I’ve checked that Pamela…the pre-sale accounted for about 10% of the sales..its available to anyone who signs up for the newsletter….
Sorry to read of your disappoinment…I’m amazed and gratified that the songs are calling out to so many listeners ….
Hi Christy,
I have heard a wonderful song titled Hollow Wood, written by Allison Young, a young American singer, who sings it on Youtube a cappella style, with Josh Turner, the guitarist.
The song is about the competing requirements of the human, animal and vegetable kingdoms to exist. The melody and message is as haunting as it is simple. I would urge you to listen to it and maybe add it to your repertoire. I feel your unique voice could do more than justice to this beautiful timeless ballad, a cappella or otherwise.
Bobby Carty
Christy's reply
Good song Bobby..lovely singing too..Thank You
Sometimes I sing “Peace in The Valley Again” by The Handsome Family…
Hello Christy,
Here’s one of my favourite songs, it’s a big smily one. https://youtu.be/fEovqmU8KAo
Filmed by our Adam here.
Sounds like it could have been in London.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
some people much prefer The Sawdoctors version ..fair play to them…I believe there’s room for other versions..the more the merrier…Padraig Stevens is a unique song writer… a freeman of Tuam and an inspiration to many
Hi Christy,
Thanks to yourself and the good folks at The Guestbook for the presale link. A nice table for meself and Mrs B for the last night of the run – I thought. Unfortunately there’s a new enemy at the gates called Klarna. And could I feck get around it.
Anyways enjoy the holliers and sure you’ll be back West this September. Hope The Big Marquee makes the journey.
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Christy's reply
give me a reminder when you’re coming to Galway and I’ll try and include “The Big Marquee”…
Hi Christy,
There is power in a Union ( billy bragg version) fine song.
Ken Livingston, a greatly principled man, always great to hear of any anti racism cause.
You have played so many benefits, for so many causes , and you even referenced a Perth WA gig which sounded like a union supporting one.
Take my hat off always for those prepared to give up time to support others.
Always wish i’d done more for the miners, for example, and have always loved The Style Council song ‘walls come tumbling down’.
Good night
Rory
Christy's reply
met Billy on a plane into Perth..he told me about the strike, the gig , and I tagged along
Hi All. A grand article about the Bard of Cork and his varied artistic influences from CM to Dylan to MH https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41193442.html he will be De Barras tomorrow night for his regular monthly residency, with Martin Leahy on drums among others and maybe even a surprising guest or two !! The Summer seems to have left us , Jack O Connor mentioned pathetic fallacy in his homecoming speech on Mon ,the team did us proud and will be back le Cunamh De, congrats to BAC . Beir bua agus beannacht. H
Christy's reply
fair play for sharing H…. and to Examiner and Johnny Boy Spillane for the write up….The Examiner always gives good coverage to Irish Performers
Hi Christy,
I hope all is well. After I long break caused by the Lockdown Vishva and I have booked tickets to come over to Dublin on 11th December to see you in concert. We will be celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary. We last saw you in Bundoran in October 2019. Vishva was celebrating her 65th Birthday and you sang Black is the Colour for her. We still have the recording which your family gave to us. Thank you. We have celebrated many such milestones at your concerts. We hope to celebrate many more. We look forward to seeing you in December. Tom and Vishva Murtha.
Christy's reply
well done Tom…..Dec 1973 was a good month for weddings…have a safe trip over from Avon to Liffey
Hello Christy,
The next gig is always the most important…..yes!
Just playing a slow air on the bodhran here. Love your words.
At my last gig, right after the sound check, a woman came and complained to the crew that it was too sunny.
I’ll just get out my “sun turning down cable” said the man in charge…
We bought our old Dad his first colour TV many years ago
Went around to visit one Sunday to watch The World of Sport for all the footy & racing results with Dad
Walked in to see the screen was almost completely black and white with the faintest glimmer of colour
“Dad” I said “turn up the colour so we can watch it properly”
“Oh no” said Dad “ It’ll use too much power & cost too much!”
