Time to let off a bit of steam following last post’s epic essay and also catch up with Carolan’s recent musical activity. Carolan’s membership of The Beeston Ceilidh Collective (Posts 84 and 70) gave a further opportunity to record a set of tunes with good friends. This time it’s a set of traditional jigs, The Dusty Windowsills, The Blarney Pilgrim and Banish Misfortune (our favourite tune on the tenor banjo). We’d normally be playing these to accompany the dance The Bridge of Athlone at a Ceilidh somewhere around Nottingham, but are still collaborating remotely in ‘lockdown mode’ for the time being. We’ve edited in some photos from ceilidhs past as a reminder.

However, there’s hope for better things to come – warmer weather and vaccinations mean we should be able to get together face-to-face sometime soon. We’d better, as we’re booked to play a wedding ceilidh in July! Let’s hope it all goes ahead, for the bride and groom of course, but also for the pleasure of playing for dancers again. We’ll be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, we hope these tunes get your toes tapping.