Session Obsession

With Christmas fast approaching and panic starting to set in, you may be wondering what you should buy for your fellow Irish musician as a gift this year.

Here are some ideas to help you out:

1. Patrick Ourceau’s Live at Mona’s CD – One of my all time favorite albums. It’s a recording of a live session at Mona’s in NYC. If you listen closely you can hear people shooting pool in the background, telephone’s ringing, etc. It’s kind of like you’re there listening to it, well, live.
2. Tickets to Lunasa for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day concert at the Flynn Center in Burlington – It should be a great show!
3. Gift certificate to a local music shop – Strings are expensive and we’re all pretty particular about what strings we use. It’s much easier to let us pick them out ourselves.
4. Gift certificate to iTunes – a musicians best friend.
5. Subscription to Fiddler Magazine.
6. Humidifier for instrument case – This is a must-have, especially in Vermont in the winter.
7. Metronome – Heck, we could all use a timing check.
8. Rosin – You can never have enough.
9. Music stand – Although most traditional musicians learn tunes by ear, it’s nice to have a stand when you’re practicing your, ahem, scales.
10. Tuner – We all sound better when we’re in tune.

I hope that helps. Have a very Merry Christmas!