"Gonna tune up my fiddle and rosin my bow. And, make myself welcome where ever I go."

Caution: fiddle content, aimed at my musician peeps, but all welcome....

While fiddling in the dome car one evening in the Canadian Rockies, a woman seated up in front of the car asked me if I could play Alice's Restaurant. I kindly declined. She explained that 15 years ago she'd made the same trip across Canada and the engineer had brought his guitar up to the dome car and entertained folks with his rendition of Alice's Restaurant. I apologized and said how it wouldn't be the same on the fiddle. And, she said it was probably best to make new memories instead of overwriting her old one.

I thought I heard an Australian accent and she said yes she was Australian. I said I was on my way to Australia, Tasmania to be exact. She asked where abouts in Tasmania? I said Hobart and she said that's where she lives. She and her husband had traveled to Canada to visit their sons. You'll find plenty of music in Hobart, she said. Check out the New Sydney Hotel on Bathurst Street for starters. You'll be sure to meet some musicians who can tell you more about local music. We exchanged email addresses and she made a note of the pub so I could remember it.

I related that story to son-IN-LAW (emphasis mine) Mike who then sent me the link for the Tasmanian Folk Federation. It's similar to our Fiddlers' Tour site in Albany, with a wealth of info. For example, there's a link to a folk festival near here, the Cygnet Folk Festival. I emailed the "volunteer wrangler", as she bills herself, and got accepted on their crew. The festival's in January, about 50 km south of Hobart. But, I digress.

So, things settled down enough now that I'm in Hobart. Penny, the lady from the train, has been in touch and given us more hints about what to see and do, and has invited us for coffee one of these days.

Saturday afternoon is when the session is at the New Sydney Hotel. I've had such a busy summer, then 5 weeks of traveling. Since June, I can count the jams on one hand. I jammed once with some folks in Rochester, the weekend at Harry Smith in Greenfield, MA, and then once back in Albany with my old-timey buddies. I know, "Would I like some cheese with this whine???" Waa-waa-waa. My point is I was soooooo ready to sit in a session!

I was not disappointed. Friendly folks. Mercury Sweet hard cider for me. Pints of Guinness for most of the crowd. Australian football championship game on the tele, but the musicians were paying no notice. There was an accordion player who was pumping out the Irish medleys like, um, like, .... well, Myron Florin on meth is probably impolite. Let's just say he was incredible. Fast and driving. There was one set that he played tunes, only once through, maybe 10 different tunes. He'd call out the key changes for the 2 or 3 guitar players and he was all over the map. There were also, at any one time, 2 - 4 fiddles, 2 whistles, 2 bodhrans, and a bazouki or 2. They where doing their best to keep up, and for the most part, they caught on to what the new tune was and kept right up with him. And, I must say, it was the best Paddy on the Railroad that I've ever played.

There was a smattering of singing, and many, many Irish tunes that I did not recognize. But, here's some of the ones that I knew.

maid behind the bar
paddy on the railroad
mason's apron
trip to durrow
lady ann montgomery
john ryans or dennis murphy's
calliope house
kesh jig
my darlin' asleep
julia delaney
drowsy maggie
out on the ocean
angeline the baker (yesssss!)
old joe clark (yesssss!)
ships are sailing
silver spear
top of cork road
smash the windows

songs -
if i had a hammer (with some cool, new-agey sorts of chords)
paradise (take me back to muhlenberg county)
caledonia
leaving liverpool
green amongst the gold
folsom prison
whiskey in the jar

The web site says the jam is from 4 - 6:30. At 6:30, I asked the guitar player next to me when the jam broke up. He said folks get a little peckish around 6:30 and start to wander off. So, I packed up and joined Liz at a table for some yummy Caesar salads with grilled chicken. We chatted with some women who were also seated around the table. One was an accordion player on her way to a Greek restaurant to play for pay. The other was a partner to a fiddle player. He has a stall at the Salamanca Market where he sells wind chimes made out of old cutlery. And, they invited me to come play tunes at the market on Saturdays during the day. And, they also tipped me off that there's old timey music played at the Lark on Friday evenings, performance, not jamming. Still need to find it. Maybe it's this Lark. I'll have to ask around some more.

Oh, and the jam continued on until 9pm. :-)

To be continued....