novels about (session) instruments?

wolvy · Post by **wolvy** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:23 pm

Hans - back to your original question. I just finished "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx and there were several scenes involving a woman playing an accordion. (The book is better than the movie, BTW). This author also wrote the short story that Brokeback Mountain is based on. So I suspect "Accordian Crimes" might be a good read as well.

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:30 pm

I haven´t red it so far. On this listees recommendation I bought it (ebay) and will get it in the next few days. I found this short description and reading excerpt. BTW, thanks for the hints!

http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.c ... pid=407412

wolvy · Post by **wolvy** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:20 pm

Your welcome, Hans. Also, I hope you are enjoying that Matt Kiernan chanter. There are times when I sure do miss it's mellow sound. It is a nice stick that needed a good home. I'm glad you ended up with it.

- Tom

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:08 am

Jumper wrote:You can read the first few chapters of Danny Carnahan's novels starring San Francisco Irish fiddler Niall Sweeney, "Death Dances in Jig Time," "Fortune Turns the Wheel," and "With His Dying Breath" online at:

http://www.dannycarnahan.com/writing/novels.html

Hi Jonathan,

I just read a bit of the first one online; It's about the Plough & Stars!
Looks like the author plays with Kevin Carr, huh? I may pick up a copy,

J.

Jumper · Post by **Jumper** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:42 am

feadogin wrote:
Jumper wrote:You can read the first few chapters of Danny Carnahan's novels starring San Francisco Irish fiddler Niall Sweeney, "Death Dances in Jig Time," "Fortune Turns the Wheel," and "With His Dying Breath" online at:

http://www.dannycarnahan.com/writing/novels.html
Hi Jonathan,

I just read a bit of the first one online; It's about the Plough & Stars!
Looks like the author plays with Kevin Carr, huh? I may pick up a copy,

J.

Hi, Justine. Good luck finding one; I don't think any of the three have been published yet.

Danny plays with Kevin Carr in Wake The Dead. You'll find other thinly veiled familiar personalities from the Northern California music scene in his work, like Mickey Zekely. A quote from Danny's site:

Rose Sweeney’s plum job hosting a graduate retreat in the remote Mendocino redwoods turns to a nightmare for the young San Francisco lit professor when she learns that a man once her mentor, but who bedded and betrayed her, will also be on staff. When Rose’s Irish fiddler husband Niall Sweeney is lured up at the last minute to teach at a folk music camp held in another part of the woodlands, they are thrown together just in time to witness the horrible demise of Rose’s betrayer. He chokes to death after playing a borrowed bagpipe, to the shock of hundreds of onlookers.

To help calm his panicky musical friends and save the camp from threat of ruin, Sweeney joins his friend Max, the camp director, in investigating the mysterious death. Max is certain that the death is part of a sinister lumber company scheme to close the camps and clear-cut the woodlands. Sweeney is left to discover why a stranger would die after playing a bagpipe that didn’t harm two other pipers. Rose is left with a more chilling puzzle—who planted evidence to link her with the murder?

tompipes · Post by **tompipes** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:06 am

There is a book called(I think), Grace Notes and Bad Thoughts, by John Kelly. Here, some fellow who is something like a refuse collector, makes a deal with the devil to swap bodies with Liam O'Flynn! I kidd you not

I've read that book too, a few years ago now.
It's histerical!!!!!

Tommy

Danny Carnahan · Post by **Danny Carnahan** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:56 pm

Hello there, literary friends! I'm delighted to find your chat thread and note your interest in my fictional characters, Sweeney and Rose. I'm happy to report that the first novel in the series, newly retitled A JIG BEFORE DYING, is now published (as of March '08) and available through me (dannycarnahan.com) and Amazon and B&N and probably elsewhere. The second, FORTUNE TURNS THE WHEEL, will be out in the summer. And the third, featuring a bagpipe as a murder weapon (about time, eh?) is awaiting a release date. If you'd like to know more, give me a shout. May your spring continue melodious! --Danny

kintailpipes · Post by **kintailpipes** » Tue May 06, 2008 1:41 pm

Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle by Wilson, David A.

I thought this was a fun read, it was about a guys travels through Ireland with a bicycle and his tinwhistle. He hit a few pubs and caught some good seisiuns.

I recommend it.

Jumper · Post by **Jumper** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:24 pm

Danny Carnahan wrote:I'm happy to report that the first novel in the series, newly retitled A JIG BEFORE DYING, is now published

Congratulations, Danny!

Will your author tour take you through San Diego?

Our paths haven't crossed in more than a decade, I'm sure. Come on down and play a tune.

Ian Lawther · Post by **Ian Lawther** » Wed May 07, 2008 1:45 pm

I enjoyed Accordion Crimes. In many ways it is a series of short stories regarding assorted immigrant communities in the US spanning the twentieth century. They are linked by ownership of an accordion made by an Italian in the first story.

Brian McNeill's two novels concerned a Scottish fiddle playing busker and his adventures around Europe. Both were good reads. The first "The Busker" starts in Switzerland and heads around The Netherlands and Germany (East) before finally resolving the mystery the fiddler is drawn into, whilst the second "To Answer The Peacock" had strong Breton connections.

Surprised no one has mentions "Nancy Drew and The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipe" yet......

Ian

William Reinman · Post by **William Reinman** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:24 am

wolvy wrote:I recall one story that had a young woman named Amy that played uilleann pipes. (Hey, I know an Aimee that plays UP) In the story, I recall her complaining about her reeds too! : )

I was just reading Charles de Lint's anthology "Dreams Underfoot" and met Amy Scallan the uilleann piper in the short story "Our Lady of the Harbour."

Charles de Lint wrote:"She pumped the bellows of her pipes, long fingers dancing on the chanter, more than happy to play the piece all night if the dancer could keep up."

They played a set of reels consisting of "The Road West," "The Glen Allen Reel" and "Sheehan's Reel." I don't know enough to recognize the tunes, myself, but others might find it interesting.

Finn M'Coul · Post by **Finn M'Coul** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:38 pm

An interesting story about traditional music and the wee people of Ireland is "The New Policemen" by Kate Thompson.

It is supposed to be a novel for kids but I found it fun to read. Each chapter is based on a traditional tune and the music for each tune is included in the chapter.

William Reinman · Post by **William Reinman** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:56 pm

I was just reading "The Hollowing" (of the Mythago series) by Robert Holdstock and ran across a brief reference to "elbow pipes," so I thought I would ressurect an old thread.

Robert Holdstock wrote: In the Oak Ash zone I encountered a Celtic bard, a gentle creature who carried a complex set of bone pipes, elbow pipes of a very early design, and indeed his own story was linked with their first invention and use of magic.

I think Mr. Holdstock missed a few centuries (or millenia) in his research, as he gives the impression that they are from ancient antiquity, rather than the 18th century, but it was fun to stumble across a reference to "elbow pipes" in an otherwise mesmerising tale thick with myth, legend and pseudoscientific fiction.

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 2:04 pm

I recall an Irish mystery in which there was a very good fiddler who led the local session. The fiddler was also lazy, a crook and a murderer. One of his fellow villains killed him about half way through the book. There was concern he'd also be a rat. They knew he was gone when he didn't turn up at the pub.