Christy hope you’re keeping well ..
I rang the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) in the hopes of accessing your collection online .. I ended up talking to a nice lady who told me that they are in the midst of digitally archiving it for online viewing and that there is a planned exhibition for October.. looking forward to it .. is there any aul handwritten workouts/lyrics in it from memory?
Baz x
Hey Christy, reading your setlist you’ve just put up. Wish we’d been there!!
There’s a possibility we could be playing Glastonbury next year !!
We’re taking a short break from gigging at the moment due to health issues, but hope to be on the road soon.
Take care.
Dave and Giles (More Christy) http://www.morechristy.com
Christy's reply
playing at Glasto is one thing ….
its hard to beat a good folk club
Dear Christy
Thnx for the brilliant gig in Wexford that you just finished. We enjoyed it immensely. In two hours time I’ll be turning 61 and what a way to celebrate that. It was wonderful to hear you sing “Boy in the wild” and the words for Wally. In a way I was hoping for that one.
There were many memorable songs. John of Dreams was special. Hearing you sing it brought me back to my mother’s funeral.
What an evening it was!
Thank you!
Keep the motor running!
X
John & Ellen
Christy's reply
Ye travelled from The Lowlands to The Model County…..Hope you have a Happy Birthday…..The songs of Wally Page still reverberating….
…….”Yat Tie A Rat Tie A Rat Tie A Rada”……
………”Yabba Dabba Do”…………
Chicago
Brigada
Natives
Farewell Enniskillen
Tippin it Up
Smoke & Whiskey
Black & Amber
Delerium Tremens
Veronica
Farmer Michael Hayes
Allende
Palestine
Beeswing
Stitch in Time
Brendan’s Voyage
Boy in The Wild
Go Move Shift
Lingo Politico
Hiroshima Nagasaki
John Of Dreams
Lisdoonvarna
Cliffs of Dooneen
Ordinary Man
Voyage
Joxer
Ride On
Sonny’s Dream
Time Has Come
28 Songs…1 hour 45 minutes
Alyx
August 16, 2026 at 4:15 pm
Location: Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (presently, but usually North Circular Road)
Christy, a chara,
Dia duit as Inis Corthaidh! My lovely mam, Kim, and I are preparing to see you this evening in the National Opera House in Wexford town. It’s my first time going to a concert with her, and we’re both ferociously excited to see you. She’s been a massive fan for years, and I’ve adopted her love for your music ever since I heard your album Burning Times as a young child. I loved the song Butterfly (So Much Wine), though I didn’t listen too closely to the lyrics till I got much older.
Currently listening through the album you recorded at The Point. I hope you’re looking forward to this evening as much as we are. Long may the lovely days last!
With much appreciation for you,
Alyx Tobin
Christy's reply
Alyx…..I did not read your post until after the gig…..I hope You & Kim had a good night…I certainly enjoyed that receptive uplifting audience…..betimes there was duende in The National Opera House…..it befits its fancy monniker
I have to admit Christy, it’s fierce exciting to get a reply back. I was in the zone after watching the documentary the other night and it just brought up so many memories of where and how I got into music.
I remember the first time I heard live music for the first time. I was around 6 years of age I think. At christmas, my cousins and a few more of us used to dress up as elves and we’d hand out sweets to other kids on the street. It was a community effort. The sweet shops on our street would donate the sweets and we would bring them over to the back room of a clothes shop and bag them and then get dressed up and hand them out. It was great excitement and I know there are pictures at home which I must dog out now as I’m reliving it as I’m writing this. I heard music then coming from somewhere, and I couldn’t figure out where it was. I walked up the street and listened, very carefully, to where the sounds were coming from and followed until I came to this horse box that was parked up on the side of the street with the gate opened doen onto the road. I stopped and looked in, there was a full PA set up in it, a man standing there with a cowboy hat on, playing and singing away. There were a few square straw bales thrown in for good measure too. I was mesmerised, I just stood there looking at him and watching and listening closely. I then sat down there on ome of the square bales and sat and listened and tapped my foot for the rest of the evening. When I got home, I pestered my parents for a guitar. I would love to be able to look back now, at myself, through my mothers eyes that day as I raced in through the front door, and down the hall, to explain what I had just experienced. From that day on, I wanted to be a musician. I, along with my brother and sister, turned out to be that mans biggest fans. We got t-shirts printed up of his EP, we sold cassettes for him and we went to his gigs, roadied for him, dressed like him. The denim was all the go in those days, early 90’s and doc martins. I tried my best to get a cowboy hat like him too, but I couldn’t get one to fit my little gossúns head, and in the local mans clothes shop, the hat he had cost £80 punts! Put that against the price or that Jasmine back then!
