Its been a hectic endless Irish &
St Joseph's week for me so far ending with a Big Triple St.Patty's gig Saturday I got my Shamrock tie on....Corned beef & cabbage & St Joseph's Pastries (Zepolis/Sfinges) are flowing' oh yeah!
"With a Shalaly Under my Arm & a Twinkle in my Eyes!!!"


Sooooo what are Leprechauns doing this week?

Got a triple gig on Friday, off on the weekend and pretty much booked solid to June.

zuki

Six more to go between now and Saturday. Man, the money's good, but I get tired of those traditional songs real quick.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

I actually slowed down and said no this year. St. Patty's day has never been my favorite holiday musically. I guess there have been too many years of very drunk people trying to sing Danny Boy. I've got one tonight and one tomorrow night, both at Jewish places. I got off easy this year.

Here's to ya!

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

I'm in Oklahoma playing golf with my son and peek-a-boo with my grandson!
DonM

Well here in Australia (the State of Queensland to be precise) there is one St Pat's gig but I'm hoping it won't involve any traditional Irish songs.

The club we're playing (a pretty big one) reportedly doesn't want much "Pub" music, so that really counts a lot of St Pat's songs out.

We don't mind at ALL!

I should point out my Grandmother was Irish......


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God I hate signatures.

BUT...

www.chi-chi.com.au

Here is a guy who had several gigs. One ice storm later (this past Friday), he had none.

Dan Stacey, 34, of Philadelphia, was at the airport Sunday trying to find his luggage. An Irish fiddler, he had tried Friday to fly to Phoenix, where he was slated to perform in four St. Patrick's Day concerts over the weekend.

Instead, he said he sat in a US Airways plane on the Philadelphia tarmac for eight hours before it returned to the gate. ``I lamented the fact that I was the only Irish musician in America not working on St. Patty's day,'' Stacey said.

So much for the "luck of the Irish". So he wasn't playing at all. It could have been worse; Jaysus, he mightn't have been playing at all at all!

I spent the night playing in a small packed bar called the Keynote Lounge in East Ventura CA. Not an Irishman amongst them but they had the right spirit and danced the night away. It was a fun night and the tip jar was much better than usual thanks to St Pat.

Hey Nigel, just a question...

how have you found U.S. audiences to be - compared with Australian audiences?

Do you have to play slower or simpler stuff so they can follow you?
(Just kidding - trying to annoy the American's on these boards lol)

Seriously though, is there a "favourite song/artist" that never fails?

Is there still smoking in the venues?

Do you get the minimum wage thing plus tips as a musician, or is it a good set fee with tips on top of that?

Just wonderin'......

Hey, watch it, fella !

(no annoyance here)

Bar audiences seem to be pretty similar wherever you go in the world I think. Some people drink sensibly .... and some don't.

It depends more on the age group in the bar how well certain artists go down. People always seem to like music they grew up with. So that effects which songs go over best on any given night more than anything else. We have a pretty large set list covering 70s, 80s, 90s+ pop/rock to be able to pick from to suit the crowd. But I guess there are some artists that always seem to go down well such as Stones, Santana, AC/DC, Eagles etc and songs like Love Shack are always popular after a few drinks lol.

Smoking in bars was banned some years ago in California. Makes working in bars all night a lot more pleasant.

We just usually get a flat rate for the whole band based on 4 sets over 4 hours. We do much better when we do corporate gigs and private parties than when we play in bars. Plus for private gigs we sometimes get to work in places like Las Vegas which is always fun.