The Koffee Kup on Slide Road seems like an unlikely place for a cultural event, but Lubbock is sometimes surprising in that way. This photograph depicts the band Trippin' Up the Stairs (a wonderfully apt name, I think) that plays traditional Irish music.
On the left is the bodhran player, whirring his tipper away. Seated next to him is the fiddler, sitting out this one because the piper, Patrick, just stepped in for a tune. Maybe she doesn't know this tune, maybe she's just sitting this one out. It doesn't really matter, though, whether or not she knows this particular tune; the flutist and the other musicians have this one covered. An Irish music session is nothing if not spontaneous.

II.
When we think of peoples as civilized, the Egyptians and the Greeks, the Italians and the French, the Chinese and the Jews may all come to mind. The Irish are wild, feckless, and charming, or morose, repressed, and corrupt, but not especially civilized. -From How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.

"This music was simple in its verbal structure but emotionally potent in its acoustics and its message. The old Celtic lyrical and instrumental traditions had melded with a deep religiosity in the mountains and backcountry. Much of the music that had evolved during the century of isolation had sprung from church and evangelical settings as a way for an increasingly illiterate population to share the teachings of a bible that many of them could not read. Other songs reflected life's hard lessons, or the playful and even sly humorr of a people who were on the one hand intensely religious but on the other unapologetically wild. From those origins came country music." From Born Fighting by James Webb

I know, I know, I cheated by picking two, but I really just couldn't decide. On the one hand, I just loved the "not especially civilized" from the first excerpt. That book discusses the impact that the Irish culture had on European Heritage, due to the fact that it was Irish scholars who laboriouslyly copied down the whole of Western Literature while Europe was stumbling into the dark ages (hence the title).
On the other hand, I just couldn't pass up a passage with "intensely religious and unapologetically wild." From the Born Fighting which discusses the impact of Irish culture in America.
I loved the discussion Webb gives about Celtic Influence on American Country Music. When I was reading this book, I had the privilege of seeing Jean Ritchie perform a concert. Jean Ritchie is a folk singer from Kentucky, and reading this book at that particular time really resonated with me because it just so happens that Ritchie went to Ireland to collect Celtic traditional songs. She started with writing down the 300 tunes she knew from her mother, then spent 18 months in Ireland tape recording songs in Ireland.
The origins of music, what the music is used for, and every way that it impacts our world is fascinating to me. I've mostly read about how Celtic music has impacted American music, and observed Celtic music performed in Lubbock (Friday nights at O'Reilly's is one of the best places to do this)....but I've never seen an actual pub session.....how cool is it going to be to see Irish music performed in Ireland?

III. Personal Reflection/What brings me to this class.
This course kind of fell into my lap, really. I wasn't really planning on it, but I started doing some independent research under Dr. Smith for the Honors College. I didn't really know much about Irish music and since my mentor is an expert, I decided to focus on researching Celtic Music in Lubbock last semester. I started going to Sugar Brown's on Thursdays, O'Reilly's on Fridays, and met some amazing Celtic Musicians who happen to play and live in Lubbock or Levelland. I think that these music sessions are probably one of the most culturally interesting things that goes on in Lubbock, TX, and after getting to know and appreciate the music, how could I pass up an opportunity to not only learn more about it, but go to Ireland, too!
Also, like many of the people in the class, I have Irisancestorsrs; my Grandfather's's lineage on my father's side is completely Irish.

And of course, I'm always up for an Adventure.