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.

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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Angus plays fiddle with Caity Brennan, Connor Hoy and Rhys Crimmin in the band Austral which we caught up with in a previous episode. It's a banger, and definitely worth checking out. You'll find it here when you're ready: https://blarneypilgrims.fireside.fm/7

To Follow Angus on social go here:
https://www.facebook.com/australmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/gus.barnaby

To buy Austral's music, including "Hoedown Throwdown" go here: https://australtradmusic.bandcamp.com/

Again, thanks so much for your time Angus.

...

Now, here's Dom's notes.

Angus’ first tune, The Musical Priest, is one of the first tunes I ever learned. Me and Tony Murray used to play it as a whistle two-fer, with little fragments of harmony wound in and around the main strands of the melody. It’s a session staple, anchored around the B natural that gives it a sort of wintry quality, I always think. But as Angus plays it, it has a warmth to it and, as he says himself, a swing.

Anyway, when I was 16 or 17 that was a tune we’d play in The House Of McDonnell, more usually known as ‘Tom’s’ after the owner, Tom O’Neill. Our first regular gig as a band, in the tiny back room that’d regularly be crammed – and I mean crammed – with people down from Belfast for the holidays, or from Corrymeela (a sort of retreat center outside town where Catholic young people from troubled parts of the north could get together with Protestant young people from troubled parts of the north for cross-community groping sessions. Heavy petting for peace. ‘See? We ARE actually all the same after all!’) One of the youth workers accompanying them one night wore a mini skirt made from a black bin liner, and black leggings. I was entranced and frightened in equal measure. ‘So THAT’S why mum and dad are always talking about how dangerous it is in Belfast...’

Then for some reason I can’t remember, that gig ended. I was distraught, in a teenage kind of a way. And as was my habit in those days, I’d dive headfirst into my grief by lying on the dining room floor of our house with my head between the speakers of the ITT stereo system we’d inherited from Mrs Buntane, a friend of my dad’s. On the first Friday night after we no longer had a gig, in the throes of my despair, I was listening to Barclay James Harvest Live in Berlin (probably the most embarrassing thing I have yet admitted to in these notes to date) when I got a phone call to say we’d been asked to play in the Boyd Arms instead. Seriously? I was ecstatic.

In the Boyd Arms’ front room with its curved wall behind us, beside the fireplace, we played quiet Friday nights when a few punters would stick their heads around the door then head into the main bar, and other nights where you could hardly move for the people. It was great. Without that chance to play every Friday night, and the other gigs that came from it, I have no idea how I’d have spent my teenage Friday nights. Oh, wait, yes I do. Listening to Barclay James Harvest Live in Berlin.

Anyway, me and Darren often talk about having the chance to listen to players at close quarters and how cool that is. And that’s true – there’s something very unique about having the opportunity to really listen to a player working through a tune on their own. It’s dramatically different from the habitat of a session – it’s exposed and honest, a human being articulating what a tune is about for them, in that moment.

Thanks again, Angus Barbary.

...

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

www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims
www.blarneypilgrims.com
facebook.com/BlarneyPilgrimsPodcast
@blarneyPilgrimsPodcast

Thanks again to Beth for taking the time to sit down with us. Also thanks to Declan Simpson for the accompaniment, maybe next time you'll join us in the hot seat?

The session Beth mentions is on in the Drunken Poet on Friday evenings. You can find out more about that here: https://www.facebook.com/drunkenpoetmusic/

Finally, thanks again to Una McAlinden for the chance to record on location at the National Celtic Festival.

...

If you liked this episode and think you got a dollar or two's 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

www.blarneypilgrims.com
facebook.com/BlarneyPilgrimsPodcast
@blarneyPilgrimsPodcast