12/31/10

Paul Crouse's 'Singing Around the Table' pix

Paul Crouse came to Singing Around the Table 26.12.10 to sing, and he also took some lovely pictures of the stage. Paul worked a professional photographer in the U.S. as you can tell. You can view Paul's pictures on his SmugMug page here. I am hoping that in this coming year he will have a chance to take pix of huge crowds singing around the tables!
Happy New Year to all our band and table-singers - thank you for all your lovely singing this year - may 2011 be a happy, healthy, musical and song-filled year for you and all your friends and family!
The picture on the left is Jay Gregg by Paul Crouse.

12/28/10

Christmassy Things

Merry Christmas! How was yours?
メリークリスマス!あなたも楽しかったですか。

International Carol Singing outside Kyoto City Hall on Christmas Eve, Friday 24th, went well with about 30 people including children. We were especially pleased with the turnout as we only made the plan on Tuesday, and the booklet on Friday! It was really cold so after that some of us went to Gnome to eat Yorkshire pudding - their new Christmas menu. I don't usually eat Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Eve but, as it's a favorite food of mine, it seemed like a kind of Christmas present.

On Christmas Day itself (25th) I just had a really good rest. I spoke to friends and family on the phone, and uploaded some photos from 2010 to my Facebook, which I had been meaning to do for ages. It was nice to review the year while I did it. Then I watched an old black & white DVD called "That Hamilton Woman" which I have seen before but I really like.

The Christmas "Singing Around the Table" on 26th (Boxing Day) was small and lovely. My friend Jay Gregg stood in for Tomoko on fiddle, as usual Tatsuya Shirasaka played wood-bass, and Yuko-san grabbed a few tunes on her accordion when she wasn't busy with the bar. Peter Damashek played fiddle for a couple of songs and sang most heartily. We used the same new bi-lingual wordsheets for both events: David and Yukie (who run Kyoto Contra Dance) and my friend Hiroko provided the Japanese words to some carols and New Year songs, so we were able to sing in both Japanese & English (the Japanese was in hiragana and romaji too so we had three or four versions of some songs).

Today, 27th, I went to the Shimizus' for a warming winter nabe (table stew) and he told me about some videos now on Youtube of our gig at Pick up on Dec 4th: Little Drummer Boy, with the audience and the final medley.

I'll post a few more pix of Carol Singing soon.
Happy remainder of the holidays!

12/20/10

Christmas Sing Songs

Next SINGING AROUND THE TABLE is 26th December, usual time, at GNOME.

Plus.... INTERNATIONAL CHRISTMAS SONGS & CAROLS at Kyoto City Hall 7pm 24th December. We will provide word sheets for well known Christmas Songs in English and Japanese. Please bring 20 copies if you have any carols you would like to introduce in other languages. Organised by Singing Around the Table, Contradance Kyoto and Kyoto Petit Bal, supported by Deep Kyoto. We hope to see you soon!

There are links to some of the carols on Contradance Kyoto's website.

次の「歌声パブの日」は12月26日に、いつもの時間に行います。それに、24日にさらに京都市役所の前で午後7時からインターナショナルクリスマス・キャロルを行います。有名な英語と日本語のクリスマス・ソングの歌詞を提供します。また、他の言葉で、紹介してくれるクリスマスの歌があれば、歌詞カードを20枚ぐらい持ってくれれば皆で歌えると思います。とにかく、そとで歌うので、暖かい洋服は不可欠です!

歌声パブ」、「コントラ京都」と「京都プチバルの共同企画で、「ディープ・京都」の応援もいただきました。
次のコントラ京都のメールに連取のためのルンクを送ります。
お待ちしております!



12/17/10

CELTSITTOLKE Launched

Hey, looks like all systems are go!!!! Celtsittolke Launched 8th Dec 2010 - Irish/Celtic bands of the Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka) Region of Japan. Not much happened in my house, except perhaps a celebratory glass of sake, but by all accounts the album is now downloadable on Amazon and several of the artists, e.g. Kaneko san, have been interviewed on an associated radio program - so lots going on in the world of Japanese!!!. Hurray! Some great, tight, serious bands on this album. Our band, Macfiddles (you can here v brief samples our tracks here) has been described as the least 'arranged'...TRUE! There are certainly some smart works on this album. Promotion concert in Osaka May 15th 2011.

