Dear Reader –
I’m excited today to show you the title and cover art of the forthcoming Theme Night Album…
*All hyperlinks in bold.
The Big Thing
…and to announce Theme Night #28!
The first live theme night in almost 2 years will happen this December, 10 years to the month since the first ever theme night took place.
The title for the show is ‘How Can I Keep From Singing?’ - named after the Theme Night Album (which will be released by then). We will be playing songs from the album as well as spreading some Christmas cheer in the manner of the first ever theme night in 2011.
As a subscriber to this letter, you can purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public. Just make sure to be at your computer, phone or the Hawk’s Well Theatre itself between 10 and 11am tomorrow (Wednesday).
So to confirm - these shows will take place on the 16th/17th/18th of December and you can get your tickets from 10am tomorrow (despite what it may say on the Hawk’s Well’s website). Click on the album cover below for ticket and show details.
Where else but Sligo?
Saturday night was another milestone on the road to the return of the live entertainment industry. And what a special one it was. So many highlights - Francie Lenehan’s solo on Tennessee Whiskey, sparks flying in the duets between Emily/Sinéad and Cathy/Sandy, playing with Joe Hunt again, and the volume of you guys in the crowd singing back to us. And the downpour that came seconds after we struck our last note. Amazing.
My favourite moment was during Jackson - Seamie out of his comfort zone - complete with lyric sheet and sunglasses - was being led around the stage by the aforementioned Sandy, until he realised that he had borrowed Marie O’Byrne’s music stand and had forgotten to give it back. So halfway through the walk-off and goodbye at the end of the song, he excused himself, ran back on stage to bring the music stand back to Marie, and returned to link arms with Sandy and say goodbye once more.
Thanks to Sligo County Council and Sligo Live for making this gig happen - it was a huge tonic for us, and hopefully you too.
Finally, while winding down from the gig, my wife and I ended up on Rossnowlagh beach yesterday morning. And we realised that we hadn’t been there since Sunday March 15th 2020, when we took a similar trip in anticipation of the fact that soon we may not be able to travel outside our county boundary.
And as we reflected on everything that has happened in between, a wave of gratitude washed over me, and so I want today to thank you. You who read this letter and before it my blog, you who were in town at the gig last Saturday or the Hawk’s Well a couple of weeks ago, you who made the forthcoming theme night album possible, and you who in whatever way supported what I do and what we in the music business do throughout the last difficult period. I’m really looking forward to another step along this road with you in December.
What’s New?
Once again EJ Menswear looked after me brilliantly in decking me out for the big gig on Saturday night. Thanks to Eamonn, Tom and the gang in there for their expertise and trademark welcome.
Another great Sligo business, Tiger Print, have come up with the goods again in producing an updated edition of my piano tuition workbook. Lots of happy students receiving this at their lessons this week, so thanks to Eamon, Sean and the crew there.
And let’s make it a hat-trick - big thanks too this week to Kevin Noone at Nooneboy Design for all his hard work on the album artwork. I hope you like the album cover, and I look forward to showing you the rest of it in due course.
Finally…
Definitely on my list of top 5 favourite songs of all-time is Billy Joel’s Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. It was released in 1977, before music videos were a thing, so Mr. Joel decided to belatedly make and release a video for it last week. It’s great!
Till next time - Kieran.