I read with some irony or indeed amusement at the London RFH staff. More than likely unionised, ah the ‘poor fellows’ kept up late for a Ken Livingstone-organised gig. Oh dear, oh dear. And they pulling the plug. Whose side were they on? Anyways, yez kept going – by torchlight!
Great chit chat here on folk clubs and power cuts.
Heres one more: UCC, Boole 4. Late 80s. Lights went out, a few songs into a Christy gig. Total darkness. A pause. I think power may have flickered on and off again. Change in the music schedule. Christy in the black darkness unaccompanied started into: “Once upon a time there was/Irish ways and Irish laws….” you’d hear a pin drop. A sustained round of applause. Lights came back on.
Those days of folk clubs. The Tom McHale Club, cellar of the Jolly Mariner, Athlone. Some great nights, v late 70s.
Christy, it was interesting to read your response to JP ref’ hard ticket sales.
.In my view one of the sadest things about ‘e-tickets’ is the loss of the ticket stub. I have draws full of ticket stubs going back to my first concert (Jethro Tull ??) in the 70’s. I still have the stubs for most of the ‘big’ concerts I’ve attended over the years (like Leixlip Castle in 1980 and Live Aid) as well as for concerts I had forgotten I had been to. I also have tickets for concerts I never got to see, like your last scheduled Barrowlands gig that was cancelled because of Covid.
It’s not till I have a good rummage through the ticket stubs that the memories start to flood back. I know I’m a bit of a dinosour but in my view the demise of the hard ticket has more to do with increasing promotors profit margins than any real benefit to the concert goer. When the day comes when I can no longer attend live concerts (which unfortunatly for standing only gigs might not be that far off) I will have a draw full of memories unlike the ‘e-ticket generation.
Christy's reply
We can look even further back to the time of the no-ticket…we turned up, joined the queue and paid our “half dollar” (2/6) to the organizer/promoter/opening act/accomadator (floor space)..those early club organizers were serious multi-taskers…my first full-time-professional-folk-singer gig was with Mike and Pat Harding’s at their Folk Club in Blakeley,Manchester…before that there were various public gigs but this was my first stab at full time singing (that same week I quit my last job as a cold meats porter in the John Lewis Store, Manchester, John still has my cards )….I got to the Old House pub at 7 that Sunday Evening 57 years ago….no hard ticket, no publicity, no poster, no VAT, no crew,no PA,no Lights,..twas the start of a journey that has rolled on ever since…..the world a very different place, expectations, actions, behaviours, responses, entitlements bear little resemblance to what went before… but at the very core, nothing has changed….the music and lyrics still resound, the magic space still created in a thousand rooms every night…singers players listeners writers organizers come and go but the music rings on…..
I too have a bundle of old tickets somewhere here..any time I happen upon them I linger and reflect… also some rolled up bundles of old posters…Planxty on The Aran Islands, Moving Hearts in the Green Briar, Carnsore Point, Lisdoonvarna, Ballisodare, Krumlin nr Halifax, … all cherished mementoes but none as vital as what comes next..the next gig is always the most important..until that night arrives when the next gig will be the last gig …..until then, lets tear into it, go at it, take chances, go for it bald-headed, pedal to the floor, as Declan Sinnott’s song goes
“ye gotta take a chance some time
stake it all on a glance some time
let some feelings show
let somebody know”
I’m probably one of the oldest posters here and fortunate in many ways…not least to be still rambling on!
Talk of PAs,pre sales etc and your recall,takes me back to happy times half a century back…
Sunday night folk clubs were popular,especially around Manchester. My local pub opened at 7pm,with the Golden Lion folk club queue snaking across the car park well before then…usual attendance c 50/80 attentive souls and not a PA in sight.
A few months before your headlining booking,you’d played an ace ‘floor spot’,which had seriously impressed the locals ..so,there was a good buzz for your solo gig …and there’s the magic. Superb singing,lovely guitar playing and an attentive audience…a decade later and for many years,I had the pleasure of playing many a folk club,mostly following the above style. What a buzz…
All the best to you/songsters here and at gigs.
