St Pats Day

St. Patricks Day is coming up. Sat 17th March if you were not sure. To be truthful, it is probably celebrated more outside Ireland. I was born in DOWNPATRICK and attended the cathedral there in my youth. A big slab ouside the cathedral was supposed to mark his grave. I confess I never gave it much of a thought. There are a few conflicting stories of his life as the three following links suggest.

http://www.catholic-forum.com/Saints/saintp01.htm
http://wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

Celebrating this day outside Ireland varies a lot as you can see from this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Day

I always try to get a gig on St. Pats. day and this year I am doing a private function for my good friend Patricia who is soon to be travelling around Australia.
A few years ago I looked up every song I could find about the saint and found very few so I tried to rectify the situation by writing my own song. It has the usual rollicking Irish chorus.

ST PATRICKS DAY CELEBRATION.

Well here we are then We're in Australia
We've left our homeland But we're happy here
We're celebrating Good old St. Patrick's Day
One of the best days In all of the year.

I'm going ro sing you A simple story
All about Patrick A saxon slave
Who tended lambs and sheep On the Antrim hill side
And lived all my himself In a lonely cave

Chorus We're going so sings songs and raise the rafters
We're going to drink some good old Guinness stout
We're going to eat stew with lots of potatoes
We're going to dance ( away ) till we are thrown out.

Pat mad his escape then But returned to Ireland
To spread the gospel Far and wide
If he'd had transport He would have gone to Australia
Cos he would have had All the Irish on his side

Now good St. Patrick He like the shamrock
That Trinity story We were told
How he converted the Kings And all of the people
To Christianity And saved their souls.

Chorus We're going so sings songs and raise the rafters
We're going to drink some good old Guinness stout
We're going to eat stew with lots of potatoes
We're going to dance ( away ) till we are thrown out.

Nannup Musical Festival

What a fabulous little town/community NANNUP is. Situated in the South West of Western Australia about 3 hours drive from Perth and East of Busselton. It was a logging community at one stage but it serves as the perfect place for a folk music festival. http://www.nannupmusicfestival.org/welcome.asp
Have a look at the site for the artists. The concerts were just way out there. Eric Bogle, Colum Sands, Shep Woolley, Fling, the Wise Family Band to name but a few. The best turned out to be a workshop compiled by Colin Smiley about Micky MacConnell. Ably helped by Colum Sands Paddy Connolly and friends. VERY WELL DONE lads. Magnifico to quote a few of my Spanish friends! Also well done to the Wise Family band. A great deal of variety in their spots. Of course Eric and Colum were their usual brilliant selves and a nice touch ... ending Sun night with a Beatles singalong. Fling for me were still a touch of genius. I could rave on but you had to be there! A big congrats. to the sound engineers. The quality of sound that is possible even in an outside venue is something to behold these days( or at least listen to). Have a lool at the site above to get a feel.

Life

Sorry for nothing recent but another lesson in life! My best friend got married in December but by January his new wife was diagnosed with Cancer and she was buried in February. It made my problems seem very small by comparison. She simply was a giving person and will be missed by many. So Never pass up an opportunity to learn something new. My american friends who I met in Spain told me to learn ONE new thing every year. I tried it out and found there were quite a few things I was not too good at but I did enjoy the experiences even though my ego was lowered.
I wrote this when I was young!

I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet but today I cried again because I had forgotten about the man with no feet and I still had no shoes.