Wednesday 4th March 2009

And what a roller coaster ride it is on the session scene! More ups and downs than ....... Ok better stop there.

After the heated debate on pubs and music and all the ideas that flowed in (such as musicians paying landlords to use the pub for a session!) it seemed that things were getting back to normal.

The Thursday gathering at the Bear was polled for tunes that each musician wanted to play. These were gathered into a list and then run through giving some musicians a better chance to play something they wanted. I much prefer an organic session without lists where anybody might start a new or interesting or half forgotten tune. But it is definitely a move in the right direction for many of the regulars.

The Irish session is once again subdued but not by comments, rather self imposed by a few rejections. Well, I say rejections, in reality it was one pub who is closing on a Sunday night until the Summer so there is no session there for a while. It was a new session and was only once a month but it happened to be the one at the centre of the 'controversy'.

The sessioneers have taken this as an omen that the session-god is displeased and has given us a sign to lay-off, learn some new sets and find some new bodies. Or maybe we're over-reacting.

For those who don't know, the third Bear Bones book is available 'Grandson of Bear Bones', but at the moment, you'll have to email me or catch me on a Thursday in the Bear when I usually have a few about my person.

Note to self: I must add it to the mail order on my site!

Session joke:

Q - How do you kill a circus?

A - Go for the Juggler


Happy Sessioning.