Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Unwrought with golden and silver light,

the blue and the dim and dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I , being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B.Yeats     

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of Ireland's greatest poets ... William Butler  Yeats.

The poem above is one of my very favourite pieces of writing - it moves me to tears every time I read it.

We learned some of Yeats' poems at primary school and although I feel very uneducated in my knowledge of poetry, the words I learned by rote back then still have a beauty that resonates with me. The Lake Isle of Innisfree was one of those.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

W.B.Yeats

Happy Birthday WB - thank you for all the beautiful words.

A week offline

Our neighbour who keeps the bees and grows Christmas trees in the field beside our house is now building a new house.  And in the first throes of clearing the site, the guy with the digger cut our telephone lines - woohoo!   Not!   One whole week we've been offline and out of contact.  No phone, no internet, no mobile, no cable tv.   (Our mobile phones are boosted through wifi cos we're so close to the border and have a terrible signal).

For the first day or two it was weird - driving into the village to sit outside the pub where there's a good global wifi signal - then for the next few days we realised we were getting loads done around the house and offline, but after the 5th day it turned to utter frustration having to go to a cafe in town to get a good enough signal to collect emails and check bank and do any work.

It was an interesting experiment.  Hopefully as this house progresses it doesn't become a repeat occurrence.  With a bit of care, the red tape he's put up to mark out the phone line will keep that digger in its place.

Full Moon and a new choir

Last night the last of my new projects for this year got off to a flying start. Another community choir for a regeneration project that's been happening in the Mourne Mountains.   We met at Tory Bush Cottages - if you're ever looking for a self catering place to stay in this area this is beautiful.

27 people showed up on a freezing cold night (it was 5C last night! What is going on? 1st June) and they made a really good sound.   I had gathered together lots of mountain themed songs with simple harmonies and my favourite of all - rounds.  Lots of African pieces have made their way into my repertoire in the years since I started leading groups for singing and they make a fabulous instant harmony that makes all the singers feel good.  

Community choirs are wonderful.   They're informal and the repertoire is often more folk based and taught by ear.  There's no audition process as the ethos is that they should be all inclusive so they're a great place for building strength in your voice.  And while there are high and low parts, the focus is not on soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and for this one anyway, which isn't performance based, it's relaxing for people to sing for an evening, enjoy a cup of tea and a chat and go home again without worrying about practicing, learning words, or dressing up (for them anyway).   The age group last night ranged between 35 and 75 and it looks like it'll be a fun group.   We're running for the four Mondays of June and possibly another four weeks later in the Autumn.

Driving home through the mountains the moon was full and spectacular.   I tried a couple of quick photos on my phone.  Will definitely remember to bring my camera with me next week - I"m still not much past pointing and clicking but it is such fun.

What is it about the full moon?  It's so awe inspiring, or just plain inspiring.   I cannot look at it without thinking about the people who would have lived here 1000 or more years ago - I wonder were they scared of the moon?  No wonder they worshipped her.   I would like to learn to take good moon pictures.

Where were you watching the full moon this month?  Actually just thinking about it, will we have a blue moon this month?  We may well do.  

Remotely Bass

The recording process has changed a lot in recent times for all but the top  rock and pop acts.

In the old days we used to book a studio usually for 3 consecutive days on 4 consecutive weeks and completed an album in that time.   It was costly but exhilarating to be so immersed in the recording process.

Nowadays, because CD sales have dropped dramatically and online sales are negligible, recording budgets need to be controlled more tightly.   It's relatively easy to have a small studio in your own house if you know what you're doing and have good microphones and equipment.   We've had Ballyneddan Studio for nearly 10 years now - it's perfect for acoustic projects and for spoken word recordings.  Tom's a great engineer and our house is in a really quiet setting.  It's only one room but we sometimes use all the other rooms in the house to separate the instruments.

It's lovely being able to record at home, but there is a downside - everything else that you're doing takes precedence over your own creative process or practice.  Everyone else's needs take priority - teaching, recording, promotion, editing, family etc.

The plus side though is that the recording process is totally in your own control.  So if you complete one session with a musician and something needs to be changed on your own tracks then you can go and fix it.

I know there are some young singers and musicians who read here from time to time, so for you here's a bit of clarification.

