Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

Rambling a little further than usual

I first went to The Listening Room International Songwriter’s Retreat on Inis Oirr in October 2006 and have since taken part in several more - including one in California.

As Brett Perkins is now living in Denmark, many of the participants tend to be from there too and the first two songs I wrote there were with Danish co-writers.

Over the years, I’ve been invited out there many times to play and write and at long last, I made it. The 21st of July this year would have been the last day on which I could sing that old Beatles number, ‘When I’m 64’ with integrity and I thought that Copenhagen would be a good place to spend my 64th birthday.

I contacted some friends and was even told that a decent left-handed guitar would be provided for the trip.

I flew out on 19th and was met at Central Station by Jacob Svendsen who, after a quick kebab, brought me straight to a gorgeous little venue where, every Sunday, Copenhagen Listening Room Open Stage takes place. We were early as Jacob is relocating to Nuuk in Greenland in a month or so and was training in new people to take over the sound.

If only Ireland had such open mics. There was great teamwork in organising the venue for the night - tables and chairs, lighting and sound-checking. The venue, while not being a pub, can sell beer to club members and the club is joined by paying the cost of your first beer and writing your name in the members book - you then get your first beer free!

I found Copenhagen to be an astonishingly ‘inclusive’ society and venue (given for use by the local council) and the way the night was run echoed this ethos. People turning up by 7:30 could put their name down for one or two songs - depending on how busy the night was. Artists there for the first time had to put their name down BEFORE the regulars to ensure that they got to play. Wonderful Copenhagen. There is also a ‘featured artist spot’ in between the two halves (30 Minutes) and, I was delighted to be invited to do this for the following Sunday.

The standard of the performers - and writing too - was very high and the ’standard’ of listening, even higher.

My guitar was ‘on the way’ and Brett Perkins kindly offered his spot in the 2nd half in exchange for my earlier one and, even toward the end of the night, still no guitar and, instead of the two songs I’d planned on playing, I did two that I could just about manage on a wrong way around instrument - an old one on guitar and a recent one on ukelele. The audience were happy and I was very glad when my loaner guitar turned up on Monday afternoon.

Thankfully, Jacob put me up for a few days too - keeping my accommodation cost down - and we did some writing and shooting the breeze. Jacob also brought me to some other open mics - again, the standard was amazing, especially as most of the performers weren’t writing in their native tongue.

Some days, to keep my hand in and meet the place, I went out busking - definitely more fun than profit as Jacob pointed out, the majority of people no longer carry cash. It was during one of these sessions that I was invited to jam with a couple of buskers from Portugal with a dancer from Greece. I am not a good ‘jammer’ and suggested that I play a song of mine that seemed to be good to jam too.

Toward the end of ‘The Nice & Sleazy Caledonia Blues, I man who’d signalled for permission to film, asked if we could do it again - from the top - as he did freelance work for Danish TV and thought that they might like to use it.

The days went by way too quickly and, on my last night it was back to Listening Room and my featured artist spot - a great finish to a great week.

Next week , the Copenhagen Songwriter Festival is on and everybody said ‘You have to come back for this’ but unfortunately yet again, the lotto people picked the wrong numbers. Next year?

It’s been a while since my last post and lots and nothing going on. The day job is still on hold so busking most days with mixed returns.

Dribs and drabbs brought me very close to my €1000 target for Nepal and a guy I’m met in the Thatch a couple of weeks ago asked me to call into his adventure centre and pick up a donation. When I did, he asked what I was short and immediately wrote a cheque for the last €50 - Thanks Tommy, you are a gentleman.

When I have to go to Dublin, I like to have at least three reasons and, on Monday I was collecting my first Workaway guest from a late plane at the airport there and it was great to drop the buckets back to Concern along with the last of the money, have dinner with my daughter, a nice half hour with one of my sons and get to go to the Monday Echo at there lovely new venue - 5 things - all good.

My Workaway guest is getting to know my dog - she will be taking care of Clara and the house when I do my world tour of Copenhagen later in the month.

There’s a lovely lady who always stops when I’m in Roscommon Town playing on Fridays - market day there. Her name is Lillian and she usually has something for Clara and also puts a generous donation into my jar. She lives a bus ride away and surprised me last week when she introduced me to her son in law who is over from England - travelling around on a 900cc motorbike. Lillian, who I can only describe as a sweet old lady, had spent most of the week riding pillion and loving it.

At Carrick on Shannon farmers market last Thursday, I met an American lady who’s brother does a fair bit of songwriting and busking. We had a chat about my guitar - a Martin Cowboy IV - and today, she sent the photo her husband took and has promised to send on a video when she’s home and has better internet connection.

