A Few Last Tunes with Cormac

Safe travels, my friend, and come back soon!

Tommy Doyle's, Wednesday Night August 24, 2011 from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

One last set with Cormac - this time around, anyway.

Fourth of July Porch Session

The Alison Boylston Piazza House, a/k/a the Midnight Mermaid.


I've begun what I hope will become a Fourth of July tradition: a barbecue on the front lawn along with music on the porch (videos at the end). My Main Street house is right on the parade route, in the center of the celebrations - which includes the parade that begins at 5:00, topped off with fireworks over the nearby harbor - so is a perfect place for a session. This brings to full circle a story that was referred to often in my childhood. According to a Vineyard Gazette piece that appeared in a May 1948 issue, my Main Street house was moved from Ocean Heights in 1848, being rolled into town on logs by oxen (imagine the house being pulled forward a few feet, with the men then removing the rear-most log and placing it the front row - over and over for three miles down a dirt road). As the story is told, that particular May day culminated with a rare spring snow storm (records of which I've never been able to find), and as was the custom of the day, with a pot-luck feast, replete with fiddlers.







A couple of the lads, fresh back from the beach.



Cormac and Bob.



Cormac



David



David, Levi, Cormac, and Bob.



Levi, Cormac, and Bob.



Levi and Cormac.



Levi, Cormac, and Bob.



Susie and David



Levi, Cormac, Bob, and David.



Fourth of July Porch Session from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.
Footage from our inaugural Alison Boylston Piazza House/Midnight Mermaid porch session, July 4, 2011. Great tunes, great friends, great craic!


Fourth of July Porch Session 2 from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.
The Bucks of Oranmore with Levi, Cormac, Bob, Susie, and David.

This was a great day - from swimming at Bend in the Road, to the parade, the BBQ, and great music - all topped off with spectacular fireworks over Edgartown Harbor.

I Love a House-session

Ryan and Chiara hosted a fab house-session on Sunday afternoon. Really, is there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than with a group of friends, playing music?

Here's a slide-show I had fun putting together, combining some of the stills I shot with one of the audio files from the afternoon. This was my first attempt at this kind of thing, something I've always been interested in trying. It was tricky timing everything - fitting the photos with the music, and I look forward to getting better at this.




This slide-show features Augusto, Brad, Cormac, Eric, Emerald, Liam, Mike, Ryan, Roisin, and Sean, with music by the company.

I'm adding a few random favorite still shots - to enjoy at a slower pace than the slide show offers. As always, I'm happy to share the low-res version of these shots (for FB, Match.com; J-Date :-)...whatever), which you will find here (or if you click on these photos you'll be redirected to the original gallery). For higher-rez, there's a buy option - for convenience rather than big bucks  (via Bay Photo, which does a great job) - and I can usually be talked into printing something up if there's a shot you love (8 1/2" wide, max, for now, until I get my new printer). I've also got a few videos that I'll be adding over the next few days. Please do share the video(s).

Eric (Rosanne in b.g.)


Brad


Ryan


Liam


Cormac


Augusto and Cormac


Augusto


Liam


Mike


Sean, Eric, and Rosanne.


Sean and Eric.


Emerald and Sean


Emerald, Sean, Eric




Roisin




Cormac




Rosanne

Here's more footage from Sunday. I'm totally new to video and video editing, so I'm still finding my way. I hope I've given everyone proper credit, and if anyone is inclined to add the names of these tunes, so much the better.And thanks, everyone, for putting up with me and my cameras! 

 

Tommy Doyle's - Thursday Night, February 10, 2011

Great sessions Wednesday and Thursday nights this week. Wednesday night served as a transition from having been on the island for a few days, and was most welcome; a small-ish turnout, the intimacy of which I always enjoy. Thursday night brought out a few more of the gang and was quite rollicking. Without really planning to - Ryan got me fired up, I guess - I randomly picked up my G12 and caught the last set of the evening, a long one - or, more like a few sets on top of each other. I ran out of memory at 15:22, and it went on for a full three more tunes. Man, that place is so dark, though - it's hard to see anything on the screen.

I ended up having to break this up into four parts, largely due to the upload limits at my web-site (1GB). This was my first time editing video - I was psyched to find settings for brightening the image (though I think it affects quality, somewhat), also the BW option, my being the BW junkie that I am.

I'm thinking that Rosanne will come through with the names of these tunes.

Tommy Doyle's 12/22/10

Text Rec'd from friend: Tunes tonight?
Reply: Desperately need tunes.

Still struggling - photographically, that is - with the dark cave that is Tommy Doyle's. All shot at ISO 3200, between 30th - 40th sec @ 2.8. Shooting in RAW format does allow me to recover an image that is even 2 full stops underexposed - all processed, including some noise-reduction, in LR3 - but I think these have crossed over into the realm of art. I rather like them, nonetheless.




Rosanne, Jon.