PickUp Live


この間12月4日でSamurai Celt Mine とライブして,京都祇園のPickupと言うライブハウスでMarty Braceyと。すごく楽しかった。この写真はその時からです。

11/18/10

Celtsittolke samples online

Celtsittolke : 近年、ケルト/アイリッシュ音楽がさまざまな映画やゲーム音楽に起用されどこか懐かしく軽快なサウンドが、年齢層を問わず浸透してきています。「なんとなく聞いた事あるんだけど、よく知らない」「機会があればちゃんと聞いてみたいけど、どれがいいかわからない」「ケルト楽器を演奏してみたい」このオムニバスCDは、そんなあなたの道案内になることでしょう。収録されているアーティストは、全国のイベントやアイリッシュパブなどで活躍中の第一線のユニットばかり。「今、現在の関西ケルトの世界」がぎゅっと凝縮された一枚です。

Over the last year people all over Kansai have been busy recording for Celtsittolke, a trad music compilation album due for release in December 8th 2010. You can listen to our MacFiddles sample here or check out the whole Celtsittolke website with all the bands' samples and pix here. The organiser, Yoshida san, has a weekly Irish music internet radio programme here. Sasuga Yoshida san.

10/15/10

Tomoko goes to Ireland


Singing Around the Table's fiddle player Tomoko is off to Ireland tomorrow, a dream come true for her as she has been planning the trip for several years. Now it is all the more poignant a trip as Tomoko has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Tomoko is 26 and her doctors haven't seen such a young case of breast cancer before. As she has been caught early they are hopeful for her. If you can read Japanese (or use on-line translators such as Babelfish) you can follow her trip to Ireland, her music and her breast cancer story on her blog here. She wants to write about it to encourage other women to be open and aware, and get checked regularly, especially as soon as they, or their partner, notice anything unusual in a breast. The blog shows how she carries on with her teaching and performing schedule alongside her hospital visits, and her thoughts as she goes. She has three tumors and will have an operation in Kyoto when she gets back from Ireland. So, here's wishing her a really wonderful trip with plenty of great music, new friends, and lots of love from us all in Kyoto on her journey.

9/17/10

Kazuo Ishiguro on British Folk Music

At the 2003 BBC Folk Awards, the British-based Japanese writer Kazuo Ishiguro said...

"The way I see it is like this… There is this kind of treasure chest you have sitting in front of you, and if you were American or perhaps Irish you might have opened it by now, but because you live here it probably hasn’t occurred to you to do so yet. Well, I would urge you to open that thing up and delve inside it, because I believe you’ll find there a sublime vision of life in the British Isles as it has been lived over the last few centuries; and it’s the kind of vision that you can’t readily get from the works of say, Dickens or Shakespeare or Elgar or Sir Christopher Wren. If you don’t open that treasure box I think you are going to miss a certain dimension, a whole dimension of cultural life in this country so I urge you to do it."

9/16/10

CELTRIP RADIO LAUNCHED

Recently through the Kyoto Field Irish Music Club 's mailing list I received good news about the Sept. 10th launch of CELTRIP RADIO. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the first Japanese radio programme devoted to Celtic music. It's the brainchild of Kansai based band Si-Folk 's concertina and button accordion player Fumio Yoshida (pictured), who also masterminded the CELSITTOLKE local musicians project and runs GLEN MUSIC supplies. Yoshida san presents the weekly programme as an invitation to "travel the world of Irish and Celtic music by radio". He plans to add a new programme every Friday, but past programmes will remain on the site so we can listen any time. The first programme , introduces rhythms and instruments of Irish traditional music and dance, as well some of the Irish songs whose melodies are well known in Japan. If you can't understand Japanese you'll still be able to follow by making out a lot of English words. You can even hear 'Danny Boy' sung in Japanese (at about 75%). The second programme is due tomorrow, 17th September. Congratulations Yoshida san and good luck with this really valuable project.
P.S. if you click on the envelope at the bottom of the CELTRIP web-page you can e-mail Mr Yoshida with a request or comment. (Pls mention you read about it SongHouse.)

さて昨晩からになりますが、パソコンで好きな時間に聞けるラジオ番組を始めました。
私の拙い喋りで申し訳ないですが、ピュアな音楽をいっぱいご紹介したいと思っていますので、宜しければ聴いてやって下さい。
CELTRIP RADIO URL↓http://www.beatshop.co.jp/glen_music/radio.htmlグレンミュージック 吉田 文夫

7/15/10

Celtic Song Workshop at Field

ケルティック・ソング・ワークショップ by レズリー・デニストン

2010年7月23日 金曜日 7:00p.m.~8:30p.m. by Leslie Denniston at Kyoto Field Irish PUB

2005年5月から続いているロングランシリーズの体験講座「アイルランド&スコットランドの歌を歌おう!」ケルトの歌…その魅惑的世界。本年は奇数月第4金曜日に開催予定。

