Before the Throne of God Above (original 1863 melody):
What Would the Profit Be? (old 1920s hymn, recorded by the Monroe Brothers in 1937):
A Cannae Mine A Day (written by Mark Carmichael, Ballymena):
What a weekend! Coleraine last night was great, and tonight we're just back from another Harvest concert at Bangor Abbey. (we played there for the same event last year - being asked to come back is always a good sign!)
The superb Michelle Johnson Highland Dancers were there as well, and were magnificent. We played an hour-long set from 8pm till 9pm, got an encore, and had so many conversations with folk afterwards that it's hard to summarise them all in this post.
As one of the buildings which Sir James Hamilton restored around 1606, as his resting place in 1643, and also as the Ulster pulpit of the mighty Scottish minister Robert Blair, Bangor Abbey has impeccable Ulster-Scots credentials. The natural acoustics are marvellous, and we've come away buzzing with the reaction from the folk who were there. There's also now a "big idea" emerging from tonight's concert, which could well see us returning to the Abbey early in the New Year. Watch this space!
A huge thank you to Gifford, Ronnie Nesbitt, Stella and Ed - and of course, the audience who reacted so warmly and enthusiastically.
(PS - when we first played at the Abbey in October 2008, I posted a summary of the evening on my blog and said we'd film the concert if we were asked back to the Abbey. So we did! We captured the whole thing on HD video. Pics and video clips to follow here over the next week or so once I've had a chance to edit the footage and upload some clips onto YouTube.)
Mark, Graeme, Ronnie, Gifford and Stella:
A joyful noise! Oscar Schmidt honeymoon F mandolin, 1927 Gibson L3 guitar, 1923 Gibson A2 snakehead mandolin:
