Grand

Irish Fest is a great thing. I love sitting back (when I have time during a busy festival) and listening to the great bands and individual performers that we're lucky enough to put on our stages here every year. It's wonderful and tens of thousands people from all over the country and the world will be here doing just that in a few very short weeks.

But as much as I love that, it's not ideal. For me, the absolute best way to experience Irish music is a session. Like last night's at O'Dowd's Pub on the Plaza. Not a concert, not a performance, a session is an organic thing, a living thing. It's a bit like a fire, and it grows hotter and stronger fueled by it's participants. And everybody is a participant, whether you're a musician or a singer or just a toe tapper or hand clapper. After Eddie's always great set last night, and a few tunes and songs by the 3 members of the Fuchsia Band present, there was a mighty session indeed. The stage was abandoned for chairs pulled in a circle around a cluster of tables, littered with pints in various stages of depletion. Eoin had his box, Mick his flute. Eddie's guitar was played by himself and nearly everybody else at various time. Gabe was kept time on his bodhran. Eddie produced a harmonica, which I'd never heard him play before. Brett played his accordion as a rhythm instrument in support of Eoin's, which produced a wonderful harmony. Máirtín banged the drum and sang songs that made you laugh. Mitra sang like an angel and made you want to cry. Eoin sang. Mick sang. Trevor sang. Everybody sang, even people who probably shouldn't be allowed to. It was, for me, exactly the way Irish music should be experienced. Even Johnny Cash Irish music, which is something you need to ask Mick to teach you.

The thing is, even though September 1st is still 46 days away, Irish Fest has already started, and you should take full advantage of it.

So go see Eddie this week. If you can find a ticket, go see Máirtín at the Mountain Music Shoppe tomorrow night. Go see Bob Reeder, or The Kelihans. Sing along, stomp your feet, bang your glass. You're guaranteed some great music, and if you're lucky enough you might find yourself in just the right place, at just the right time to watch a session catch fire.