyway.

But it's like having a massage for my brain, when I get back home, to sit down, and be quiet.

So this afternoon I got an hour writing outside in the garden - the birds are going full throttle - no sore throats or stage fright there .... There's one particularly noisy guy who sounds like he's shouting, ME! ME!  ME! COME ON! COME ON! COME ON!  I'M OVER HERE!  And the rest are just chattering away unperturbed by his warblings.   I wish I could learn to tune out the chatter of other voices quite so easily.

and not forgetting fuchsia, she has to get in for a wee dance.

My sunglasses have some filter in them that highlights the colours - the grass looks greener and the blue bells look bluer against that backdrop.    And the white of the hawthorn, the May bush, sits in contrast to both.   Do you know the saying "Never cast a clout til May is out"?   Well it refers to the hawthorn - the blossom is called the May  - not the month of May.  

This garden gets precious little attention, but it does it's own thing and the reward is to be allowed to sit in it for a quiet hour on a sunny afternoon.  I feel like I'm home now.

How's your week going?  I'll be back tomorrow to get caught up on reading everyone else's blogs and do a bit of commenting.

Sing an old song

I have to confess to shamelessly stealing this quote from the internet.  But it's just perfect. 

After my post about Singing and Dementia the other day, my friend over at Teaching at Pempi's Palace was asking for some songs that children could sing with older people or people with dementia.   This is a brilliant idea and I'm dying to see what you come up with.  Here's some of my rambling thoughts on it ... went on a bit longer than I had intended lol

I think this is a very regional thing ...in my experience the songs that work best are those that were familiar when the people were very young.   So you need to start with whatever was popular then or was popular when the parents were kids.   So local folk songs and dance songs, and they're best if they're singalong and have a chorus....

Here I'm doing mostly Irish songs for that reason - cos the wider radio and record business wasn't really reaching the country areas here back then ... so songs  like The Spinning Wheel, Let Him Go Let Him Tarry, A Dacent Irish Boy, If I Were A Blackbird, the Connemara Cradle Song - Danny Boy and the Moonshiner and so on...

And I also do some Ruby Murray and Doris Day songs that were in the charts in the 50s - Softly Softly, Que Sera Sera etc - and even songs from shows - the Black Hills of Dakota being one that comes to mind.

In England I would suggest that a starting point would be the songs of Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn as well as Doris Day and Ruby Murray. 

Here's Gracie singing Wish Me Luck As You Wave me Goodbye

People in their late 70s and early 80s now were children during the war, so songs like We'll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover and also Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry which Gracie also sang - Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye, It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Pack up Your Troubles in Your old kit bag - songs that would have been sung in World War One.

I find a lot of these songs incredibly moving ... so it may need a bit of trial and error.

And then there's also the songs of the Pearly Kings and Queens - Down at the Old Bull and Bush, Roll out the Barrel, My Old Man said Follow the Van - although I find that a lot of these songs, people only know the chorus - perhaps just learning a few well known choruses might be a way to start.   There are a lot of videos of Florrie Forde and many others on You Tube that give all the words of those.

Here are more common universal ones and much lighter in theme.

Happy Days Are Here Again

You are my Sunshine

Swinging on a Star - this would be a fun one for kids as well

Scarlet Ribbons

Mona Lisa

Lili Marlene

Tommy Steele - Little White Bull

Early Disney songs - When you wish upon a star

Zip a dee doo dah

Early Cliff Richard songs

and old standards like 

Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do and 

Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly.

There's a couple of really nice ones in this compilation video although I have to confess I hadn't heard about a lot of them.

And Christmas songs are easy ones to include.

I was going to suggest Lonnie Donegan and George Formby ...
they'd be great for the older folks, but I'm not sure about for the kids...  

You could check out  

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it's Flavour on the Bbedpost Overnight!!  
(although on second thoughts maybe not!!!!)

And My Old Man's A Dustman

And George Formby ... Leaning on the Lamppost

In Scotland there's all the great ballads as well as more come all ye songs like
I'll Take the High Road, Show me the Way to Go Home, Go Lassie Go etc

And in the great American song book,
songs that Frank Sinatra, or Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald sang - the simpler ones.

Finally, Josna at her blog Tell Me Another mentioned the Young @ Heart chorus in America that also do old rock covers like the Zimmers in England .... This is them on the Ellen de Generes programme a few years back! I love it.  And no warning needed this time ;)

I'm sure you have lots of suggestions for songs that you could add to my list, songs your parents loved to sing, or songs you've sung with seniors groups etc so I'd love to hear from you.

