A "Home Movie" from the St. Louis Tionol

I hope you've got a few minutes to spare, because below are NINE parts to an approximately 90-minute "home movie" from video we took while attending the 13th annual St. Louis "Tionol" over the weekend.

In these nine videos, you will witness along with us just about every phase of the Tionol weekend experience (although we did skip intruding on the many incredible classes held on Saturday).

In the first and second videos we have snippets of the incredible concert held at the Shlafly Brewery on Friday night.



Part two features the incredible combined talents of Roger Landes on bouzouki and Pat Broaders on uilleann pipes. Both were among the many talented instructors during the classroom portion of the weekend.



In part three we enjoy a bit more the Friday night stage show getting into the meat and potatoes of the Tionol experience - the sessions at Shlafly Brewing.



Parts four and five are slices from the Saturday evening concert, usually held at The Sheldon in St. Louis, and featuring dancers from St. Louis Irish Arts.





Part six includes footage from are area I began to think of as "piper's roost" because it is located on a landing on the third floor of the brewery and the first time I stumbled onto it at last year's Tionol I discovered about EIGHT uilllean pipers in full flight. Definitely NOT something you soon forget.



On Sunday morning I headed over to John D. McGurk's Irish Pub in Soulard hoping to get some footage of an outdoor session. Not much was happening, so I hit the incredible buffet and was enjoying some wonderful Irish "bacon" when I was almost swallowed up by a spontaneous session. Just incredible.



Part eight features two of my very favorite box players, Tom Dahill and Larry McNally.



Part nine starts with one of our oldest instruments and ends with some of our youngest talents. Seems appropriate.

Bob Reeder sings "The Molly McGuires"

Anyone in the Kansas City are who has caught a Bob Reeder performance in the last 20 years or so will be familiar with this video of Bob performing "The Molly McGuires".

I thought the timing of this recording especially fitting not only as it pays tribute to Irish patriots but to Irish coal miners of which I can proudly claim some connection as my own grandfather and all his forbears for many a generation labored underground in the coal mines of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

Here's the video: