Hounds of Finn

Newsletter – August 2009 – www.houndsoffinn.com

Hey folks!

We have some pretty exciting stuff to tell you about. At least, we're excited about it...!

*IRISH FAIR!

This weekend is the Irish Fair of Minnesota at Harriet Island in St. Paul (Aug. 7, 8, & 9). The Hounds of Finn are honored to be

performing TWO slots at the fair this year: both on Saturday. Here are the quick details:

Sat. August 8th:

10-11am on the Jake O'Connor's River Stage

5:30-6:30pm on the Walser Gateway Stage

The Fair is completely FREE to attend, and any & all details regarding entertainment and vendors can be found at the official

website:

http://www.irishfair.com

We're excited to perform these shows and hope some of you get a chance to catch it.

*NEW CD!

That's right, we have accomplished our goal of completing a 5-song EP in time for Irish Fair! Special thanks to Michelle MacGregor

and Leslie Rich for completing the production in time for this! The CD will be available directly from the band at Irish Fair and at

upcoming shows; as this is a promotional CD we do not have a price on this disc - but you can always make a donation to the band to

help offset costs. The EP will also be available online at CDbaby / iTunes very soon. The EP is a pre-release for the upcoming fulllength

CD and DVD combo entitled "Breakfast in Belfast".

The EP features 5 all-new studio recordings of the following pieces:

1. Arms as Warm as These (original)

2. Reels: Finn's reel / A Father's Pride (original)

3. Shady Grove (trad.)

4. Foggy Dew (trad.)

5. Reels: Sligo Maid / Colonel Rodney / Congress (trad.)

You can listen to streaming audio of *two new tracks* via the home page of our website:

http://www.houndsoffinn.com

*NEW WEBSITE!

That's right, we have finally gotten around to redesigning our website. Actually, I've got to give the credit to our Fiddle player

Michelle MacGregor for this one. She did it all herself! We're very happy to have something that reflects the latest progression of

our group; and we hope you stop in from time to time to check it out. Any suggestions are welcome and encouraged! Check it out

for yourself:

http://www.houndsoffinn.com

*NEW T-SHIRTS!

We had to do it! We just couldn't continue to let the Langers Ball kick our asses so badly in the merch department...

We have T-shirts that will be available at all our shows and through the website. They're "hazelnut brown" with our logo and a sweet

slogan - "I'll be your dog..." Awww. There will be more designs to come as well, especially if these go quickly...

*UPCOMING SHOWS!

On Sat., August 15th we return to the Dubliner. All of our upcoming dates are listed on our website as well as our Facebook page

and our MySpace page. Check in when you can!

*THANK YOU!

We hope you are all having an excellent summer and we look forward to seeing you all again. Best wishes from the Hounds of Finn!

Pete McCauley - August 4, 2009

www.houndsoffinn.com

Vance 2

...Oh, and crank it UP!

Vance

It happens all too often, sometimes, but just when I think I'm the coolest thing on the planet I get reminded by something more infinite that I'm an insignificant, irrelevant trifle. Joan Coffey has reduced me to an emotional wreck on at least two occasions and tonight I had the privilege of being put in my place by someone I'm not fit to tune the guitar of. You mightn't bawl your eyes out at Indiscriminate Act Of Kind, but you'll surely feel the goosebumps at Bailie's Blood - Bangor's own, Mr Foy Vance.

Finn's Reel

I have a little connection to my friend Pete's baby, Finn. I think it was because we talked about him so much and then he arrived with such an impact that I can't help but be affected by it. I still have people that came out to see those shows to find me playing solo, that want to know how Finn is doing (I got a lot of mileage out of that story!).
Pete wrote this reel and sent it to me as little bits of practice and fluff runs all mixed up with sections of him watching history documentaries with Finn (Finn seemed to have many opinions on what he was learning, but we'll have to wait until he can actually speak before we hear what he has to say about Abraham Lincoln!). I managed to piece it all together and mix it down to MP3 and name it after the little guy.
Finn's Reel

Tuning Up For Death... Or Something As Sure As...

Doing taxes is a little like tuning a guitar. You pull everything up so that it's more or less in tune, stretch a little bit, bring it all up again. Pick a string. Tweak at it until it's there, stretch it again, bring it back up. Use that string to reference the next one and repeat the steps you followed for the first one, then go back and re-tune the first as it will need more tweaking due to the tweaking and stretching on your second. You then repeat this for the following strings, going back and tweaking the previous until everything is no longer stretchy and is right on the money. Then you have to put the thing on your knee and wallop it a whole bunch of times, shake it, rock it, sing loudly to it and do one more final tuning and then sit back and admire your job. Although, sometimes all that infernal tweaking leads to eternal tweaking and you can never get the damn thing to work... sometimes after this you have no choice but to forget the tweaking and just start paying... Ooops, I mean playing - Slip of the tongue!

Rare Ornithology Opportunity

There was a rare and unusual sighting of the great, ostrich-like bird Rocketus Soulum Choirus up around the Dubliner area at University and Vandalia in Saint Paul this past Friday. It seems that its migratory patterns should guarantee regular sightings for the next two Wednesdays. Due to its nocturn habits the best time to catch a glimse of it will be between 9:30pm and 1:30am.
The Rocketus' song is quite unique, being somewhere between country and rock usually with a lo-fi, bedroom, acoustic, singer/songwriter quality, but recently it's had attributes of a slacker, Irish pub song nature. Normally quite pleasing to the ear, this new sound has an added attraction that needs to be heard for a better understanding. The Dubliner's less than city-priced beverages have also been known to add an extra quality.
Rocketus is not a shy bird, so no visitor limit has been placed on the local ornithologist community. A great opportunity to see this rare and glorious creature.