A merry welcome

On Sunday, I attended the weekly Celtic instrumental session held at The Shebeen, a great South African pub in Charlottesville. I had been there before, but really enjoyed myself that day. The members of the session were very pleasant and welcoming, inviting me to take a chair in the inner circle and introducing themselves one by one between tunes. At various times, someone prompted me to begin a set for the group and I did so, choosing tunes that I know well. Many tunes were completely unknown to me or played at such a pace that I couldn't keep up, but that was more exuberance on the part of the other session members, than showing off (as I have experienced at other sessions).

This session had four fiddles, two whistles, two bodhrans, hammered dulcimer, button accordion, keyboard, and border pipes. At previous sessions in C'ville, I have also seen guitars, mandolins, bouzoukis, harmoniums, and uilleann pipes.

One very adept young lady fiddler played a particular favorite of mine, Tarbolton Lodge, and did it with elan and grace. I could only smile and nod my ahead in admiration as she played the solo, since no one else could stay with her pace. She displayed beautiful (classical) technique which put most of the other fiddlers in the session to shame and clearly loved the music. Bravo!

I stayed until the session broke up, but thoroughly enjoyed myself and will definitely return. A couple of the fiddlers were especially friendly. After the session, we chatted about music and shared some beer, fish and chips. I found that two of them would be at Swannanoa in July and we talked of our experiences there last year and the classes we would take this year.

During the session, I played these tunes:

My Darling Asleep
Athole Highlanders
Road to Lisdoonvarna
Toss the Feathers (love that title!)
The Full Rigged Ship
Harvest Home
Cock o' the North
Connaughtman's Rambles
Lochanside

I will definitely return as often as possible. I enjoy the Charlottesville sessions more than any others I've attended, including Richmond, Knoxville, DC, and Raleigh, mostly because of the friendliness and openness of the session members.