Dave
Christy's reply
always good to hear from Suffragette City, albeit via The Borders..Shine On Dave
Power cuts? Well not really, but once in Dundalk Town HalI, with I think Moving Hearts, your PA system packed up mid song. Yis all went backstage thenb you csme out on your own, and sät at the front of the stage and sang I think 2 songs to a packed hall. It was magic. PA fella got the boxes working again, and the gang came back to continue the gig. Your solo bit was great!
Hello Christy,
Beautiful words from you
“…all the light and sound was in the songs, the singers, the love ,the listeners…. and lets not forget ….The Glorious Ale”
I love all kinds of gigs, the big swashbuckling energy and light-swirling ones, the friendly hotel ones, but I love the acoustic ones best. I’ve long dreamed of hearing you fully acoustic. Connection.
When I’m performing it’s how it let’s me experience the feeling of the room, finding where the walls are and how they work with the music and the people.
I like how you put a big rug on the stage, and a chair.
Ticketmaster seemed pretty well behaved in Brighouse this morning. We’ll be there on 16th and 19th of January, given a kind and prevailing wind.
Great to read of the evolution.. It’s a part of your gig that always draws my interest..the sound, lighting, equipment being used.. I’ve heard you mention before about the power cutting out (was it CJs of Salthill possibly in 80s?) and often hoped to witness the connection a PA-less room creates between the performer and audience.. there is something about the clip on microphone that creates similar – did you change that for more freedom on stage? I saw a video of Ed Sheeran recently leave the stage and bring his guitar down to sing the encore in the middle of the room..better than any million pound rig..
Christy's reply
Three occasions come to mind…
CJ’s in Salthill Galway was a brilliant venue back in the day…mid-gig,a lightning flash left the room in pitch black darkness ….there was unease in the packed venue…JIm Donohoe, ( Sound Man) leaped into action and shone his torch on the stage..the room settled, the gig continued for about 40 minutes until the power returned ( that same night 3 Spainish woman clattered from the room after Quinte Brigada shouting “Viva Franco”)
Royal Festival Hall London…an anti-racist gig run by Ken Livingstone and the GLC..it was running late…the RFH crew pulled the plug…JIm got his torch out again ..I moved to the edge of the stage and sang “Where O is our James Connolly” ( Patrick Galvin’s great ballad written while he lived in London) 2,000 people listened intently..hopefully the plug puller caught the last tune home
Grand Hotel Malahide….a Sunday night gig…an Tánaiste Dick Spring in attendance, CJ Haughey elsewhere in the Hotel but dropped into the dressing room to wish us well …power failure..after a quick consultation I left the stage and stood on a table in the centre of the room ..loose chairs reconfigured in a circle,we finished the gig in that formation even tho the power returned…at the end of each verse I changed direction (a bit like Charlie)….celebrated afterwards with Les Conner plus a gaggle of poets and poiticians
decades before I loved those small Folk Clubs..no PA, candlelit rooms upstairs in pubs… The Chesire Cat, The Crown & Anchor, The Blue Bell, The Pack Horse Inn, The Kingsway Tavern, The Bridge, The Dog & Partridge,The Upper George,The Bay Horse,The Barley Mow,The Scotia, Sandy Bell’s,The Marsden Inn…..all the light and sound was in the songs, the singers, the love ,the listeners…. and lets not forget ….The Glorious Ale
Has the presale link been sent out as I can’t see anything in my inbox? Trying to secure our tickets before we book a hotel.
Been away for far too long and Christy helps keep me connected to home.
Christy's reply
I’ve sent the last three posts to the promoters…hopefully it will be sorted out…Its not something I can deal with personally but I’m anxious that it be sorted out
I’ve checked that Pamela…the pre-sale accounted for about 10% of the sales..its available to anyone who signs up for the newsletter….
