Culchies house concert (with bouzouki!)

[steve V. johnson]

The Culchies will play in concert at

Molly's Place,
19505 Fiona in Mokena, Illinois,
starting at 7:30pm on March 11, 2007.

The Culchies are Min Gates on bodhrán and bones, T.J. Hull on fiddle,
and steve V. johnson on bouzouki and guitar.

To receive a very colorful email poster announcing this event email
Min@MinGates.com

For more information on the Culchies and the CD, "Bruscar Bán" scroll to the
bottom of this email.

For local or event information, please contact Brian Leo: revtink100@yahoo.com

Directions to Molly's Place from Brian:

Get to Interstate 80 however you must. Take the exit called LaGrange Road or Route 45. Note: it is not a cloverleaf; there is only one exit.

Get off going South on 45. You will immediately encounter an intersection with big gas stations on either side. That's 191st Street. Keep going. You need the next stoplight, 195th Street, where the Fuller's Car Wash is. Turn right, and/or West.

Proceed 1.1 miles, which takes you through four stop signs. Then the road starts to curve to the left. When it does, the first intersecting street is Fiona. Turn left on Fiona and we're the second house on the left, 19505.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks, and we'll see you there!

stv
--
The Culchies, Irish traditional music
CD, "Bruscar Bán" now at
http://www.OSSIANUSA.com
and
http://cdbaby.com/Culchies

[Jeffro]

Hey Steve!
Man I wish I'd had a little more notice on this. I'd sure like to hear you guys. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a really long weekend for us. Going to see Maura O'Connel (sp?)and John Prine tonight in Springfield, and off to someplace called Toutopolis (sp?) (IL) in tomoorw morning to play at a gathering of Rendezvous folks. Sort of a "trade-show," if you will. I think we'll need rest by Sunday. Playing a couple school assemblies, nursing homes, and hospitals next Friday, then the big St. Paddy's Day celebration at the KC hall in downtown Decatur on Saturday. Do you ever get down to the more central part of IL? I think there's a following of Celtic-based music in the Bloomington(IL)area. Be sure and gimme a holler if anything comes up a bit further south. Surprisingly, Chicago isn't the center of the universe for some Illinoisans. However, ya often have to go there or down to St. Louis to hear any good music. Chieftains were scheduled in Springfield last Tuesday, but got cancelled. I heard ticket sales were poor. Go figure! I just couldn't afford it after I bought the Prine tickets for my wife for V-Day (one of her faves from her hippie-folkie days...mine too really, but was was more of a Goodman man). Gotta go. Later!

JR

[steve V. johnson]

Hey,

Aw, tough news, but ... you won't be lacking for good music!!!!

"Toutopolis (sp?) "

A very odd name, in far SE Illinois. The name is Teutopolis, essentially 'German town' in a squishing of Teutons and the Greek syllable used to mean 'city' or 'town.' Weird, eh? <GG> Nice place tho.

I haven't been to Decatur in years, sorry... Another nice old prairie town. We have kids (and granddaughter!!) in Champaign-Urbana, and we know some Irish players there. I've heard from them that there's a session in Bloomington, IL. I went to IL Wesleyan there, and I used to hang out there and in Peoria a lot in my younger days. It would be nice to see Blgtn IL again...

As for St. Louis, there is GREAT Irish music there, especially the Tionol (www.tionol.org) which is a weekend of classes, concert and sessions, with some of the greats of Irish music. This year it's on April 22, I believe, but check the website.
This year's Tionol has a really stellar lineup of veteran players as instructors!

Chicago is, for most Illinoisans, like NYC is to NY, sort of a country of its own, like ... Hong Kong... No, downstaters' lives often have very, very little to do with Chicago. (But if you want to play an Irish session every night of the week, that's where to do it..!!!)

The Chieftains were here (Bloomington, Indiana), and we hear that the show was wonderful, but we didn't go. it was quite well-attended, tho.

John Prine's guitarist, Jason Wilber, lives here in Bloomington, IN, and John has a house in Ireland where he spends a lot of time. I understand from the locals that it's at the eastern end of Galway Bay.

I don't know when we'll be in central Illlinois again... We were just over there last weekend, but for completely non-musical family matters, in Champaign and Danville. I'll try to remember to let you ILL folk know when we'll be there again, because we're always happy to have a few tunes.