I remember one day we were heading to a busking festival in Killucan in his van, we pulled into Hamills filling station,just outside Mullingar, to fill her up. We got out of the van and he was filling up with diesel. A jeep pulled into the forecourts, and after a few minutes, he stopped filling the van and walked straight over to the jeep, in a sort of a hurried step. Who was in the jeep only yourself. He was chatting away in the window, I can’t remember if you were driving or in the passenger seat but he was chatting away. We never got to meet you that day. As I’m writing this another memory has just come to me and I think it was from that day. He came back to the van, grabbed his guitar, and went over to the jeep with it, took it out of the case and got you to sign his guitar, with the key of his white 1992 hiace minibus van. Do you recall any of this or am I having some sort of hallucination Christy? That same guitar, a Takamine EN10, somwhere along the road he also bumped into Kris Kristopherson and also got him to sign his guitar with the key of his hiace van. I have seen Kristophersons signature from a distance but not yours, I think he may have got you to sign it on the back or somewhere.
I remember asking my mother if she would get meplain black round neck t-shirts so as I could have the same rig out as you did too.
His dad had a pub in town, I decided that I wanted to get a job so as I could save up and get myself a good guitar. I webt up to the pub one day and waited until his dad came out one day. I stopped him and asked, is there any chance of a job? I was around 7 or 8 years old, I can’t remember exactly and his dad said, sure come in here and we’ll see what we can do. I got my first job that day and I worked there until I was 15. There was a recording studio at the end of the pub at the bottom of the yard and I used to be in there watching the bands rehearse. I got talking to his brother there and after awhile of hanging around the studio, could have been a few years he asked if I’d like to record a song for my birthday? I couldn’t believe my luck, thinking of it now Christy, I can still feel that excitement. I can’t fully remember my response but thinking of it now I’d say it was something slong the lines of , “yea, when will we do it?” I defintely did not show the excitement that was inside me. I ran home and told my mother. I can still feel that excitement on the run home. I remember getting up that morning, I feel it was a Sunday morning, packing up.my guitar case on the kitchen floor and heading up the back street to the studio. I remember the mic stand was a bit loose and the mic kept falling down lower which was getting too much of guitar and not enough of vocal. I can also remember the headphones were too big for my head and they kept slipping down as I was talking through into the engineers room to the sound man. It was suxh an experience for a young gossún to get. I will always remember it very fondly. Over the next few birthdays, I got to record a song or two each year, in Feburary. I sang
1.Achy Breaky Heart (Don Von Tress) (I had to look the composer up as it was more like Billy Ray Cyrus that made it a hit I think)
2.Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town (Kenny Rodgers)
3.The Gambler (Kenny Rodgers)
4. I’m Busted (Ray Charles)
And one or two more that I just can’t recall now this very moment. I called my EP “I’m Busted” and it’s at home in along with my old cassette collection although the cassette is a little damaged but I’d love to get it fixed. I stopped singing and tried at a later stage when learning electric guitar but it’s a funny thing, singing was seen as a bit uncool thing back then and it just fizzled out unfortunately. Such a great time when I think of it.
Anyways, go and rock The Opera House tonight young man. Smoke and Strong Whiskey is just after popping into my head and zi can see the album cover, sitting beside me in the arm chair as I listen and then stop, rewind, and listen again.
