As frequent visitors to this site have noticed, I haven’t been posting here alot lately. Several things have conspired to make this site take a back seat, and I’ll bring you up to speed on one of them. After New Years I decided to bring my guitar out of the closet and keep it in my office (that tiny space on top of the computer desk in the den that nobody is allowed to pile stuff on but me). That simple change seems to have been all I needed to start playing again more often. My old friend Mike (Aonghus) had stopped by for our GMT party that night, and I think seeing him again spurred me on to revisit some old habits, like playing and singing Irish tunes. I’ve been spending more time updating the Book of Song, correcting mistakes, adding chords, formatting them for the new site layout. I decided that the songs in *The Book* had been played so often in the past and never recorded, that they deserved more serious attention, and I’ve been systematically going through the Book, and recording each song. I’ve spent more time on some than others, but the best stuff has come out of a collaboration with another old friend Tim (Momus) who has songs dripping out of his head all the time, most of them fully finished, just without any accompniament. This I am eager to provide, if possible.

Another idea I have been working on is creating an audio CD of the best recordings to present at the next Tuatha de Bhriain event. So far I have over 3 hours of music, but not all of it in final form. I’ve gotta re-record stuff and get together with others for some tunes that need ‘filled in’ more.

In any case, one reason I haven’t been writing here is that I have been using the time to play music. You can keep tabs on that stuff by subscribing to the podcast on the Book of Song, but remember that it’s a lo-fi first take type of thing, just for fun. Nobody’s getting rich off this stuff, baby!