DISQUS

gretsch100 · 7 months ago

Hello Hadar and Lois, my name is Bill Bleistine and I am the drummer for Ceili Rain. My wife and I also do most of the pr,promo and booking for Ceili. I happened upon your blog and enjoyed it immensely. Not just the Ceili and Kathy posts but many more. I love your whole spirit and love your passion for music. Knowing how tuned in you are about music and all things surrounding it, we are humbled by your mention and support of our music. I wonder if we've met? We haven't done a show in the "city" for a good while now but would love to make one happen here in 09. You seem very plugged in to some great places and I'd love to talk to you about that sometime. I have to tell you that you are what I would consider the ideal Ceili fans. Our music and message is meant to be inclusive and inviting to everyone. No exclusivity here. Come one and all..... as you are. I applaud your insight into the "music" as a whole. You are rare indeed. Obviously Bob's writing is exceptional and recognized by folks like yourselves as well as other fine artists. Which brings me to your mention of Eammon O'Rourke at the Kathy Mattea show. I wanted you to know that we had Eammon come to Nashville for the recording of our 5th record "Whatever Makes You Dance." So if you have that record, you may not have known that Eammon is the fiddle guy. Thought you might like to know that. In addition, not sure if you pay attention to American Idol, but Melinda Doolittle is also singing back up vox all over the WMYD record also. No matter how you feel about "Idol" Melinda was a singer that no music critic could deny was a serious talent. When she came in to sing on the record, she was a solid and in demand back up session singer known in Nashville. But was not on the worlds radar. Then 3 months later, she was known all over the world. It was pretty cool. The guy that came in to sing with her was Jason Eskridge who sings B/U for Lyle Lovett. We were in need of some serious soul on that record and they gave all that we needed and then some. Not sure if you know it or not, but we are currently in the process of completing our 6th record. We have foregone the label route and have done it independently with support from our "Ceili Faithful." It's been a real community effort. But maybe you already knew about it. Anyway, I just wanted to extend our thanks and appreciation for your support and making mention of us. I hope to see you sometime soon. I'd love to have some more dialogue with you both. Feel free to e-mail me at gretsch100@aol.com. All the best, Bill Bleistine

hadar · 7 months ago

Wow, this was a major treat for me to hear from you this morning. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts here.

I'll write to you separately in email, but there are a few things that deserve public responses as well:

1) Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to see Ceili Rain live yet, not for lack of trying! It's _very_ high on list of things to do!

2) We have all 5 current CDs, including WMYD, so we do have Eammon playing with you (and Melinda and Jason as well). We didn't know Eammon was on (and we have never watched Idol), so the next time I listen to the CD, I'll get an extra charge out of it, I'm sure! Thanks for letting us know.

3) We're well aware of the CR6 project. We've "participated" twice already, and have exchanged a number of lovely emails with Bob. We've listened to snippets of the tracks that he's made available, and I can tell you, and the _world_, that this is going to be an _extraordinary_ CD, no doubt about it!

I'll drop you an email now to continue this discussion. Thanks again!