A Cobblestone Malfunction?? (or The Great Photo Session Caper)

If you are reading this, you have mostly likely visited our website recently. As you can see from some changed we've made, we have some new photos (taken by the talented Mike Parker) to share with everyone. However, in the process of getting these new photos, we had a bit of a mishap. Perhaps it could be even be considered a cobblestone malfunction. Or a bodhran player malfunction. In any case......as you see in the photo shown here, we were all excited about Chris getting up on the ledge above us, and were amazed as he hauled himself up there....a few photos were taken, and we were ready to move on to the next location, and then....he jumped.

I believe his first words were "Oh crap, get my boot off, I just broke my leg." Or something to that effect. And then he was lying in the alley, on his back wearing his kilt and one boot (there was a bit of writhing involved as well.) Thus ended our photo session with Mike. And Chris was even jokingly asking Mike to take photos of him lying there on his back, but Mike just couldn't bring himself to do it. (I'da done it!!)

So after the 911 call (during which, when Chris was asked if anything else was injured, his answer was "Just my pride!!"), the subsequent arrival of the fire truck, the paramedics and crowd of onlookers (we were in Old Sac on a beautiful Saturday morning, after all), we of course spent the rest of the afternoon at the hospital. Chris ended up getting just a temporary splint put on (sort of a half-cast). At the follow-up session on Monday, the doctor discovered that in additional to the spiral hairline fracture on the fibula (the small bone in the lower leg), he had succeeded in breaking the bone in his ankle, which could end up needing a pin! As they say: Go Big or Go Home!!

So though Chris ended up on crutches for a couple of months, off work for a couple of weeks, and unable to carry his own food or drink (unless it's a beer bottle, and he's wearing shorts with sufficient pocket space, or his Utilikilt), we got some great photos!! 

We'll still be at the Fox & Goose Session on the 26th of August, at which time everyone should be able to sign his cast while making fun of him, or at least ribbing him about thinking he's still 17. He'll even provide the Sharpie! See y'all then!

N8i will be back at KVMR Celtic Festival!!

We've recently found out that we've been asked to come back for the second year in a row to play at the 2008 KVMR Celtic Festival this coming September in Grass Valley, CA!! This will be the 12th Annual KVMR Celtic Festival, and this year's lineup will be extremely exciting!!

The headliners this year are no less than one of the biggest bands in the Celtic genre, SOLAS!! We made a comment on stage last year about being "just a Karan Casey away from a Solas tribute band", and that says in the proverbial nutshell how Nine-8ths Irish feels about Solas. They are one of the best traditional Irish bands, even though the majority of the members are actually American-born! But enough about Solas....you can visit the KVMR website to read more about the entire festival as the late September date gets closer.

N8i will be playing two sets on both Saturday 9/27 and Sunday 9/28 (no Friday performances this year, as they have eliminated that due to lack of volunteers.) Our performance times are still TBA, but check our website - we'll be posting any other information as soon as we have it available!!
See you at the next show or Contra Dance!!

Linda, Chris, Bo & Kathy
Nine-8ths Irish
"Irish and a wee bit more!!"

Summertime!

It's already nearly July, and somehow it just doesn't seem like it!! School has let out, it's been over 100 degrees, but it's just not like it was when we were kids and summer meant the biggest accomplishment of the day was where to go swimming and how much more tan we were than the day before. Now it seems like a feat when we get an afternoon nap!
Half of Nine-8ths Irish (Linda & Chris) were finally able to take a real vacation, which we spent in Weiser, Idaho for the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest. This was the first time I (Linda) had gone back to Weiser in about 18 years, and was Chris' first time. He admitted he thought it would be nothing but contest fiddling, but upon arriving and experiencing it, there was plenty of bluegrass, swing music, irish, and old-time, as well as the contest fiddling. We were able to stay up until the wee hours playing music, visiting with some old (and some new) friends, and generally having a WONDERFUL time!! We succeeded in the sleep deprivation experiment, though surprisingly we slept quite well. And the fact that it didn't really get dark until nearly 11 o'clock at night added to that, and made for great music to which to go to sleep.
While there, we ran into Patrick and Robin from Boise, as well as Dave Marshall (and others) from Vancouver, Roland White from Portland, and Clyde Curley even put in an appearance!! Plus there was Larry Chung from San Francisco, with whom my brother John Relph was in the band Cabin Fever (featuring Megan Lynch, who also was there!!) We saw Tristan Clarridge, the Grand National Champion this year (4th time for him, I believe), and his sister Tashina (who took 2nd place), as well as Kimber Ludiker (who took third!). As I understand it, those three are roommates in the Boston, MA area, and they swept the top three...perhaps we should all visit Massachusetts and drink some of the water.....!!
We saw Starr McMullen and her husband Pat (from Oregon...great fiddler, great people!!), and witnessed a marathon jam with quintessential Texas fiddler Carl Hopkins (man that guy can improvise!!). We had great food from Benny's Tacos....spent a bit of time at the grocery store, as well as the State Liquor Store in Weiser, and also ran into Kim & Duffy Markel, who used to run the camping there at the old Institute where we camped. All in all, we had a really great time, and I'll put up some photos in the next post, and continue with the story....

