A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
This past weekend we learned of the death of my aunt, Nina Ruth Snellgrove. She passed away at the age of 92 and was the last of her family. On Tuesday of this week we said goodbye to Aunt Tootsie at a graveside service in Laurens. Aunt Tootsie was my father’s younger sister, and the … Read More “Remembering Aunt Tootsie” »
This particular Friday was turning out to be a fun, yet busy day. Already I’d reconnected with an old friend at the Carolina Music Museum and had been able to play some fantastic vintage keyboard instruments. Now I was on my way to meet my friend Jeff Bannister for an informal and over-the-top bourbon tasting downtown.
It started with a casual comment by my friend Jeff Bannister on Facebook. He said that Grill Marks restaurant in downtown Greenville was now featuring bourbon flights. I thought it would be a great way to educate myself about bourbon, so I invited myself along. The day turned into a bourbon and music adventure, starting … Read More “Keyboards and Bourbon – Part 1, Keyboards” »
I’m about at the end of my Irish pub round-up. Today’s post covers three in North Carolina, then some conclusions about the Irish pubs in the region. Dugan’s Pub Dugan’s Pub was actually the first pub I visited when I started this project. I headed up to Brevard and did a bit of searching for … Read More “An Irish Pub Roundup – Part 4, Brevard to Asheville” »
I have been pondering the problems with last Sunday’s Irish music session at Jack of the Wood. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about this in terms of some of the problems I encountered in Washington State. There is an issue specifically with Irish music, but the problems with the last session could happen with just about any non-concert corporate music-making session.
I was on a mission to find a true, authentic Irish pub in our area. I had made a list of possible targets and had already visited several. I’m actually writing about them out of order of visit so that I can group them more conveniently. In this post I take a look at the pubs here in Greenville.
You would think that with all of the diverse music last week I’d have reached saturation point. Of course, that never happens. My fingers may get tired, but the need to participate never dies. So, when Laura said she wanted to have some “girl time” to go shopping, I took the opportunity to head up to Asheville to play in the Irish session at Jack of the Wood.
had my list of regional Irish pubs and I had my list of criteria. It was now time to visit some pubs. Some of the pubs I’d already visited, so I’d just rely on impressions I got from those visits. Others would be new to me. Some I’d visited, but it had been awhile, so I went back. There were fifteen pubs on my list and I managed to visit a little over half, eight in all. That was enough to come to some conclusions.
I’ve played lots of Celtic music sessions lately, but only one of those has been in an “Irish” pub. This struck me as a bit…weird. So I started wondering. Our area seems to have lots of Irish Pubs. What’s happening with those pubs? Are they truly “Irish Pubs?” For that matter, what really makes a pub Irish? To answer these questions I decided to do a regional pub crawl and see what each of these has to offer.