Giddy up ya boya Christy
Christy's reply
good man Taffy
just read that on the way home from the Wexford gig..it got me all the way from Oylgate to Newtownmountkennedy….I’d say you have a book in you Taffy….
hi, Christy,
woke up this morning happily realizing that in another two weeks I d be sooo happy to see you again in Newbridge… could dance around for this….
it s been a hard hot summer and a long dry space since I ve come over for the last time. so I m very looking forward to the gig. I really love and enjoy your wonderful guestbook here which carries me through the times in between and gives me the warm and lively connection to you all and so I ve now just read here that the two island swans approached to you again. you know I love them so much… so if it might fit perhaps you could sing them on the 30th… if not no problem I ll enjoy every single word you sing anyway….
so see you soon… have good days til then … take care… and enjoy Wexford tonight,
GRMA
Ursula
Christy's reply
Proud and gentle was the loving of the last two Island swans
Sunday,16th August….207 years since Peterloo…now marked by a memoria lstatue ,between Manchester Central conference centre and The Midland hotel.
There at 1pm tomorrow,there’s a ceremony,where the names of those killed in 1819(by military,under orders of magistrates at the peaceful gathering) are read aloud and remembered. It’s very powerful. I can’t attend this time,but mention it here,in case it’s of interest/readers may attend to pay respects.
Many of the 60 000plus crowd walked from outlying towns…some places will resonate with you ..Middleton,Rochdale,Oldham,Mossley and more…
There’s now a brilliant music memorial as well…CD and detailed book…’Peter’s Field’…written by Sean Cooney….he’s joined by Sam Carter,Eliza Carthy and Jennifer Reid…clips on YouTube…brilliant combination of history and music.
Sorry for the lengthy hijack…enjoy your travels and gig
Dave
Christy's reply
no sense of “hijacking”here….
Peterloo was such an horrific act of murder and treachery….
Historically, the English ruling class and ascendency have always been prepared to slaughter people who might threaten their privilige, power and righeousness…be it Peterloo, Amritsar, Derry, Ballymurphy, Gibbet Rath,Vinegar Hill. Cable Street, Merthyr Tydfil….the Aboriginal, Kiwi and America’s First Nation people…an empire created by murder, backed by religious crusading crawthumping bigotry…
that said I’m off now to serve 11 o’clock Mass… two churches on the doorstep here, neither able to fill vacant positions as congregations cop on to their false gospels
let us all remember Peterloo today
have a good one Dave…greetings to United City of The Suffragettes
Christy, a chara,
Not long arrived to glorious weather in Wexford from the O’Neill County for tomorrow night’s gig as an anniversary trip away with the better half.
It’s our first trip to the National Opera House and a long-awaited return to the Sunny South East. It’s good to be among the Boys (and girls) of Wexford as we approach the 30th anniversary of them Dancing at the Crossroads! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long since that team thrilled the country bringing home their last Liam.
If it’s on the setlist, could you give Joan a shout-out before Bright Blue Rose? It was the first dance at our wedding. If not, no worries—have a great one, keep her lit, and hopefully see you again in Vicar Street!
GRMA
Hello Christy,
That sounds like the best kind of day. Getting back with songs i haven’t sung for a while. My list is a lot shorter than yours, but I’m working on it. I feel calmest and happiest in myself when my practice sessions are swimming with the current.
I’ve found a new local session. A folk-based all acoustic session on a Sunday afternoon. Puzzle Hall pub in Sowerby Bridge. I’m so looking forward to it. The next session is 6th Sept, right before we set off again for your beautiful country.
Good man Christy. I have just watched the Lunny Documentary, a beautiful watch and also quite a tough watch near the end. I also just collected a bouzouki yesterday so very fitting.
The internet is a mad thing really, how I can just register here on this platform and then be able to send you a message and connect.
I went to your gig in Park Hotel, Mullingar earlier in the year, managed to get 2 tickets even though it was sold out. I think the fact I left it until now to go made it even better. You turned 80 years of age around that time and you were on fire, it was a brilliant night. We had watched your documentary the night before and it all fell into place when I got hold of the tickets, it was time I think and that’s how it all worked out.
