All right. I've changed things up a bit today; I'm sitting in my dorm with my feet up (and eating my bland food dinner) while I write this time, before the double-length, final staff concert tonight. I feel like I've made some decent progress in my classes today, especially flute after getting a chance to listen to my recordings and practice at my own pace. We have a set of four tunes learned (mostly), and Nuala Kennedy is just amazing to get to work with. I highly recommend checking out some of her lovely playing - and singing - at her website. 

My whistle class with Kathleen Conneely, another fantastic person who is just so fun to be around, is proving easier for me, though I'm trying to use my ears more than my eyes for learning tunes. My biggest pet peeve with these classes is what Swannanoa Gathering Coordinator Jim Magill called "noodling," people playing their instruments incessantly during class, especially while the instructor is playing or talking. It's so annoying!

Meanwhile, in Sean Nos dance (or "old-style" Irish dance, and here is an example), we have learned lots of steps and have been challenged to start making up combinations on our own! We have a routine to go through as a class that basically runs through all the basic types of steps, though I'm really enjoying that just as much as trying to put together my own phrases.

Another fun thing that happens after class sessions are over for the day is the "potluck" class: a teacher getting to put on a one-time performance, film, talk, or workshop of his or her choice. Some are very specialized, like specific regional variations of different instrument's styles of playing, and others are more general. Yesterday was more of an informal performance by Cathy Jordan from Dervish with guitarists John Doyle and Eamon O'Leary, all of whom are amazing players and engaging performers.

This session was called "The Happy Subject of Death," and consisted of the three musicians suggesting some of their favorite songs that happen to involve or concern death: some humorous, others more serene, and still others downright depressing. If you've never heard Cathy Jordan's voice, you ought to go check her out because it is so powerful. The men sang very well, too, as did Nuala Kennedy and Alan Murray when they dropped by partway through class and added their voices, but hers is so strikingly passionate.

They were also hilariously comparing the "body count" of different songs. They are all masters at coming up with solos and variations on the spot, but this sometimes led to the guitarists taking a verse to solo, encouraging Cathy to rejoin them, and her shouting, "He's dead!" because there were no more verses.

I'm sure I will have more awesome people to write about tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the Old Farmer's Ball, a weekly dance event open to the public, but this time featuring Celtic Week instrumentalists. It sounds like several of us in the under-30s crowd are a little leary of this, but some of us are going to try and dance anyway!

It is not even 10pm yet and I am exhausted! I just got in to my dorm (which is blissfully quiet) from practicing outside in the last of dusk, plugged into my digital recorder. This poor little device has been working incredibly hard today and has everything I learned in the first three hours of flute and whistle classes today, as well as almost an hour of music from a beautiful song swap this afternoon.

In Nuala Kennedy's Intermediate/Advanced Flute class, we are learning a set consisting of Jean Mauchline (jig), Cutty's Wedding (strathspeye), Malts on the Optics (reel), and Tune for Maura (reel). The last two of these are relatively new to the Celtic repertoire, written respectively by Hamish Moore and Cathal McConnell. I am feeling a little in over my head with the playing by ear, but twelve hours later I am surprised at how much I remember after hearing so many other tunes all day. I can remember most of the first three tunes, disregarding ornaments because that is a whole different blog post!

Kathleen Conneely takes a slightly different approach in Intermediate/Advanced Tinwhistle, passing out A-B-C notation sheets for us to use as reference in learning the tune - which today was Strike the Gay Harp, a song that I have actually played before with Ethan from one of those old collections sold in Colonial Williamsburg. I'm really looking forward to taking this one home and adding in some of the cool slides we learned today!

I have a lot more to say about all the people I've been meeting, the other two classes I took today (including dancing!), and some of the performances, but I will get into some of that tomorrow.

Tonight I was feeling a little icky during the staff performance and decided to come home a little early, listen through some of my recordings, and continue to rehydrate my body. I've downed several bottles of Gatorade and water, eaten the blandest of healthy foods, and restricted myself from alcohol and regular coffee (but I will admit I had a cup or two of decaf - an introvert needs all the help she can get). Listening to my body, I heard that it was time to go quiet down, take some me time, and rest. I'm still not up to 100%, but I am just so glad to be here and taking part in all this wonderful activity!

So I have arrived at the gorgeous mountain campus of Warren Wilson College, off the outskirt of Asheville, NC, for Celtic Week at The Swannanoa Gathering. In a nutshell, this is a chance for world class Celtic music lovers to reunite for one week out of each summer to play, listen, jam, dance, and connect (and drink a little whisky - and whiskey).

I am on the Work Exchange Crew this year, which helps me pay for the tuition cost of the week by essentially plugging me in to a staff position for several hours a day, allowing some of the "real" staff to take care of more important things - like they helped me today, but more on that later. We helped check in the almost 300 staff, teachers, and students, getting to feel like we were on the inner circle, and introducing us to about twenty team members right from the get-go. For an introvert, that was a little slice of heaven; I automatically made friends because of the amount of training and work time we spent together before we even started making music!

In the evening after orientation, we heard several teachers and staff perform together, and these are seriously WORLD CLASS players, singers, and dancers. But so down to earth, sweet, and just clever! Small jam sessions immediately broke out under several tents after that, the beer tent lit up, and we all glommed together on main campus to either reconnect, introduce ourselves, or just sit back and listen. We did not go to bed until very, very late.

Monday, the first day of classes, where the real fun begins, learning tunes and getting to know the other flutists...

...is what was supposed to happen. Instead, I got to spend my entire morning in a disgusting, sick mess, erupting from all orifices as quietly as I could so I didn't wake my roommate, a lovely older fiddle player. I slept it off as best as I could and tried to get some water in me, but by 10am I just felt wrong: shaky, bleary, sore, and nauseated. This is where the Gathering magic happened; I texted my Work Exchange manager basically saying, "Help me I'm dying," and there followed a series of lovely people corresponding together in the blink of an eye and getting me shuttled to urgent care.

After taking the afternoon to get medicated, hydrated, and moderately rested, I had missed all of my classes for the day, but was still able to make it to a potluck session (History and Styles of Sean Nos Dancing), a slow jam session led by Martin Hayes and Kathleen Conneely, and the staff showcase concert...

I am so full of inspiration, lovely songs, outstanding performances, and no idea how I am going to even begin playing alongside any of these people tomorrow when I get to wipe the slate clean and start my day of classes over, hopefully making it to all of them this time. I would love to describe it all, from Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O'Leary teaming up with lead singer from Dervish, Cathy Jordan; to sweet, modest Liz Carroll absolutely rocking the auditorium. However, remember when I said I woke up at 5am sick and went through a hellish morning? So I'm going to get myself to bed a little early tonight and hope for a brilliant day tomorrow!

Slainte!

Also, if you're wondering why I'm still writing after complaining so much about my lack of sleep, it's partly due to the fact that I left my phone charger in the car and am having to charge my phone via USB cable plugged into my laptop...and of course it won't charge unless the laptop is running... Fingers crossed that I won't be such a hot mess tomorrow!