Rough Cut of Safe Haven Irish Session Minidoc by Tom Keener

Sad to say, there will be no session Wednesday. Safe Haven Bar & Grill has closed effective immediately. We are very grateful to Noel Harnden for being such a generous host to our session all year.

Tests we made to prepare for our upcoming video shoot.

An excerpt from Boys of Malin, recorded with a Zoom recorder flat on the tabletop.

Here’s an audio test of us playing “Tommy Peoples.”

Thanks to Patrick and Kathleen Bennett for their excellent photos of last week’s session. Click here to see the whole set. Some of our regular crew had to work late and missed the shoot (I know. Where are the priorities?), so we will just have to have the Bennetts back for another round.

Be sure to have a look at Patrick’s photos beyond Safe Haven, and if your desktop could use a little sprucing up, check out his site, mybestdesktops.com.

Thanks to our musicians, our listeners, and Safe Haven Bar & Grill, we have reached the half-year mark.

If you haven’t been down to the session, come join us every Wednesday night at Safe Haven Bar & Grill for pints and traditional Irish music.

(Photo: M. Diaz).

Has this happened to you? You’re playing guitar at a session when someone leans over to tell you the next tune is in G. You whack away in G expecting sweet harmony, but finding only dissonance and confused faces. Turns out your melody player actually said “D.” The fact that D and G rhyme has derailed too many sets. It’s time for the madness to stop.

I propose using the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet during sessions. It’s fun, easy to hear,  and makes switching tunes feel like an FBI raid or an amphibious assault on a heavily armed enemy position!

A=Alpha

B=Bravo

C=Charlie

D=Delta

E=Echo

F=Foxtrot

G=Golf

Here’s a shot of Matt Cranitch, Jackie Daly and Paul DeGrae at the mind-boggling Furlong’s session I mentioned in an earlier post. (Sorry about the blur, but I didn’t want to annoy them with my flash.) I also saw them at McGrath’s the night before. That night I walked home along the highway in pitch darkness as SUVs plowed past, inches from my person. So you could say the evening went downhill from there. Click the photo to see some more shots from Irish Arts week with some of our Safe Haven pals.

If you’d like to suggest a set or song for the Safe Haven Irish Music Session, respond below with the tune names and a link.

We’re back from an inspiring (ok, more like intimidating) week of listening to the very best players playing night after night, hour after hour at Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York.

To be at a pub session led by Matt Cranitch on fiddle and Jackie Daly on button accordion is almost an out-of-body experience. I will never forget it. Those guys could play “Three Blind Mice” and you’d have to get up and dance. If we can bring a little of that magic back to Brooklyn, we’re going to have a great session Wednesday.

Safe Haven Bar & Grill will still be serving up a great beer selection, critically-acclaimed pub fare, and a convivial atmosphere, but the session will take a week off. See you again July 22.

Noel’s red light really adds to that hellish hue one wants in an Irish music session. Click the photo for more. Thanks to Catherine of Mexico’s friend for sharing these.

Lord, give us a sign!