Patrick Sky and Michael Shorrock
Seamen's Church Institute of Newport
Newport, RI
1984-01-28

Source: Audience > Single Stereo Mic > Sony D5 > Maxell Tape
Lineage: Maxell Tape in Sony Home Deck > Edirol USB > iMac > Audacity > .wav > xACT > .flac 8

Notes on this recording:
This was a daytime show on a raw winters day in Newport, RI. If I remember correctly Patrick Sky and Michael Shorrock were the opening show for Paul Geremia and Paul couldn't allow recording due to his rekkid deal.

The first 12 minutes is very listenable but not as good as the last 30 minutes sound quality wise. I paused between a couple of the songs near the last 1/3 to conserve tape. It was necessary unfortunately. All I did was to balance the levels in Audacity once it was on the hard driveOverall it's a nice recording.

I would classify this show as "Americana Celtic Blues Folk" as it covers that spectrum.

Patrick Sky - Uillean Pipes, Guitar, Vocals
Michael Shorrock - Bouzouki, Bass

Patrick Sky was one of the "folkies" from the 60 Greenwich Village scene. Patrick has been involved in singing, playing and performing his music and songs for 30 years since the early 60s, then he started to settle in and began crafting Uillean Pipes. In the past he has sold out Carnegie Hall and played for standing room only all over Europe and the United States. Among his major appearances are: The Montreal Expo, The Central Park Music Festival, Town Hall in New York and the Royal Festival Hall in London. He has the shared the billing with such artists as Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte Marie, Joni Mitchell and Emmy Lou Harris, to name a few. Patrick has seven solo albums to his credit on the Vanguarard and MGM labels, and his latest release, Through a Window on the Shanachie label. In addition he has produced over thirty records for other artists such as Mississippi John Hurt, Rosalie Sorrells and the great Irish Uilleann piper Seamus Ennis. In 1965 he played the infamous Newport Folk Festival (same festival where Dylan went 'lectric). He wrote many songs and his song "Many A Mile" was recorded by the Blues Project, Steppenwolf's John Kay and also by his then girlfriend Buffy Saint-Marie.

Michael Shorrock... what can I say? He was my best friend and exposed me to Celtic and great acoustic music. Michael was a local Northern RI musician and hippie-type that I met at Moss Music Center in Newport, RI near February 1977. From then on we maintained a very close friendship. Michael a was good bass player and an excellent Classical Guitarist. He was a natural that could basically figure out any stringed instrument in any tuning on the fly. He would sit me down for hours on end in his spare time and answered my stoopid questions and showed me the "right" way to play the old songs I was hacking. Some of the fist acoustic toonage he taught me were Mississippi John Hurt and Patrick Sky songs. He gradually started getting into Celtic music and Irish toonz with the citern, mandolin and bouzouki. As he got better at it, he traveled to Ireland and learned from some of the masters. Patrick started collaborating with Michael and before you knew it they were playing Irish Festivals, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and many concerts around the US and Europe. When Patrick moved, Michael kept up his playing and recording and had sessions with some great Celtic players both here and abroad. My favorite project he was involved with is Across the Pond with Michael, Roger Burridge (Fairport Convention), Quentin Cooper and Kevin Griffin. This a stellar traditional yet jammy project. http://cdbaby.com/cd/atp

Michael passed away in May 2007. Patrick is alive and well building Uillean Pipes. When I was going through my old tapes I found this nugget and I'm sharing it in honor of Michael. I hope you enjoy it.