I probably have every cassette you ever released I’d say at home in a tape box, and I listened to them all on a cassette player sitting in an armchair at home from age 7 or 8 I think. I knew all the words and the order of the songs on each album. I managed to get hold of my first guitar and I used to sing into an old hoover, the upright ones, it was like a microphone on a stand for me and I used to hang a wire around the end pin near the strap to pretend I had an electo acoustic guitar because that’s what all the good players had. Live at The Point was some album, is still some album. I listened to that non stop and the sound of the live album was just something else to me. I actually have one of the promotional life sized cutout cardboard advertisement merch which I got from the music shop also on my street. I had it in my room for years until you got relocated to your own space behind the wardrobe, where you still reside actually, the cardboard Live At The Point Christy at least! All the Late Late Show appearances I remember watching as a child, getting to stsy up late. I also remember a music shop down the street from my house, there was a guitar hanging on the wall one day and it wasn’t there the previous day, I know this because I spent every day in the shop. It was a Jasmine guitar, with a cut away and a built in pick up with volume and tone controls, it was £220 Irish punts and when I asked Noel the shop owner he said that’s a guitar belonging to Christy Moore, I couldn’t believe it. There was no way I could ever afford it but I dreamt about it and looked at it on the wall every day until one day it was gone. I think actually it may not have sold and Jim, I can’t just think of his surname, the man who dropped it in, took it back. He was a promoter or sound man of some sort I think. I can see him now, drove a big red 80’s or 90’s Mercedes. I wonder where it ever ended up. These are just some ramblings and memories Christy. Hope to catch a gig again of yours soon.
Christy's reply
be the Lord God Taffy but thats a fair auld reflection upon your ballad years…thanks for sharing so generously……
I remember those cardboard cutouts..I got a fair bit of slagging over them back in the day…Columbia Records did a huge campaign on that album..gave it an almighty shove that lead to it becoming a very popular item….John Sheahan was the man behind it, he really believed in the album and its success proved him right…thank you John….
I never had a “Jasmine” guitar ( or a cutaway, I’ve never ventured up the dusty end of the fretboard)….could have been either a Yamaha, Martin, Gibson or a Harmony Sovereign….at that price ( in the 1980s ) it must have been a good one..
Lovely to read of your boyhood balladeering…your “Hoover” sound system….so many of us started that way…listening to old records trying to replicate the sounds we heard…for me it was the Clancy Brothers albums….before that the songs my Mother sang
Totally agree with you about the folk clubs Christy 👍
Christy hope you’re keeping well ..
I rang the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) in the hopes of accessing your collection online .. I ended up talking to a nice lady who told me that they are in the midst of digitally archiving it for online viewing and that there is a planned exhibition for October.. looking forward to it .. is there any aul handwritten workouts/lyrics in it from memory?
Baz x
Hey Christy, reading your setlist you’ve just put up. Wish we’d been there!!
There’s a possibility we could be playing Glastonbury next year !!
We’re taking a short break from gigging at the moment due to health issues, but hope to be on the road soon.
Take care.
Dave and Giles (More Christy)
http://www.morechristy.com
playing at Glasto is one thing ….
its hard to beat a good folk club
Dear Christy
Thnx for the brilliant gig in Wexford that you just finished. We enjoyed it immensely. In two hours time I’ll be turning 61 and what a way to celebrate that. It was wonderful to hear you sing “Boy in the wild” and the words for Wally. In a way I was hoping for that one.
There were many memorable songs. John of Dreams was special. Hearing you sing it brought me back to my mother’s funeral.
What an evening it was!
Thank you!
Keep the motor running!
X
John & Ellen
Ye travelled from The Lowlands to The Model County…..Hope you have a Happy Birthday…..The songs of Wally Page still reverberating….
…….”Yat Tie A Rat Tie A Rat Tie A Rada”……
………”Yabba Dabba Do”…………
Chicago
Brigada
Natives
Farewell Enniskillen
Tippin it Up
Smoke & Whiskey
Black & Amber
Delerium Tremens
Veronica
Farmer Michael Hayes
Allende
Palestine
Beeswing
Stitch in Time
Brendan’s Voyage
Boy in The Wild
Go Move Shift
Lingo Politico
Hiroshima Nagasaki
John Of Dreams
Lisdoonvarna
Cliffs of Dooneen
Ordinary Man
Voyage
Joxer
Ride On
Sonny’s Dream
Time Has Come
28 Songs…1 hour 45 minutes
Christy, a chara,
Dia duit as Inis Corthaidh! My lovely mam, Kim, and I are preparing to see you this evening in the National Opera House in Wexford town. It’s my first time going to a concert with her, and we’re both ferociously excited to see you. She’s been a massive fan for years, and I’ve adopted her love for your music ever since I heard your album Burning Times as a young child. I loved the song Butterfly (So Much Wine), though I didn’t listen too closely to the lyrics till I got much older.
