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Touchline
September 2007
It seems years since I had contact with you, my fans and friends. I’m back in America since early August after a lovely summer season in Ireland. I really enjoyed the Ballyshannon Folk Festival in Donegal and the Sean Mc Carthy Ballad festival at Finnuge near Listowel; other nice highlights which stand out were the residence in Clancys’ Bar in Cork City which I shared with keyboard player John Fitzgerald and enjoyed his wonderful interpretations of my songs and his genial company.The Baltimore and Glandore Traditional Sailing regattas were chapels of ease for me, enjoyed the Cork tars like Pat Tanner, Curly and Dave Hennessy and Lady Katrina; we had great sport and devilment and good sailing too. Roll on next summer!
I have performed at the Irish Icons Festival near Boston and the Irish Festival at Kansas City already . There have been some lovely smaller gigs of course along the way and new friendships and some old ones renewed. 
My new album, Irish Eyes is finished more or less except for mastering and artwork. I’m making it a golden rule if at all possible, to write more songs and engage more with that sacred process perhaps devoting the morning time to songwriting. If you could turn the burning events of each week into a song, good or bad, you’d have fifty odd songs at the end of the year and maybe ten good ones. It’s no different from the discipline of delivering a weekly newspaper column, and I know about that having a regular column now for many years.
It was really inspiring hearing John Spillane’s wonderous songs at Kansas Festival; we hung out a lot toghether and talked about the muse and all that goes with songwriting. John’s work is true, poetical and indigenous and in no way tailored to suit the dictates of fashion and radio-friendly dictates and not many are confindent enough to go bravely down that road of no precursor except of course, Yeats, James Taylor, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Jacques Brel, or course is another autonomous writer even though he dips deep into the well of popular French sentimental songs; but what comes out is unique same as Spillane.
Spillane and me always felt strong about holding the old Cork accent and not compromising;but I’m finding, despite myself, a gradual retardation as I grapple with communicative life in America.
We’re all very excited about the looming Kingdom-Rebel clash in the football final and I want to thank Eoin Verling of the Fuchsia Band for showing a helpless nerd like me how to tune my lap-top into RTE. I’’ll be looking forward to Micheál Ó Muiratheartaigh’s passionate commentary on that mighty match; and although I have become an ertswhile Kerryman with my Feothanach farmhouse, of course I’ll be cheering for the Blood and Bandage. Good luck to Billy and the Boys.
Le meas mór agam oraibh, Jimmy Crowley.