Busking, for me is as much about the people I meet as much as what goes into the pot and, last Saturday - playing at Boyle farmers market - I was really disappointed to find that even on a busier day than the only other time I played there - apart from the lovely ladies who run the shop and tourist office there, I hardly had eye contact, never mind a connection, with a single person over the age of 12. I don’t think it’ll be a regular in my calendar.

Frere Jaque and Two Tigers

Among the many cultural differences between East & West, it can be amazing and puzzling how some things are universal.

Once I mentioned Frank Sinatra to a lady from China. Who, she wanted to know is Frank Sinatra? I played her a record and, while it was new to her - and she’s a lady who has been travelling outside of China for 10 years - she liked the sound a lot. I mentioned lots of other names of people who are icons - Marilyn Monroe - no. James Dean - who?

Last week I was travelling with another Chinese girl who happens to have the best voice I’ve heard - in a Chinese girl and while she was learning to sing Sally Gardens - having only just learnt that the tune she’d fallen in love with on hearing it in China also had words - and by Yeates (who she had heard of) - I suggested we try a round - Frere Jaque and said I’d teach it to her.

Suprise! As soon as I began, she joined in - but in Chinese. I asked her where she knew the song from and she told me it was a children’s song and taught in schools in China.

We sang as I drove and then, curious, I asked her if she could translate the Chinese song and……..

Two Tigers are running
They are running very fast
One has no ears and the other one has no tail

Banksy, Melting Pots, Ghosts and 102nd thing to do with a dead Cat

What a week!

Wednesday while busking with and amazing couchsurfing musician in Drumshanbo, we were invited by Asha, to have dinner with herself and Banksy (in his own words - the greatest living artist in Europe), and we could only say, ‘Maybe’ - for reasons I won’t go into now.

Thursday, Maija found The Melting Pot while I was busking in Roscommon town. What a find. A initiative to support mental health where as well as internet cafe with great food at good prices, there is a 2nd hand clothes and book shop. It’s been going strong for 10 years and at the door, there’s a sign welcoming you in - whether you want to buy anything or just sit and be comfortable. Again, I won’t go into it all in this ‘round-up’ of the week but will write more about some of then lovely people I’ve met though this place.

Friday was the big busk day for Nepal and I had, as well as some friends, the bucket-shaking champion, Cathryn from China (also a couchsurfing guest), a couple of people from a Roscommon Christian church and between this and the online donate page - as well as a couple of buckets passed at local pub sessions - we have almost raised €1000 - and hopefully over the next few days will get the remainder in.

We were invited for tea by Richie who happened along and after the busk, Cathryn and I went to the most amazing group of houses built by hime over the last 20 years - all built from scrap and leftover materials. Ritchie worked as a stage builder for festivals. A new friend.

Saturday was my friend Martin’s housewarming and there were a lot of people and much music. On our way home from Ballaghaderreen on Friday, Cathryn was listening to a tune on her phone - Sally Gardens. She come across it in China over 10 years ago and one of her reasons for visiting Ireland was to learn to play it on a tin whistle. She was surprised when I began to sing along - she didn’t know there were words - and by Saturday night, she was singing it - beautifully - accompanied by an excellent guitarist at Martin’s party.

Sunday, a trip to Roscommon with Cathryn and a French Canadian couchsurfer, Maude. I’d planned to do a bit more fundraising in the courtyard of Gleeson’s and a few miles before Roscommon, I saw someone coming from a side road and recognised him as Gerry from The Melting Pot. He’d been about to hitchhike and I saved him the trouble of sticking out his thumb.

After Gleeson’s, Gerry invited us back for dinner and what an amazing Alladin’s Cave his cottage turned out to be. I found myself holding a guitar that had been given too him by Philomena Lynott, Mother of the late Phil of Thin Lizzy - how it got there, is another story and Gerry is a BOOK.

The story-teller harper who Cathryn sang Sally Gardens with in Gene Anderson’s Thatch bar with is also another story - I now believe in ghosts, as is the stuffed and very dead cat which Gene totally confused my dog, Clara with for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, I need €150 more to reach my target. Can you donate a couple of Euro here

Today's the day.....

Today’s the day of my fundraising busk for Nepal. I’ll be ‘Singing on Solid Ground’ in Duffy’s SuperValu in Ballaghaderren in Roscommon from 1 o’clock till…. Friday is the busiest day there and they tell me that from one till four or five is the busiest time of the week.

Since arranging it with the Duffy family, I’ve been lucky to have found some lovely people who will help out with collection buckets and even have a Minnesotan couch surfer staying who, apart from harp, cello, banjo, guitar and tin whistle, plays Hardanger fiddle and Maija is actually staying on an extra day to help out on the busk and so it should be an enjoyable day for everyone there.

A couple of bucket collections, one in Cryan’s in Carrick on Shannon and another in Anderson’s Thatch on the Elphin Road, together with the direct donation page I set up with Concern, have brought in over €400 so my target on a thousand should be possible.