The Giro d'Italia comes to Northern Ireland

Introducing the teams

Well!   I cannot let this weekend go by without mentioning the Giro ....

Firstly, let me qualify my experience in this sport by saying that I know a bike has two wheels! And I can go about 2 miles on one!  And there's where it ends lol  That plus the fact that I'm  usually giving out when herds of cyclists clutter up the roads on a Sunday morning - they're worse than tractors.    But all is forgiven today :)

I have been glued to the television this evening as one of the 3 biggest cycling tours in the world started off in Northern Ireland and will be here until Sunday morning when it heads down to Dublin for the close of Stage 3.

And I feel so proud to be from here.  

So wherever you are in the world if you want to get a wee look around this place we'll be on tele for the next couple of days .... This footage will be shown in 176 countries!!   And I have to say that the BBC coverage has been spectacular; Belfast looks gorgeous in pink , not an election poster in sight, nor a politically motivated flag,  and for today at least the weather held up well.  The only sad note was one of the 4 Irish riders had an accident and is out of the race.

But tomorrow, they head up the Antrim Coast and a nicer bit of scenery is not to be seen anywhere.

More details here courtesy of the Visit Belfast Blog



So, I've learned that:

• There are 22 teams, each with 9 riders.

• Each member of the team has a speciality - sprinting, endurance or mountain climbing.

• Each team has a leader that is protected by the rest of the group.  

• The bikes are state of the art, high tech machines and the riders are super tuned athletes - one guy knew that his saddle was 1mm higher than it had been before!! 

• The winner of the stage wears the pink jersey - today's winner came from Canada.

• The winning sprinter gets the red jersey

• And the winning mountain climber gets the blue jersey. 

• An Irish guy, Stephen Roche, is one of only 2 riders in the history of the sport who won the Tour de France, the Giro and the World Cup in the same year - 27 years ago and his son is riding in this Giro and is one of the favourites to win.

I've been talking about getting the bike out for weeks now - our road is very dangerous here - no kerbs and it's very narrow and the young drivers treat it like a race track - but maybe I'll check it out over the weekend and see at least if the tyres need replacing...   That'd be a start lol    

How's your fitness?   Do you cycle?  or are you even fitter than that?

Singing and dementia

It's well established now that music can have an affect on people with dementia.   

A few years ago I witnessed this first hand when we played in some Alzheimer's wards of local hospitals during Bealtaine Festival.  

People who were motionless and silent gradually came to life and sang along to the old songs that we were singing from their childhood.  

One woman sang from the very first chord we played right through until the last note - we thought she was perfectly ok, but the nurse sitting with her told us afterwards that she hadn't spoken a word in more than 6 months and no longer recognised her children or grandchildren.  Yet the songs from her young day were there as an automatic response.  

I was both delighted and really saddened.   

It was an amazing gift she gave us to allow us in to her life for a few moments.  

I'm always ranting on that everyone can sing - just open your mouth, throw back your head and let whatever noise comes out just happen - you'll feel better for it.   This video proves my point .... it just makes my heart sing.

Taken from an inspiring documentary made a few years back pointing out the loneliness of our senior citizens in old peoples homes.  The documentary is inspiring to say the least ... all links are under the video on You Tube - take a look if you have time.

Last night we played to a full house in Blanchardstown in Dublin - lots of seniors groups in the audience and a good night was had by all :)

Making friends with the rain

My father used to say 

"If you can see the mountains, it's going to rain.   

If you can't see them, it's already raining".  

I can still hear him laughing when he said it.  

Clouds gathering over the 12 Bens

Ireland is known as the green island or the Emerald Isle. 

But that green comes at a price - the flippin' rain is never far away.

Watching the weather forecast is a national obsession.  

It'll be good on Thursday so we'll mow the lawn then!!!

 From the lightest of drizzles to the downpour we had yesterday or the endless weeks of rain over Christmas and New Year ... You can't be annoyed with rain and live in Ireland. 

But endless days of grey are no fun.   

Roundstone Harbour

As a child I used to love playing in the summer rain.  Jumping in puddles.   

It would be brilliant to have a summerhouse and keep the doors open 

and smell the rain as it bounces on the ground.  

Everything smells and looks newly washed and the birdsong fills every hedge 

after each shower.  