Actually, we will be in Illinois, (but just barely) on the 2nd Sundays of each month at a little Irish session at the White Owl Winery, just across the Wabash from Vincennes, IN. The actual town is Birds, Illinois, but it's about the size of your thumbnail, and the winery isn't right in town anyway... <GGGG> Have a look here, and join us if you can. www.whiteowlwinery.com

The wines are great fun, the folks are splendid and the players are wonderful. That's why we drive an hour-and-a-half each way to play there... <GGG> Folks come from Vincennes, Terre Haute and Evansville. too. Some from Illinois, even! LOL!!
(Some of those folks are active in the Vincennes Rendevous, too.)

Thanks, JR, sorry we'll miss you this time, but it sounds like you have a GREAT schedule for the week! Well done!

stv

[JPL]

T-Town is still pretty German, which is why they always have a good volleyball team --- all those tall blond girls.

My old R&B band used to play a bar there called the 50/50...I believe the only beer they had was Shlitz and Lowenbrau. Good times...

[steve V. johnson]

"-- all those tall blond girls."

woo.

<GG>

BTW,

re: the House Concert -- Brian Leo asked me to clarify that Molly's Place is a "coffeehouse in a residence" and that NO alcohol is allowed on the premises.

It'll be a great party anyway.

Thanks,

stv

[Jeffro]

Steve-
So how long ago was it when you were hanging out in the Peoria area? I am originally from a little farming community south of Pekin about 12 miles. I was a fixture in Peoria in the late 70s and early 80s, mostly playing bluegrass. Did ya ever run across a guitarist/teacher/performer named Bob Applegate? He was pretty much ever budding acoustic guitarist's hero in the area back then. Quite the finger-style player, but a pretty mean flat-picker as well. I took a few chord theory lessons from him when I was 18 or 19, and it really opened up the world of guitar for me. Anyway, I gotta run.

JR

[steve V. johnson]

Look for some email, JR!

Oboy, ol' home week...

<GGG>

stv

[groveland]

Well? How did it go?

[steve V. johnson]

Well, thank you for asking!

It was great that Cafe pal Rob McIntosh came by and brought his tenor banjo and lovely vintage Regal mando, so we had some tunes after the second set. Rob's headed to Milwaukee when he graduates this spring, so he'll get an intro tour from TJ and immerse himself in that rich Irish session scene up there.

It was great fun, well-attended and the folks were warm and wonderful, esp baby Alanna, who was celebrating her 1st B-day!

Brian Leo has hosted some of the greats of folk and Irish music in the lovely little living room. I didn't realize this until I had a break while TJ played a solo air and I looked up at a wall full of autographed pictures. Woo. I think ours was the 115th concert there! TJ knows Brian, Molly and some of the other locals from Renn Faires, notably the big one at Bristol, so part of the shrt after-session included some beautiful, and some hilarious, Renn tunes. And... really... "Rocky Top" too! YEAH!!

For us, it was a pretty extraodinary night. We'd played a private party in Bloomington on Saturday, and then had some friends over to our house Sat. night, so we had had a chance to get reacquainted with playing together, and on Sunday night we got into some... um... slightly risky territory a couple of times. I'd get out on the end of a slightly odd voicing and there was TJ, right with me, and a couple of times, vice versa. TJ sang 'The Dark Haired Slender Boy,' a dark and poetic description of the lure of alcohol, and it was splendid. Min was absolutely rockin'.

The folks there were quite generous when the hat was passed and took home a bunch of our CDs, there was a 'groaning board' of nice foods (including a "Crave Case" of White Castle sliders! LOL!!!), sodas and teas. Someone had a video camera on a tripod, so I hope we get a copy of the result. If we do and we find some bits we like, TJ and I have agreed to post some on YouTube. I'm excited about that, so I hope we can do that...

We also discovered, just south of the intersection of highways I-80 and US45, a rib joint called Mindy's (yep, we loved it), and went in for dinner. That place is wonderful. The ribs are really, really, really good. The folks were very, very helpful and friendly.

Anyone who's going to be gigging thru the Chicago area and has a weekend night to fill, have a talk with Brian and see if you can stop in there and play. I predict that you will have a good, good time.

Thanks,

stv