Back to School

That’s week one of the second semester done and I’m sitting on a train - my first free travel one too - much more civilised than the train I was on exactly two weeks ago - Palermo - Napoli, nine and a half hours of beautiful scenery seen through the grimiest windows.   This is a much shorter trip to Dublin where I will spend the next couple of days. While the trip is mostly to visit family, I look forward to doing a couple of hours busking at The Dublin Food Co-op where I played almost every Saturday when I last lived there.   While I miss my dog, the week in college has been a breeze without the pull of checking that she’s not too miserable every couple of hours.   It’s been a week of funerals in Limerick too with Cranberries singer, Delores O’Riordan being buried on Tuesday and, at just over twice her 46 years, my host for my time in College, Joe Neiland, two days later.   JB, RIP. The outline for the rest of the semester looks really exciting ...

I’ve probably said it before but it’s worth saying again.   Children are a buskers best friend   They have a curiosity and an interest in what’s going on around them that fades with many as they get used to the work, eat, sleep, buy stuff at the weekend routine of being a ‘grown up’.   Buskers are often the first experience that kids have with art in a live situation.   They don’t judge by ‘what’s cool’ and openly show appreciation.   The Market Tent and  Brian blowing This weekend, after the ravages of ‘ex-hurricane’ Ophelia and with the imminent arrival of storm Brian, I wondered if I’d get any busking done at all. Since moving to Limerick, the weather has generally not been so good for playing on the street and many planned busking sessions had to be called off - or at least cut short. I’d heard that they allowed busking at Limerick’s Milk Market and that Saturday was the really busy day and so, on Friday, I called in to speak with the ma...

Wednesday is usually a busy one with a songwriter spending the day with us discussing their approach, playing some songs and us in turn playing some of ours - some finished songs and also perhaps something we’re working on or maybe starting on something from scratch.   Having had a visit earlier in the week from Chris Wood, and with the visit on Thursday from Jake Clemons, we had a free day this Wednesday. I did go in for a couple of hours and went to a workshop on critical writing and after that, thought about trying out another pitch for busking - between the college and home.   Not good.  When I pulled into the car park, there was a very loud continuous noise which turned out to be emanating from a generator outside the chip shop.  There were still many power outages following the hurricane Ophelia. I checked the weather forecast for Killaloe - about 12 miles the other side of where I’m staying and it looked okay so, after stopping by the house f...

From my point of view There’s a small shopping centre just up the road from where I’m staying while in college.   I’d been in Limerick for a couple of weeks when I first came across it and, as I was on the way back from busking somewhere else, I just pulled in to have a look at it to see if it looked like it would be a potential busking site. I called into the butcher shop - butchers usually know everything about everything and I asked if anybody busked there.   They said they’d never seen anybody - just in the city centre.   I asked if they’d mind if I tried playing outside their shop some evening after college and they said they’d be delighted if I did, ‘It’d bring a bit of life to the place’ A few days later, I went there again, with my guitar and, of course my friendly dog.   It was just before six in the evening and on a Wednesday so probably not the busiest day of the week. At first, I felt a little self conscious about singing where appar...

Clara - my silent busking companion When I busk it’s as much about the people I meet as what’s in the pot (and yes, I do actually put out a teapot for tips). When I moved out of Dublin, I missed my Saturday ‘residency’ at the Dublin Food Co-op.   Over a six year period, it’s where I played most Saturdays and made quite a few friends.   From my new home which is on the border of three counties, I went busking, to test the waters, in lots of different places.   My partner also came along - for her, she was seeing most of these places for the first time.   Once we covered our fuel and food for the trips, we were happy.   She often remarked that we were like paid tourists. Within a couple of months, I found that I was welcome at a small shopping mall and I made that my regular Saturday gig and the proceeds would go a long way toward to weeks groceries.   We’d shop for food after my two or three hours busking, and all in the closest town to ...

My year in college began on the 4th of September and my busking in Limerick got off to a very slow start, mainly for two reasons.  Firstly, finding suitable places for me to play - quiet streets with a reasonable footfall and a good acoustic, and with parking not too far away - takes a bit of research.  I don’t mind walking but nowadays Clara’s hip problem is much worse and anything more than a few hundred yards is out of the question.  Secondly, while September in Ireland is often among the best months of the year weather-wise, somebody must have forgotten to remind it this year and we’ve had a phenomenal amount of rain. I’m hoping that October through to next July will be better. Today was one of the sunniest days since I arrived and around noon, I went to a small shopping centre where, since finding it - only about a kilometre out from my Limerick accommodation - I’ve been welcomed by the shop-keepers and their customers, with smiles, positive comments as we...

How on earth does a person decide to go back to school at 66, rather than reach for the pipe and slippers and sit watching the world go by? My songwriting career didn't start until a few weeks after I went busking on my 47th birthday to overcome a lifelong fear of singing within earshot of another human being.  I would have been content with just one song that I could call my own but, once I wrote the first, it was like taking out a stopper and the others just fell out.  By my 48th birthday, I'd written over 50 more. Having left school, just short of my sixteenth birthday, I was happy to put that bad experience as far behind me as I could.  I had an interest in photography and, while I managed to make it a career for almost 30 years, pay my mortgage and support my family, I had no love for the business and felt that I still hadn't found the right path for me. They say that when you find what you love and can earn a living doing it, then you'll never have t...

I recently heard a John Prine song, ‘ Just Waitin ’, which I'd strongly recommend giving a listen to, and it's about twenty years ago I came across Dr. Seuss'  wonderful little book, ‘ Oh, the Places You Will Go ’, in which he writes of ‘the waiting place’,    Despite my best efforts not to be, this is where I find myself right now. Waiting for that phone call. Waiting to make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of emails, press releases etc. etc.   Waiting like many for news of my college grant application, waiting to get a date from a guy who’ll check out my new to me car for it’s NCT - that’s our roadworthiness test which needs to be done annually one a car gets to the age mine is. Today too, it was waiting for the rain to stop and not much chance of going busking which, apart from buying some of the groceries, keeps me patient and sane (though some may disagree with the latter). The main hold up though is wait time for the files for m...

I can remember summers like this. The sun is shining and there’s nothing urgently needs to be done and there’s almost two whole months stretching out before me until the school year begins. It’s a familiar feeling but now it’s different. My memory goes back to a time, 51 years ago - and to earlier summers - and the start of a new school term was one that filled me with dread and was something I could put out of my mind for most of the holiday until, for the last couple of weeks when I’d begin the countdown and hope it wouldn’t be as miserable as the last year and the one before etc., etc. Fifty years ago, at 16, I left on a Friday and began my working life the following Monday. Things change. A friend told me that University of Limerick were beginning a Masters of Arts in Songwriting and thought that this sounded like a course ‘made for me’. The day I googled it was also the day after the application deadline but a couple of emails back and forth got me an interview/audition an...