Busking has been very interesting, if difficult in the last month - I will write more in other posts - and we are all looking out for better weather.

We Were the Rock 'n' Roll Kids

With less than a week to go for my Singing on Solid Ground busk for Nepal, I was delighted to get to chat with Charlie McGettigan (he of ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Kids’ Eurosong winner). Also in studio for the second hour was a very talented young singer/songwriter, Ultan Conlon.

It’s rare that 2 hours in a studio have gone by so quickly. Charlie met me in the canteen at Shannonside’s Longford studio and asked me a couple of questions and decided not to ask too much till we were on air to keep it fresh.

The focus was my Wandering Minstrel days, who I met, what sort of reactions I got and the first hour flew by so fast that I barely got time to cover the fundraiser and just about got a mention in for the school visit project that I hope to get underway very soon - Garda vetting is slow and essential for external facilitators going into schools. Next time around.

I really need to learn to talk a bit less too as, instead of the three songs Charlie was hoping for, I only got two in and I don’t get royalties for talking.

Ultan had the 2nd hour and, having heard hime now and then on the radio, it was a pleasure to meet him in such a convivial atmosphere. Charlie does an amazing job of juggling, sometimes in the middle of a sentence he’d realise that the ad break is over and go straight into talking on air - often continuing with something we’d got to discussing and taking off in a new direction but always getting back to what he’d planned to discuss and so, what seems like 10 minutes, can be a half hour in real time.

Most of the music on the station - and in the bars - is what’s known as Country & Irish - (think ’60’s country and western - leaving out the quality stuff). Someone in the room (and I won’t say who - it might have been me) summed it up by saying something like, ‘They really like shite around here - throw enough shite on the floor and they’ll dance in it’ - Yup.

Of course that’s an entirely subjective opinion but - there was no one in the studio this morning argued with it.

Couchsurfing....

Tomorrow, I will be hosting my first Roosky couchsurfer.

Since late 2009, I’ve been hosting and have lost count of the number of guests who passed through my house in Dublin - it must be over 100 - and I still haven’t met the ‘axe-murderer’ many of my friends have expressed concern about.

For the guest, couch surfing is a great way to meet a country and opposed to just passing through and for the host, a good way to travel, without going anywhere. Ideally, it’s a cultural exchange and the majority of guests have been wonderful positive people with stories of their travelling and often a meal cooked in the style of their country.

On the couch surfing website, you set up your profile, giving whatever information you can about yourself and the accommodation you offer and, if you are an axe-murderer, then you should put this on your profile.

Some site users simply don’t have space for a guest, are sharing living space with others and can’t host or are on the road themselves and there’s a choice of three status buttons on the site to make it clear by stating, ‘Couch Available’, ‘Maybe host’ or, ’No couch available’. You can always meet a surfer for coffee before offering your couch - not that practical - or offer a couple of nights with an option for more once you’ve met and get on.

When I joined, Couchsurfing was a not for profit organisation and had over a million members around the world. I’d heard about it some years earlier but at that time had no couch and didn’t look further into it but, in 2010, I was planning a trip to the USA. Nashville, Northern California, Flagstaff, Arizona and back to Nashville for the last week of the month long trip. I realised that I’d bed spending a day and a night in San Francisco, a place I’ve wanted to see since the ’60’s and felt that a hotel in SF, might as well be in anywhere in the world.

My brother and I were talking about this and Philip asked me if I’d thought about couch surfing and I set up my profile the following day. I found a host, Casey, fairly quickly and as it turned out that Casey lived at the actual CS bat-cave (not Casey, the founder, though I met him while there). Toward the end of 2009, I hosted a couple of people, one girl who looked remarkably like a young Joan Baez actually decided on an impulse to leave Greece for a while and actually sent me a request from the airport before getting on the plane for Ireland. She stayed for a week or so and I thought she was daft enough to fit in and work with a fried who has a crazy hostel in Co. Clare. She did - for several months.

I saw CS pass the 2 million mark and 3, 4, 5 and 6 but also saw the quality of couch requests suffer a bit - people who’d heard ‘free places to stay - yay’ and who’d send requests like ‘Hey man, you look like a really interesting person to stay with and we’re coming to Ireland and we love everything Irish’ and such, cut and pasted to just about everyone listed as having a couch available in Dublin. Funny thing is, if they bothered to fill out their profile with some solid info about themselves - their interests and philosophy, then I might take a gamble and offer a couple of nights - usually with a positive outcome.

For about a month before moving to Roosky, I’d changed my settings to ‘couch not available’ but, once settled a little here, I put it back up but had difficulty changing my location on my profile and in the first four days, got about a dozen request from people who hadn’t read even the first line on me edited profile which stated boldly, ‘READ THIS BEFORE SENDING A REQUEST: I no longer live in Dublin!!!’

