The return of Pay The Reckoning...

[Aidan Crossey]

Folks ...

I've been only very infrequently online over the course of the past few years. Don't want to waste your time with the tawdry details, but let's just say that events meant I had to concentrate on matters in the tangible world rather than here in cyberspace.

I've finally managed to get my head above water and one of the things I've done is to relaunch the Pay The Reckoning website.

Please note that the home page has a new address http://music.paythereckoning.com. The old www.paythereckoning.com address pulls up the old homepage, but I've killed off most of the links and at some stage (when I've figured out how!), I'll replace the old www homepage with directions to the new site.

Very keen to revisit the "Irish Traditional Music on mandolin" project which I kicked off a few years ago. If anyone wants to get in touch about submitting some recordings, then I'll be delighted to hear from you.

Finally, apologies to those people who have emailed me over the course of the past few years about stuff and who didn't receive replies - or did so very late. I have been keeping a very low profile and have often gone weeks/months without checking emails. (Quite blissful in some ways!) But hopefully will be better able now to respond more quickly to people.

Anyway, all the very best to one and all.

Aidan Crossey

[Jill McAuley]

Delighted to hear about the return of Pay the Reckoning - I bookmarked it on my laptop a few years back, and regularly visited to listen to the mp3's - can't wait to hear some new ones as you start to add them!

Cheers,
Jill

[Mandocarver]

Thanks Aidan - you've already got some tremendous music on the site, in particular a fantastic version of Lark in the Morning/Kesh Jig by Dan Beimborn and Tim O'Brien. I'll be a regular visitor to the site.
All the best,
Dean

[Dagger Gordon]

I'm really pleased to hear of Aidan's return. He has done a great deal for Celtic mandolin playing.

[danb]

Welcome back Aidan! we should meet up for a tune

[Aidan Crossey]

We certainly should, Dan... It's been a while! Will be interesting... in the few years since you and I have had tunes together my playing style has mellowed considerably. Beginning to find my groove, I think! (It takes a long time, sometimes, to find the right direction.) So would be good to listen to how we'd spar with each other after a long time "out of harness". Drop me a PM and we'll arrange for a few tunes and a chat about life (I'm sure we won't want to bore the good people here with our idle gossiping.)

I will, however, just add one wee titbit before closing. I finally got around to learning Ragtime Annie after many years of it lurking in my wishlist. The big spur was hearing Chris Thile's version on Loudon Wainwright's Charlie Poole Project album. He plays a two-part version, leaving out the third part in G. If you haven't heard it, then check it out. Makes a really interesting companion piece to your version on Torch and Fire. The contrast between your three-parter and Chris's two-parter and the difference in playing styles just brings home to me that this traditional music (be it Irish, Scottish, Quebecois, American, whatever!) is a living, breathing thing and that everyone who plays it takes part in not just keeping it alive, but in invigorating it. Some days, listening to a mighty few tunes or playing a mighty few tunes is food and drink!

Anyway... after that little digression, I'll leave you to it. Drop me a PM with your mobile number and we'll hook up soon for a tune and a "gaunch" (Northern Irish for a chin-wag).

Best.

Aidan

[Aidan Crossey]

Whooops... just listened to Thile's version again. He does actually play the third part, later in the tune. Somehow in my memory I edited that out (possibly because I don't play it!)...

Mea culpa!

:-)

[kmmando]

Great to hear you'r eout and about again, Aidan. I have a very fond memory of that great late night session in the White Stag (?) in Bethnal Green in the semi dark, with the lovely old Irish landlord and lady pouring creamy pints and producing huge trays of delicious sandwiches - inspiring times!

And the lovely evening you arranged at some London Irish Fest - guitarist Ewan MacPherson and I were musing on the fun that night quite recently - the taxiride there was something else - good times indeed - slainte!

Maybe get a tune again sometime down the trail, big man.

best wishes Kevin Macleod

[Aidan Crossey]

Kevin...

Good to hear from you!

Ah ... The White Horse ... sadly missed and eulogised in a reel I wrote "Farewell To The White Horse" (imaginative title, no?). It's in the mandolin mp3s archive at this link http://www.paythereckoning.com/AC13.mp3

A grand night indeed. With the lights turned way down to fool the police into thinking that Mick and Mary were behaving like responsible landlords and closing on time. Hmmm... the lights may have been off but the sound of jigs and reels emanating from the pub till daybreak wouldn't have fooled anyone!

And the concert in Lewisham was a great one. Pity I didn't manage to record it due to my ineptitude with things electrical (was never going to be a rock musician ... all those leads and that ridiculous jargon ... backline, inputs, slaves, channels, balancing ... aaaaaaaargh, just play the tunes and stop fiddling with knobs!). And pity also that in an attempt to calm my nerves (I was really tense that night, so wanted you guys to enjoy the night!) I over-imbibed somewhat and so by the time you invited me to join you for a set, I was well and truly beyond the point of coaxing notes out of my inebriated fingers. Ah well...

We will, of course, meet up somewhere, sometime - hopefully in the not too distant future. And it will be a great night of tunes and songs and crack and reminiscing.

Best.

Aidan

[kmmando]

think I might have recorded it, complete with thumping feet on the stage - I'll have a look - it's been a while since Lewisham, which was great fun,and you did us proud indeed. Dan played the stunning 3 pointer Gibson that night -the one he wrote a fine article on in a recent Fretboard Journal - it is an exceptionally fine instrument - a keeper as he calls it! Quite definitely! His new Weins is awesome too - you must have a shot at that beauty sometime in the smog! I think I've some unedited video of the two of us jamming in that penthouse Thames side luxury flat Dan was in for a while - must get that into some order. Playing a lot with Luke Plumb these days, and heading to record with him and fiddler John Martin this year hopefully.

Keep in touch
Kevin

[Bob DeVellis]

Aidan, welcome back!