Craic On

It’s a year since the last DylanFest gig and two years since Al Diesan played for us in Moville. There was no Pino Tocco this year but the man from Sardinia didn’t disappoint us. It was so good one guy thought he must have been miming to a tape.

Those that were seeing Al for the first time were astonished at how well he played and sung the Dylan songs. Indeed one guy who saw him for the first time last night tried to book him for a private party.

It’s a shame that Al probably has only one more gig here, Saturday night in Rosatos, although he does have a provisional one tonight in Maguires. Benny has to check if they have someone else booked.

Good Crowd

There was a very good crowd of about seventy people in Rosatos for the opening night. It will be a lot busier when Al returns there on Saturday night. More than half the audience were ‘strangers’ as they call them around here or visitors in most other places. I’m told that there were quite a few from Derry where the DylanFest has got a lot of publicity this year. I’m sure they’ll take good reports home with them and we’ll see even more Derryites over the weekend.

Tonight is The Times They Are A Changin’ night with Planeausters, Michael Moravek from Germany alongside our own Sean ‘Hiboy’ who has stepped in at late notice to replace Kerstin Becker whose doctor stopped her travelling because of her pregnancy. So, we are swapping a violin player for a mandolin player. Planeausters played Rosatos and the Sean Ti last year and will play Maguires on Sunday afternoon this year.

Tonight in Rawdons there will be Paddy the Shoe.

It looks like it is going to be a big one this year if the first night is anything to go on.