Ed Yother

Set Dancing at the Tionol

Ed Yother — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:48:06 +0000

I just want to let everyone know that I've been working with Mike Mullins on trying to hold a Set Dancing ceili at the Tionol this year, as well as an all day Set Dancing workshop. If you are unfamiliar with what the Tionol is, take look here http://tionol.org/ . It's festival that takes place the weekend of April 20th-22nd.

Here's my attempt at summarizing the festival. A number of truly phenomenal Irish musicians are brought into St Louis from around the world.

They play for a concert on Friday night in the Schlafly Taproom. After the concert we're planning to hold the ceili in the same room.
Then on Saturday those musicians teach all day workshops at Cardinal Ritter College Prep. The workshops are about six hours long plus a break for lunch.
Saturday night there is another concert at The Sheldon Concert Hall.
Sunday there is a big brunch with sessions the rest of the afternoon at McGurk's.

We're going to try to teach an all day set dance workshop on Saturday, if we can get enough people interested. I'm hoping this will make a nice opportunity to introduce everyone to a few of the more commonly danced sets, as well as dig into some of the details, work out some kinks in people's dancing and generally leave everyone feeling prepared to show up at a ceili.

Another reason I'm excited for the opportunity to put together this ceili and workshop is that it all leads up to the following weekend when St Louis will be hosting the North American CCE convention. If you don't already know, CCE stands for Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. It's an organization dedicated to the preservation and fostering of Irish music, dance, language, and culture. The convention will be another opportunity for Irish musicians and dancers to descend upon St Louis and teach workshops and hold ceilis all weekend. One of the big draws for the the convention is that there is a set dancing ceili each of the four days of the festival (Thurs-Sun). Therefore I do hope that our workshop can help get some people excited about and ready for the weekend of set dancing at the CCE convention, as well as all of the ceilis that we're hosting around St Louis the rest of the year.

For more info on the CCE convention- http://www.cceconvention2012.org/home.html

For more info about the ceilis we're hosting year round in St Louis- http://setdancingstlouis.com

My Tuesdays at O'Malley's are Coming to an End

Ed Yother — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:53:18 +0000

I've been playing at O'Malley's Irish Pub on Tuesday nights. I've been doing this since February. But this upcoming Tuesday will be my last. It's been a nice run, but Tuesdays seem to be a tough night to get people down there. Tommy, the owner, has been trying some other things to get people there on Tuesdays as well, but without much luck. So anyone who wants to come down for the farewell would be appreciated. Also, if any other musicians want to come down, we can totally make the night into a session, and we don't actually have to stop at 10pm if we don't want to.

Tuesday November 15th
7-10pm
O'Malley's Irish Pub
1900 Cherokee St, St Louis
Corner of Cherokee St and Lemp Ave

Changes to the Set Dancing Schedule

Ed Yother — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:24:48 +0000

I've found a new location in addition to The Folk School to hold our ceilis. And with the addition of a new location comes a new schedule.

1st Friday of every month, 8-11pm at The Folk School at 3155 Sutton Blvd, Maplewood, MO.

3rd Sunday of every month at Connections to Success at 1701 N. 2nd St, St Charles, MO.

This has been changed again. Check here for the current schedule.

I'm excited about starting to hold ceilis in St Charles. Connections to Success is just a few blocks from my house, it has a great old hardwood floor, a big parking lot in back, and the rent for the room is quite affordable.

And for those who would like an additional dose of listiening to Irish music. On 3rd Sundays before the ceili I host an Irish music session at Picasso's Coffehouse on Main St, St Charles 2-5pm.

KDHX Local Artist Spotlight on ME!

Ed Yother — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:20:07 +0000

So Ryan Spearman interviewed me for a local artist spotlight, and it is up on their website and will be airing on the radio for the next two weeks. You can take a listen to it by clicking the logo below.

Irish Session at Picasso's Coffee

Ed Yother — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:51:50 +0000

So we had our first Irish session at Picasso's Coffee today. It went great. I want to thank everyone that came and played. Everything went incredibly smoothly, and the music sounded awesome. I can't wait till we do this again next month, August 21st and every 3rd Sunday to follow.

Ceili at The Folk School

Ed Yother — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:13:09 +0000

So again the ceili last night went great. Quite a few new people this time. I went through teaching the South Galway set again, and the first four figures of the Corofin Plain set. Links to written instructions to those sets are below.

South Galway

Corofin Plain

What is an Irish session?

Ed Yother — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:50:42 +0000

An Irish session is an opportunity for musicians who play traditional Irish music to get together and play in an informal setting. Most sessions are open to any musicians who are familiar with the music and want to join in. It is a little less like a usual performance as the musicians typically will sit in a circle and play for their own enjoyment, rather than to an audience. That said, sessions are usually held in public places for people to listen.

Below is a video put together from photos taken and audio recorded at the session.

Update on the new session

Ed Yother — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:00:51 +0000

So I've talked to Chris, the owner of Picasso's Coffee, again to work
out the details of holding a monthly Irish session there. This is a
little experimental, and it may change in the future, but for now
here's what we got.

3rd Sundays
First one will be July 17th
2-5pm
Picasso's Coffee
101 N. Main St
St Charles, MO 63301
Corner of Main St & Jefferson St.

All levels of players, singers and dancers familiar with Irish music
are welcome join in. Let's try to make this a good time.

Possible new session

Ed Yother — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:22:44 +0000

I talked to the owner of Picasso's Coffee on Main St, St Charles today
about the possibility of starting a session there and he is quite
interested. He had expressed interest in this possibility some time
ago, but at the time I didn't know if there were enough Irish
musicians in the St Charles area to support such a thing. But since
the Irish festival I've met a few more musicians who live out here and
might be interested. I'm going to talk to him again this week and
figure out details. It's most likely just going to be once a month, as
Tracy will not be terribly excited if I commit myself to another
weekly obligation. I also think that I'm going to aim for a Sunday
afternoon. They close at 5pm on Sundays, so perhaps something like 2-5
or 1-4ish might be the way to go. If not Sundays then Friday nights
are the next most likely option. In that case it would likely be
8-11pm.

So I'm curious if anyone has any input or suggestions, particularly if
you have preferences for a day or time. I would also accept any help
in organizing that anyone might like to offer, or perhaps committing
to being a regular, at least in the beginning, to help get this off
the ground.

Ceili at The Folk Scool 6/17/11

Ed Yother — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 02:00:34 +0000

So the ceili last night went great. I want to give a huge thanks to Jesse Evans who came out and played accordian for us. Everybody did an awesome job of getting through the Mazurka set. Below is a link to a PDF of written instructions.

Mazurka Set

And here are some reasonably good videos I found of the Mazurka in its entirety being danced at a ceili in Toronto.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6