Phil Campbell - what's in a name?

I was christened Philomena ... and from my mid teens was known as Phil.   When the internet started in the 90s the first thing most people did was to type in their name and see what came up ... and to my surprise I found a musician in California called Phil Campbell - I wrote to him, said hi, and he came back to tell me about this town in Alabama with our name!!!   What a laugh!   Have you a town with your name on it?

Fast forward a few years, and a record company that we were involved with in the late 1990s was about to release a single of mine when we discovered yet another Phil Campbell, a songwriter from Scotland, who was also just releasing a single at the time.   So we decided to give my name a more feminine touch and changed the spelling to Fil.   Now mostly I like that change, although occasionally a new confusion arises, how do you pronounce your name?  Well I suppose it's an improvement on them thinking I was a guy!  You can't win!!  

Still a few years later I heard about a gathering of Phil Campbells happening in the town of Phil Campbell ... how I would have loved to have been there, but it was too far away.  

2011 was the 100th anniversary of the town - a small place in the centre of Alabama and once again one of the Phils (as we are now collectively known) decided it would be fun to have another gathering of people with the same name as the town.   Once again I wasn't able to make it but several others were planning to go.   

But two months before the big day, in April 2011 - disaster - a series of tornadoes hit that area of America causing untold devastation - our town was badly flattened, more than 400 people were out of their homes and 30 people died ... The school, firestation and several other key buildings were destroyed.  Phil Campbell, AL had a population of just over 1000 people.

Phil Campbell, AL, taken from the Police Station - photo courtesy of JustPiper.com

Photo from the National Weather Service in Huntsville, AL www.srh.noaa.gov 

So instead of taking part in the celebration parades in June, the Phil Campbells from around the world got together to raise money for a Habitat home and 20 of my namesakes made it to Alabama to help with the clean up.  

This has been a wild experience - having a connection with people just because of our name - and I've met (over the Internet anyway ) so many lovely people - a pilot, a journalist, an author, a singer, a TV producer, a minister - people from Sydney in Australia, to Brooklyn, England, Alaska, Chatanooga and many many here in this part of the world.

So what's next?    Well, a film .... called I'm with Phil - has been made of the event, the gathering, the destruction, the rebuild and the continued connection that we all have with a tiny town in America.  

There's a Kickstarter campaign starting to help raise funds to promote the film and raise more money for the town.  And once day I'll get to visit it.

I'll be back with more posts about PC Alabama in future months.

How about you?   Has any strange connections happened because of your name?

The Spinning Wheel

For quite a while I've been wanting to write blogs about well known women's Irish songs and here's No. 1 in what will hopefully become a series.

The Spinning Wheel (John Frances Waller)

Listen to : Fil Campbell – The Spinning Wheel
From the TV series - Songbirds - the First Ladies of Irish Song

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
Bent o’er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
Is crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting

When I first learned this as a little girl I pictured this beautiful young girl gazing longingly out of the window, dressed of course in a perfect long skirt, with long hair and an angelic face!!   The old lady was knowingly sitting in the corner  ....   

I can still see the sash window, the moon shining, the wood outside where the young lovers ended up walking ...  Isn't it funny the pictures that stay in  your head with a song:))

Delia Murphy

The Spinning Wheel is one of the most famous Irish folksongs  and was one of the first songs I learned as a child.

The Spinning Wheel was written in the late 1800s by John Frances Waller (1909-1894) and it's said that the melody is actually French, although it quickly became known as an Irish song.   Really, it was a parlour song that was part of the Anglo Irish tradition, nothing at all to do with traditional Irish music, but more to do with an idealised quaint way of life.  It quickly became a favourite for young girls to sing and instantly brings back memories of a gentler way of life.

Well known singers of the song
It was one of the songs recorded by Delia Murphy in her first recording session in 1936, one of the songs that made her a star and she in turn was the person who made the song popular.

Later, it became the first international hit for Mary O'Hara, although she didn't even want to record it.   Delia sang it at her husband's inauguration as the first Irish Ambassador to Australia and she said that if it's sung correctly you should feel the spinning wheel turning.  In our TV series - Songbirds, the First Ladies of Irish Song - it was the only song that we found that had been recorded by all the featured ladies - Ruby Murray, Margaret Barry, Bridie Gallagher, Delia Murphy and Mary O'Hara - and they all sang it in very different styles.

