Traveling Again -- We Were Not Ready, but the Music Called (Martin Hayes!)

Music... will help dissolve your perplexities 
and purify your character and sensibilities, 
and in time of care and sorrow, 
will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

  

My grandmother played the violin. My grandfather played the fiddle. After he died, she never played again. I wonder if that is why I love the violins in the orchestra and love to hear a good fiddler. Is it something deep in my memory, in my bones?

Well, troubles come and troubles go, but music lives, heals, comforts. We had needed to get ourselves "sorted out." And we did -- just in time to settle into our seats at the Highline Ballroom to hear the Martin Hayes** Quartet.  Hayes performs with many artists. This gig was with Hayes on fiddle, Dennis Cahill on guitar, Doug Wieselman on bass clarinet, and Liz Knowles on hardanger d'amore.***

At the concert we shared our table with two young people from Ireland - a young woman in the hospitality industry from Ballyvaughn and a young man, lately from Dublin (Trinity University) doing his post-doc work at NYU in immunology. We spoke of my recent visit to Ballyvaughn, told a few tales, and then the music started.

It was a brilliant evening. They played for an hour and a half with only a few stops for tuning and explanation. As we listened I was reminded of last summer when I watched an older man keeping time to the music by tapping his heart. This was indeed heart-tapping soul-feeding music.

When all the songs and encores were played, all the "brilliants" - "he's a madman" - "he's a genius" were expressed, all the leavings were taken of our table-mates, we purchased the new CD, The Blue Room, and took the opportunity to let the artist know we had made the trip from Texas to see him.****

We walked the 18 blocks home laughing, and talking, and noting the crazy conversations on the street (some of which are shared below).

I will never love this city, but I love the guy who grew up here. And this was for him.

Martin Hayes...just beginning to play

This captures a little of the movement. As one of our table mates said, "He almost goes into a trance!"

Great seats, not so great lighting (maybe it's the photographer) - here the Quartet.

As we were walking up  8th Avenue - almost to our hotel - I saw someone stopping for a photo.

The clouds were low and had obscured the Empire State Building. By the time I had found my phone, this was the view captured. [Okay. I know it is the same-ish photo, but I like them both.] So, maybe I love this city a little bit.

NOTES:

*Little things had been going wrong with this trip from the beginning.  That being said, we know we are pretty darned fortunate. And the junk will provide great story material - later. Attitudes were adjusted.

**https://www.martinhayes.com/home#martin-hayes
We ran across Martin Hayes at the Clonmel Junction Festival last summer. We basically lucked into his performance with David Power at Bakers Bar. It was a stunning evening and we knew we would be following this 6 time all Ireland fiddle player when we could. I had checked to see if Hayes would be in Ireland this summer/fall and discovered this concert at the Highlines Ballroom. It seemed a good consolation prize for the one who didn't get to Ireland this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FQ4tGWl0NM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5hg3iuoJoM

More on the other artists:  
Dennis Cahill - http://www.denniscahill.com/
Doug Wieselman - http://www.dougwieselman.com/
Liz Knowles - https://lizknowles.com/

***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardanger_fiddle
Basically, it's a 10 string Norwegian fiddle.

****We understand there is a tour next year with The Gloaming. <sigh> None of the dates in the states work for us...but they will be touring in Ireland as well.


FINAL NOTES - these make no sense being here, but they needed to go somewhere. They were the end of the evening fare:

I. Overheard on the street:

You are preventing me from fulfilling my consciousness (man on cellphone)

You gotta watch the getting there, that’s how they get you. (One man to another who was attempting a call on a pay phone - I didn’t know there were pay phones anymore.)

It’s something about the way my brain works. (One woman talking to another)

II. Fellow tourists in the hotel elevator:

Two young women (very well dressed and grinning broadly -- smiles disclosing braces decorated with colorful rubber bands) and their mothers enter the elevator. The girls are still clutching their Playbills.

Me: What play did you see? Oh, it was Wicked. Did you enjoy it?

Girls (giggling): Oh, yes, ma’am.

Me: Had you seen it before or was this your first time.

One of the mothers: Well, this is actually the first play any of us have ever seen.

Me: Okay now, where are you from? That’s not a New York accent.

Mom: We are from Memphis. Where are y’all from?

Me: Texas - north of Austin. So, what are you going to do tomorrow?

Mom: Well, we are here for a beauty convention, but they have sightseeing scheduled too.

Girls (still smiling): Yes, we are going to (and they list sights).

Me: Y’all have a good evening and a great time tomorrow!

Group from Memphis: Y’all too!

Elevator door closes. We look at another young woman in the elevator and smile.

Me: They were sure rocking those “y’alls.”

Young woman breaks into a smile: I’ve never heard anything like that. I’m from California.

Me: Oh. Well, we understand the south.