READ ME!

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Hello avid blog enthusiasts
If you are reading this installment I am impressed, because that means that you have not gotten bored yet with my tales. I want you all to be here and experience it for yourself but since all 110 of us can't be here together, then the best I can do is try and capture one american kid's experience of it so that you may get an inkling to hop on the next aer lingus flight and see this place for youselves. It really is a fantastic country in many ways. Last night I was up until 2 in the morning playing tunes, trading stories, swapping jokes and enjoying a bit of "craic" (yea it means "fun," it's an Irish word that gets a lot of good use confusing tourists about people's relationships with narcotics). But anyway, so last night was the epitome of fun for me. The people that were there were some of the warmest and funniest ladies and gents you could ever hope to meet and my stomach still hurts this morning from laughing so hard. I was struggling to remember all of these jokes and stories but delivering them will be the hard part. Nothing like that old Irish musician wit. That's the real reason to get involved with this music. For better or worse, you meet a lot of shall we say...eccentric individuals.
So a few stories: The other day I was hitching a ride a few miles up and I get into the car of this wild rambling twenty something and his German girlfriend. The first question he asks me is which part of Australia I'm from. I tend to get that a lot lately. It must be that crocodile dundee outfit I have been wearing around town....
So he asks me my name and I tell him Andrew. "No way, that's my name!" he says, "though I go by Cormac." So then I tell him my last name and sure enough he fires back with an echo "No way, that's my name!" we traded ID cards for verification and yes in fact he is Andrew Magill. What a world. When we pulled into the town he saw all the music in the streets and got so excited he bolted out of the car and then I understood the Australian connection...He was dressed head to toe like crocdile hunter with a crocodile tooth strung hat for added effect. Of course he has a fierce Irish accent but you know as they say...70 % how you look, 20 % how you say it, yada yada.

So another fun little tale happened 2 nights ago. We had just finished this great session and were about to head down but decided to poke our heads in the one pub in the town that we could still hear music emanating from. We poked our heads in and there was the king of Irish music giving what sounded like his coronation speech. He's a bit of a local legend in music circles, political circles, and every kind of circle alike. That last type of circle was referencing his unmistakable rotund composition. I won't mention names because I don't want to breach any privacy and I feel like he'll go down in your mind more as a legend from Andrew's trip anyway. So this certain flute-playing ship of a man was giving speeches on Irish rebellions in the 1700s, singing songs, and going on about the status of traditional Irish music. I have met this character before and was lurking in the shadows near the door among the other 60 spectators. After making eye contact it wasn't long before he went into a speech about "you know, it's about time we started taking Irish musicians from the states seriously. I believe we have a wonderful fiddle player from Texas is it? Yea, Texas by the name of Andrew Magill..." You probably couldn't distinguish the boundary between my burning cheeks and red hair when he said that. So I reluctantly got out my fiddle and gave my little recital before he called on the next unsuspecting Irish fiddler. It was fun anyway, and makes a great story.

I hope everyone is doing well...i hope to have more tales for you soon....

andrew

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