Currently listening through the album you recorded at The Point. I hope you’re looking forward to this evening as much as we are. Long may the lovely days last!
With much appreciation for you,
Alyx Tobin
Alyx…..I did not read your post until after the gig…..I hope You & Kim had a good night…I certainly enjoyed that receptive uplifting audience…..betimes there was duende in The National Opera House…..it befits its fancy monniker
Fair play to John, he knew.
I have to admit Christy, it’s fierce exciting to get a reply back. I was in the zone after watching the documentary the other night and it just brought up so many memories of where and how I got into music.
I remember the first time I heard live music for the first time. I was around 6 years of age I think. At christmas, my cousins and a few more of us used to dress up as elves and we’d hand out sweets to other kids on the street. It was a community effort. The sweet shops on our street would donate the sweets and we would bring them over to the back room of a clothes shop and bag them and then get dressed up and hand them out. It was great excitement and I know there are pictures at home which I must dog out now as I’m reliving it as I’m writing this. I heard music then coming from somewhere, and I couldn’t figure out where it was. I walked up the street and listened, very carefully, to where the sounds were coming from and followed until I came to this horse box that was parked up on the side of the street with the gate opened doen onto the road. I stopped and looked in, there was a full PA set up in it, a man standing there with a cowboy hat on, playing and singing away. There were a few square straw bales thrown in for good measure too. I was mesmerised, I just stood there looking at him and watching and listening closely. I then sat down there on ome of the square bales and sat and listened and tapped my foot for the rest of the evening. When I got home, I pestered my parents for a guitar. I would love to be able to look back now, at myself, through my mothers eyes that day as I raced in through the front door, and down the hall, to explain what I had just experienced. From that day on, I wanted to be a musician. I, along with my brother and sister, turned out to be that mans biggest fans. We got t-shirts printed up of his EP, we sold cassettes for him and we went to his gigs, roadied for him, dressed like him. The denim was all the go in those days, early 90’s and doc martins. I tried my best to get a cowboy hat like him too, but I couldn’t get one to fit my little gossúns head, and in the local mans clothes shop, the hat he had cost £80 punts! Put that against the price or that Jasmine back then!
I remember one day we were heading to a busking festival in Killucan in his van, we pulled into Hamills filling station,just outside Mullingar, to fill her up. We got out of the van and he was filling up with diesel. A jeep pulled into the forecourts, and after a few minutes, he stopped filling the van and walked straight over to the jeep, in a sort of a hurried step. Who was in the jeep only yourself. He was chatting away in the window, I can’t remember if you were driving or in the passenger seat but he was chatting away. We never got to meet you that day. As I’m writing this another memory has just come to me and I think it was from that day. He came back to the van, grabbed his guitar, and went over to the jeep with it, took it out of the case and got you to sign his guitar, with the key of his white 1992 hiace minibus van. Do you recall any of this or am I having some sort of hallucination Christy? That same guitar, a Takamine EN10, somwhere along the road he also bumped into Kris Kristopherson and also got him to sign his guitar with the key of his hiace van. I have seen Kristophersons signature from a distance but not yours, I think he may have got you to sign it on the back or somewhere.
I remember asking my mother if she would get meplain black round neck t-shirts so as I could have the same rig out as you did too.