●これまで、アイルランドのダンス音楽や楽器に関しては各地で様々な講座が開かれてきましたが、歌の講座は関西一円でもほとんどありませんでした。そこで、今回初の試み!USJや各種イベント、国際交流舞台等に出演し、演奏活動を続けているレズリー・デニストンが、アイルランドやスコットランドの歌を、その歌の歴史や背景の解説も交えながら紹介し、皆さんにも数曲体験していただきます。また、レズリーはバウロンとボーンズの奏者でもあります。ご興味のある方はどうぞ! 受講料¥1,700(会場費、教材費込み) メモ用紙、筆記用具。参加ご希望の方は事前にメールでご連絡下さい。fieldまで直接 

Youtube videos

vids of us on Youtube...
Samurai Celt Mine & Felicity
- Bertaeyn
- Mouth Music
- Johnny be Fair
Felicity & Tomoko @ Singing Around the Table
- Suil a Ruin
- Shiretoko Ryoujo
- Do You Love an Apple
- Instrumental
- JJ Dancing

6/28/10

Pat O'Connor

Clare fiddle player Pat O'Connor will be back in Japan in July.
He will play at Gnome July 13th, with a workshop beforehand 5-6pm at Woodnote.

Woodnote の倉島真理子から...

7月13日にアイルランド・東クレアのフィドル奏者、
パット・オコナーさんのフィドルワークショップ(ビギナー向け)を開きますのでお知らせします。
耳で聞いて、または楽譜を見て曲が弾ける方が対象です。
初心者の方も受けやすいよう、事前にいくつか曲がわかるようにする予定です。
平日の夕方ですが是非ご参加下さい。

日にち・2010年7月13日(火)
時間・17:00~18:00
場所・WOODNOTE(一乗寺)
参加費・2000円(1ドリンク付)
簡単な通訳付き

予約・問い合わせは simasima.sea@
ezweb.ne.jp(@を半角に変えて下さい。)倉島まで

なお、この日は夜20:00からGnomeにてPatのライブがあります。
そちらも是非どうぞ!

6/19/10

MINE 6/19

Samurai Celt Mineライブ!

日時:2010/6/19(Sat) Start 19:30
Charge; 前売り:2000yen / 当日:2500yen

場所:DINING BAR & LIVE  Pick Up
〒605-0084 京都府京都市東山区八坂新地清本町370
(祇園富永町切通し上がる東側)
TEL:075-525-0595
http://www.gion-pickup.com/

メンバー:いつものおとぼけヴィジュアル系4人組と
歌姫    :Felicity Greenland
踊り子   :erica
今回なんと歌姫と踊り子をいれた総勢6人でのコラボだ!
こぞって御越し下さい!

問い合わせ:
mine_web@hotmail.co.jp
ホームページ:
http://mine.sinkyu.com/

5/3/10

Singing Around the Table Review/Videos

最近のSinging Around the Tableうたごえ喫茶 video here.
The lovely Deep Kyoto Michael lent his voice, and posted a review and with some vids from April 29th's Singing Around the Table here.

Events May-Dec 2010

2010/12/26 Next SINGING AROUND THE TABLE is 26th December, usual time, at GNOME.
2010/12/24 INTERNATIONAL CHRISTMAS SONGS & CAROLS at Kyoto City Hall 7pm 24th December. We will provide word sheets for well known Christmas Songs in English and Japanese. Please bring 20 copies if you have any carols you would like to introduce in other languages. Organised by SArT, Contradance Kyoto and Kyoto Petit Bal.
2010/12/4 (Sun) Kyoto, Gion, Pick Up. Samurai Celt Mine with Felicity Greenland and Marty Bracey. Start 19:30 Charge; 前売り:2000yen / 当日:2500yen 場所:DINING BAR & LIVE  Pick Up 〒605-0084 京都府京都市東山区八坂新地清本町370 (祇園富永町切通し上がる東側) TEL:075-525-0595 http://www.gion-pickup.com/
http://mine.sinkyu.com/

2010/11/28 (Sun)
Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free)
2010/11/26 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Atsushi Akazawa, Atsuko Kasamura, Jay Gregg, Jake Costello and Felicity Greenland. 8.30pm free
2010/11/11 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Atsushi Akazawa, Atsuko Kasamura, Jay Gregg and Felicity Greenland. 8.30pm free
2010/11/4 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Atsushi Akazawa, Atsuko Kasamura, Jay Gregg and Felicity Greenland. 8.30pm free

2010/10/31 (Sun)
Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free) with special guest 赤沢 Atsushi Akazawa
2010/10/29 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay and Felicity. 8.30pm free
2010/10/03 (Sun) Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free)
2010/10/1 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko and Felicity. 8.30pm free

