St Paddy's Day 2016

SONG OF THE IRISH WHISTLE
with apologies to Joanie Madden

Sure, it's a holy instrument
Like everything that comes from God
You must learn to hold her reverently
Like Father Kelly's Holy Wafer
Or a patch of Irish sod.

Close your lips around her fipple
And thru her narrow airway
Blow a prayer across that tilted floor
Called "labium" when there's one of them
And "labia" when there's more.

Now the noise she makes is frightful
Like a pack o' banshees wailin'
The men are rising from their seats
And now your life depends
On the music you can coax from her
With your fancy fingerin'

Sure breathin' (and tonguin') have to be mastered
But they're just a part o' the thing
For it's how ye move yer flesh
Across the openings, laddie,
That makes the Irish whistle sing.

You may play in a grove
You may play in a pub
You may play with a maid in the spring
But playing the Irish whistle
You must mind your fingering
For it's how ye move yer flesh
Across the openings
That makes the Irish whistle sing.

Sure, it's how ye move yer flesh
Across the openings
That makes the Irish whistle sing.

Muldoon the solid man

In the latter half of the 19th Century, Irish politicians dominated the political life of New York and Boston. The Irish musical producers Harrigan and Hart (the Rogers and Hammerstein of their day) caricatured these immigrant upstarts in the figure of Michael Muldoon, the solid man. The song has long outlived its Victorian origins and recently appeared on a Chieftains album. This version that Nick performs in Santa Cruz's Floral Park was inspired by Dublin singer Frank Harte.

 For Californians, the "Tombs" and the "Island" in the third verse, where Muldoon's constituents go "to enjoy their summer recreation and the refreshing East River air",  refer to Manhattan's infamous Houses of Detention and Blackwell's Island. Then, as now, the line between criminals and lawmakers was not easy to discern.

Mayday Play 2014

The first day of spring in the Celtic calendar is Beltane (May 1) when pagan rituals used to be performed to increase the fertility of the fields, the family and the livestock. In many cultures the maypole is erected and ribbons wound around it by dancing men and women to honor Nature's generative force. In keeping with this fertility theme May also hosts Mother's Day and the Catholic Church dedicates this whole month to the Mother of God, adorning Mary's statues with flowered wreaths and garlands.

Doing our part to celebrate Beltane, Mary-month and Mother's Day, August O' Connor and I took our instruments to "trapezoid park" in Capitola and played a few Irish tunes to the coyote bushes, the California poppies, the hummingbirds, crows, ravens and the occasional passing human being.

Celebrating the Irises

I don't have much of a green thumb but lots of stuff comes up in my yard anyway including lots of purple irises. The day irises first bloom in Boulder Creek is to me like the cherry blossom festival in Japan -- a movable feast starting in the South. A few days ago I noticed irises in Santa Cruz which meant that soon the bloom zone would move up here. Sure enough, the irises popped out on April 24, the same day as last year. A friend of mine recently gave me a whole case of fine beer--thank you, Dave--so I decided to celebrate both events by playing the irises some Irish tunes.

The Guinness Made Me Do It

Continuing to pursue his project to discover new ways of connecting with Nature, Nick Herbert invokes his inner Irish tenor at a St. Paddy's Day party in Aptos. Accompanied by Kim Fulton Bennett on wooden flute, Nick renders the traditional Irish folk song "Carrickfergus" while other members of the band "Blarney" look on. In addition to Kim and Nick, "Blarney" consists of August O'Connor on guitar and bodhran and Matt Johnson on banjo and Irish whistle.

Matt Johnson & August O'Connor

Nick's Dixon

Nick playing his new Tony Dixon whistle

About ten years ago I met an enormously talented woman who was, among her other talents, a cook, an artist and Irish musician, part of the duo/trio known as Dobhran ("Otter" in Gaelic) which played at Celtic festivals, weddings and wineries, and had produced three CDs of their tunes. In order to get closer to this marvelous creature and to move more easier in her circles I decided to learn to play some Irish instrument. Since I have almost no native musical ability, the fiddle was out, and likewise any rhythm instrument. so I settled on either concertina or penny whistle. For economic reasons the whistle won out and I have been trying to master this deceptively simple six-hole Irish noise-maker ever since.

Learning an instrument is like learning a language--it's a consciousness altering act. First of all you have to "court the instrument", caress it, coax it, discover what it (and you) can and cannot do together. Then, as you start memorizing pieces, a part of your unconscious emerges that can play the instrument without any conscious effort on your part. Then your performance becomes a peculiar dialog between the new being inside you that can play the whistle "by heart" and the conscious mind that wants to direct the sound into new paths. Playing music "by heart" is a fascinating conversation between conscious and subconscious entities resembling Buddhist meditations involving breathing which is another physiological function where the border between unconscious and conscious operations can be shifted at will.