Sorry to read of your disappoinment…I’m amazed and gratified that the songs are calling out to so many listeners ….
Hi Christy,
I have heard a wonderful song titled Hollow Wood, written by Allison Young, a young American singer, who sings it on Youtube a cappella style, with Josh Turner, the guitarist.
The song is about the competing requirements of the human, animal and vegetable kingdoms to exist. The melody and message is as haunting as it is simple. I would urge you to listen to it and maybe add it to your repertoire. I feel your unique voice could do more than justice to this beautiful timeless ballad, a cappella or otherwise.
Bobby Carty
Good song Bobby..lovely singing too..Thank You
Sometimes I sing “Peace in The Valley Again” by The Handsome Family…
Hello Christy,
Here’s one of my favourite songs, it’s a big smily one.
https://youtu.be/fEovqmU8KAo
Filmed by our Adam here.
Sounds like it could have been in London.
Rebecca
some people much prefer The Sawdoctors version ..fair play to them…I believe there’s room for other versions..the more the merrier…Padraig Stevens is a unique song writer… a freeman of Tuam and an inspiration to many
” and The Tuam Beat goes shimmy shammy”
Hi Christy,
Thanks to yourself and the good folks at The Guestbook for the presale link. A nice table for meself and Mrs B for the last night of the run – I thought. Unfortunately there’s a new enemy at the gates called Klarna. And could I feck get around it.
Anyways enjoy the holliers and sure you’ll be back West this September. Hope The Big Marquee makes the journey.
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
give me a reminder when you’re coming to Galway and I’ll try and include “The Big Marquee”…
Hi Christy,
There is power in a Union ( billy bragg version) fine song.
Ken Livingston, a greatly principled man, always great to hear of any anti racism cause.
You have played so many benefits, for so many causes , and you even referenced a Perth WA gig which sounded like a union supporting one.
Take my hat off always for those prepared to give up time to support others.
Always wish i’d done more for the miners, for example, and have always loved The Style Council song ‘walls come tumbling down’.
Good night
Rory
met Billy on a plane into Perth..he told me about the strike, the gig , and I tagged along
Hi All. A grand article about the Bard of Cork and his varied artistic influences from CM to Dylan to MH https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41193442.html he will be De Barras tomorrow night for his regular monthly residency, with Martin Leahy on drums among others and maybe even a surprising guest or two !! The Summer seems to have left us , Jack O Connor mentioned pathetic fallacy in his homecoming speech on Mon ,the team did us proud and will be back le Cunamh De, congrats to BAC . Beir bua agus beannacht. H
fair play for sharing H…. and to Examiner and Johnny Boy Spillane for the write up….The Examiner always gives good coverage to Irish Performers
Hi Christy,
I hope all is well. After I long break caused by the Lockdown Vishva and I have booked tickets to come over to Dublin on 11th December to see you in concert. We will be celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary. We last saw you in Bundoran in October 2019. Vishva was celebrating her 65th Birthday and you sang Black is the Colour for her. We still have the recording which your family gave to us. Thank you. We have celebrated many such milestones at your concerts. We hope to celebrate many more. We look forward to seeing you in December. Tom and Vishva Murtha.
well done Tom…..Dec 1973 was a good month for weddings…have a safe trip over from Avon to Liffey
Hello Christy,
The next gig is always the most important…..yes!
Just playing a slow air on the bodhran here. Love your words.
At my last gig, right after the sound check, a woman came and complained to the crew that it was too sunny.
I’ll just get out my “sun turning down cable” said the man in charge…
Rebecca
Not really power cut related but…
We bought our old Dad his first colour TV many years ago
Went around to visit one Sunday to watch The World of Sport for all the footy & racing results with Dad
Walked in to see the screen was almost completely black and white with the faintest glimmer of colour
“Dad” I said “turn up the colour so we can watch it properly”
“Oh no” said Dad “ It’ll use too much power & cost too much!”
