Blog time again.  Time is really flying here in USA.   It is not warm in Florida,  but then again I suppose the people in DC would be very glad of temperatures of 60F to 65F.

Didn’t travel too much since my return but I am just back after spending 5 days in Pensacola with Bill and Kate Isles.   We had a really nice time there and I am so much looking forward to touring with them this Summer.  They will be touring in May and August.   Bill is a wonderful singer/songwriter and Kate and himself do a really lovely stage show.  Pensacola is a beautiful town.  I have driven past many times but it was lovely to spend some time there.  Their beaches are perhaps the best in Florida.   I visited the Naval Museum and Fort Pickins,  so I kept myself very busy there.

I have started working on booking artists for next year and I must say I am very excited by my first two projects.  I cannot name them but I can say that I am hoping to work with a singer/songwriter who I consider the best in USA.  Another project is with a nationally known bluegrass band.   We will see soon how they work out.

I am now getting ready for Folk Alliance where i hope to do a bit of business as well as enjoy 5 days of wall to wall music,  16 hours each day,  if I have the stamina to do it.   I am so much looking forward to seeing John Spillane there.  I am sure he will go down very well.  I then go on tour with him for over two weeks.   I will write about the tour in my next blog.

I am going to post a poem,  which is one of 6 that a lady Mary Beth Watt wrote.  She travelled with Gerry Dignan and was inspired to write some wonderful poems,  one of which I am going to share with you,  perhaps I will share two very different poems.

Drumbeg Circle

From /Skibbereen to Drumbeg bright hues aligned our path

The deep green fields bejeweled by Erin’s spring

A countryside of sorrows awash with flames of faith

Life borne within the dauntless hearts of men

We parted from remembrance of tragedy and death

For destination lost in mists of time

We cleansed our souls of tear falls, we sang of life’s true gifts

Linked timeless hope to God’s embracing grace

The Concert

Fast by the Lakes of Killarney

In a rhododendrum dream

I saw a leprechaun kneeling

Neath a hemlock tree by a stream

He’d gathered about him an army

Of herons and songbirds and crows

When he lifted his staff to direct them

A magnificent music arose

The herons strutted a rhythm

The songbirds carried the tune

The crows provided percussion

And all of the forest was soon

Swaying, it seemed to the music

The leprechaun’s feathered band played

And me, I tried to stay hidden

Not wanting the music they made

To end that day or forever

Since I’d fallen beneath the spell

I would stay by the lake for a lifetime

Yes, deep in that forest I’d dwell

But alas, the dreamsong soon ended

Leaving me sad beyond words

Then the leprechaun turned to smile at me

And winked as he fled with the bird