Farewell to a Friend

I learned last night that last week's sessions at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square are to be the last. Sad, but remember, we did find each other again after the demise of the sessions at Paddy Barry's and then the Banshee, so I'm sure we will rise again (like the Maryellen Carter) - who knows where.

In tribute to all the great times at Tommy's, I've made this little slide show - from audio and photography from Thursday night, January 5, 2012.

Gonna miss that place.

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.

Tommy Doyle's, Thursday Night, August 4, 2011

So great to be back in town for a couple of days.

Tommy Doyle's, Thursday Night, August 4, 2011 from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

Messing with Premiere Elements - not enough time in the day to learn all I want to learn - in every department. Shot with G12. Great to be back in Cambridge - love you guys!

Liam and Flora

Shot back in May at Tommy Doyle's, on the eve of Flora's sister, Annesta's, birth.

Liam and Flora from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

Tommy Doyle's, June 30, 2011

I was glad to be back at my old haunt on Thursday night after being AWOL for the past two weeks. Great music, great friends.

Tommy Doyle's, June 30, 2011 from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

Tommy Doyle's, June 30, 2011, clip 2 from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

Tommy Doyle's, Thursday Night, April 14, 2011

Untitled from Sara Piazza on Vimeo.

Above is a short clip from Tommy Doyle's, featuring Sean Connor. Sean, as always, manages to shine through the din.

I showed up at Tommy's on Thursday night and found perfect light and great music, but I accidentally started shooting with the G12 before I formatted my card so I ran out of memory. The only way to free up the card would have been to format, thereby losing this gem, so I called it quits for the night, video-wise, anyway. The 5D took over for the rest of the evening for the stills.

It was a great night at Tommy's. I'm glad we're back downstairs. I didn't like the acoustics, or the layout, upstairs. The light downstairs is now fantastic, early in the evening, anyway - and a great relief after suffering through the dark winter, now past, thank God.

A few favorites from the evening (I really love you guys - you're beautiful - thanks for putting up with me and my camera):

Tommy's and My New 5DMkII

I finally got the 5DMkII I've been harping about - yay! I picked it up Wednesday and the plan was that Ryan and I would join forces and do a little video-ing on Thursday night. Yeah, right. I basically showed up with the camera fresh out of the box, and knowing very little about either it, or videography. But it was great! I have no idea how the video turned out (Ryan is editing it - I saw some potential for greatness in some of my footage, and I know I have a lot to learn, technique-wise - which I'm very keen on doing), but I am very, very happy with the stills, a vast improvement from the G12; like night and day - literally, the 5D turns the dark cave of Tommy Doyle's into daylight! Okay, well, almost.

It was great fun shooting with Ryan. The challenge of course is how to take pictures, shoot video, play music, and enjoy the session, all at the same time. For example, one of my favorite jig sets came up while I was tethered to the camera. Oh well.

These were shot with my 50mm/1.4 @ 6400 ISO, and include a few really sweet shots by Ryan. I love the camera, and I love these photos.















































By Ryan



By Ryan



By Ryan



















By Ryan





By Ryan






By Ryan



By Ryan

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.

Thursday at Tommy Doyle's, 1/6/11

My fourth night out in a row. Not bad for this grandma. A good circle of musicians tonight, though we are missing Sean, who is in Ireland at the moment. (And I wonder if he's at some pub in Ireland, thinking of us and singing, "Missing you, all for the price of a flight.") Also, Cormac and Alex have not yet returned from their travels abroad. Still, for a cold January night, there was a good crowd - a nice mix of regulars, folks who knew each other from other venues, and folks meeting for the first time. Good to have David back among us, as well.

All shot with G12 on Low Light setting, mostly at ISO 3200, though a couple were shot at 6400. 






Jon, David, Liam, Chris.






Jon, David, Liam.And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg CountyDown by the Green River where Paradise layWell, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.From John Prine's Paradise.



Clockwise, from top, center: David, Liam, Chris, Wynter, Rosanne, Ben, Levi, Eric, Jon.


Rosanne