His dad had a pub in town, I decided that I wanted to get a job so as I could save up and get myself a good guitar. I webt up to the pub one day and waited until his dad came out one day. I stopped him and asked, is there any chance of a job? I was around 7 or 8 years old, I can’t remember exactly and his dad said, sure come in here and we’ll see what we can do. I got my first job that day and I worked there until I was 15. There was a recording studio at the end of the pub at the bottom of the yard and I used to be in there watching the bands rehearse. I got talking to his brother there and after awhile of hanging around the studio, could have been a few years he asked if I’d like to record a song for my birthday? I couldn’t believe my luck, thinking of it now Christy, I can still feel that excitement. I can’t fully remember my response but thinking of it now I’d say it was something slong the lines of , “yea, when will we do it?” I defintely did not show the excitement that was inside me. I ran home and told my mother. I can still feel that excitement on the run home. I remember getting up that morning, I feel it was a Sunday morning, packing up.my guitar case on the kitchen floor and heading up the back street to the studio. I remember the mic stand was a bit loose and the mic kept falling down lower which was getting too much of guitar and not enough of vocal. I can also remember the headphones were too big for my head and they kept slipping down as I was talking through into the engineers room to the sound man. It was suxh an experience for a young gossún to get. I will always remember it very fondly. Over the next few birthdays, I got to record a song or two each year, in Feburary. I sang
1.Achy Breaky Heart (Don Von Tress) (I had to look the composer up as it was more like Billy Ray Cyrus that made it a hit I think)
2.Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town (Kenny Rodgers)
3.The Gambler (Kenny Rodgers)
4. I’m Busted (Ray Charles)
And one or two more that I just can’t recall now this very moment. I called my EP “I’m Busted” and it’s at home in along with my old cassette collection although the cassette is a little damaged but I’d love to get it fixed. I stopped singing and tried at a later stage when learning electric guitar but it’s a funny thing, singing was seen as a bit uncool thing back then and it just fizzled out unfortunately. Such a great time when I think of it.
Anyways, go and rock The Opera House tonight young man. Smoke and Strong Whiskey is just after popping into my head and zi can see the album cover, sitting beside me in the arm chair as I listen and then stop, rewind, and listen again.
Giddy up ya boya Christy
good man Taffy
just read that on the way home from the Wexford gig..it got me all the way from Oylgate to Newtownmountkennedy….I’d say you have a book in you Taffy….
hi, Christy,
woke up this morning happily realizing that in another two weeks I d be sooo happy to see you again in Newbridge… could dance around for this….
it s been a hard hot summer and a long dry space since I ve come over for the last time. so I m very looking forward to the gig. I really love and enjoy your wonderful guestbook here which carries me through the times in between and gives me the warm and lively connection to you all and so I ve now just read here that the two island swans approached to you again. you know I love them so much… so if it might fit perhaps you could sing them on the 30th… if not no problem I ll enjoy every single word you sing anyway….
so see you soon… have good days til then … take care… and enjoy Wexford tonight,
GRMA
Ursula
Proud and gentle was the loving of the last two Island swans
Hi Christy
Sunday,16th August….207 years since Peterloo…now marked by a memoria lstatue ,between Manchester Central conference centre and The Midland hotel.
There at 1pm tomorrow,there’s a ceremony,where the names of those killed in 1819(by military,under orders of magistrates at the peaceful gathering) are read aloud and remembered. It’s very powerful. I can’t attend this time,but mention it here,in case it’s of interest/readers may attend to pay respects.
Many of the 60 000plus crowd walked from outlying towns…some places will resonate with you ..Middleton,Rochdale,Oldham,Mossley and more…
There’s now a brilliant music memorial as well…CD and detailed book…’Peter’s Field’…written by Sean Cooney….he’s joined by Sam Carter,Eliza Carthy and Jennifer Reid…clips on YouTube…brilliant combination of history and music.
Sorry for the lengthy hijack…enjoy your travels and gig
Dave
no sense of “hijacking”here….
Peterloo was such an horrific act of murder and treachery….
Historically, the English ruling class and ascendency have always been prepared to slaughter people who might threaten their privilige, power and righeousness…be it Peterloo, Amritsar, Derry, Ballymurphy, Gibbet Rath,Vinegar Hill. Cable Street, Merthyr Tydfil….the Aboriginal, Kiwi and America’s First Nation people…an empire created by murder, backed by religious crusading crawthumping bigotry…
that said I’m off now to serve 11 o’clock Mass… two churches on the doorstep here, neither able to fill vacant positions as congregations cop on to their false gospels
let us all remember Peterloo today
have a good one Dave…greetings to United City of The Suffragettes
Christy, a chara,
Not long arrived to glorious weather in Wexford from the O’Neill County for tomorrow night’s gig as an anniversary trip away with the better half.
