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The legion were enjoying themselves for sure. The combination of finances and my full work days sent me home after that so it will be good to see U Tube. Nothing like being there though, I find U Tube doesn't always do you all justice.
The legion were enjoying themselves for sure. The combination of finances and my full work days sent me home after that so it will be good to see U Tube. Nothing like being there though, I find U Tube doesn't always do you all justice.
Kickadee It was great to see you there.
We had a great crowd at the Red Martini Grill.My feet dont belong to me today. I love doing the shows but I am sure the rest of the band feels as drained as I do today.
All those weeks of practise and hard work make it worthwhile. The youngest Cunningham wowed everyone last night with his drumming. It is quite something to see a whole family pitch in to set up and tear down as well.
kudos to all the staff at the Red Martini Grill for putting on the event and for their awesome service!
I also made a good connection with the Visually impaired club at the Legion. First time I have actually felt comfortable at a gig with my cane.
You put on a fabulous Celtic show, the song line up was perfect and the patrons paddy day happy! Another great performance, congratulations!! I watched the take down of that equipment with fascination. Exactly at the end the floor went from full band set up to empty. This was helpful as there were only 45 minutes left (was it?) to get torn down at the Legion, rested, fed and set up at the Grill? I don't know if you had the dinner or still needed a bite, nonetheless that is not much time to get the job done! That splendid co operation got the job done, and everyone knew how to pitch in to dismantle the equipment lickity split! Looked like you were all professional roadies yesterday!!!
It took us a little bit longer the second time around. musicians are gluttons for punishment!
too funny this morning my granddaughter is running around singing toura loura .
2 shows back to back for me was very hard but it went well for us buskers.
I was very impressed with the drummer we had a very tallented person who was really on the ball. My kids also done really well to make both shows successful. Robin is talking about busking again real soon but I need a rest for a few days. And for those who read this thread who attended our shows Thank you for the support.
Ya well I got "Fair Thee Well Nova Scotia" stuck in mine thank you very much!! I love that song!
Well today we still wait for our friends at bylaw services to contact us and move on with the busking bylaw review I would like to post a poem written by Robert Service 1940 which I scooped up from Vancouver's own Accordion Noir radio website. Another one of my contacts on myspace who support our cause. (BUSKING)
Accordion
by Robert Service
Some carol of the banjo, to its measure keeping time;
Of viol or of lute some make a song.
My battered old accordion, you’re worthy of a rhyme,
You’ve been my friend and comforter so long.
Round half the world I’ve trotted you, a dozen years or more;
You’ve given heaps of people lots of fun;
You’ve set a host of happy feet a-tapping on the floor . . .
Alas! your dancing days are nearly done.
I’ve played you from the palm-belt to the suburbs of the Pole;
From the silver-tipped sierras to the sea.
The gay and gilded cabin and the grimy glory-hole
Have echoed to your impish melody.
I’ve hushed you in the dug-out when the trench was stiff with dead;
I’ve lulled you by the coral-laced lagoon;
I’ve packed you on a camel from the dung-fire on the bled,
To the hell-for-breakfast Mountains of the Moon.
I’ve ground you to the shanty men, a-whooping heel and toe,
And the hula-hula graces in the glade.
I’ve swung you in the igloo to the lousy Esquimau,
And the Haussa at a hundred in the shade.
The Nigger on the levee, and the Dinka by the Nile
have shuffled to your insolent appeal.
I’ve rocked with glee the chimpanzee, and mocked the crocodile,
And shocked the pompous penquin and the seal.
I’ve set the yokels singing in a little Surrey pub,
Apaches swinging in a Belville bar.
I’ve played an obligato to the tom-tom’s rub-a-dub,
And the throb of Andalusian guitar.
From the Horn to Honolulu, from the Cape to Kalamazoo,
From Wick to Wicklow, Samarkand to Spain,
You’ve roughed it with my kilt-bag like a comrade tried and true. . . .
Old pal! We’ll never hit the trail again.
Oh I know you’re cheap and vulgar, you’re an instrumental crime.
In drawing-rooms you haven’t got a show.
You’re a musical abortion, you’re the voice of grit and grime,
You’re the spokesman of the lowly and the low.
You’re a democratic devil, you’re the darling of the mob;
You’re a wheezy, breezy blasted bit of glee.
You’re the headache of the high-bow, you’re the horror of the snob,
but you’re worth your weight in ruddy gold to me.
For you’ve chided me in weakness and you’ve cheered me in defeat;
You’ve been an anodyne in hours of pain;
And when the slugging jolts of life have jarred me off my feet,
You’ve ragged me back into the ring again.
I’ll never go to Heaven, for I know I am not fit,
The golden harps of harmony to swell;
But with asbestos bellows, if the devil will permit,
I’ll swing you to the fork-tailed imps of Hell.
Yes, I’ll hank you, and I’ll spank you,
And I’ll everlasting yank you
To the cinder-swinging satellites of Hell.
Piper It took you a long time to discover Robert Service.
He spent a lot of time in Cowichan Bay. I always thought that he must have been a busker at some point.
Keith McKaskill used to recite his works at our gigs with a Davey Crockett kind of cap. Wonderful stuff!
Originally Posted by queen of the waterfront
I think if Robert Service played the accordion and maybe he was a busker he is my type of friend. I will watch out for more of his awsome poems. Thanks Queen of the waterfront.
Not only is the content of the poem full of the atmosphere surrounding a busker, but it seems it could be set to music easily. I think it is my musical appreciation that makes me enjoy the older poems that stuck to stanzas and meticulous rhythm, rather than the "the mystery is can you figure out what I am talking about?" clever modern poems that might break the rhythm with a single word and can be understood in a thousand ways depending on how you interpret the symbolism, but only one way will be correct. I wrote so many poems that lend themselves to music. Sometimes in a daydream moment I find myself searching for the melody, as this Robert Service poem has me doing.
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