It was a pleasant surprise to receive a lovely request from a traveller looking for a quiet place to stay and enjoy country life. She also has more references than I do - all positive. (references can be left by hosts and guests on each others profiles) - Perhaps she’ll turn out to be the axe-murderer but I doubt it and look forward to meeting my first Roosky surfer.

John Murray Show - my big day?

I’ve rambled down to Dublin today - for the second time in a week. The purpose?

Tomorrow morning I’ll be donning a pair of boots I bought in California in 2010 and heading into RTE’s John Murray Show to do an interview - it’s all down to the boots. Hopefully will get to play a song live and mention my fundraiser for Nepal which will happen in Duffy's SperValu,

Ballaghaderreen on Fri 5th June.

I’m putting up a couple of links for anyone interested and I’ll also add a link to the broadcast - unless I totally am embarrassed by it - after the fact.


Donate for Nepal

CDs and downloads available from CDBaby (they pay me quicker than iTunes) but, if you love iTunes they have my songs and I’ll be thankful in six months or so.

You can hear a whole lot of songs on sound cloud too

and, while I’ve lost the keys and can no longer upload to my website, its still around and has far too much information.

For bookings and school visit enquiries: seanoneillsongs@gmail.com

Thanks for reading.

The show, fast forward about 5 minutes,

How I lost the war......

‘Why don’t you go to play at (fill in pub name yourself)? They have music there every Friday and Saturday’. ‘Why don’t you play on Grafton Street? That’s great for busking, you see them there doing really well.’ ‘You should go to (insert town). They’re having a festival and there’ll be lots of people around.

I know my strengths and weaknesses. I’m singing a whole lot of songs that only a few people have heard before and that even a fan of songs will wilt after about half an hour. In a pub environment, people with a pint or two inside them and another in front of them enjoy hearing song after song that they know well, performed reasonably well and will even tolerate the occasional original song thrown in.

Since I began to sing and write and play on the street, I’ve learnt that while someone knows that this particular pub is ‘different’ and that my stuff will go down really well, the reality is that, unless I intersperse it with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash etc. that it won’t be a satisfying experience for the pub - or for me.

Busy streets, festivals etc. require a highly entertaining busker - maybe wearing a hat that has a monkey occasionally popping out blowing bubbles, or a bunch of competent players belting out Oasis songs and Hotel California.

This is why, when I was told about there Midland Busking Festival - while busking in Edgeworthstown, I had reservations about taking part. But hey, busking is what I’m doing now and you never know. The prize money €1000 would cover a couple of months rent and ease my life a bit.

I enquired by email about the criteria of the judges but couldn’t get info on that. I did get info on time of start ‘Turn up at… you’ll be allocated your pitch and then start playing at…. and then acts will be given 10 minutes on stage before the judges’ Oh and €10 entry fee to be paid when getting your allocated spot.

We can dream. From this, I thought that maybe this was a competition that I had a chance it and, at least worth taking part in so went along to find out.

On the way, I did a warm up outside Tesco in Longford town for a couple of hours - I’m still surprised and pleased that they don’t object to somebody playing a few songs on their property. There were some 1st communion families about - some from members of the travelling community with dresses that would shame a bride. During my wandering minstrel years, I was often disappointed when I came across travellers as contrary to what I’d expect, they were even more reticent about listening to a song than even the average household. Whatever happened to the romantic gypsy campfire sessions? This is why I was really happy to see one traveller first communion boy turn back and drop a couple of euro into my case.

In Edgeworthstown. there were many guitar slingers on the street - mostly local - and I chatted with some, including a couple of guys with big rucksacks and dreadlocks - Busking for Tea. They’d come up the previous night and camped out and then gone busking outside the same supermarket I’d played at a couple of weeks earlier. They told me that, when not in college, they busked in Kilkenny outside a coffee shop playing bluesy country stuff in the morning and popular hits in the afternoon and did pretty well out of it. These are the ones to watch.

I went with them to the ‘busking office’ and payed my tenner out of my Longford proceeds and was allocated pitch no. 11 and, when I asked about the 10 minutes in front of the judges, was informed that there wasn’t time and that the judges would be walking around and listening. Bummer.

I also had about an hour and a half to pass and, after a stroll around got an all-day breakfast at a local cafe and made a sign ‘Seanie’s Homemade Songs to put in my case. Marks were going to be awarded for ‘quality & originally and with ‘walk about judges’, they needed to know I was singing ‘original material’

Martin from Roosky arrived for moral support and we had a beer. The under 16s competition was underway and the street atmosphere was good. There was a lovely little 6 year old singing ‘Beeswing’ over and over - not from life experience I would imagine and he was in a pretty ropey spot at the outside end of town - Pitch no. 11.

