Good evening, Kibitzer!
Today (Monday) evening I am enjoying the windy place. The kind that usually accompanies dramatic weather changes. The National Weather Service has issued “wind advisories,” so it's not like we don't know about it, but the weather this week looks to be about the same as today and tonight. I don't know what it is, but as long as the howling wind doesn't form a tight spiral, we'll be fine.
St. Patrick's Day ends next Tuesday, so if you want to post related music, it has to be today. It's obviously a big topic and I'm not focusing on the more popular artists, so I'm sure there are favorites that I've skipped. Please post in the thread if you like! ☘️
I started paying attention to an unknown player on the Celtic harp. And, as usual, YouTube went wild.
Of course, I start by talking. The videographer asked the Cork street musician and harp teacher to explain and demonstrate her adorable rap on her harp. Her female name is Connie and her harp name is Irene. [4:34]
This is a brief history of the harp in Ireland. [3:54]
In 2019, UNESCO included the Irish harp in its activities. It is included on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and features a short film in which an Irish harpist plays and talks about this heritage. [9:30]
Next up are some videos from the Harp Ireland channel. [Here’s their website.] The channel description reads in part:
Cruit Éireann, Harp Ireland was founded in 2016 by harpists in collaboration with Arts Council Ireland's An Chomhairle Ealaíon to support the continued development of the harp in Ireland. This is the national comprehensive resource organization for the Irish harp, its organizations, harpists and harp makers.
Their annual Harp Day is in October, but the United States (along with Guinness Day and Corned Beef Day) considers it to be in March. These are some of the short videos they posted. Many of them are long programs compiled from collected performance videos.
Seamus O Flatharta: Anak Quain/Martin Wynn's No.2 (Lille), at Ballintubber Abbey. [5:49]
Tiffany Schaefer (harp) and Brian Bigley (Uilleann pipes): fairy queen [2:08]
Ksenia Rusnak (Ukrainian Bandura) and Paul Dooley (early Irish harp): The Two William Davis/Hopac, At Fleadh Cheoil na HÉireann 2023. [4:25]
So let's jump around a little bit. Mark Harmer is a harpist and his channel can be found here.
He shares what he played carolan's dream This recording was made in one take late at night in a building that was built in 1790 as a village bakery and still has a stone oven. [4:02]
Mr. Harmer also plays instruments such as the harp in a Celtic band. Slente. He plays the drums on this lively, untitled bagpipe piece. [5:08]
Minnesota harpist Stephanie Clausen plays both Celtic and classical harp. Her channel can be found here. She was joined by Bohran A medley of traditional songs performed by Brittany Piatz: Road to Lisdoonvarna / Morrison's Jig / Musical Priest. [4:08]
Finally, I'd like to move away completely from the harp-centric combo and include some songs by Vermont-based fiddle and guitar duo The Poor Cousins (you can find their channel here).
traditional song star of county downBecause I knew I couldn't stay away from the vocals for the entire diary! [3:25]
A very beautiful instrumental version of a traditional song raglan road. [2:24]
colcannon “'' is not only a delicious Irish dish, but also a traditional song. Without further ado, I wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day. ☘️ [4:08]
I'm sure everyone has seen SNL's Scarlett Johansson's answer to SOTU by now (see the link if you haven't already). As I write this, the usual suspects have not added any reactions, but there is a new candidate for “usual suspects”: Patrick Fitzgerald. I think we've heard from him once before. Because I remember pasting “Poor Man's Randy Rainbow” into his bio.Today he brought us something like this 9 to 5 A parody about that sad little speech. [1:43]
