Foghorn In Ireland - Post #2

The Foghorn String Band, in Ireland this month, is guest blogging for us. Again, Nadine Landry writes for the group….

We sure are a lucky bunch! We get to travel and experience our favorite place: Ireland. An average day consists of driving the wee roads looking at the sheep and cattle grazing in the green (yes, green everywhere!) pastures, stopping in a pub and being served perfect pints of Guinness every time, visiting with great friends we only get to see once a year. Not to mention playing music to audiences that seem to like what we do and what we've done to their songs and tunes!

Every once in a while, just when you think nothing can get any more perfect, we get even luckier. Let us go back to Thursday night. After a great gig at the lovely Glens Centre in Manorhamilton, we walked down to Connelly's for a pint, and ended up in one of the most amazing song swap ever. Joe and Ita have owned the 150 squared foot bar for 40 years. He claimed he used to know 6000 songs, she said she can't carry a tune. But while he sang, she sang along to every song. We traded songs for hours, the few patrons joining in, a timeless session that could have happened ages ago. 

The trip to Dublin the next day was pleasant and got greater when we got to the Grand Social and met our friends I Draw Slow (http://idrawslow.wordpress.com/).  Formed by a brother-sister duet Dave and Louise Holden, with friends Adrian Hart (fiddle), Colin Durham (banjo) and Konrad Liddy (upright bass), they play beautiful originals with an Americana flair. They just got signed to Pinecastle Records.  America, check them out, they will be on the East Coast of the US in September. The gig turned out to be packed and magical. It feels so good to roll in to a big city across the ocean and be greeted by an enthusiastic loving audience! 

We repeated the Foghorn - I Draw Slow show the next night in Galway at the world renowned Crane Bar, to an equally fantastic audience. Sad to say goodbye to our friends, but as they were heading back to Dublin, our journey continued on to Dingle.     

We took the scenic drive through Doolin and the Cliff of Moher just south of Galway. The road, though majorly touristic, is very tiny. Tiny as in two lanes, with no shoulder and stone fences on each side! Tiny as when you think the truck passing by is going to rip your mirror off, hypothetically.  Tiny as a bus passed by and to avoid a ripped off mirror, we ended up in the ditch, two left side wheels in the mud, 2 inches from the stone fence. Within minutes, 3 cars had stopped and folks had offered to help. It took an hour, two ropes, a big jeep, stopping traffic for 15 minutes, and we were out of there. Thank you strangers for helping us out! 

More to come from Doolin! 

Foghorn Stringband is presently touring in Ireland. Check out their schedule on www.foghornstringband.com or find them on Facebook.