Sean Connor





Sean, Rosanne, Jon, Cormac, Eric.






"Christmas Eve"


There's medicine in the music.
I'd love to know the names of these tunes - one of Cormac's brilliant sets.

Saturday Night, Boston, 12/4/10

I was already planning on going to the session at The Littlest Bar on Saturday night, but a text I received from a session mate Saturday afternoon sealed the deal: "Littlest is gonna be leanin' heavy and should be totally off the feckin' charts..." I supposed at first that "leanin' heavy" must have meant there would be a large crowd, but now understand that this was a reference to the musician heavy-weights who would be in attendance. Having also received a text advising that the Locals would be playing at nearby Mr. Dooleys, I was happy to break free from my shackles and jump aboard the Green Line, inbound from Coolidge Corner, for a downtown Saturday night out.

The last time I went to Littlest I transferred to the Blue Line and got off at State Street, since it appeared to be the T-stop closest to the bar. This time I decided to walk from Park Street, thinking that the time lost while waiting for the connecting train is about equal to the time it takes to walk a few extra blocks. Besides, I love to walk and I was in the mood for taking in the sights and sounds of the people-filled holiday-season streets of Downtown Boston.

I wasn't exactly sure how to find my way from Park Street, though, and ended up on a somewhat meandering path down Tremont towards Government Center, and then turning right, where I discovered, and saw for the first time in my life, Old City Hall, which was quite grand; lovely, all lit up with Christmas lights.

As I continued to wander through the windy canyons of Boston's financial district - somewhat randomly, in the direction (I hoped) of Broad Street - suddenly I heard what sounded like someone calling my name. I ignored it at first, thinking I was hearing things - certainly nobody in that neighborhood knew me - but I did turn to see, sure enough, Levi - a fiddler I know from Tommy Doyle's - coming up behind me, waving, also on his way to Littlest. This was quite fun to come across someone I knew in the middle of this totally foreign neighborhood. Not to mention, a bit of a relief to have a tall, strong traveling companion through the now-dark city streets.

Levi and I found our way together to Mr. Dooley's - a wonderful, family-style Irish pub. Really, this was such a wonderful atmosphere. People were relaxed and happy and seemed to know each other, and there were even a few children in attendance. Laura and Cormac and Brian sounded great, too; a great combo of voices, whistle, fiddle, and guitar.  Eventually, Eric turned up. A funny thought that crossed my mind at the time was, how did my life turn out this way - that at age sixty I would be traipsing through the streets of Boston, bouzouki on my back and fiddle in hand,  running into barroom buddies in the middle of nowhere, and also even happening to know someone sitting at the bar (Eric) at an Irish pub I'd never been to in my life? Life is just so, well, interesting. The only downside was, somehow I managed to lose my Charlie Card. Mysteriously, it fell out of my mitten somewhere between Park Street and Mr. Dooley's. I say mysteriously because I double and triple-checked - there was no escape route from that mitten. A drag, especially because I had recently put $20 on it.

Regardless - it was a great night for Irish music in Boston.

Mr. Dooley's

The Locals: Cormac, Laura, Brian.

Steve Earl's Galway Girl


The Littlest Bar

The Littlest Bar: Cormac -  fiddler/surfer dude from Dublin; Tara - button accordion; Eric - flute; Brendan Bulger - host fiddler; Larry Reynolds - fiddle; Sean - fiddle; Greg - mando, whistle, and tenor guitar.

The Littlest Bar is actually not very little, though the corner where the session is held is a bit cramped, and delightfully so. This was my second time at The Littlest, and as much as I enjoy it, I don't feel as at home there as I do with the folks I play with regularly every week. There seems to be a different sub-set of tunes, for one thing, many that I've never heard before. There weren't many tunes I could play on my fiddle, proportionately, compared to other sessions I've been to, so I mostly played my bouzouki. I was happy to be the only chordal instrument in the house (for a change), though I tried not to abuse the privilege. At times it was quite enjoyable to just sit back and listen, especially when only the fiddles were being played. And yes, the heavy-hitters were in attendance and the music was brilliant.

Greg; Tony - bodhran.

 Laura,  right, has dropped in after her gig at Dooley's.

All shot with the G12; still getting to know this little camera and its capabilities. I tried the Low Light setting tonight. This setting doesn't offer much more than my usual Manual/RAW settings, but with no RAW capabilities, and no control of settings, with tiny files, to boot - yes, a little less noise, but I can reduce noise in post-processing in LightRoom, so I think I'll just stick to shooting Manual/RAW, 3200 ISO. I suppose I could have adjusted the WB in the color shots from The Littlest, cooled them down a little, but I rather like the warm pre-Christmas glow.

The Locals

My friend Laura is in an Irish Trad band called The Locals. Laura, Cormac, Brian, and I had a fun shoot outside of Porterbelly's pub in Brighton a while back.