I read with some irony or indeed amusement at the London RFH staff. More than likely unionised, ah the ‘poor fellows’ kept up late for a Ken Livingstone-organised gig. Oh dear, oh dear. And they pulling the plug. Whose side were they on? Anyways, yez kept going – by torchlight!
Great chit chat here on folk clubs and power cuts.
Heres one more: UCC, Boole 4. Late 80s. Lights went out, a few songs into a Christy gig. Total darkness. A pause. I think power may have flickered on and off again. Change in the music schedule. Christy in the black darkness unaccompanied started into: “Once upon a time there was/Irish ways and Irish laws….” you’d hear a pin drop. A sustained round of applause. Lights came back on.
Those days of folk clubs. The Tom McHale Club, cellar of the Jolly Mariner, Athlone. Some great nights, v late 70s.
Christy, it was interesting to read your response to JP ref’ hard ticket sales.
.In my view one of the sadest things about ‘e-tickets’ is the loss of the ticket stub. I have draws full of ticket stubs going back to my first concert (Jethro Tull ??) in the 70’s. I still have the stubs for most of the ‘big’ concerts I’ve attended over the years (like Leixlip Castle in 1980 and Live Aid) as well as for concerts I had forgotten I had been to. I also have tickets for concerts I never got to see, like your last scheduled Barrowlands gig that was cancelled because of Covid.
It’s not till I have a good rummage through the ticket stubs that the memories start to flood back. I know I’m a bit of a dinosour but in my view the demise of the hard ticket has more to do with increasing promotors profit margins than any real benefit to the concert goer. When the day comes when I can no longer attend live concerts (which unfortunatly for standing only gigs might not be that far off) I will have a draw full of memories unlike the ‘e-ticket generation.
We can look even further back to the time of the no-ticket…we turned up, joined the queue and paid our “half dollar” (2/6) to the organizer/promoter/opening act/accomadator (floor space)..those early club organizers were serious multi-taskers…my first full-time-professional-folk-singer gig was with Mike and Pat Harding’s at their Folk Club in Blakeley,Manchester…before that there were various public gigs but this was my first stab at full time singing (that same week I quit my last job as a cold meats porter in the John Lewis Store, Manchester, John still has my cards )….I got to the Old House pub at 7 that Sunday Evening 57 years ago….no hard ticket, no publicity, no poster, no VAT, no crew,no PA,no Lights,..twas the start of a journey that has rolled on ever since…..the world a very different place, expectations, actions, behaviours, responses, entitlements bear little resemblance to what went before… but at the very core, nothing has changed….the music and lyrics still resound, the magic space still created in a thousand rooms every night…singers players listeners writers organizers come and go but the music rings on…..
I too have a bundle of old tickets somewhere here..any time I happen upon them I linger and reflect… also some rolled up bundles of old posters…Planxty on The Aran Islands, Moving Hearts in the Green Briar, Carnsore Point, Lisdoonvarna, Ballisodare, Krumlin nr Halifax, … all cherished mementoes but none as vital as what comes next..the next gig is always the most important..until that night arrives when the next gig will be the last gig …..until then, lets tear into it, go at it, take chances, go for it bald-headed, pedal to the floor, as Declan Sinnott’s song goes
“ye gotta take a chance some time
stake it all on a glance some time
let some feelings show
let somebody know”
Great recollection and stories.. laughing at the “Viva Franco” exiteers.. I must buy a torch and have it on standby..
Hi Christy
I’m probably one of the oldest posters here and fortunate in many ways…not least to be still rambling on!
Talk of PAs,pre sales etc and your recall,takes me back to happy times half a century back…
Sunday night folk clubs were popular,especially around Manchester. My local pub opened at 7pm,with the Golden Lion folk club queue snaking across the car park well before then…usual attendance c 50/80 attentive souls and not a PA in sight.
A few months before your headlining booking,you’d played an ace ‘floor spot’,which had seriously impressed the locals ..so,there was a good buzz for your solo gig …and there’s the magic. Superb singing,lovely guitar playing and an attentive audience…a decade later and for many years,I had the pleasure of playing many a folk club,mostly following the above style. What a buzz…
All the best to you/songsters here and at gigs.