To make a long story a little shorter - I played for an hour, didn’t repeat a song or sing a cover song and, when the judges duly appeared, they stuck around for a half a song (one that was singled out as a ‘Gem’ in a Hot-Press review of Losers & Sinners’ and, after they left, Martin told me that they’d arrived during the ‘wrong song’ and hadn’t been very interested. They had been interested in the six piece traditional music group that were playing across the street and had caught one of 20 renditions of ‘It was not your fault but mine’ - a song that several of the acts seemed to favour and, when the busking hour was over, we all drifted down to the gig rig for the results.

6 acts were called up to play one song each - I wasn't among them. There was an excellent close harmony 3 piece called Triple Plec (probably my choice for the winners), a duo singing a pop song - nice performance, a good trad outfit, Busking for Tea (yaay), an attractive young dark haired girl playing something that sounded singer/songwriter, though I don’t know it it was her song, two guy with guitars playing something popular and Banjaxed - a nine piece trad outfit with fiddles, banjo, a double bass and even a wheelchair who did their own interpretation of, ‘It was not your fault but mine - copping out on the chorus changing the ‘really f*cked it up this time’ to ‘messed it up’.

I’d looked forward to hearing Busking for Tea and was disappointed to hear them play a song that’s overdone and seldom done well - Folsum Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. Their musicianship was excellent but I don’t think it was passionate performance - I’m sure they do much better.

Judges out.

I learnt that the judging panel turned out to be the local Allied Irish Bank manager who had organised the €1000 prize money through a few local branches, the assistant manager from the Mullingar branch, a traditional music ex all- Ireland champion dancer and a guy from a band who’d just put out their first album.

Third, second and first prize were announced in that order and the €1000 prize money was divided up as follows, €500, €300 and €100 (yes I know it doesn’t add up).

Third, Banjaxed
Second, the guy and girl doing a pop song, and First…….

….. Busking for Tea - who obviously know far better than I do what the judges wanted.

Congrats guys, enjoy and I’m glad it went the way of somebody who does actually busk and I look forward to catching you sometime in Kilkenny.

Supervalu..... and friends old & new

This morning, Wednesday 5th May, I didn’t know where I was going to busk and had an arrangement to meet up with a writers group for a TV thing at Elphin around 11.

I made a lot of friends during the five years I busked at Dublin Food Co-op. One of these, Eoin - a plumber who should have been a mystic - has by marriage a Roscommon connection and when he heard I was moving to Roosky, he told me of a festival I should check out in a place I couldn’t remember the name of. Had I been to Ballagh yet? He asked in the message. He also said that he’d be coming to Roscommon in a couple of weeks and would like to meet up.

Ballaghaderren, I’d seen signs for and it was a bit further away than I usually travel. I had googled it to get an idea of the size and discovered that there was only one supermarket - a SuperValu - and that was in it’s own car park rather than on the main road - not good, so far.

When things wrapped up in Elphin, I asked how far it was and found I was almost half way there and would pass though Frenchpark - somewhere else I’d still to check out - and so Ballaghadereen it was going to be.

It turned out to be quite a large town - by local standards and a very pretty town too with rolling hills in and out in all directions. There is also a large square with a car park, a bank and a mix of shops but not a lot of people on the street. I drove on through the town and noticed a closed down SuperValu shop with a sign directing to their car park.

When I parked, I answered Eoin and let him know where I was but told him I wasn’t anticipating getting permission to busk here and that, while it didn’t look promising, I’d likely play min the square.

This SuperValu was like a min mall (not at all minimalist) and had a garden centre and a huge fuel depot all rolled into one. If Ballaghaderreen is a one horse town, this is the horse. At the entrance, there was a wooden bench that looked perfect for a sunny day busk - not that this was a sunny day. I asked at customer service, was introduced to a middle manager who gave me a number for John or Kevin who could decide. Tracy answered and, while she couldn’t get hold of either, said she’d find out and call me back. She also said that the answer was more than likely to be NO.

I wheeled around for the square and a couple of minutes later, Tracy called and NO it was.

The Square, and town centre generally - like most towns in Ireland now, are fairly quiet as people are driving more than they walk and, if theatre’s a Lidl, Aldi, or any big supermarket on the outskirts with parking….

About 80 minutes busking and a nice conversation with Scouser, Michael McNamara, who also gave me a plectrum (I’d changed my trousers and was without) - before a torrential shower put play to it - raised about €15, just about enough to cover my petrol for the day.

A message to Eoin to ask if he knew who I should contact re the festival and yes, Shells Bar and mention his name.

Shells turned out to be just around the corner - a lovely bar with a roaring fire and a few customers haven a pint. Neil was most hospitable and after a few songs, offered a sandwich which turned out to be just about a dinner. I’d told him about my busking and he was very surprised that SuperValu had turned me down. He rang Kevin Duffy who was a friend, must have given me a positive reference as Kevin said, ‘Come on up’ and I did.

