Tuesday

Tuesday morning Tommy Makem gave a talk about melody and lyrics at the
Cloverhill golf club, near Forkhill. He discussed the origins of song,
the mythologies of Ireland, and the sources of his own inspiration. He
told a delightful story about how one day when he was home in Ireland,
he heard a blackbird singing as he walked along the road. The blackbird
sang a particular phrase of notes and Tommy echoed it back. The bird
followed him all the way down the road and they carried on the musical
conversation.

+------------------+
|Ellen Reilly of |
|Keady, a wise |
|woman who could |
|make a very fine |
|cup of tea, asked |
|Tommy one day, |
|"What is music?" |
|He thought about |
|this and turned it|
|around, asking, |
|"What do you think|
|it is, Ellen?" And|
|she replied, "The |
|soul of the world |
|embedded in |
|sound." |
+------------------+

On the way back home, again the blackbird flew from tree to tree,
following Tommy home and bantering with him. Upon arriving, he wrote
down the fragments the blackbird was singing, and some months later
completed the tune.

Tommy also got us thinking about how melodies and lyrics travel the
world. We brainstormed a list of songs whose tunes came from other
places -- The Bard of Armagh, for instance, is the original tune for the
American song, "The Streets of Loredo." Many such examples are found in
America and Australia, too. Where ever the Irish went, they took their
music with them and it became part of the local culture.

Tommy is an incomparable storyteller and teacher.

After Tommy's talk, we had lunch there at the golf course and a few of
us escaped a little early to go for a short climb up the side of the
mountain behind the golf club. It was a magnificent view! Adi and Jesika
made it all the way to the top and went mountain-surfing on the way
down. Dale, Reagh and Kate gawked from a lower plateau, and took
pictures, of course.

Underfoot was plenty of heather and fiddle-head-shaped bracken, and of
course little gifts left by the sheep... they thought it was their
pasture, or something.

Meanwhile..... Ed was conquering the golf course.

That afternoon the bus took us down to Omeath then on to Carlingford,
where we had a chance to get out and poke around a little bit, checking
out the ruins of King John's Castle.

Of course, the places we visited were only part of the fun of our bus
trips -- we sang lots of songs along the way, and the tour guides who
narrated were very knowledgeable and gave us loads of history and trivia
about the region.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a stop at the hotel and a bit of dinner, we headed back to the
Cloverhill Golf Club for the evening concert. We were treated to a
singular performance by the fabulous storytellers and singers, Len
Graham and John Campbell. They had us in stitches with their hilarious
stories and ditties! (Bio of John Campbell [1])

Next up, a group of local traditional musicians played a few tunes for
us, and a local group of set dancers gave us a brilliant demonstration.
Their footwork was so smooth that it appeared like they were floating
around the floor!

We had some visitors to the concert for the evening who made our
festival truly international and diverse. There were about 15 Polish
people who joined up with the festival just for Tuesday evening. Their
spokesperson struggled a bit to tell us how happy his group was to be
with us, but as Tommy noted so tactfully, his English was much better
than any of our Polish! The contingent even gave us a rousing version of
a Polish folk song -- I don't know what it meant, but it sure was
energetic!

Then Tommy sang some songs, backed up by his son Rory in his usual
exemplary style. From "Redman O'Hanlon," the song about the gallant
highwayman of Slieve Gullion, to "Wee Willie Lost His Marlie," Tommy
worked his magic and had us all singing along. Soon Shane and Conor were
on stage too and Tommy and The Boys 'went to eleven.'

Finally, John, Len, Eugene and the lads from the band all came back up
-- which made for a very crowded stage -- for a finale song and thanks
to all the community members who attended.

And would you believe that after all this in one day, we went back to
the hotel and a good number of us die-hard festival goers, the Makem
brothers, the lads from the trad band, and another blow-in, a lad named
Dave Cunningham (who could sure spin a song!) took over the bar and
played MORE tunes and sang MORE songs?!? No kidding! One song led to
another and soon we knew it was Wednesday by the singing of the
birds.... Kate Akers
Kate Akers, kakers@chivalry.com
Chivalry Music & Internet Publishing
All photos on these pages were
taken by Kate Akers and Jim Gillespie, ©2000.
Reprinting or republication without permission is prohibited.

1: http://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/inart322.htm