TOUCHLINE MAY, THE YEAR NINE.

Whilst the months that elapsed since the last “Touchline” may not have been the happiest in my life, for all kinds of reasons, there were roses too amongst the thorns. A winter month in Ireland is always is blessing, despite the weather, because the weather in America is far from perfect too unless like myself, you are one of the lucky people living in Delightful Dunedin, Florida where it’s always summer. A clatter of Yanks, myself included, descended upon Cork City for the marriage of my colleague, my handsome apprentice Máirtín de Cógáin and his lovely bride Mitra. Having received de luxe hospitality and support in America during the current transition years especially from the patron saint of New York, Donie Carroll, Fr Mick Carroll (no relation) and the wonderful people from the band Legacy, to wit, Valerie Plested and Don Penzien, I said, Crowley boy, the shoe is on the other foot, horse! I must go all out to host and toast these Yanks in the beautiful city of Cork. Well, ladies and gentlemen! Such sport we had! For devilment I took Don and Val, Scottie (Scott Cole) and his wife Aimee and the redoubtable Noel Reid from New Orleans and the irrepressible Doyle Jeter and his wife Yvette who have spoiled us all with kindness and patience and support anytime we play at their friendly festival and bar at Munroe Louisiana, I took them to the quaintest of places in the Beautiful City. We went to the Old Butter Exchange in the Northside, met poets and topers, politicians and talkers, the highlight was John McCarthy who kidnapped us and brought us off to tea somewhere where we discussed Socrates, Kant and James Connolly not to mention Biffo, our ballad -singing Taoiseach or Prime Minister, who in fact is a fine traditional singer. There was a magical night in Clonakilty with John Spillane, Doyle being a gig fan of John’s We went to breakfast at the Uptown Grill, my favourite diner in Cork; had sessions with the local musicians at the Corner House and it took us about two hours to “do Pana” (walk Patrick Street) because like Americans, Corkonians are nosey too and they do be wondering how things are going for me “over”.

The wedding was fierce traditional with all kinds of sets, waltzes and polkas and marvelous music and food- I’m sure it’s still going on! Next day, Jan 1, we went out sailing on a delightful cruise in Cork Harbour on my friend Curly’s yacht Annie. We took the Yanks out to the mouth of the harbour to give them their first sketch of the broad Atlantic and to watch for dolphins. We then tacked and ran for East Ferry under all plain sail, pointing out the poignant icons of Irish history like Spike Island, the Holy Ground, The Cove of Cork, St Coleman’s cathedral in Cobh which duly came abeam of us. We tied up at the little jetty in East Ferry, safe and sound without shudder or scrape and repaired to the famous “Dirty Murphy’s “ pub for a session of music and porter that lasted four or five hours. It’s a fine clean establishment, well loved by sailors, but it’s older names endures in the vernacular. I’m still “on the wagon” and enjoying every minute of it and I had as good a time as if I had a gallon of porter. ‘Twas fine and darkish for our return journey to Crosshaven, but that’s part of the magic. I hung on for a month in Ireland visiting all the family members, having the craic with my son James and visiting Olive, my mother at the nursing home and generally making up for the months away. Despite all the doom and gloom recessions etc, it wasn’t a bad month at all where gigs were concerned.

Back in Amerikay beginning of February, my dear friend Mick Moloney paid me a visit in the Sunshine State and we laughed a lot and played a lot of music together. We did a few nice concerts together which included a magical night at the state capitol of Tallahassee and Mick has taken up the bouzouki and is already giving me a good run for my money! , The next exciting Spring event was the launching of our new band, Captain Mackey’s Goatskin and Stringband which included me and Máirtín de Cógáin and we “borrowed “ Val Plested’s fiddling skills from the band Legacy and likewise her sweetheart Don Penzien on guitar. March was a nice busy month and we cut a tour of the beautiful South playing in Memphis, Jackson, Lake Charles and many more places, all necessary to work the new band in .It was a pleasure and a great comfort to have the creativity, the friendship and the fun that exudes from Val and Don on the road and I look forward to our gig at the Milwaukee festival in August. In between I have been working flat out trying to finish the first volume ofSongs from the Beautiful City: Urban Cork Ethnography collected by yours truly. Val has consented to score the dots; I’m not bad at it but I’m butt slow and another pair of ears won’t hurt the project.