I was met by Eileen on arrival who suggested I play in the atrium connecting it to their garden centre and fuel depot. It was covered too and the grey sky not a problem. I was even allowed to bring in my four legged significant other.

Ninety minutes later I was homeward bound - with a pocketful of change and a dinner invitation from my new friend in Roosky, Martin.

STOP PRESS - Kevin Duffy of SuperValu has given me permission to do a busk for Nepal in the near future.

Throwing myself at windmills....

Elphin is not too far from Roosky but it’s a hard place to find and, a couple of weeks ago, my busking there made it somewhere I wasn’t going to hurry back to.

The writers group I’d been invited to join over the Strokestown weekend had invited me out the Elphin’s windmill. Windmill? How had I missed that? I gave myself 15 minutes more than I thought I’d need to get there and, as it turned out, needed every second.

There was a film crew coming out and doing a piece on Elphin for Irish TV - something else new to me. It’s a Sky channel that puts up stuff for every county - mostly watched by those abroad and missing the ould sod. Things went well and the group’s founders answered questions on what, why and where etc. and then the presenter wanted to get some ‘typical’ footage of the group writing - or pretending to. Someone picked a topic - Pretending - and I wrote on that, not thinking too much and what wasn’t planned, I feel is worth sharing and so here it is:

Pretending

I used to pretend. I'd pretend I was confident and in control. I did this for years while inside, I was shivering like a jelly but couldn't let even my best friends know.

This inevitably led to an inner discomfort, then a shuddering and eventually, a major deconstruction and rebuilding of a life.

Now, I can happily pretend to be scared when I'm not, pretend to be out of control when I'm not and let the world know of my imperfections.

We are all fundamentally dysfunctional human beings and, once we stop pretending otherwise, we begin to grow.

I will go again to the Windmill Writers Group who seem to be a very friendly bunch of nice people with a lot of talent.

Ps. The program goes out on June 29th for people with tellys and skys

The Downside...

The weather outside is frightful…..

… and so, instead of busking in Strokestown I headed for Roscommon town where there is the shelter of an archway. Roscommon is twice the distance but on both previous occasions I’ve played there, people have been kind and I’ve more than covered my fuel for the trip - forty miles or thereabouts for the return journey.

Today though, there was an icy wind blowing right through and before I had even begun to sing, my case blew closed. I put my phone under the leading edge to tilt it back and witching a few minutes, it blew over and landed upside down and closed on itself.

I moved it back to the wall and put the phone under the front again but further down the tunnel and so apart from the fact that my hat was in serious danger of blowing away, I was set to go.


Sleet and wind and rain don’t do much for peoples humour and, while I did my best to create a sunny mood, after a very cold 45 minutes with my fingers finding it harder than usual to find the right strings and my voice blowing back into my lungs, I’d made a total of €1.05. I sang ‘Warm Hand’, the song I always close with and was just about to pack when someone dropped a two euro coin and, encouraged, I decided I’d do a few more songs although I didn’t think I’d make my petrol money for today - a first. Then a couple came by and wanted a photo and dropped in a few small coins.

A couple of minutes later an oriental girl came by and carefully placed a €10 note into my case which would have blown away if I hadn’t picked it up. My fuel covered, I thanked her and she gladly accepted a CD. Hanna is from South China and living in Ireland now and is perhaps the first Chinese person ever to have contributed to my busking. Thank you Hanna - I can go home and do some unpacking.

Rooskey and Roundabout Rooskey

Roosky, Rooskey or just plain Rooske is about an hour and forty-five minutes North West of Dublin. It’s on the Shannon River on the Roscommon side of the bridge - Leitrim/Longford being on the other side. In quite recent times, there was a factory which employed around 600 people but now there are only a few shops and a couple of pubs.

I’m living about 2 miles out in the countryside and have a view across Lough Boffin of Drommad which is in Co. Leitrim on the road to Carrick on Shannon, the main town in the county. I passed through Letrim village today on the way to Drumshanbo - my busking destination. No doubt, sooner or later, I will learn how it came to be that the county is named after what is quite a small, if picturesque, place.

Prior to moving here, I was living in Dublin for about 10years, having moved from Birr (nice place, shame about the people), Co. Offaly and having moved there a couple of years earlier from Drumcullogher (another small place with several correct spellings), Co. Limerick. Roscommon is the 9th county I’ve have lived in - 23 to go - and with so many beautiful places a fairly short drive away, I wonder that many more people don’t up sticks and locate themselves here. These days it’s possible for many to earn their living working from home, why live in a suburban sprawl and spend your leisure hours cursing the traffic?

Yesterday, I went to have a look at Lanesborough having noticed that it’s even closer than Roscommon town where I spent an enjoyable and, by my standards, fairly lucrative few hours busking on Monday. On the 22 kilometre drive, I don’t think I met with 22 cars, trucks or tractors. Strangely enough though, I did meet with a little electric Renault Twizzy on the approach to the town. Open roads, Loughs around every bend, birdsong and more wild flowers and blossom than I’ve encountered anywhere else and it’s only April.

