Dancing on Haughey's Grave

An old friend slept on my couch last Wednesday night and again on Thursday. On Thursday he rested in peace – having spent the day touring Dublin, culminating in a dance on the grave of Charlie Haughey.

I’ve known Vincent Keaney for many years – rich and poor.

As anybody could, he lost the plot for a while after winning one million pounds on the lotto (when that was a very sizable amount of money too). He bought busyness and notoriety.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thesillyoldmaninahat?feature=mhum#p/u/7/APN_9fDyg1Y

I wrote this song about 10 years ago, as a letter to him, asking him to ‘get real’ and I played it to him before playing it to anybody else. It’s been on my ‘thesillyoldmaninahat’ youtube channel for six months now and, this morning had a total of 20 hits. With the furore about Vincents rave on the grave, it’s now passed the 100 mark in a day – nothing compared to the 30,000 or so that have come since Joe Duffy’s liveline feature. If Joe Duffy got that ball rolling, I wonder who got the Joe Duffy ball rolling.

My Studio 3

Technical hitch in previous post - was told it was the nut on the keyboard but I can't even find any screws.

My Studio 2

Here it is in person..... actually, in place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7RHaQVNCbg

My studio?

I've had a few questions about 'my studio' relating to The Silly Old Man in a Hat' youtube channel. For anyone interested, my studio is in about the untidiest corner of what's a significantly less tidy than average house. No budget productions means just that. I have a macbook - I bought that 3 years ago and it's going but thinks it's hard-drive is full - even though I can only trace about half it's capacity and not find what the other half is. There's a woodworm riddled table with, usually, a pile of stuff for sorting sitting on it. The background is whatever is behind me - usually a clothes airer/drier and a thin curtain beyond that covering a door and windows - the previous occupant mislaid the key to this door and it hasn't been opened since I moved in - almost a year ago.

Lighting? I bought a reading lamp in IKEA some time back but it's been sitting there doing nothing - until it was put into use here. I think it cost about 10 euro. That's sitting on a pile of books on top of an old chair. The height is infinitely variable - I have a lot of old books - and I can play with the angle it hits me - or my guests.

If you have a built-in webcam, as does my mac, and you have your laptop at it's regular use height, you'll be looking up your nose and so I put mine on top of a small plastic storage box to get a better angle.

Yesterday, I tidied off the table top, untangled all the flexes and created a bit more space. This now means that I can move the mac and it's camera further away and still be close enough to my 'Snowball' usb michrophone - a Christmas present from my daughter.

Anyway, I've mentioned writing a song in Nashville with Thomm Jutz and Jamie Cutler. Here's a very lazy version. Oh yes, my videos are usually done way past my bed-time when there's not too much else happening and no other light around. Notice how much further away this one is too. I'm thinking that sometime I could squeeze a band in. Watch this space.

the road to Saratoga....

.... somewhere near Boulder Creek.

Bobby's Pride and Bobby's Joy

..... '52 Ford.

a not so silly younger man in a hat....

Chet O'Keefe is on his first trip outside of America. He's on his way to the Belfast - Nashville songwriters' festival and is also openin for Nanci Griffith who sings on a few songs on Chet's new CD, Gamebird.

He landed on Wednesday and has been staying at my house and has been a pleasure to host. On Thursday, he played his first Irish gig, at the National Concert Hall - a good start. Last night, he added his guitar to one of my new songs, Bob and Jenny and is the first ever guest on The Silly Old Man in a Hat channel on youtube. He also played a couple of his own songs - in a hat - and these will be uploaded in the near future.

Bob and Jenny is one of a bunch of new songs I wrote and co-wrote on my recent USA tour. This was written by Burton Jespersen and me during the California Listening Room Writing Retreat. We spent an excellent day driving - top down - and hanging out in Saratoga, gathering material for our song was our excuse. We didn't manage to actually find the lake. We know it's there - at least in our heads.

Bob and Jenny