What a WEEK! I'm fairly certain that my legitimate job is sucking my will to live... And yet, here's the weekend!!! It's been here waiting for me all along like a faithful puppy! Down boy, DOWN!!
Tonight I've dedicated myself to all things Celtic! The ethnic people, not the team... depressing loss to Chicago last night! I'd rather not think about it until they're back in Boston. I've got Guinness in hand (see comments at the bottom of this post), I'm searching out Bagpipe music both Uilleann (Irish Elbow Pipes) and the Highland Pipes and I'm thinking about how I'm going to make money brewing beer and playing music. Ah, the Irish American Dream! Over the past few years, I've made it my mission to learn everything I can about my Gaelic Roots. To BORE you with my family history, My mother, my Dad's Cousin, also named Robert and I have all done our part to try and trace our roots back to their places of origin. We've gotten about 17 generations back on a few sides, but recordkeeping in Ireland and the UK tends to get a little dicey the further back you go thanks to the climate, church fires and an apparently genetic issue of poor penmanship. All I'm going to say is be glad that I'm typing this blog.
My mom's parents are both the children of Irish immigrants from I belive Killarney and Kilkenny. This makes the trace back fairly easy should I someday need to prove my overall Paddy-ness. In fact we still have some somewhat distant relatives still over there. My dad is roughly 3/4 Irish with names like Mahoney and Sheehan to his credit and the rest is Scots/English and possibly French Canadian my ancestors having allegedly been "Two Steppers" or those coming from Ireland to Nova Scotia and parts of Southern Canada on their way to Boston. It at least explains my love of Hockey... My Grandfather's Father was the son of a rubber factory worker from Woolich U.K. a small industrial town outside of London and his son, my Great grandfather was a prominant Accountant here in Boston. His wife was a the young daughter of Irish Immigrants and their wedding was somewhat of a scandal for the time as my Great Grandfather was Protestant (he "converted") and his bride Irish Catholic. That story is another one for another time, frankly it's full of intrigue and I've been facinated by it! Their son, my grandfather, partly as a result of the strained relationship with his father, always sided with his Gaelic roots and to that point, I think that my family and I have always sided with the Irish. Let's face it, the reputation for merry making is just CLEARLY on the side of the Irish. However, my last name is predominatly Scottish. Anderson is the 4th most popular name in the US and it's only fair to give the scots their due.
"SCOTS ARE A PEOPLE, SCOTCH IS A DRRRRRINK! IF IT'S NOT SCOTTISH, IT'S CRAP!" - Mike Meyers
Getting all that out of the way, I've been interested in Gaelic Culture really since grade school, but having a daughter made me really want to get into keeping the traditions alive. The Gaels are a beautiful people with an extraordinarly skill for telling stories, have BEAUTIFUL art work (i.e. the book of Kells) emoting through music and dance and celebrating in the face of adversity, vis a vis 800 years of English oppression.
I've been told I'm a naturally musical person and frankly it comes easy to me, mostly because I enjoy playing and I spend a LOT of time attempting to practice. In the last few years, I've learned to play the Bodhran (Irish Frame drum), a few Irish tunes on the guitar & piano and most recently, the tin whistle, the Kerry Low Whistle and starting in January '09, I joined the Sutherland Bagpipe Corps in Newton, MA. (AYE!!) My sister, Kathy has joined me on all but the Bagpipes and she's been a remarkable partner in crime!
Kathy and I so far have gotten serious on several Irish Tunes and despite a few squeaks, we've come a LONG way in a very short period of time. The two of us come from a long line of musicians, My great grandfather, Jack Sheehan was a well known local pianist in the East Boston/Medford/Sommerville area, My mother is a champion Accordion Player and my Grandfather was a clarinet player for the Boston College Marching Band. So pedigrees in place, Kathy, my sister Marie and I have all taken Piano lessons in the past and Kathy and I play fairly well by ear (its a blessing and a curse, I've gotten quite rusty at reading music). Kathy and I have found Irish music to be great fun, but the techniques involved to make it sound typically Irish are quite difficult. The cut and hit for example on the tin whistle sound REALLY cool, but are somewhat difficult to master... we're getting there!
The following songs we've gotten quite good at and plan on including Mom ASAP. My hope is that we take these tunes and post them on you tube at some point in the somewhat distant future.
-Star of the County Down
-Mairie's Wedding
-Saddle the Pony
-The Silver Spear
-The Red Haired Boy
-Ah Ha's "Take on me" - Seriously... too funny.
My bagpipe lessons have been going slowly but well. I play about 12 instruments in total and the Pipes from a technique standpoint is the most difficult I have learned yet. I've made some decent progress in the past few weeks, however I will probably not be off the practice chanter and "on the bag" for several months. This is a competition piping group and they take playing VERY seriously. Mistakes are tolerated... but only during practice! The two tunes I know by heart at the moment are:
-Scots what Ha'e
-The Brown Haired Maiden.
My ultimate goal, and I know this is going to sound silly, is to play Gordon Duncan's version of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck". It's a REALLY good version and I'm all about it. However I'm working to learn this right. Check out the link below... awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EwDlUHoDFo
I have so many bad habits on so many other instruments and it does affect your play. Better to learn it RIGHT the first time!
Back to the beer!
So, this isn't JUST a music blog, let's talk for a second about Guinness! Some say it tastes like burnt toast, others, like my father-in-law, have more colorful language for it... I think my love of dark beers and the naissance of my beer geek-dom started with Guinness. Thick, frothy, opaquely BLACK and with the absolute perfect mix of flavor makes it one of my favorite of the commerical beers. There's not too much hop, not too much malt and it's got a dry almost charcoal taste that makes is a joy to drink AND to cook with. Guinness Pie, Steak & Guinness and oddly enough it goes well in chili balancing out well with the 100% bitter Cocoa that I usually put in mine. I've heard it makes a decent dessert as well. I honestly can't think of a thing this classic beverage wouldn't go well with, perhaps other than breakfast cereal.(although....). There are other Stouts, Murphy's for example is a fine beer. However none inspire a love of Hibernia (The Roman name for the Erin Isle)quite so much as "The black stuff". Call it motor oil, call it tar, call it what you will. I call it plain old delicious!
I know this one was an "All about me" blog, and I thank you for reading up on the things I'm passionate about. I want to thank Arthur Guinness for the beer, my ancestors (thanks Mom & Dad!) for their inspiration, my sisters and most importantly my wife for putting up with my Bagpipe lessons!
Slainte!!
Rob
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