Among the many great performers at the Irish Music & Arts Fest today -Tony McManus and Luka Bloom left me with some great memories (and memorabilia).
I'll start with Tony McManus - phenomenal! And I was also thrilled to get a good, close look (from 2' away
)) at his Melville acoustic guitar - beautiful guitar, amazing sound. I took a nice shot of Tony while he was warming up on stage, but it didn't come out all that great.
Luka Bloom...wow! Well 1st I was lucky enough to get his setlist from his performance the evening before! Also, he signed my "The Man is Alive" DVD/CD set and "Turf" CD. He released a new CD last week, but it wasn't for sale at this event
. Had my photo taken with him
-sorry I can't post it here because I look like hell! I didn't get much sleep the night before and then got soaked in the rain at the festival. After getting to talk to him and having the photo taken...ran into him 2 more times during the afternoon. One brief chat and the other still blows my mind. He gave me a blessing and some advice and unbelievable -he recited a prayer for me
. And then he thanked me for performing his song ("Better Time" - I told him I played at an open mic) and in turn -I thanked him for writing it!
I only hoped for the autographs and a photo with Luka Bloom - everything else here was beyond anything I expected!!!