Hi Mudcatters, This appears to be a good time for me to come in here on this subject. Like Pat Cooksey, I am living in the southern part of Germany. However I have been living in Germany for more years than I may want to admit. Still Germany has been very good to me as a singer/songwriter. I first met up with Pat about 2 years ago after having recorded his very beautiful song "The reason I left Mullingar". He was most kind with his comments about my recording and felt that my version was one of the best he had heard. Please remember that I am competing here with big names like "The Fureys" and many other very well known names on the Irish folk scene. This very weekend past, I had the pleasure of playing two excellent gigs alongside Pat. We shared the bill and I have to say that Pat is a pure professional. On the Friday evening Pat started the show and after a small break I played my set. I have to say that we both have very different styles of playing and singing, but that`s what makes things interesting for the audience I feel. We both played the last set together which gave me the chance to sing some harmonies and accompany Pat on Bouzouki and Mandolin. We really had great fun. On the Saturday night we did a similar kind of show, however this time I started the show and Pat came in after some excellent scottish piping from Thomas. Again like myself, Pat is planning to introduce a new live CD early in the New Year. Pat also does quite a lot of touring with Sean Cannon of the "Dubliners" and they should be touring again soon. Check out his website for the tour dates. Once again, I had a great and funny weekend with an excellent musician. Thanks Pat and hope to see you soon again. If anyone is interested, please visit my website at: www.john-barden.de You can click on the MP3 page and listen in to some samples of my CDs. I also have a guestbook where you can pay a compliment or insult me, depending on how you are feeling. Bye for now John
|