Once we visited a house in Germany where all rooms were built around a central fireplace and one of the rooms had no walls.   We were sitting inside, but outside, in the Spring rain, with our coats on and the fire lit, with the birds flying under the eaves to build their nests.   Simply wonderful.  

It'll rain soon

Yesterday was his anniversary - 28 years.  I still miss him.  

Still watching the mountains Daddy x

Do you have much rain where you are?   Did your family have their own sayings?   

You know I love to hear from you.

Reflections on the A to Z challenge

Reflections on a Connemara Lake

For ages I had been looking for a way to focus my blogging and get into a regular pattern of posting blogs but I had a lot to learn.   And when I spotted this challenge, I thought 'what the heck'!   Let's try it.   It wasn't as if I had nothing else to do .... but I made a list of possible things I could write about and dived in, head first.

In the month I did all 26 posts - A to Z and I visited at least 5 blogs a day.   

And it was a brilliant experience...

Delighted to be able to add this!!! :)

Firstly, I learned a lot of technical things - like 

• how to leave a link for my blog to get people to come back to my page ( although that no longer seems to work ... don't know what I'm doing differently), 
• how to schedule blogs, and how to link them etc.   
• And how to improve my pictures, although they weren't always great.  However, it's given me a place to move forward from.

Secondly I met lots of really nice people - writing about such a variety of things and showing pictures of their lives, their hobbies, their passions, their pets and families.   

People from England, America, Canada, Guatamala, Australia, India, Sweden, France - I think I came across a couple from Africa, one from Singapore .... it's like finding a nest of pen pals lol

Thirdly I learned about lots of new things: - marketing , Swedish ways , the desert, special needs children at Teaching at Pempi's Place, the heritage of Rajisthan, (although unfortunately I didn't think to follow that page and still haven't been able to find it again).   There were cookery tips, Sandy's travelling tips, flowers, lots of talk about the weather, great motivational stories and lots of stories to read in any and every genre - too many to mention individually here.   In fact I have followed so many blogs that I'll be catching up for weeks to come.  

  

One that really caught my imagination was Helen Jamieson's story of Moe d'Vation - I'm only up to about letter H in that story, but I'll catch up.  

Another that I loved was MJ's letters to self - really nice wee motivating notes.  

And then there was a trip back through 70s music at Andrea's Maybe It's Just Me blog, and many many more.  

Fourthly, reading all this variety has really helped me get over my shyness of putting my own thoughts forward.  and I hope that I'll be able to continue from here and start advertising my blog to my own community - I write a blog about my life and travels as a touring folk musician so it's a fairly specific audience.   

And lastly I trebled my followers!!!  Woohoo!!   Well, I only had 8 to start with so it wasn't that hard lol  But thank you so much to all who have followed my page and to those who have visited and commented.  It's been a joy to meet you all and a real sense of achievement in having completed this and come out of the closet so to speak.

My only slightly less than positive comment was that I did visit a lot of blogs towards the end that hadn't posted since day 2 or day 12 or whatever .... I wonder is there a tally of how many actually survived?

That said, a huge thank you to Lee and his co-hosts for running this event and I'll look forward to next year. 

Upcoming concerts

Every year during the month of May, the arts offices in the South of Ireland give funding for organisations to run events for older people - photography, drama, memory recording and of course music.   These shows are all under the umbrella of the Bealtaine Festival.

I'll be playing 5 concerts during the month with my partner Tom McFarland - our show is called: 

Just A Song of Twilight

We'll be at the following venues 

8pm Wed 7th May - Draiocht Studio Theatre, Blanchardstown, Dublin - www.draiocht.ie



8pm Mon 12th May - Croc an Oir, Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary - www.crocanoir.com

8pm Tues 13th May - Culturlann Sweeney, Kilkee, Co. Clare Tel 065 9060769

2pm Wed 14th May - Glor, Ennis - www.glor.ie

3pm Thurs 29th May - Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 -www.civictheatre.ie

If you know of anyone in these areas who would be interested in a concert of great old songs then get in touch with the theatres in question. Some of the concerts are free and others are at reduced prices.  

Straight after that we head to Germany from the 2nd - 9th of June ... These concerts will be more of a mix of contemporary and traditional songs.  Dates are now up on my website at www.filcampbell.com 


If you'd like to keep posted with our touring plans and CD releases please sign up to my newsletter either at my website or here in the side bar.