If there’s a better way to spend an hour and a bit of your day than listening to this week's episode with Ewen Baker, I’ve not heard of it.

Ewen’s a fiddle player, arranger, multi instrumentalist and teacher, and he takes us on a journey to find the music-induced tingly feeling, via The Oils, J. S. Bach and Kerry Slides; St Anne’s Reel and The Bushwhackers; collaboration and individualism; coming to terms with our own imperfections but still getting stuff done. And we don’t even get around to talking about working with songwriters, at which Ewen’s an acknowledged master. Still, it gives us an excuse to do a second episode down the line.

In this episode Ewen plays the following tunes:

Merrily Kissed the Quaker’s Wife
Brian Boru's March
St Anne’s Reel
Sheehan's Reel
The Australian Waters
Mama's Reel

Ewen’s collaborated with a huge range of musicians over the course of his career, but it was only a couple of years ago that he released his first CD, ‘The Inch Before The Saw.’ As in, the only thing in life you really need to be worrying about is…’the inch before the saw.’ You can find the CD here, and as we say in the episode, it’s a cracker:

https://ewenbaker.com.au/store

'It's a session in your speakers.' Ewen’s collaboration with Paddy Fitzgerald, Jack Brennan and Geoff McArthur is called Lisnacrieve, and you can find the gofundme page here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/paddy-fitzgerald-cd

As always, the episode is free to download or stream from everywhere you get podcasts:

Our website: https://blarneypilgrims.fireside.fm/49
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3fM61MG
Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3cPTkis
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2T1il26

We'd also like to say a huge thank you to today's episode sponsor, Ceol.fm. This is a bloody brilliant service. So do yourself a favour and head over there and check it out. www.ceol.fm

Ewen, thanks for a cracking chat.
And with that, we’re away.

Darren & Dom

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We know it's a tough time so we hope you can hang in there with us. If you liked this episode and think you got some worth from it, then please pledge at any level over at www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims.

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Emma plays the following tunes:
East Clare Reel / Martin Wynne's Number 4 / The Liffey Banks
Dwyer's Jig / O'Sullivan's March / untitled jig
The Old Wooden Bridge / The Road to Ballymote / The Mayo Lasses
The Drunken Tinker / Tie The Bonnet / O'Donnell's Sligo Maid (or The Glendowan Fancy)

Thanks Emma, for a great afternoon's chat and playing.
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If you liked this episode and think you got some worth from it, then please pledge at any level over at www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims.

Of course, you don't have to become a patron to listen, but we guarantee you'll enjoy each episode more because you'll be safe in the knowledge that you're a deadset legend.

If you can't afford to pledge on Patreon, and we totally understand if you can't, all is not lost. You can still support the show by sharing it on your socials, posting about it in your favourite forums or simply by telling your mates about it down the pub.

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www.blarneypilgrims.com
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@BlarneyPilgrimsPodcast

Paddy, thanks so much. Not just for your time here in this podcast, but for the decades of dedication to the music, your kindness and your influence on countless players from all over the world.

For anyone that would like to follow Paddy, please keep an eye on the Last Jar's session page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2221430788122520/

Enjoy!
Darren & Dom

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If you liked this episode and think you got some worth from it, then please pledge $2 over at www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims.

Of course, you don't have to become a patron to listen, but we guarantee you'll enjoy each episode more because you'll be safe in the knowledge that you're a deadset legend.

If you can't afford to pledge on Patreon, and we totally understand if you can't, all is not lost. You can still support the show by sharing it on your socials, posting about it in your favourite forums or simply by telling your mates about it down the pub.

Till next time.
Darren & Dom

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To follow Daoirí, and more importantly, to buy his CDs, you can find him here:
http://daoiri.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DaoiriFarrell/

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Where do you start? Maybe the obvious place, the place I first came across his music thanks to a tip from my good mate from Ballycastle, Alex Campbell: his version of The Creggan White Hare. This is the song me and Darren refer to in our intro, a song which at the time of writing has a meagre 1,287,874 views on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPI_tHNjS78

I first heard The Creggan White Hare on the Dick Gaughan / Andy Irvine album 'Parallel Lines.' Which, to be honest, is an album I've never loved. I mean, what's not to love about a collaboration like that? I love Andy Irvine's music, I love Dick Gaughan's music. It should be my all time favourite. And yet, somehow it doesn't quite work for me. Though it does have a very stately version of Dylan's 'My Back Pages.'

