Friday 12th January 2007

First post of the year, so a happy new year to all our readers!

Christmas and new year are always a confused time for sessions - people away or with other commitments and of course festivities sometimes fall inconsiderately on session nights. Not really the case this year except that the regular last-Sunday-of-the-month Irish session at the Anchor in Faversham fell on New Year's Eve so we made up for it last week. It was a good jovial session with Pete and Adrian leading many of the tunes. Pete had his substitute accordian which got him a modicum of ribbing. Being tuned a little 'wetter' than normal, he suffered a few Jimmy Shand jibes and the red pearloid attracted the 'mother-of-toilet seat' comments, but all in good humour. At one point, Pete and Adrian swapped accordian and fiddle .... moving on then to the other sessions.

Wednesday at the Anchor in Wingham looked a bit thin for a couple of weeks, but picked up again this week to be an enjoyable session. Just after Christmas was very thin by all accounts (I wasn't there) and the one after was three banjos and a whistle who left early. Still this week saw a much better turn out and some nice sets were played without having to rely on the good offices of Pete.

Thursday at the Bear is always interesting. It's never the same two weeks running as I've said before and you never know who will turn up. Last week was missing Mike, but Ruth came and this week was almost full compliment (no Gina though). Good news is that Chris joined us, and a couple of musicians who drop in when their barge is in port (apparently) were there too. Bad news is that the bangy thumpy was there with a bigger than ever drum. Having just watched the excellent programme from Howard Goodall on rhythm, I was straining to hear what kind of interesting cross rhythms or syncopation he might be using. Sadly I failed. It must be me.

After muttering about the volume of the piano, a quiet word was had and the balance restored with no ruffled feathers. In fact seems to be an enhancement to have a keyboard undercurrent, as it is rhythmically different from the guitar and as long as it doesn't overpower, seems to work quite well. So strike plinky from the dreaded list. Quiet plinky is now embraced.

There will be a session at the Plough and Harrow at Tilmanstone on Monday 15th. Usual mix with a French accent I guess.