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
Bent o’er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
Is crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting

Eileen a chara I hear someone tapping
Tis the ivy dear mother against the glass flapping
Eily I surely hear someone sighing
Tis the sound mother dear of the autumn winds dying

Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring
Swings the wheel spins the reel while the foot’s stirring
Sprightly and brightly and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

There’s a form at the casement the form of her true love
And he whispers with face bent “I’m waiting for you love
Get up on the stool through the lattice step lightly
And we’ll rove in the grove with the moon shining brightly”

The maid shakes her head on her lip lays her fingers
Steals up from the seat, longs to go and yet lingers
A frightened glance turned on her drowsy grandmother
Puts one foot on the stool spins the wheel with the other

Lazily, easily swings now the wheel round
Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel sound
Noiseless and light through the lattice above her
The maid creeps then leaps to the arms of her lover

Slower and slower and slower the wheel spins
Lower and lower and lower the reel rings
E’er the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving
Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving

******
The songwriter: 
John Francis Waller (1810 - 1894) was born in Limerick, educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was called to the Irish Bar in 1833. He became a contributor to and ultimately editor of the Dublin University Magazine, usually writing under the pseudonym of "Jonathan Freke Slingsby"

He published several volumes of poems and also wrote popular songs, including Cushla Ma Chree, The Spinning Wheel and Song of the Glass. He was responsible for the explanatory notes and a life of the author in a new edition of "Gulliver's Travels" written by Dean Jonathan Swift. 

Connected
If you're interested in spinning as an art I found this fascinating blog from a lady in Scotland.

Have you any memories of the song?  

Nollaig na mBan - Women's Christmas

In parts of Ireland, particularly the South West of the country, the 6th January or Feast of the Epiphany or Little Christmas is also known as Women's Christmas, or Women's Little Christmas - when the hard working women put up their feet after the long Christmas period and the men took over to do all the cooking and cleaning.  In some parts children bought presents for their mothers and grandmothers that day but that has now been taken over by Mothers Day.  It's still a very common practice in Kerry and Cork, where restaurants report almost 100% female clientele  on that night according to the Discover Ireland website.

Nollaig na mBan - pronounced nu-llig nah man - was totally new to me until last year when one of my neighbours decided to revive the tradition up here ...

We were more than 50 women together, enjoying left overs from everyone's Christmas and a good old natter - a wonderful extension of the Christmas festivities.  Looking forward to a repeat of it this year.


Traditions are changing now .... Everyone's back to work on Monday 6th this year .... When I was at school the 6th January was a holy day - nothing started back until the 7th and if by some stroke of bad luck that we had to go back to school on the 3rd or 4th we still always had the 6th off.

The tree always stayed up until the 6th as well - it was considered bad luck to take it down early ..... I'm so tempted to clear everything away today but I probably won't - chicken! ... it seems silly having it up until Monday and then having to face it at the start of a busy week ... but the child in me still wants to keep the smell of pine needles in the house and the air of the holidays still around.

It's sad too to put away all the cards, but I love having one last read of everyone's messages, reply to a couple more emails and get the place ready for the new session of classes, bookings and creative projects to tackle.  

Here's a lovely song from 4 gorgeous women - T with the Maggies are Mairead from Altan, Moya from Clannad and Triona and Mairead from the Bothy Band.   Singing Mother Song

What are you doing to end the holiday?   Will you leave your tree and decorations until the last minute or did you have them cleared away on Boxing Day?

2013 - bridging the years

I have a French friend who sometimes has a New Year's Eve party where dinner is started in the old year and completed in the New Year ... bridging the two .... I think it's a lovely practice.

Here we are on the doorstep of a new year ... and looking back over the past year I achieved quite a lot although at times it felt like I'd done very little.  We had times both happy and sad.

For me the highlights were ...

• starting a community choir again - this has been a delight - really nice group of people all willing to have a go at whatever I come up with.  Thank you guys.  

  

  The Rostrevor Community Choir getting ready for the Christmas pageant

• We had gigs in Denmark, Germany, France, Holland, Luxembourg, England, Scotland and of course Ireland
• started writing songs again and co-wrote with Tom for the first time.
• Recorded an album of bluegrass songs with 4 other women - the Daisy Janes. 
• had a holiday - the first in 15 years - although we travel a lot for work, it was really nice to take the ferry and go away just for our amusement ... of course we did a few gigs while we were there - a bit of a busman's holiday, but it still was grand.

The clear waters of the North of Spain

• took part in a blogathon which was very illuminating and great fun - some posts here and here 
• got back into Morning Pages.
• got to grips with Sjogren's Syndrome - (there! I named it).
• had visits from both of my Australian nieces - Connie at the start of the year and Niamh at the end of year - what a joy to get to know them as adults ... Now, the planning must start again for our trip to visit them.
• We got caught in the snow in England in March and as a result of the road to the ferry terminal being cut off by snow we ended up re routing and spending a fabulous day with my lovely cousin near Chester and had one of the best meals of the year.  
• oh yes - a lot of time was spent on food!!!   Thinking about it, cooking, preparing, eating out, watching TV shows ... yum yum.  
• Tom had a big birthday in June, 
• we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary in January 
• and Fiddlers Green Festival in July was just wonderful - with our international friends joining us for a BBQ at the start of it

us celebrating 25 years on the road together at a concert in the middle of the week 

and us all ending up drenched to the skin at the top of the mountain at the end of the week!!  

All were a laugh...