The penny whistle (known also as tin whistle or Irish whistle) probably never ever cost as little as a penny. (The name may have arisen from small boys playing it in London streets "for pennies") but they are remarkable inexpensive--usually at prices less than $10.00 US. For that reason we whistle players are prone to WAS (whistle acquisition syndrome) in which new whistles are acquired at the drop of a hat. Sometimes friends unwittingly feed this addiction--three of my fondest whistles are gifts--1. a classic tin Clarke from my next-door neighbor; 2. a Guinness-branded aluminum pipe bought at Blarney Castle by a fellow whistle player and 3. a brass Walton purchased in Dublin by Bruce Damer after receiving his PhD from Trinity College. Wherever I am, I look about for new whistles, hoping to find that unattainable grail--that magic instrument that exactly fits my nature, the perfect whistle that is all "sweet spot"--no sour or squeaky notes--that delirious whistle that plays itself, that effortlessly pours forth seductive melodies that charm the savage beast, court the ladies or stir the tribe into battle.

After playing for years in sessions around Santa Cruz and in a few paid gigs, I decided that I was ready to appreciate a more expensive instrument (good hand-crafted whistles sell for as much as $300) and after shopping around on the web decided to buy a tunable polymer whistle from Tony Dixon who works in Devon, England. The whistle arrived (about $50 from Lark in the Morning in Mendocino) and I have since been coaxing, caressing and discovering both its virtues and its flaws--many of which are located, of course, on my side of the fipple (mouthpiece).

I have been fortunate to find a few good whistle tutors, both live and on the web. Foremost web tutor being the musical priest himself Ryan Duns, SJ. Best source for whistle lore = Chiff and Fipple. And for traditional Irish tunes and commentary see thesessions.org One of our local Celtic music luminaries, Mike Long has put together a collection of more than a 1000 Irish tunes ("more tunes than are good for you") which he privately circulated and has now made available on the web. And for tuning your instrument, calibrating your tuner, or just playing around with sounds, there's the Online Tuning Fork.

One of the most instructive comments on my budding career as a whistle player came a few years back from an experienced fiddle player in one of our sessions: "You're really sounding good, Nick," he said, "For a long time you've been really terrible." To an insecure musician like myself that kind of honest feedback was truly encouraging.

Santa Cruz Scottish Games

Saturday, Oct 2, August O'Connor and I attended the second annual Scottish Games at San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz, CA. Here we watched grown men and woman toss heavy stones and large poles (cabers) record distances, witnessed the gathering of the clans in which the McPhersons, the Bells, the Crawfords and a score of other Scottish tribes proudly displayed their lineages to the public and marched before the queen and her retinue--everybody dressed in costumes covering several historical periods from medieval to modern. We observed an old-fashioned forge and a weapon shop, booths that sold haggis, pot pies, Guinness, musical instruments and plenty of Celtic clothes and adornment where August purchased a brown-and-yellow tartan scarf from county Down. Traditional Celtic music was present in abundance, headlined by the Wicked Tinkers and 1916, plus a plentitude of pipers, Scottish dancers and musicians from the Community Music School of Santa Cruz.

August and I worked the fair as wandering minstrels, she playing the bodhran (Irish frame drum) and I the penny whistle (which a friend recently described as "the gateway instrument to the bagpipes"). The attached clip by videographer Allan Lundell from Awake Media, captured us playing "Father Kelly's Reel" near the gaming field at the close of an boisterous Scottish day.

Santa Cruz St Paddy's Day 2010

Patrick Reilly, Santa Cruz patent attorney and founder of the Intellectual Property Society ("Protecting the Fire of Creativity"), annually hosts one of the finest Saint Paddy's Day parties on Monterey Bay--loads of corn beef sandwiches, cold Guinness, great company and good cheer. Plus an Irish session band with a quantum physicist playing the penny whistle. In this video clip by Allan Lundell, the band performs "The Butterfly", a popular slip jig attributed to eccentric Dublin composer and fiddle player Tommy Potts.

After closing out the pubs
Pat and Mike are staggering home
across a moonlit cemetery.
"Paddy," says Mike, reading from a stone,
"Here lies a man who lived to be 115."
"Now that's a auld one, Mike. What was his name?"
"His name was Miles, me boy."
"Miles from Dublin."

St Paddy's Day 2010: Nick Goes Pro

After a few years of playing the Irish Whistle in open Santa Cruz Celtic session groups, Nick and a few of his friends will debut at Motiv, a stylish, pub/restaurant (formerly the Dakota) which is poised to be the Next Big Scene in Santa Cruz night life. (See Motiv reviews here.) Our session group, as yet unnamed, will open for the main act on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, around 5 PM. Motiv is located across from Borders Books in downtown Santa Cruz. Nick's first whistle gig on a big stage. Visit Motiv, wear somethin' green, order yerself a pint o' Guinness and enjoy some raw and raucous Irish tunes. See you there.

