Monday 23 July 2012

Frank Molloy joined us tonight

It was our Summer lull, and only Helen Grehan, Conor Lawlor and Gerry Casey were in attendance, until about 11pm, when Frank Molloy (http://23.21.183.217/franjobanjo/UVaand his partner, Cora, joined us. Frank ripped out his banjo and gave us a couple of songs, including "When Coal was King" (See below). 


Frank invited us to join in his Doom gig - all songs MUST be about DOOM, not doom and gloom, but DOOM. Its in Effernagh on 2nd August. As Malachy says "where the f is Effernagh..."


In response to this invite, Helen pulled out a song she hadn't sung since she wrote it 20 years ago - it was a cheerful number, about a dying husband who was a bit of a reprobate, asking his wife's forgiveness for all the pain he had caused her. And Conor followed up with his song, Masks, which starts with the very gloomy "Paddy's fathers dying, doctor days that he won't see out the year".

June Meeting - those famous YouTube videos

We were lucky to be joined by Klaus Harder for this session.


Malachy Gerry, Helen and I really enjoyed his songs - the ideas were so original. A story about a Space Shuttle astronaut, inspired by the finding of the diary of one the Challenger's astronauts in a forest in Texas. (Challenger was the space shuttle which burned up on re-entry...) He also sang a song about an eskimo who was brought back to New York in the early 1900's by Admiral ... - the US explorer who attempted to reach the north pole. The ironic thing about this story is that the eskimo, who was very young when first brought to New York, died in the Spanish flu epidemic.


We made some YouTube Videos:


First Meeting

The First meeting of the songwriter's circle was held at 9 in Dodd's on the Crescent. Helen Grehan, Gerry Casey, Malachy Costello, and me (Conor Lawlor) started things off.


An "eclectic" mix - Helen's mastery of songwriting and guitar playing set the bar high, with her songs "The Road Where Soldiers Go" and others. (I am writing this two months later - no notes...


Malachy sang "The Magpie", "Sunny Street", and annoyed everyone with the fact that he is SO multi-talented!


Gerry sang his Tanglewood song, and wowed his audience with his great vocal talent.


I sang a couple of songs - The Messenger and Too Good To Be True - you'll have to ask the others how they sounded...