Diochra.com

New CLRG Set Dance: Planxty Hugh O’Donnell

CLRG has recently approved a new set dance called Planxty Hugh O’Donnell. This is a lovely early 18th century tune from O’Carolan. Mark Arrington has already put up a sample of it on his website, MarkArringtonMusic.com:

Mark Arrington playing O’Carolan’s “Planxty Hugh O’Donnell”

No official word yet, but rumor has it musicians should learn it for September of this year.

Update, March 30: For the CLRG (including IDTANA/NAFC here in North America), Planxty Hugh O’Donnell will be replacing The Deep Green Pool as of September 2010. This information comes from the NAFC’s annual meeting in 2009.

Cultural Fail, via FailBlog

Oh, dear.

Dear iPod Shuffle Feature,

Why do you not work like Pandora? Going from Snow Patrol’s “Ways & Means” to the bunnies-on-crack-in-the-circus single jig from 100% Pure CRN is not a pleasant transition.

Thumbs down, iPod Shuffle Feature. Thumbs down.

Free music from Mark Arrington, limited time only

Mark just posted this to Dance.net, where he writes under “Feismusician”:

My new CD “CHAMPTRAX” will be released in the next few weeks. The CD is mostly championship-length tunes played once, twice, and three times through. There are also four non-championship-length tune tracks. Until the release, you can download the non-championship-length tune tracks from the CD for free from the “Music Samples” page of my site markarringtonmusic.com. The tunes are jigs (113 bpm, 5+ minutes), single jigs (120, bpm 4+ minutes), reels (113 bpm, 4+ minutes), and hornpipes (138 bpm, 6 minutes). If you want any of these at a different speed you can order them on the “Order Music and Stuff” page.

I’ve downloaded the freebies—the jig is bouncy enough, the hornpipe and single jig are good and the reel is great. Download them while you can. And Mark, good luck with the new album!