Everyone’s music #4 - Sing, sing a song
By David Armstrong
The pic is of a soft pastel painting, “Trad Night”, by my good friend, artist and paediatrician, David Sweet. It’s of me and the wonderful trad singer Iona McKibbin in Hearth one night - video clip from that night is below.
“That was brilliant David!” said my mate Phil Hart (who’s a fantastic finger picking guitarist). I’m not a proper singer, but I’d just got up and sung “Will ye go lassie go?”, a beautiful Scottish song, on our Singers’ Chair in the Hearth session. I was chuffed with Phil’s feedback, but…. “It just showed everyone”, he continued, “you don’t need to be that good to get up and do it!” Magic!...sort of like a Glasgow kiss that compliment! But his point was a good one.
Our session in Hearth runs from 8-10.30pm every Thursday. We get 10-20 musicians every week. We sit together and play traditional tunes from Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere - jigs, marches, reels, hornpipes etc. It’s not a performance per se; it’s more for vibe and tone in the background. It’s not a band or a group; it’s more a gathering of musicians. And pretty soon after we started the sessions, back in October ‘23, we introduced a lightly mic’d “Singers’ Chair”.
In any one night we’d maybe have 3 or 4 songs in total interspersed with the jigs and reels. Sometimes they’re by elite level singers who sing professionally and do proper gigs. And sometimes they’re just by local people who like to sing and enjoy getting involved in the session vibe. Sometimes the punters go quiet and you could hear a pin drop. And sometimes you can hardly hear the song for the din and the craic. It’s all good. People love a song, and people love to sing. The instrumental tunes are the spine, but the songs provide colour and help people engage.
The video is of the amazing Iona McKibbin who’s in Hearth regularly singing or playing the fiddle. She’s singing here a Co Antrim song “Bonnie Kells Water”.
The Singers’ Chair is one particular development that has really worked for us in Hearth. Good tunes are good tunes. And good songs are good songs. It’s all about the music, and it’s everyone’s music!
Join us at The Hearth session each Thursday evening 8pm - 10pm for a tune or sit back and enjoy - it's everyone's music