There's something about Daoirí's version of 'The Creggan White Hare' that I prefer. It's more robust, or something. I mean, it's unstoppable. That's what it is. It has a sense of fate about it. It's existential, man.

As for The Pursuit of Farmer Michael Hayes...you can find it on the Planxty album After The Break.There's some interesting info here about possible origins:

https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/thepursuitoffarmermichaelhayes.html

We also chat at the end of our interview about 'Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Jimmy Faulkner, Live In Dublin' - an album I first heard thanks, also, to my pal Alex Campbell. I can remember the cover of that album so clearly, and trying to decipher the newsprint while sitting on Alex's bed. We'd listen over and over again, trying to learn the chords of 'Hey Sandy,' until his mum took pity on us and arrived up with a plate of ham sandwiches and mugs of tea. God love her, she had the patience of a saint. Anyway, it's another album that's worth hunting down if you've not heard it already.

https://www.discogs.com/Christy-Moore-Donal-Lunny-Jimmy-Faulkner-Live-In-Dublin/release/2219545

Thanks again Daoirí.

As mentioned in the interview, Jamie is one of the performers in The Good Girl Song Project - you can find it here: http://thegoodgirlsongproject.com/

In this episode Jamie plays:

Newry Town (Traditional)

The Curragh of Kildare (Traditional)

Matty (Wally Page)

Two Junior Crehan tunes

Down The Hall on a Saturday Night (Ken McMaster)

Untitled jig

I, me, (Dominic), refer in the interview to the story J. M Synge related in the preface to Playboy of the Western World, which I sort of half remembered:

"When I was writing The Shadow of the Glen some years ago I got more aid than any learning could have given me from a chink in the floor of the old Wicklow house where I was staying, that let me hear what was being said by the servant girls in the kitchen."

I also seem to remember reading something by Colm Toibin in 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother' that the story was sort of...em...not true. But don't quote me on that. It's a pretty great book though - essays on Irish writers and their relationship with their mothers, Ireland and each other. There's a review of the book here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/26/ways-kill-your-mother-colm-toibin-review

Oddly enough, you'll see in this review, too, a reference to Blake Bailey’s biography of American writer John Cheever. Have to say, it’s a cracking book, even if you don't like biographies. It's a cracker. Grim, funny, horrible, fascinating. So. Yeah...fab.

For more information on the New Zealand Wars check out Te Ara,
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand:

https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars

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Special Guest: Jamie Molloy.

In this episode Gerry plays the following songs:

Fisherman's Day
(Written by Brian Connors)

Slieve Gallion Braes
(Traditional)

Voyage for Ireland
(Pierre Bensusan)

Shipyard Slips
(David Wilde of The Men of No Property)

Pride of the Springfield Road
(Traditional)

The Boston Burglar
(Traditional)

You can catch Gerry and his sister Mary live as “Innisfayle” at the National Celtic Festival on the weekend of the 7th - 10th June:

https://www.nationalcelticfestival.com/artists-2019/2019/2/19/gerry-amp-mary-mckeague

Thanks to the players and staff at The Last Jar for the jig we use at the opening and closing of the podcast.

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Special Guest: Gerry McKeague.

The Andy Irvine song Corinn talks about is this one, I think: 'Billy Far Out'
https://andyirvinelyrics.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/billy-far-out/

We also talk about the song 'O'Donoghues' which is a bloody brilliant chronicling a time and place. When I listen to this it sort of tugs at something in me to do with the optimism of youth, and dreams of a future in music, and stuff like that. Fits pretty sweetly with Corinn's story of chatting with Andy on the train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swQZ_avLX0

And a great interview, Andy Irvine talking to The Second Captains, my favorite sports podcast that ventures into other areas from time to time. From October 2018.
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2018/1021/1005709-andy-irvine-profile-folk-awards/

Corinn mentions her friend, flute maker and musician Michael Grinter, who died tragically at the end of 2018. You can find more information about his life and work at his website, here:
https://www.grinterflutes.com/

Special thanks to the Last Jar in Melbourne for helping us out with space to record in and chairs to sit on.

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If you liked this episode, please leave us a 5 star review on iTunes, it REALLY helps us getting the podcast out to more people.

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Special Guest: Corinn Strating.