I had an absolute blast of a time at the Cork Jazz Festival. Definitely a weekend to spend in Cork – there was so much music everywhere. From buskers on the street, to free gigs in venues around town, to the ticketed gigs each day too. I spent the day times wandering the streets enjoying the food stalls and listening to some great jazz bands playing for free in the outdoor stage set up beside the Opera House. Found some great places for coffee, but none better than Cork Coffee Roasters, which also boasted the hottest barista I saw all weekend too as a special bonus.
Méadhbh was working every day over the weekend, which was a pity, but we got to hang out in the evenings instead. She was singing with me at the gig in the Legends Suite of the Festival club, and we got to the venue early to grab some food and a glass of wine before soundchecking. I don’t think I’ve met nicer people than the folk we had to deal with that evening – everyone from the Guinness contact to the sound guy to the waitress. Despite the fact that it was right in the middle of a weekend of long working days for them, everyone was warm, welcoming, friendly and professional. It made me feel completely relaxed and at ease before the gig.
The piano they had in the venue was a gorgeous Yamaha grand piano – between that and the Yamaha I recorded the album on in the studio, I think my opinion of Yamaha pianos has been completely changed this year. Gorgeous sound from both the upright and the grand piano, and those bass notes on the grand were an absolute thrill.
This is the only photo I have of the gig – which was taken just before we went soundchecking. I think Méadhbh has a few more though. But at least you can see the most important thing – how beautiful that piano looks:
This was our set list:
- The Bliss Returns
- Codail Sámh
- Keep Me Here (new song. not on the album)
- Romance
- Phoenix
- Comfort Of The Keys (non-album track)
- The Score (Sarah Slean cover sharing lead vocals with Méadhbh)
- Galway Rain
- Strive (new song. Not on the album)
- Glory Box / Wannabe (Portishead / Spice Girls cover. Méadhbh on lead vocals)
- Helen
It was originally this:
I had a few others lined up that I skipped on the night, as we had just about an hour of a set, and I wanted to try out some of the newer songs as well as singing stuff off the record. “Wet Feet”, “Rerun” and non-album track “House On My Back Door” were all on the list too but got kicked off for time.
I’m back in Galway now, and back working on the last little things I need to sort to get a physical Cd into my hands, and then into your hands, and I’ll let you know how you can do that in a later update, but it will be available in some of the wonderful new indie record shops that have been popping up around the country.