A session is where one instrumentalist comes in and records that instrument on multiple tracks.   Sometimes, like with guitar for example, that instrument may be on almost every track on the album so the session may last as much as 3 days.

James, adding bass to our songs

But with bass, we are only using it on 4 songs on this recording.   So with the wonders of modern technology we were able to send the tracks by email to our bass player, he plays and records his parts on to those tracks and then sends them back digitally.  Wonderful:)  All of sudden the songs are taking shape and it's a delight.  

Special Things this week

In the B&B on Thursday night it was a treat to have a couple of hours to check out blogs and to follow some links on Facebook.    I thought I'd share a few treasures with you here.  

I had seen this video a few years back and it was lovely to be reminded of it by Denise at Denise's Planet.   These children are remarkable and indeed so are the adults who came up with this wonderful idea to recycle rubbish.

We take so much for granted in our wealthy Western worlds - look at what can be achieved.




This one is especially for my lovely blogging friend Deborah at Temenos of the Blessing Light in Chicago - I know you'll be in love with this project :)  A Children's Book you can Plant and it will grow into a tree.



I've been at a lot of funerals this year already and the topic has been at the front of our minds, how would our own final farewell be dealt with.  For one I was asked to sing a special song for the couple - called One True Place - the lyric talked about the person not being gone, but being in the room next door.  This piece of writing is from that angle and it just summed it up for me my feelings on the next life.   I want to post it here so that I can keep it for myself.  It was a lady that I met at a writing retreat last year had shared it on her Facebook page and I hope she doesn't mind me passing it on.  It came via the blog of the writer M.J.Rose

Written by Henry Scott Holland (27 January 1847 – 17 March 1918) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford

What interesting things have come up in your week? I'd love to hear.

Weekend

We had a splendid day in Cork yesterday and met up with some friends that we hadn't seen in nearly 20 years.  Can't wait to get back down there again.  It's only 250 miles south from here, but I swear it always feels about 10 degrees warmer.   It was Winter at the first gig but full summer by the time we got to the second one and of course the clothes weren't appropriate - the bain of my life!!

That was our first time playing in a Library and both places were lovely.   We're home with our heads full of ideas that now have to be acted on for future dates.

We drove back after the second gig.   Try as I may I've never learned how to conserve my energy on stage - it doesn't feel right if I don't give 110% but it leaves me totally wiped next day.   That on top of the 4 hour drive plus a couple of breaks for dinner and petrol got us home around 10.30 and asleep by 11.  Real rock'n'roll musicians us!!!!!

So it's going to be a very quiet day today - hairdresser, a wander around the food and craft market at the blues festival and an Indian take away for dinner.  I'll take the camera cos the sun is shining, but my awake head is not on straight yet.   Maybe we'll face the festival tomorrow and take in some music.   The blues in the Bay festival happens this Bank Holiday Weekend every year and features lots of local bands as well as international stars, including Van Morrison this year and Mud Morganfield who is Muddy Waters son.

It seems to be a holiday weekend everywhere this year - what are you up to?

Songs from the Wireless

While Tom and I usually perform contemporary folk with a smattering of traditional and some of our own songs, we still do one or two songs that were featured in our Songbirds TV series several years ago - songs of Delia Murphy and her contemporaries.   I wrote about Delia here during the A to Z challenge a few years back - you might be interested to see where our folk music started in the popular sense.

Now every year in May we put together a special show of all of those old Irish songs for the Festival of Bealtaine.

This year we're heading down to Cork this weekend for a couple of gigs in libraries to tie in with it.

Bealtaine is the Irish word for May, but it is also one of the 4 Celtic seasons of the year - the 1st May is Bealtaine, the 1st of Summer.  And in the South of Ireland the government for many years have given funds for creativity for older people during the month of May and that is the Festival of Bealtaine.   So our programme of songs fits very well.

Each year we try to make it a bit different and this year the theme is Songs from The Wireless.  We're including songs from John McCormack and his contemporaries as well as all my fabulous women's songs - I'm working at learning "The Kerry Dances" at the minute, a very intricate song which dates back to the 1500s - Here's Count John McCormack singing it.  Now try and imagine it with guitar and a light contralto voice!!!!!  Me!!!




This is our last dip back into a full programme of these songs for a while to come.   Full steam ahead now to finish the new album.  But oh I will enjoy a wee jaunt down to Cork :)