Dave
always good to hear from Suffragette City, albeit via The Borders..Shine On Dave
Power cuts? Well not really, but once in Dundalk Town HalI, with I think Moving Hearts, your PA system packed up mid song. Yis all went backstage thenb you csme out on your own, and sät at the front of the stage and sang I think 2 songs to a packed hall. It was magic. PA fella got the boxes working again, and the gang came back to continue the gig. Your solo bit was great!
Hello Christy,
Beautiful words from you
“…all the light and sound was in the songs, the singers, the love ,the listeners…. and lets not forget ….The Glorious Ale”
I love all kinds of gigs, the big swashbuckling energy and light-swirling ones, the friendly hotel ones, but I love the acoustic ones best. I’ve long dreamed of hearing you fully acoustic. Connection.
When I’m performing it’s how it let’s me experience the feeling of the room, finding where the walls are and how they work with the music and the people.
I like how you put a big rug on the stage, and a chair.
Ticketmaster seemed pretty well behaved in Brighouse this morning. We’ll be there on 16th and 19th of January, given a kind and prevailing wind.
Anne, I hope your strategy worked well.
Loving all the talk about gig nitty gritty.
Rebecca
I never received the presale link for the vicar street shows, just wondering if anyone is having the same issue?
Thanks a mill
Great to read of the evolution.. It’s a part of your gig that always draws my interest..the sound, lighting, equipment being used.. I’ve heard you mention before about the power cutting out (was it CJs of Salthill possibly in 80s?) and often hoped to witness the connection a PA-less room creates between the performer and audience.. there is something about the clip on microphone that creates similar – did you change that for more freedom on stage? I saw a video of Ed Sheeran recently leave the stage and bring his guitar down to sing the encore in the middle of the room..better than any million pound rig..
Three occasions come to mind…
CJ’s in Salthill Galway was a brilliant venue back in the day…mid-gig,a lightning flash left the room in pitch black darkness ….there was unease in the packed venue…JIm Donohoe, ( Sound Man) leaped into action and shone his torch on the stage..the room settled, the gig continued for about 40 minutes until the power returned ( that same night 3 Spainish woman clattered from the room after Quinte Brigada shouting “Viva Franco”)
Royal Festival Hall London…an anti-racist gig run by Ken Livingstone and the GLC..it was running late…the RFH crew pulled the plug…JIm got his torch out again ..I moved to the edge of the stage and sang “Where O is our James Connolly” ( Patrick Galvin’s great ballad written while he lived in London) 2,000 people listened intently..hopefully the plug puller caught the last tune home
Grand Hotel Malahide….a Sunday night gig…an Tánaiste Dick Spring in attendance, CJ Haughey elsewhere in the Hotel but dropped into the dressing room to wish us well …power failure..after a quick consultation I left the stage and stood on a table in the centre of the room ..loose chairs reconfigured in a circle,we finished the gig in that formation even tho the power returned…at the end of each verse I changed direction (a bit like Charlie)….celebrated afterwards with Les Conner plus a gaggle of poets and poiticians
decades before I loved those small Folk Clubs..no PA, candlelit rooms upstairs in pubs… The Chesire Cat, The Crown & Anchor, The Blue Bell, The Pack Horse Inn, The Kingsway Tavern, The Bridge, The Dog & Partridge,The Upper George,The Bay Horse,The Barley Mow,The Scotia, Sandy Bell’s,The Marsden Inn…..all the light and sound was in the songs, the singers, the love ,the listeners…. and lets not forget ….The Glorious Ale
Has the presale link been sent out as I can’t see anything in my inbox? Trying to secure our tickets before we book a hotel.
Been away for far too long and Christy helps keep me connected to home.
I’ve sent the last three posts to the promoters…hopefully it will be sorted out…Its not something I can deal with personally but I’m anxious that it be sorted out
Still waiting on the pre sale link for Vicar St, has anyone else got it?