I’ve added Billy Malley’s Schottische, the Good Natured Man and the £42 cheque. The first two because I’ve been listening to lots of Martin Hayes and he’s making some excellent YouTube tutorials these days. And the last because it is a great Planxty tune that fits between Denis Murphy’s and John Ryan’s and Peter has been asking for it to be added.

Hope to see you on Sunday!

If you fancy coming along to a faster session, Louis is hosting his Tap Social Session at
4.30pm Sunday (16th Jan) …Tomorrow!
At the White House Pub Abingdon Road
Hope this finds you all well and playing!
And if you can’t make tomorrow, the next Slow Session is on Sunday 6th February, 3.30pm.
Best wishes,

Suke

Dear Slow Sessionistas, 
Happy New Year…  

I hope you are well and keen to play tunes…
The January Slow Session is at 3.30pm Sunday 2nd January upstairs in the White House Pub on Abingdon Road.

And if you fancy something faster, James Bell is hosting the Bastard English Session at the Isis Farmhouse Pub  tonight from 9pm to midnight. It will be in the marquee at the back with the sides open. The Pub is charging £10 for entry (to all the gigs on tonight) but has told James that he can have a list of Session attendees that will be free… To get on his list, email him (https://jamesbellcentral.net/general-enquiries/) or message him via Facebook

The Slow Session tune of the month for January is our new tune Out on the Ocean. And don’t forget to say any other tunes you’ve been practicing and want to play. We’ll play lots of the easier tunes in the first hour. You might want to have a go at Carraroe as it goes nicely into Out on the Ocean.
We have moved to The White House Pub (upstairs) on the Abingdon Road. Do please buy a drink (or tea) from the pub and bring it upstairs. It’s nice if we buy stuff as that makes the pub keen to give us the room for free.
Do come and join us. It is definitely more fun playing together in person than over zoom… but you can join on zoom too (password – if required = slow), so you can join either way. 

We look forward to seeing you in person or on screen.
Zoom session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86893583214?pwd=SG1STDU1VU5ibVYzc0ZZY213UDB0QT09How to find the pub and parking: https://oxfordslowsession.com/about/how-to-find-us/
The traffic going to The Westgate Centre car park is very slow at the moment, so I really recommend walking or cycling to the pub!

David suggested we added the Battle of the Somme to follow McCrea’s Delight, Hannah suggested that we added Cooley’s Reel and I couldn’t resist Carraroe, after learning Out on the Ocean last month… and then I thought perhaps we ought to try a few Christmas tunes…

I hope you can come along tomorrow to our December session, and if not, hope to see you in January 2022. Our lovely new venue, upstairs in the White House Pub is warm and welcoming.

On Sunday 21st Nov, Louis is hosting a Tap Social Session at the White House Pub at 3.30pm… lots of good tunes including many familiar slow session tunes (probably played a bit faster!) 

On Tuesday 23rd Nov, Ray and Ed are hosting the Scandi / Euro session in Wolvercote Village Hall from 8.30pm. Bring your own refreshments and cake to share… and bring your own  shot glass if you want to taste Ray’s “home-spiced Kajsa-Warg akvavit”

Keep well everyone and hope to see and/or hear you soon!

I’ve finally learned and added two lovely new tunes; Out on the Ocean suggested by Noah and The Swallowtail Jig suggested by Cathy, so something to keep you busy as the evenings get darker quicker.

And for November, we are moving to a new location: upstairs in the White House Pub on Abingdon Road. Details on where to park and how to find it are on our new How to Find us page. Hope to see you on the 7th!

Dear Slow Sessionistas,
I cannot recommend this ceilidh band highly enough. They make dancing joy!
And free! And Open air! And in the afternoon!

Unfortunately I am organising my mother’s memorial, otherwise I would definitely definitely be there… So dance for me too and enjoy!

Saturday 9 October, 4-5.30pm, Faringdon Market Place (S6 bus from Oxford every 30 mins)

The Dirty Big Canal Dance Band (in slightly scaled-down form as the Little Big Canal Dance Band!) is playing a ceilidh, outside, for real! Jane, Colin, and the mighty Jo(h)ns; Fletcher (Magpie Lane) and Ruddock (Xogara, Rholben) are delighted to reunite with brilliant caller Jane Bird. There’ll be an emphasis on keeping things safe and joyous, and Jane B will call dances that work in small groups. And it’s free! Come and dance your socks off with us! 

This dance has been put on by the lovely people of Oxfolk Ceilidhs, in partnership with ‘Folk Weekend Oxford On Tour’, who have created a one-day mini-festival in Faringdon. There are sessions, Morris, and gigs going on all day, culminating in a concert by the incomparable Nancy Kerr and James Fagan. Details of all the events as part of the day are available here: https://www.folkweekendoxford.co.uk/9-uncategorised/449-folk-weekend-on-tour-faringdon.html

Have a great day!

Best wishes,
suke

Michael is hosting sessions every Sunday in August at the Florence Park Bandstand.

I’m planning on going along most Sundays (can’t make 29th only) and more than likely will rope in some family members too…

If a few Slow Sessionistas come along, then we can play slow session tunes. And if others turn up, then there will be some tunes we don’t know but might like to learn…

All sessions start at 3.30pm. There will not be zoom.

Hopefully this provides some opportunities to play music together in-between holidays and other commitments.

Don’t forget, Flo’s Cafe sells delicious Syrian food on Sundays (before 3pm) and cakes, teas, coffees etc until 5pm

The next Slow Session for your diary is 5th September, with the Fiery Clockface as the tune of the month.

I’ve added the Brown Coffin and the Fiery Clockface. One difficult tune and one easy one! I hope they will suit us well. I think it is reassuring to have a tune that is straightforward to learn and good too to have one that proves trickier and takes a little longer.

Hoping to see many of you at the August session (second Sunday for August) tomorrow and crossing fingers that it stays relatively dry (especially for arriving and leaving as the bandstand roof is pretty good cover when we’re there).

Michael is encouraging those who can to join him for Sunday sessions for the rest of July and beginning of August:

Dear All, 

With the July edition of the Slow Session out of the way, we now have four Sundays ahead for the more informal “anything goes” Flo sessions, namely the three remaining Sundays in July as well as August 1st. This is because the August edition of the Slow Session will be on the second Sunday, Aug. 8th. 

So do come along to Florence Park bandstand on any or all of the dates July 11, 18, 25, August 1, at 3:30 pm 

Depending on who shows up we may play French, Scandinavian, Galician, Scottish, Welsh, and/or Slow Session tunes (which are English/Irish/Scottish mostly). Just turn up and I’m sure we’ll find something to play. 

I hear there is going to be a ukulele group meeting at Florence Park this coming Sunday, but in a different corner of the park, at 2pm. Should they decide to move to the bandstand we may have to wait till they’re done or use another spot. Let’s just see how it goes. 

Weather forecast for this Sunday looks ok, 19 deg, with just a small risk of a shower. 

best, 

michael