Sets for the Fiddle Club Dance are up!

Greetings, all!

We're launching our "Downloads" section of the website's "Member's Only" area with the program and dance sets for the upcoming Fiddle Club Dance.

To get download the sets, click the "Members' Area" button to your left. Enter your ID and password and click "Submit". This will bring up a new page, and click the link that says "Click to Enter Members-Only Area". When you do, a new set of navigation buttons will appear on your left, the bottom of which is "Downloads". Click that, and you're there.

Royal Mile Jam is back on!

I spoke with the new owner of the Royal Mile pub on Friday afternoon, and our jam session is back on! I will have to talk to the owner's son, who is in charge of the calendar, to get us back on it, but we are on for our regular time. Indeed, the owner indicated that we could go to 8 PM if we wanted to.

Amy and I went there for dinner yesterday, and I was approached by two patrons who were excited to see me there and were asking about the jam's return. If ever you've wondered if the jam is appreciated, there's your answer.

With the jam's return coming up next weekend, I hope everyone will turn out for a strong showing of support for the pub and what it represents.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

News on the Royal Mile Pub

The Wheaton Calling blog writes:

Mr. WC happened upon Michael Moore, who was taking a smoke break outside of Limerick.  The big news is that he is now the former owner of the Royal Mile.  Moore said that he found a buyer, and described them as someone with some experience in the restaurant industry.  From the sound of things, the new owner will be keeping the Royal Mile name and Mr. Moore even said that the owner is getting in touch with former staff to try and rehire as many of them as possible.  The new owner has a crew at work to make needed repairs to the restaurant and Moore said the owner hopes to reopen the restaurant by St. Patrick's Day.

This could be very good news for fans of the Royal Mile pub; especially since many of its fans have been hit with the double-punch of the Royal Mile's closing and the reality TV-driven "re-imagining" of the Piratz Tavern into the "Corporate Bar and Grill" that has some folk wondering if any of their favorite  quirky spots will still be around.

What is not known yet is the new owner's degree of interest in remaining a "Scottish" pub, with all that comes with that, and what that means to the Royal Mile Traditional Scottish Jam Session. Mike Moore was very supportive of both the jam and the Virginia Scottish Games, and was open to having Scottish acts play there as well (the former general manager, apparently, not so much).

I'll stay on this story as more news trickles out.

A Harp Pibroch for Fiddle Club

I was doing a little reading about old Gaelic harping, when I came across this.

It's a tentative reconstruction of a Ceòl mòr tune (normally a pipe tradition), as it might have been heard on the harp in the first half of the 18th century. The tune is An Tarbh Breac Dearg (The Red Speckled Bull).

Here's a way to break the variations down, at least to my ear.



0:00-1:08 Ground (urlàr) variation
1:09-1:48 Ground doubling
1:47-3:03 "Double-traveling" (A' chiad shiubhal) singling & doubling
3:04-4:27 "Half-falling" (leth-leadagh) variation, singling & doubling
4:28-5:34 "Open crowning quick" (crunluth fosgailte) variation, singling & doubling
5:34-6:42 Ground, reprised

I hope you enjoy it.

UPDATE: And here's an article about the tune. Maybe it'll become the subject for a forthcoming Piper's Corner article...