The normal Midland and Bay City sessions have been cancelled for the month of August, but never fret, there’s still a lot going on.

1) There will be a Celtic session at the Midland Folk Festival, 9pm Friday the 24th. Hopefully this can make up a bit for the normal Bay City and Midland sessions taking the month off!

2) I’m teaching four Celtic tunes workshops at the Midland Folk Festival: Friday @ noon is Newfoundland Dance Tunes. Friday @ 3 is Irish Dance Tunes, with the tunes “The Lisheen Slide”, “Brendan Tonra’s” (jig), “Banks Of Lough Gowna” (jig), “Whinney Hills Of Leitrim” (slipjig), and probably a polka and a single reel TBA. Saturday @ noon is Irish Reels, with “Pigeon on the Gate”, “The Old Copperplate”, “The New Copperplate”, and “The Longford Collector”. Saturday @ 2 is Newfoundland Singles, which are simple, fast Irish polka-like dance tunes. (Note that I may run out of time to teach all the tunes listed!)

I see there’s also “Irish Fiddling, regional styles” taught by Terry Bell Saturday afternoon, and lots of other interesting workshops.

3) Finally, we’re bringing Scottish singer Jim Malcolm back to Midland, Thursday September 13th, 7:30 pm. The former lead singer of Old Blind Dogs, Jim is a fantastic singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. More info.