2010/8/01 (Sun)
Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free)

2010/7/31 (Fri)
Kyoto, Gion, Robata-in/Gion Jeans opening party. Akazawa, Jay, Jake, Peter Damashek and Felicity. 7pm
2010/7/30 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay, Jake and Felicity. 8.30pm free
2010/7/09 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay, Jake and Felicity. 8.30pm free
2010/7/02 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay and Felicity. 8.30pm free

2010/6/25 (Fri)
Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay and Felicity. 8.30pm free
2010/6/27 (Sun) Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free)
2010/6/19 Kyoto, Gion, Pick Up. Samurai Celt Mine 日時:2010/6/19(Sat) Start 19:30 Charge; 前売り:2000yen / 当日:2500yen 場所:DINING BAR & LIVE  Pick Up 〒605-0084 京都府京都市東山区八坂新地清本町370 (祇園富永町切通し上がる東側) TEL:075-525-0595 http://www.gion-pickup.com/
メンバー:いつものおとぼけヴィジュアル系4人組と
歌姫    :Felicity Greenland
踊り子   :erica
今回なんと歌姫と踊り子をいれた総勢6人でのコラボだ! こぞって御越し下さい!
問い合わせ:
mine_web@hotmail.co.jp
ホームページ:
http://mine.sinkyu.com/

2010/6/5 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay and Felicity. 8.30pm free

2010/5/30 (Sun)
Kyoto at Nega-Posi Field Irish Music Club 10th Anniversary Concert. Doors 5pm, 6pm start. Tickets from Field and Nega-Posi Y2,000 (advance), Y2,300 on the day. Artists include: MINE、Shanachie & Bucho、Drakskip、鞴座、功刀Band、Yamamoto Asshi、Felicity Greenland、Glenfields、Usquebaughne、Ninjin Fiddle 隊、Happy Monday、Flukesta、Kumamo、Oldfield.
Fieldアイ研10周年記念コンサート Nega-Posi で:MINE、SHANACHIE&ぶちょー、Drakskip、鞴座、功刀バンド、山本あっしー、Felicity Greenland、グレンフィールズ、Usquebaughne、にんじんフィドル隊、Happy Monday、フルケスタ、くまも、oldfield. 2000円前売(予約)2300円本日 17:00 open 18:00 start.
2010/5/28 (Fri) Kyoto, Gion, Gael. Akazawa, Atsuko, Jay and Felicity. 8.30pm free
2010/5/23 (Sun) Kyoto at Irish Pub Gnome, Singing Around the Table うたごえ喫茶 7.30pm- (free)

4/23/10

"Culture Through Music & Song" University Course









Because of my personal enthusiasms I wanted to run a course at my university linking music and song to EFL. I started a course called Culture Through Music and Song and gathered lots of information that I looked forward to passing on - history, geography, lots of musical information especially focussed on my own interests in traditional and 60s music.

I have been running it for two years now, and pretty quickly I realised that it was unfair to expect Japanese students 18-20 years old to share my personal enthusiasms for rather niche aspects of British/American music. Whenever I asked them to make presentations of their own they always went for very mainstream contemporary pop artists and of course rather more modern than my own passions. I supported them but I felt it was a bit off my main beam. I soon knew I had to change my expectations. It was well intended, but retrospectively I guess it was a bit idealistic if not selfish of me. Part of this is due to the generation gap of course (I'm the same age as their mothers), but another part comes down to the history of cultural transfer.

When you teach our students you have to strike a compromise. They don't have great English, but they are interested in other cultures - music, places, people, but especially music - it's an international currency with lots of 'street-cred' tags. As a teacher, you want to expand their horizons of course, but you also need to nurture their own enthusiasms and guide them towards fulfilling their own desires; it's pretty cool to them to know about British and American music. Quickly I realised that in order to hold their attention I had to at least show them the links between the old (my field) and the new (their aspiration). That was one key realisation I made pretty early on. Next, I had to keep them lively - I wanted this course to be a bit different: more participatory and more active in ways different from their regular English language curriculum. They do lots of other lessons with reading and homework prints. My potential role in this elective course was to fire up their energy for this and their other courses by giving them a reason for all their learning. I worked hard on trying to find their enthusiasms but I soon realised they didn't have much of a basis to start from. They didn't know much beyond the very mainstream, so although they were enthusiastic they simply weren't aware of the variety of directions they could pursue.