When I arrive to a village or town, I do a quick up and down the streets looking for a good spot with not too much traffic noise and reasonable footfall. In some places I’m spoilt for choice - Roscommon for example has a few pedestrian archways with a good acoustic and shelter should it rain, as well as it’s share of supermarkets. It also has it’s share of fine architecture, a decent town park with a magnificent castle. In Lanesborough though, the opposite is the case. The only place where a chance of being heard or seen playing was the Super Valu shop near the bridge over the Shannon and, being polite, I sought permission. Mr Keane, the owner, it appeared was not keen and had a strict ‘no collections or busking’ policy. I did play, just off the car park, and a few kind individuals walked over and dropped coins into my case but in a little over an hour it became clear to me that I wasn’t enjoying the busk and so I folded and went walking the dog.

No matter what direction I head of in from Roosky and no matter how good or bad the busking, the dog is always well catered for and Lanesborough was no different. Down by the bridge, there’s a beautiful walk along the river which eventually leads to a choice of two nature walks and there are ample opportunities for a hot dog to swim. After a good hour and a half here, I decided to busk again bunt in the middle of the town - there’s really only one street and on it, another very small supermarket.

I always believe that I’m busking for someone - regardless of how futile it can seem when there are few people around and fewer of them stopping. I wondered how this Gala store stayed in business as, at least in the hour I played there, I only saw three customers. There were about eight people in all passed by and three of those made up the €2,50 or so earned in that time - an elderly man with a stick, an ex-musician who’d found the lord and given up the rock ’n’ roll and lastly a young lady walking a black scottie dog and pushing a buggy with a very happy 6 month old on board. Catherine must to be the most stylish woman in Lanesborough - a black floppy brimmed hat matching the scottie and her her three quarter length faux raggy black skirt. She stopped and listened and then told me how amazing it was that I was there. On Monday night she’d been wondering why nobody ever came to Lanesborough to busk. Catherine, if you’re reading this, you’ll understand that we can’t often afford to.

Thanks for stopping by though, you made my day.

If you don't live in any of the places I'd be likely to be busking but would like to listen to a song - or even drop a few shillings into my virtual case, here's a useful link:

BBC link...

Captured on film by BBC, who were doing street interviews with potential voters in Enniskillen and broadcast on Tuesday last, My BBC debut - at the end of the video if you're busy or impatient.

Spot the dog...

Rounding off a 2nd week ...

I’m not sure if it’s down to the fact that I’m only playing my own songs or if it would be the same if I were playing ‘songs we know and love’ but I’m finding that I get much more interest when playing in smaller places than in large towns.

I have a friend staying with me since I moved and as she isn’t from Ireland, I’m doubling up as a tour guide and, as she’d expressed an interest in going to Sligo and as Friday was another beautiful sunny day, Sligo it was.

Aside from a few shillings in the bank - topped up by IMRO’s recent royalty distribution - busking is my only source of income right now and so most of the time I’m avoiding driving too far and, once I cover my fuel, food and a few bob toward next months rent, I’m happy.

It’s been quite a few years since I was in Sligo - a stunning county with mountains that look like mountains - and the last time I busked inhere was evening and every second car driving round and round the one way system seemed to be a souped up tin can with stuffed with sneering louts who can’t seem to decide whether they want to have the music system or exhaust to do the most peace disturbing (sorry about ‘Grumpy Old Man’ moment)

Friday, we arrived to a much improved Sligo. Got parking at a shopping centre with a max daily rate of €3 and had a quick wander around with the lady, leaving Clara minding the car - and my guitar. A nice vibe with a lot of people on the streets so it was looking very good for busking.

Short version: after about 3 hours, playing in a decent doorway of a shop with ‘To Let’ notices, just before a set of lights - so no noisy traffic - and withe the door set back and so a good acoustic and space for us not to be in the way, I roughly calculated that about one in 70 passers by would throw something into a busker’s case.

After paying for parking, I had a whopping €7.50 in my bag.

Out to Strandhill to walk/swim the dog and admire the scenery and maybe do an hour or so of busking - if it felt right - it did and the hour I did there covered fuel - the BEST fish and chips at ‘SHELLS’ cafe by the sea and probably even a day’s rent on my lovely house.

Disappointing discovery.

That was Friday and Saturday brought the tour to Granard, Co. Longford. It was a lovely drive and on arriving to a very quiet town, a short drive showed me that the only activity was at the top of the town - Super Value store. To be polite, I asked for permission but was told that they would only allow any sort of collections or busking by appointment and that today, there was a charity collection - who were gone to lunch. Fair enough.