The Muses have visited me and some firm songwriting possibilities have thankfully been recorded. I believe in the concept of the ancient Greeks: that the Muses have a time to visit us and woe betides the artist who reneges or is too lazy or stupid to feel the surge or divine the inspiration. I hope, please God, to have another album of me own songs soon, like “Tall Ships”, reflecting my American experience as well.

There was another little jaunt around the Frozen Northland, as I call Lake Woebegone, Michigan, Minnesota and generally M for misery “up there” in the winter. But no, I’m being too hard on those “M’ places! I took off with a folk circus for about two weeks in Michigan, which is a gorgeous place, in the jovial company of Val, Don, Ziggy and Susan from the band Stone Cross, and bless you all, although there wasn’t enough of ye, who turned up to support our Folk Circus. Here again is yet another wonderful blessing: for me to be able to see secret parts of America where tourists seldom go, meet the real people, the guys out of work from the wounded automobile industry and fellow musicians like Brian Miller, Jim Perkins from Finbarr’s Wren and Jamie-Sue Seal who kindly organized the tour which included several TV and radio appearances. I was mesmerized, transfixed, captivated, enthralled by Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan, where Val and Don and myself taught bouzouki, mandolin, guitar and fiddle workshops. It is a sweet shop with lashings of gorgeous stringed instruments that would make your mouth water! Mellow, ruddy Gibson A4’s; twirling, serpentine A5’s and Val played a dreadful trick on me! When I took Mary Coffee, my gorgeous coffee and cream 1917 Gibson A4 mand0lin out for the workshop, wasn’t there an Elderly tag hanging off the neck with a fair price! It looked like I might have stolen the instrument or worse still: maybe Mary Coffee was sold in error to some Bluegrasser! Justin Murphy who completes the band Legacy, the second best flute player in America (the best is now dead), joined us and Val and he were hilarious doing all kinds of accents: they have the Dublin cant down to a tee with all the colloquialism. An ineffable talent, I had a pain in my stomach from laughing at them and oh! to have the wherewithal to “take people off.” I’d never stop, and to quote Con Fada, “twould be the price of me!

There were some magical restive days staying with Don’s cousins Mark and Cyndi on their lovely lakeshore cottage in Northern Michigan. Mark is a fine guitarist and he showed me some bossa nova rhythms and chords, my fancy and fascination for a long time. We were wined and dined and killed with kindness and Michigan cooking.

Then it all suddenly ended and ‘the lads’ headed back to Mississippi and Florida and I headed over to Minnesota to rejoin my handsome apprentice Mairtin de Cogain and his wife Mitra for a few gigs and house concerts and to stay in their new home in Rochester. Mairtin took me to some quaint diners in St. Paul and Minneapolis, where they shot a scene from the movie version of A Prairie Home Companion, which, with the possible exception of Sunday Miscellany on RTE radio, is probably the best radio show in the world. I was still exhausted after the Circus jobby- I’m far too old for all this caper and I should be doing a bit of quiet fly-fishing now on some tranquil stretch of the river Lee at this hour of me life and quit me gallivanting! But as Andy Irvine says, “Never Tire of the Road”, and the road is rejuvenating.

I’m back in Dunedin where the sea is like wine. In a couple of days I’ll be home in my beloved Beautiful City of Cork for the “season” but returning for Milwaukee Irish Festival and a Captain Mackey’s Goatskin and Stringband tour thereafter. Keep a weather eye on the site, folks, we’ll do our best to keep it up to date. Will let you know about the date for the official launch of our album,” Soldiers’ Songs: The Irish Abroad and Soldiering” in New York in October.

Met some flash pussycats over the last few months: hard to beat Finnegan, a gorgeous, good-natured ragdoll of a tom owned by Ziggy and Susan of Stone Cross. Finnegan was as happy and as amiable as ever I’ve seen a cat; he positively smiled, I tell you, when you tickled his tummy or played with him. -and remember: there are grouchy, ornery cats too, but Finnegan isn’t one of ‘em. I’ll feature him some time in our Cat’s Gallery.

The Cat of the Month is a Dublin jackeen of a cat called Tiger but he has a well-deserved Latin title, Testicalus Maximus- or something dreadful like that. Met him when I picked up an instrument case at Mike Mullen’s workshop in Dublin last January. Mike is a fantastic craftsman and has protected the instruments of the musicians of Ireland with quality casemaking. My “steerina” as I call the “twin perambulator” that he designed for my bouzouki and guitar (together) is the talk of America and turns more heads than a leggy blonde.

I’ll see ye, to quote Andy Moore, “all of a sudden.”