Brother Whiskey:
Lots of rain in New York, and the reeds are recovering fine! AH the Kerry slides. I used to spend winters in Kerry, (was an aprentice currach builder). I haddent played slides for a good while, decades, when one of the Balli David Begleys showed up. It was like a wee trip to Kerry. True enough about Northern singers. Last St. Patricks, we had been the house band for a pub that closed on St. Pat's morning by order of the court, luck of the irish eh? Wound up playing in a windowless smookey polish pub, filled with rowdy Pol, who stole our tips bucket (and we were making f--kall compaired to what the other place was to pay us anyway) but the high point of the evening was the one table full of northernes who joined in every one they knew and a few they didn't and carried on long after we finished.
Best to all
Larry