I did play for around 45 minutes in the middle of the town - a passer by every third song. A woman dressed on the eccentric side of bo-ho stopped and listened to a couple of songs - dancing with herself - and then went fishing in her handbag and pulled out a toy squirrel and dropped it into my case and danced away smiling. The €1.20 dropped in over the next half hour may have covered the petrol to Longford where I did another couple of hours and discovered, though a nice young guy playing there, that Tesco don’t seem to take issue with buskers playing outside the store - one for the future.

Clara is very happy with the squirrel.

Wandering Minstrels....

Thursday for me is the farmer’s market in Carrick on Shannon of course. WRONG. The path of true love - and busking - never runs smoothly.

The market is on from 10-2 every Thursday and, while I was shooting for a 10 start, it was 11:30 when I arrived to find someone setting up - amp and microphone and all. I had a chat and got his number and hopefully in future we can split the 4 hours between us.

Having made the journey I decided I’d just do some busking on the street and played for about an hour with not a huge amount of passing trade. I did meet a German musician who’s been living in Carrick for about 10 years and he told me of a few local sessions I’d be welcome at so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

On my way back to the car - parked behind Bush’s Hotel (where the staff are lovely) - I thought that their archway through from the main street to the car park would be worth a shot and it was, until…… a nice lady came out and told me that there was a funeral party coming over from the church to their bar in about 10 minutes and that perhaps busking there today would not be appropriate. I did suggest I could play 'Too Many Funerals'

Off to Mohill so.

I’d been through Mohill on the way to Enniskillen a week ago and it looked like a nice town. Very picturesque as you drive in downhill and see it rise again from the centre. I’d also noticed a statue of the blind harper, Turlough Carolan opposite the church and so felt this would be a very appropriate town for a minstrel to wander too.

Between January 2000 and April 2006, when I did my door to door busk on the road to Gold with my debut album - Losers & Sinners -, Carolan’s name frequently came up in conversations though, as far as I know, he only did the big houses and castles.

Once again, it was outside the biggest supermarket (Centra in this case) where I set up and the good people of Mohill did not disappoint - and I hope the ghost of Carolan smiled.

Clara definitely smiled as, on the way home she got to try out a new lough.

Good News - Bad News.....

On Tuesday morning - via a Facebook friend - I learnt that the dog and I weren’t edited out of the BBC Breakfast program feature, shot in Enniskillen last week. A nice start to the day.

I was planning to go to Elphin to do my couple of hours busking. Asking around about what sort of place it was, nobody seemed to have been there though it’s only a little down the road from Strokestown - which is only down the road from Roosky. Other business though brought me to Carrick on Shannon and quite early. The Thursday country market there will be a regular busk but Tuesday was cold and windy and I thought I’d be setting a new world record by playing for two hours and not earning a cent. I would have if, in the last 10 minutes, three ladies leaving a cafe hadn’t decided that I was worth a euro or two.

When I’m organised enough to register my live performances with IMRO, I’ll get a royalty four times a year and Wednesday’s good news is that one arrived into my bank and so I’ll be fine for this months rent. Today, is discover Elphin day thought it got off to a late start as my new friend, Martin, invited me down to have a look at a jetty on Lough Boderg where he was doing some work - and this before breakfast.

The trip to the jetty took us along a beautiful winding road with the hedgerows showing early signs of blossom and early signs of daffodils approaching their end of life for this year. Eventually we turned into a field and drove along a track punctuated with no less than five gates which, following the country code, we needed to open and close behind us. When we got to the lough, once again I was in awe of the beauty of the area I’m now living in and the sound of birds singing in the trees.

Back to a brunch of homemade Chinese beef and vegetable dumplings - the best I’ve had and then on to Elphin. As I said earlier, Elphin is just up the road from Strokestown but, coming from my house - according to both Google and O.S. maps - there’s a shorter, if infinitely more complicated way of getting there. Yes, that’s the one we took and, while it was a quite spectacular drive with hardly another car in sight for most of the way, and while we did actually get to Elphin without asking for directions or consulting the map - it was definitely not the quickest way and I suspect it was pure fluke that we arrived.

Elphin has a lot of history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elphin,_County_Roscommon) - even connections with St Patrick but no obviously good places to busk but I did about an hour to a sparse and, for the most part, disinterested footfall and found I wasn’t particularly enjoying it so moved on out and headed back for Strokestown and Eurospar - taking a dog swim break on the way.

I will write more about Strokestown in another piece and just say that today, it turned our day around. At the end of the busk, a walk around the grounds of Strokestown Park House ( http://www.strokestownpark.ie/house ) saw to Clara’s needs - with a bonus as Liam from the cafe was closing for the day and spotting the dog, gave me the left over cooked sausages - about 2 pounds in all - most are in the freezer and, though she thinks I’m a meany, she’s rationed to two a day - chopped up and put in with her morning and evening meal.