Time for Hot Gigs and Cold Beers!!

With the weather getting warmer, the Festival season gets into full swing. Or at least gets a good swat at it...or maybe just a putt...either way, there are Festivals aplenty coming up here in northern California, starting this weekend with the Sacramento Valley Highland Games, taking place in Woodland at the Yolo County Fairgrounds. 

There will be all the regular Scottish Games fun: beer, whiskey tasting, guys in kilts, bands with Bagpipes (with guys in kilts), bagpipes competitions, Scottish dancing competitions, guys in kilts throwing big heavy things, ladies in heavy dresses following around the guys in kilts, a few sheepdogs, some smoked turkey legs, Scottish fiddling, and perhaps a few guys in kilts drinking beer and/or whiskey.

Many or all of these things can be experienced this weekend, April 26th and 27th in Woodland, and then again in Livermore on the weekend of May 17th & 18th. Click here for more info on the Livermore Games.

On the homefront we've got a Fox & Goose last Tuesday session coming up on the 29th, as well as some Contra Dances coming up soon. We've added all kinds of goodies to our website, www.nine8thsirish.com, including a link to the video footage that was part of our Pre-St. Patrick's Day Fox & Goose show, when KCRA-Channel 3 news came in and stirred up the place!! It's kinda fun to watch.

So come see us soon, add your words to our Blog if you want, send us an email anytime, nine8thsirish@nine8thsirish.com, and most importantly, follow Mark Twain's advice:

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."

New Website!!

Well, we've successfully negotiated through the maze of domain names, hosting options, database operating systems and so on. After all that, we can now say that our website, though not perfect, is finally up and running!!

Our website lives at www.nine8thsirish.com, and contains the requisite photos, song samples, links, shameless self-promotion, and more!! Soon we'll add a form to join our mailing list (we're still getting that set up), and we'll have sound clips of all the tracks off our CD. For now, there are a few full tracks, plus a link to the live radio broadcast from last year's Main Stage set at the KVMR Celtic Festival. Just visit the MUSIC page.

Check it out, click on everything (it's virtually unbreakable!! ;-)

Cheers and blog on, baby!!

N8i

Until Next March 17th........Deep Breath, everyone!!

Though we had a great time on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, and all the musical-filled days prior to that, we are OK with having a few days to catch up on our rest!! As we are all so fond of saying, Real Musicians Have Day Jobs.....and we all had to go to work on Tuesday after being at the Casino until almost 10pm!! But we really had a great time, and want to say thanks to a few people for helping us make it through the weekend:
-Frank and everyone at the Fox & Goose, we love you!!
-Janet and Phyllis at the Vallejo Yacht Club...we're checking our calendar for next year!!
-Thanks again to Laurie DesJardins and the gang at KVMR-FM radio....we'll be crowing about that for a long time!! We'll see you all in September, one way or another!!
-Kyle and the whole crew at the Long Way Home Saloon - your enthusiasm puts us all to shame!! We'll be back to visit as soon as we can make it out to Willows!!
-Don Dibono at Entertainment Services, and Pete Adams at Colusa Casino Resort - thanks for the opportunity, and we're ready for more music whenever you want us!! Everyone was so nice to us at Jacks Lounge....Bo even made a bit of a profit on his blackjack investment!! Let's do it again sometime soon!!

We'll be back at the Fox & Goose for our monthly Irish session on March 25th, so we get a few days to catch our breath after such a wonderful weekend!!
Love ya!!

Linda, Chris, Kathy and Bo

N8i on KVMR Radio, and on TV!!

Here's the latest in our world:

We successfully made the trip up to Nevada City to the KVMR studio, where we joined Laurie DesJardin for a bit of chat, a few tunes, and some promo. We got a recording of the segment, and will post it as soon as we can!! 

We were at the Fox & Goose on Friday night, where a great time was had by all! We played a few tunes, we were on TV, we made some new fans, sold a few CDs - WAIT, did I say we were on TV??!! Yes I did. Turns out the local news, KCRA-Channel 3, was there doing a live broadcast, and had a bunch of revelers with Nine-8ths Irish rockin' and reelin' in the background!! We hope to get a video record of it, perhaps our first YouTube video, but for now, it's exciting to just talk about it and be able to say we were on TV!! So we had a few beers, a few shots, even a car bomb was imbibed, but no one was hurt in the making of the evening, and we're hoping that those who took us home with them did not regret it in the morning! ;-)

Saturday night, we traveled down to Vallejo California, where we were the entertainment for the night at the Vallejo Yacht Club!! This was our second year in a row enjoying their hospitality, and a great corned beef and cabbage meal to go with the beautiful view! Barring a minor vehicle mishap, it was a great evening, and we've already been asked back for next year!

Tomorrow, Monday, St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, we'll be hopping in the trusty Ford Escape Hybrid to travel to Willows California, then over to Colusa Casino Resort, where we'll end up our SPD weekend, then it's back to work on Tuesday!!

More to come later.......

linda