Session Obession

The following post is from a guest blogger, Paul Marangelo, a musician who hosts The Shoreham Inn session and here’s what he has to say:

I moved to Shoreham almost 6 years ago, realizing fully that I was putting myself in a potentially session-poor geography: smack in the middle of the orchard, dairy, more-cows-than-people belt of Addison County.  And over the first few years here, I did get weary of frequent trips to sessions in Burlington just to scratch my session itch.  But last winter, a chance contact with Cindy from O’Hanleigh co-incided with more serious thoughts I was having of trying to organize a local session.  And  I probably would not have even been thinking of trying to organize a local session if the Shoreham Inn were not across the street from where I live.

Gastropubs were made for sessions.  Or on second thought…. is it the other way around??? The answer is far from clear, but if you come to the ITM session at the Shoreham Inn, you’ll have far better insight to help pin down the solution to this head scratcher than if you pondered it from afar.   Domenic and Molly Francis, proprietors of the Inn, opened the lower floor of the Inn as a gastropub (which is an eatery style that is common in England) when they purchased the Inn about 6 years ago.  The food is great, there is a small bar, and Shoreham just may be the tiniest  village in the world where you can walk in off the street and buy a Guinness on tap.  It’s a great setting for an ITM session.  Every other Sunday, except during the warmer months (one a month) and November (when the Inn is closed), musicians come from as far away as the Burlington area to play here.  Playing at the Inn is almost like playing in a living room.  Cushy sofas threaten to engulf musicians, and have swallowed whistles whole.  There are no TVs to compete with.  Usually chairs in the room not taken up by musicians are be taken up by folks just listening to the music.  Sometimes the listeners overflow and sit on the stairs.   The ambiance is almost quiet at times.  Surprisingly, the session has been evolving into one that is song-intensive – more so than any other that I’ve participated in, which makes the event distinct, varied, and enjoyable.  Patrick Webb and the O’Hanliegh folks show frequently and have a large repitoire of songs that get throwin into the mix.

So for almost a year now, it seems to be working, and there are just enough musicains within a 20 mile raduis of Shoreham to make it work quite well, not counting to the folks who journey down from Burlington for the event farily regularly.  So come on down to Shoreham one Sunday and see what its all about, 6-8 PM.  Contact me to get on the e-mail list (pmarangelo@shoreham.net).

Going to a session is much like a kid going to a play-date. You hope some of your friends will be there, you wonder if they’ll play anything you know and you pray you remember how to play.

For the holidays my husband, my 6-year old step-daughter and I visited my sister who has 2 kids and who had 2 friends over all under the age of 8. As you can imagine it was a bit chaotic. What was interesting was watching these children get to know each other and work out what they had in common, what they were going to play and who was going to be in charge of the group. Sound familiar?

Some of the kids knew each other beforehand and some didn’t so they had to work quickly at reacquainting themselves and finding out their commonalities. It didn’t take long for them to decide to put on a music concert for the adults, complete with dress-up costumes, instruments and lyrics. They figured out quickly what tune they would play, who else knew it and which one would direct.

All dressed up in pink and purple princess dresses, butterfly wings, plastic high heeled shoes and a battery operated “electric” guitar, one of them screamed “Get ready for the rock concert” and so began the show. As they started wiggling their bodies to the tune of “put your hands in the air,” I realized that there was one leading the performers, one singing and playing the music and one just dancing around like she had ants in her pants. But they all seemed to be working together to create one sound.

Though they weren’t playing anything close to Irish music, it did remind me of what playing music is all about. It’s about having fun. It’s about connecting with someone else and sharing something that makes you feel good. Aside from the fact that it was completely adorable, I was blown away by the courage of these little girls to put on a rock concert complete with costumes and written words that took all of about 1/2 hour to conjure up. They were having so much fun and because they were, so were we.

So the next time you find yourself worrying about what you’re going to play and who is going to be there and whether or not you’ll remember your tunes, remember why you started playing in the first place; because its fun. Stop worrying about whether you’ll sound good or if someone else will know the tune you’re playing, play because you love it, play because you want to share the music. Play because you can.

Happy sessioning!