🎻 Solving the identity crisis of sports bars and music bars

Hi Reader!

We had a really enjoyable session on Wednesday this week with a mix of the usual suspects and a couple of people visiting from out of town -- always a favorite combo!

It was a bit shorter and earlier than usual due to the World Cup (despite our rousing rendition of Scotland the Brave at the end of the session, I'm afraid it didn't do the trick. But a big congrats to Brazil!).

And there was a time and the not too distant past when it would bother me if a pub can't decide if it's a sports bar or a music bar. Maybe it's because the World Cup doesn't occur as often, but I actually haven't minded the schedule changes the past couple weeks.

Maybe it's also from chatting to Liz Carroll (whose solo interview Find Your Lilt episode will be dropping this Tuesday, June 30th). Liz is quite the sports and music enthusiast -- I remember some lighthearted banter about the St. Louis Cardinals (my family's team) and the Chicago Cubs (Liz's) at Swannanoa about a decade ago.

Liz brought up this observation near the end of the interview that there's quite a crossover of musicians who also play sports or are enthusiasts. My own partner divides his work time between coaching soccer and teaching/playing music.

While I'm not super into sports myself, I still got a lot out of Wednesday's session:

• I caught up with a friend and Tune Library member who's a seasonal regular spending part of the year in Michigan.
• Another friend from Cleveland was in town for work and played a hopping set of reels that I hadn't dug out in ages.
• Another friend was back in town from being on tour and in high spirits

Plus I got to sit next to possibly the best behaved 2 year old who is a session regular and even has his own fiddle to hold and be a part of the session!

It may have been a shorter evening for tunes than usual, but it was actually the perfect length for me this week with everything else going on. I walked out of there feeling incredibly fulfilled.

Weekly Tune Library Update

The same friend who was in town for the session requested Lads of Laois for the Tune Library, so that reel is next on deck for new tutorials and should be out this week!

Another student reminded me of an unofficial request to get all of the Martin Wynne's reels up in the library (the 2nd is already there), so I'll be chipping away at those as well. They are some of my favorite reels out there!

I've heard it's a human tendency to want to categorize and put things or people into specific boxes. Same goes for pubs too apparently in my case!

But just as I don't want to be known only as an Irish fiddler, a customer support agent, a sourdough bread baker (Eleanor, my starter, is still going strong), or a cat mom -- so too can a pub be both a place for enjoying sports and enjoying music. For catching up with friends, family and colleagues, and for sitting back to listen.

I suspect you want to be known for more than just one thing too!

Thanks for sharing this corner of the internet this week. :) If you have a moment, hit reply and tell me something you love that is music related and something that isn't -- I'll share another one back to you that I didn't include above!

~Hannah