A few days of this week (in my life) correlated directly with a week of last summer (and with my childhood), and it was mostly accidental. Last summer, at Boxwood in Nova Scotia, I met Cathal McConnel. The last night of Boxwood, there was a concert and a woman (Abby Newton) played cello in the concert. She was introduced to me because she was also from Woodstock, NY. Ok...fast forward to this past Friday night. I went to the Boys of the Lough radio taping in Albany. Saw Cathal. He mentioned that he thought Jay Ungar was supposed to MC the evening and he wondered why Jay wasn't there. I told Cathal that I'd find out for him in a couple of days, because I would be at Jay's daughter's house for a Christmas party and Jay would probably be there (Ruthy was my childhood best friend). Cathal laughed about what a small world it is. Ok...Saturday night, I went to a concert in Woodstock, an annual Solstice concert by Happy and Artie Traum in a little gallery where my dad has something up on the wall. Well, Abby Newton was featured on the cello. Her part in the show was my favorite by far (she did a lovely air written by her husband, called Catskill Mountain Air). At intermission, I found her and bought a couple of her CDs. I reintroduced myself and she remembered that I had been singing at the session after the concert on the final night at Boxwood. So that was neat. Ok...Sunday afternoon, at Ruthy's house. I asked Jay and Molly about the Boys of the Lough taping and Jay said that, indeed, he was supposed to MC, but they had been preparing for their own concert on Saturday night and he had been exhausted. Jay told a few Cathal stories that had us all totally laughing. I thanked Jay and Molly for exposing me to their music and teaching me to harmonize and he told me he has a video of a concert we did at our junior high/high school when Ruthy and I were 13. Gotta see that. He said he'd look for it. Anyway, I was sitting at the kitchen table and in walked Abby Newton, the cellist from Boxwood (and the night before). She and I ended up talking quite a lot and she and her husband invited me to their house for New Year's Eve (I'll go). Ruthy's life-long friend Willow (who grew up in Vermont) was there, and when I took out my whistle, someone asked about it and I said it was made by Chris Abell, Willow told us that her mom had dated Chris Abell about 18 years ago. Another correlation. The party was like a musical orgy at times, with over a dozen fiddles, mandolins, guitars and banjos firing away. I followed along with some whistle counterpoint (wouldn't be acceptable at an Irish session, but at a folk jam it was fine). Not my genre, but close, and a nice conclusion to a few days of bizarre (and good) correlations. Molly (Mason) told me she was glad I found the whistle. I agreed.
I feel as if I have just filled out an online diary form. Hee hee. I have been touched by the synchronicity, so I wanted to share it. It was a weekend of feeling like my whole life was connected to now. That's rare.
Jessie
Edited for typo.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JessieK on 2002-12-18 12:16 ]</font>