And now into a new wonderful year .... a blank page ... I love the start of the year - it's like all the Mondays rolled into one ... a big clean page and after a few days of rest it seems like the practices we've been building up all winter now start to come to fruition ... my students will start seriously preparing for their exams, I will start seriously planning tours, the choir will start seriously working on new material for the move through Spring and into Summer and then we'll all settle down into a new routine ....  

What will you be doing this New Year?  I'd love to hear from you.  

Remembering my week

Cynthia Lee has a weekly practice called The Scattered Life Collective where she does a summary of her week - I've been following her for months now and have finally got a Friday free to join in ... This may not be a weekly affair, but if you don't start somewhere you'll never start at all.

It has been a wonderfully playful week and the first week since the clocks went back so it has felt like we're straight into Winter.
So using Cynthia's format for now here's what has been happening in my week.

Current Time: 5.25pm

On the menu:  Spaghetti Bolognese - an old favourite - and quick and easy after a week away - with enough left over to freeze a dinner for late next week cos I'm planning a week off to concentrate on writing...

Out the window:  It's dark now ... I hate this first week of the time change ... dark so early ... I can just about see the shadow of the branches over the hedge and can see the kitchen reflected in my window.

Reading:   Well, just finished actually, in the car on the way home, The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna and I loved it ...  There's going to be a stage play of it later in the month and last week I was asked to sing a part for the soundtrack which was great fun and introduced me to this lovely author.

Listening:   Silence ... beautiful silence.

Watching:  Catching up later on last week's episodes of Downton Abbey and the Paradise and hopefully catching a movie over the weekend... there's loads of new releases out .... Philomena, my namesake, with Judy Dench and it was partially filmed here in Rostrevor - a must see - and a couple of sci fi releases as well ... hmmm, decisions, decisions ... I think Judy will win out.

Good things:

• Saw a bit of the Macnas Street Theatre Show last Sunday in Galway - I've wanted to see them for years and was so annoyed that we missed most of it ... but the little bit we did see made me hungry for more...
• Galway - I just love that city - it's so bohemian, artsy and full of life.
• Played in sessions in the gorgeous Crane Bar and met up with some great singers and musicians.
• Walked on the beach in Connemara
• Had an escape from teaching for a week
• Did family visits

Icky things and their silver linings:

• Horrible weather for a few days while we were on the West Coast, but the upside was that I got a morning in bed with my book ... no point in getting up to face that ...
• A huge national insurance bill waiting for me when I got home today, but it makes me feel good that I have enough money to pay it, or will have by the time it's due.

And in other news: 

It's Samhain ... the Celtic New Year.  Here's a lovely story about the significance of apples at this time of year.
Samhain Apples

About Samhain

A retake on Tubular Bells - locally based musician and producer Tom Newman who produced the wonderful Tubular Bells has released a new recording made by the children of Northern Ireland ... here's a bit about it and a link to hear the single..

Songs in my sleep ...

Does anyone have the problem of having a song running around their head all night as they sleep?   Or perhaps it's a piece of art that you're working on ... or a problem you've been trying to fix.

I'm looking for a sure fire way of stopping this happening ... after I've had a gig or a class or a choir practice, one piece or a phrase will stay stuck and refuse to shift and I wake up like a wet rag ....

I'd really appreciate your feedback.

October Songs

A little something for your listening pleasure today :)

It's a wet start to October here although it's still quite warm outside.

I spent most of the day preparing songs for my singing group which starts tomorrow and started looking for a song with October in the title.   Look at the state of my desk!!!!  (Just to prove I was working !!)

Anyway, as I was getting a bit distracted with harmony songs I decided to let my distraction do something useful for an hour and prepare this blog for you all.


So here we go - October Songs - all a bit melancholic as you would expect - reflection must have been on the agenda for these October songwriters ... And there were a few lovely surprises ... a few not so well worth noticing as well , but a few gems.   For example, I only really knew Julie London singing "Cry Me A River" which I adore, but never imagined her singing fun songs ... So "This October" from her album "Calendar Girl" is a treat - great backing vocals too.

In Irish folk music The Castle of Dromore starts off with the line "October winds lament around the castle of Dromore" and I love singing it ... click here to hear my version of it - and that's Finbar Furey playing pipes on it.

But back to songs with October in the title, here's a list of the best that I could find.

James Taylor (live with the Dixie Chicks) - October Road

U2 - October - a very freshfaced Bono and Co ... what a wonderful piano track.   They probably don't remember, but I gave them their first Belfast gig - back in 1979 - at the Queens University Fringe Festival - and they supported Squeeze and Dr Feelgood I think!! Ah those were the days :)

Amy Winehouse - October Song
I don't really get this song and most of the time I don't really get Amy either, but some of her stuff is so brilliant.

Robin Gibb - August October - a very old track, and another very fresh faced young man!

Pet Shop Boys - My October Symphony

Dave Cousins (Strawbs) - October to May

Julie London - This October

The Incredible String Band - October Song

And one more piano track ...
George Winston - October Moon

Are there any others that you can think of?