Recently, for the third year of this course, I changed tactic radically. I cut down on text and facts and focused mainly on really salient, chunky, major vocabulary, lots of pictures for visual memory, brief listening for lyrics on lots of different songs, and more and more active singing (selecting songs I/they could easily play on guitar, and giving them close-test lyric sheets that we could eventually sing together from). So far it seems to be working well. They get lots of leads so that they can follow up independently on anything they are very interested in (they all have internet access and iPods or similar) and in class we don't get bogged down in any one story. For the pix above I use Gerry and the Pacemakers' You'll Never Walk Alone (Liverpool unit) and Ewan MacColl's/The Pogues' 'Dirty Old Town' (Manchester unit re Salford).

It's not a tough course, but students get out what they put in. In the last few weeks of the semester they have to make a presentation that teaches their classmates about some musical theme connected to a cultural theme. They make a hand-out and spend about 15-20 minutes each presenting a talk and a song. Even the lowest-level speakers can do it, and, since the course is still changing it is possible for them to come back and do it again annually without repeating content. This year I have four repeaters who all passed well last year but are back for more, I guess because they enjoyed it. In the end I think that giving them a reason to enjoy this and other English courses is a pretty big step in itself.

After Visitors

It's always nice to have house guests in Kyoto. When you live and work here that's just what you do: live and work. But when you have guests, you too become a visitor. You share your guests' wonder at how different it is from 'home', and you see everything afresh. The latest contingent fully appreciated as many delights of Kyoto and Hiroshima as their short stay would allow and I felt again that I lived in a fantastic place that is eager, beautiful and inspiring. Their music was hungrily received by lots of local people, many of whom have expressed their hopes that those guys will all come back soon for more. Me too - good guests are a blessing aren't they? Their spirit and energy carries you onward long after their departure. ありがとうね

4/5/10

Arthur & Stewart - April 2010

Happy Hanami! Happy Hanami!
Spring is in the air and some great musicians from England are visiting Japan. They have just completed a tour organised by Tokyo Fiddle Club and now they'll play three pub gigs...DAVE ARTHUR & DAN STEWART BAND...Don't miss DAVE ARTHUR (pictured) on 5 string banjo, melodeon/concertina, and vocals & DAN STEWART on 5-string banjo, guitar and vocals. In their BAND they sing and play excellent Appalachian, Oldtime, Bluegrass, Irish and English music.

Catch them at...
Gnome Irish Pub (Nijo Kawaramachi sagaru), Weds April 7th 8-11pm
Field Irish Pub (Karasuma Nishiki-market Higashi-iru) Thurs April 8th 8-10.30pm
Molly Malone's, Hiroshima, Friday April 9th.
These events are free, and all these pubs serve good food.
Bring your friends - the band will!
Fieldの 洲崎一彦さんから...。4/8木曜日、fieldにて、20時~Dave Arthur and Dan Stewart with Friends・Dave Arthur / banjo,melodion,guitar,vocal・Dan Stewart / banjo,guitar,vocal・Pete Cooper / fiddle,vocalとして案内しておりました、Rattle On the Stovepipe というイギリスのトラディショナルバンドのライブがあります。一般にオールドタイムと呼ばれているアメリカのアパラチア山脈に伝わる伝統曲は元はスコットランドを中心としたアイルランドやイングランドからの移民がもたらしたブリテン諸島の音楽を起源とするものが多いのですが、このバンドは同じ曲をアメリカに渡る前、後というメドレーを組む等、これまでには無かった視野でトラッドミュージックを聴かせてくれます。このバンドのメンバーが日本で3人揃うという状況は実は珍しいことらしく、今後生で彼らの音楽を聴ける機会はほとんどないと行っても良い貴重なライブです。皆様のお越しをお待ちしております。このチャンスをお見逃し無く!(ライブは通常どおり投げ銭制です)

Singing Around the Table XI

The next 'Singing Around the Table' is ....Thursday 29th April - a National Holiday!

3/25/10

Singing Around the Table X

The next Singing Around the Table is ....this Sunday (28th March)
7.30-10.30pm. Free.
Venue: Irish Pub GNOME , Nijo Kawaramachi sagaru. 075-212-2101‎ MAP
Informal Sing-song. Well known English, Irish, Scottish and American songs (with song sheets). Accompanied by Felicity Greenland on guitar, Yuko Shirasaka on melodeon and Tatsuya Shirasaka on double bass. (Tomoko Saito is away this month).

テーブルで歌おう (英語歌声喫茶)
3月 28日(日)7.30-10.00. 無料
アイリッシュパブ ノーム 、二条河原町下がる, 075-212-2101‎ MAP
アイルランド・スコットランドやイギリス地方の美しい伝統歌をみんなで歌いま。音楽 Felicity Greenland&白坂さん.

(S.A.T.T. was also held in January and February)