So all that listening to the amazing Luka Bloom yesterday got me thinking about how much I wish I could play guitar.
I bought an acoustic guitar with my first paycheque from my first ever job at 15. I didn’t know much about them and ended up being sold a huge thing with a thick fret and steel strings. Not very playable for someone with short girlie fingers. So I learned a few chords but never did much else coz well, it hurt and I struggled to make chord shapes with short little fingers.
So yesterday I thought “what about a little Ukulele?” and I might just go ahead and give it a go this weekend.
So Ukulele connoisseurs, any advice on what to buy/not buy/where to go in Dublin for one?
I heard this song on the radio this morning and have probably listened to it 20 times since. I’d forgotten how much I love his voice, his lyrics, his interpretations of the songs of others and above all his style of guitar playing which happened about when he had to alter his method due to a serious round of tendonitis.
So who is Luka Bloom? Well he’s the younger brother of Christy Moore born Kevin Barry Moore in Kildare in 1955. The stage name is a marriage between Luka from Suzanne Vega’s song ‘My name is Luka’ and Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
He has released a stack of albums over the years with his own rather unique flavour of folk/soul/jazz running through them. Luka is live in the National Concert Hall this Saturday with Eddi Reader as part of the ESB BEO Celtic Music Festival 09. Check out more of his music on lukabloom.com or say howdy on Facebook.
I happened upon this video below earlier when indulging in some of his live clips on YouTube. It was filmed as part of a documentary about him called ‘My Name is Luka’ a stone’s throw from my house in Ballyvaughan, Co.Clare where he apparently spends quite a bit of time. He talks about how songs can connect people and places even if they’ve never been there before. Got some gorgeous shots of the beach in too – look forward to visiting it at the weekend.
Scanning my Twitterfeed this morning, it seems that this week is “one of those weeks” for quite a few, myself included. To that I say take a breather and watch this. Hopefully it will lift your spirits if not get your toe tapping for a bit
So SPAR and The Ray D’Arcy Show on Today FM have teamed up to organise the ‘All -Ireland Quiz Show‘.
Essentially, there will be four provincial events with 50 teams of 4 at each competing for a place in the on-air quarter finals, followed by the semi-finals and live final event in Dublin on Friday 23rd of October. The big prize at the end is a rather tasty €4,000.
You can enter your team (along with subs) here. Sounds like a bit of fun – who’s with me?
So all that listening to the amazing Luka Bloom yesterday got me thinking about how much I wish I could play guitar.
