Mythen Sings Moore – 2nd Edition

Following some great feedback on the first Christy Moore tribute session I did last Wednesday, including messages from folks saying they wish they’d known about it. It seems a lot of people who would have tuned in live only saw my posts about it after the fact. So I’m doing it again – but this time with a little advance notice 🙂

A living Irish national treasure, Christy Moore needs little introduction to many of you. With a career spanning over 50 years from the release of his first album “Paddy On The Road” in 1969, he has earned himself a unique place in the pantheon of Irish music, both as a founding member of not one, but two ground-breaking bands, Planxty and Moving Hearts, along with a string of successful solo releases and thousands of sell out concerts worldwide (to paraphrase the man himself – from the lonely citadel of Carnegie Hall to the dizzying heights of Caesar’s Palace in Bunclody). In 2007 Christy was named as Ireland’s greatest living musician in RTÉ‘s People of the Year Awards, and there are very few people who would argue with that.

I have been an ardent fan of Christy’s music since I was very young. I first heard him on a record singing Nancy Spain – that would have been when I was around 7 or 8 years old, so mid-1970’s. Later when I started to play guitar and sing, he was a massive influence on me, and my early gigs as a teenage balladeer wannabe were pretty much entirely made of his songs. He inspires me to this day.

So one night recently, I was sitting down with a little glass of adult beverage, as you do, and putting together the set list for my next Isolation Session on Facebook live. At pub gigs I rarely use a set list, preferring to wing it and ride on the mood of the room. That works a lot of the time but occasionally, like an over-confident surfer catching a wave, I wipeout. With the live streaming thing, it’s a new and very different beast. For one thing – the audience is there because they’ve chosen to be, not because they just happen to be in the pub at that time. The scary part is that you cannot see them or hear them, but they’re out there watching and listening to you. So it is nothing like a regular pub gig – but is, to all intents and purposes, a concert. And it’s a concert that people can leave and go elsewhere with one click if you drop the ball. It therefore warrants extra care and effort – ergo setlists.

Anyway I got about five songs into the list and I noticed a pattern emerging. Not by design I hasten to add, it just happened organically. So I decided to run with it and turn it into a special tribute show to Christy’s music. That went out live on Wednesday 20th May. The intention was that it would be a one-off event – however I ended up with about 35 songs! On average a one hour live-stream show has about 12 songs so I had the makings of one very long show, or a couple of regular ones. I feel that an hour is the absolute maximum length a live streamed gig ought to run, and so I have some unfinished business with Mr. Moore 🙂 Plus, as I said, a lot of people missed the first one (although a selection of clips from it will be up on my YouTube channel very soon).

So there you have it – tune in to Mythen Sings Moore – 2nd Edition at 8pm on Friday March 5th on facebook.com/germythen

As always the Virtual Tip Jar will be open and entirely optional. Should you feel moved to make a contribution to help offset the loss of paid work and keep the show on the road in these surreal times, you may do so at your own discretion through any of the following channels. All contributions are very greatly appreciated.
Bank transfer via PayNow/PayLah : to UEN # 53367490E (within Singapore)
Paypal : http://www.PayPal.Me/TheIsolationSessions

or if you do not have a PayPal account –
TransferWise: depending on your location and currency, contact me (gerry@germythen.com or PM me on facebook) and I will give you region specific account details for receiving contributions in U.S Dollars, Australian Dollars, Singapore Dollars, New Zealand Dollars, British Pounds or Euros.

Cheers – stay safe! 🙂