Also today, my agent has informed me that Quantum Reality will be translated into Croatian. Hooray! Wouldja pour Nick another Guinness, laddy?

Wearin' o' the Green

"The Wearing of the Green" is an anonymously-penned Irish street ballad dating to 1798. The context of the song is the repression around the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Wearing a shamrock in the "caubeen" (hat) was a sign of rebellion and green was the colour of the Society of the United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary organisation. During the period, displaying revolutionary insignia was made punishable by hanging. (Wikipedia)

O Paddy dear, and did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!
No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen
For there's a cruel law ag'in the Wearin' o' the Green.

I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"
"She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen
For they're hanging men and women there for the Wearin' o' the Green."

So if the color we must wear be England's cruel red
Let it remind us of the blood that Irishmen have shed
And pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod
But never fear, 'twill take root there, though underfoot 'tis trod.

When laws can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow
And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show
Then I will change the color too I wear in my caubeen
But till that day, please God, I'll stick to the Wearin' o' the Green.

Photo: Patrick O'Reilly's St. Patrick's Day Party
Seacliff, CA March 15, 2009
August O'Connor, guitar
Nick Herbert, Irish whistle
Jamey Wylde, fiddle

Song of the Irish Whistle

SONG OF THE IRISH WHISTLE

(with apologies to Joanie Madden)

Sure, it's a holy instrument

Like everything that comes from God

You must learn to touch her reverently

Like Father Kelly's Holy Wafer

Or a patch of Irish sod.

Close your lips around her fipple

And thru her narrow airway

Blow a prayer across that tilted floor

Called "labium" when there's one of them

And "labia" when there's more.

Now the noise she makes is frightful

Like a pack o' banshees climaxin'

The men are rising from their seats

And now your life depends

On the music you can coax from her

With your fancy fingerin'

Sure, breathin' (and tonguin') have to be mastered

But they're just a part o' the thing

For it's movin' your flesh

Across the openings, laddie,

That makes the Irish whistle sing.

You may play in a grove

You may play in a pub

You may play with a maid in the spring

But playing the Irish whistle

You must mind your fingering

For it's movin' flesh across the openings

That makes the Irish whistle sing.

Sure, it's movin' flesh across the openings

That makes the Irish whistle sing.

Obama is IRISH!!

Performed by Sunday Session MC Shay Black at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley, CA, this song was originated by the Corrigan brothers in Moneygall, Ireland with new lyrics contributed by EVERYONE. Sample verses:

You don't believe me, I hear you say

But Barack's as Irish as our own JFK

His grandaddy's granddaddy came from Moneygall

A village in Offaly, well known to you all.

O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama.

From the old Blarney Stone to the green hills of Tara

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama.

Santa Cruz Session Relocates

To the novice, Irish dance music often seems to be played at breakneck speed, pushing the limits of the performers, their instruments and perhaps even the laws of physics.

Fortunately there exists, for beginning and intermediate players, a non-relativistic approximation to full-tempoed Irish music, the so-called "slow-play session". Nick has been apprenticing on the pennywhistle at one of these sessions in Santa Cruz, CA for a few years. Our session started in private homes, resided for a long while at NOAA (the oceanic NASA) in Santa Cruz's West Side, then for more than a year we were hosted by the Windmill Cafe near Twin Lakes. Now the session has moved to a new location, The Buttery, Santa Cruz's landmark gourmet bakery at the corner of Branciforte and Soquel.

Our main tune book "Foinn Seisiun" is a Santa Cruz version of the official tunes of the international Celtic music society Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Its 116 tunes being a fair sampling of the music you are likely to hear in any Irish pub (including the three tunes played by the Irish lowlife in steerage in the movie "Titanic") supplemented with additional popular tunes such as "Butterfly", "Swallow Tail" and  "Off to California" (which celebrates the Irish participation in the Gold Rush). Our sessions are occasionally graced by a professional Irish musician or two who's interested in learning a brand new instrument. It's a great place to indulge in beginner's mind. And, depending on the skill of the participants, the music at a slow-play session is not always played slow.

The pictures show four of the approximately dozen players who attended last Sunday's session. Jamey (fiddle), August (guitar), Nick (whistle) and Janet, who founded The Buttery, playing concertina.

For more information about this Santa Cruz slow-play session, contact Tane' Tachyon--e mail address = tachyon(at)tachyonlabs.com to be informed of dates, times and related events.