It’s our first trip to the National Opera House and a long-awaited return to the Sunny South East. It’s good to be among the Boys (and girls) of Wexford as we approach the 30th anniversary of them Dancing at the Crossroads! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long since that team thrilled the country bringing home their last Liam.
If it’s on the setlist, could you give Joan a shout-out before Bright Blue Rose? It was the first dance at our wedding. If not, no worries—have a great one, keep her lit, and hopefully see you again in Vicar Street!
GRMA
just about to strike camp here Eunan
Hello Christy,
That sounds like the best kind of day. Getting back with songs i haven’t sung for a while. My list is a lot shorter than yours, but I’m working on it. I feel calmest and happiest in myself when my practice sessions are swimming with the current.
I’ve found a new local session. A folk-based all acoustic session on a Sunday afternoon. Puzzle Hall pub in Sowerby Bridge. I’m so looking forward to it. The next session is 6th Sept, right before we set off again for your beautiful country.
Rebecca
all roads lead to Puzzle Hall
Good man Christy. I have just watched the Lunny Documentary, a beautiful watch and also quite a tough watch near the end. I also just collected a bouzouki yesterday so very fitting.
The internet is a mad thing really, how I can just register here on this platform and then be able to send you a message and connect.
I went to your gig in Park Hotel, Mullingar earlier in the year, managed to get 2 tickets even though it was sold out. I think the fact I left it until now to go made it even better. You turned 80 years of age around that time and you were on fire, it was a brilliant night. We had watched your documentary the night before and it all fell into place when I got hold of the tickets, it was time I think and that’s how it all worked out.
I probably have every cassette you ever released I’d say at home in a tape box, and I listened to them all on a cassette player sitting in an armchair at home from age 7 or 8 I think. I knew all the words and the order of the songs on each album. I managed to get hold of my first guitar and I used to sing into an old hoover, the upright ones, it was like a microphone on a stand for me and I used to hang a wire around the end pin near the strap to pretend I had an electo acoustic guitar because that’s what all the good players had. Live at The Point was some album, is still some album. I listened to that non stop and the sound of the live album was just something else to me. I actually have one of the promotional life sized cutout cardboard advertisement merch which I got from the music shop also on my street. I had it in my room for years until you got relocated to your own space behind the wardrobe, where you still reside actually, the cardboard Live At The Point Christy at least! All the Late Late Show appearances I remember watching as a child, getting to stsy up late. I also remember a music shop down the street from my house, there was a guitar hanging on the wall one day and it wasn’t there the previous day, I know this because I spent every day in the shop. It was a Jasmine guitar, with a cut away and a built in pick up with volume and tone controls, it was £220 Irish punts and when I asked Noel the shop owner he said that’s a guitar belonging to Christy Moore, I couldn’t believe it. There was no way I could ever afford it but I dreamt about it and looked at it on the wall every day until one day it was gone. I think actually it may not have sold and Jim, I can’t just think of his surname, the man who dropped it in, took it back. He was a promoter or sound man of some sort I think. I can see him now, drove a big red 80’s or 90’s Mercedes. I wonder where it ever ended up. These are just some ramblings and memories Christy. Hope to catch a gig again of yours soon.
be the Lord God Taffy but thats a fair auld reflection upon your ballad years…thanks for sharing so generously……
I remember those cardboard cutouts..I got a fair bit of slagging over them back in the day…Columbia Records did a huge campaign on that album..gave it an almighty shove that lead to it becoming a very popular item….John Sheahan was the man behind it, he really believed in the album and its success proved him right…thank you John….
I never had a “Jasmine” guitar ( or a cutaway, I’ve never ventured up the dusty end of the fretboard)….could have been either a Yamaha, Martin, Gibson or a Harmony Sovereign….at that price ( in the 1980s ) it must have been a good one..
Lovely to read of your boyhood balladeering…your “Hoover” sound system….so many of us started that way…listening to old records trying to replicate the sounds we heard…for me it was the Clancy Brothers albums….before that the songs my Mother sang
keep coming back