Dear Music Listeners,
While I was in Dublin, I decided to go on a 
whiskey and craft beer tour with my friends. The final stop took us to a local pub to drink Guinness and listen in on an Irish jam session. When we walked into the pub it was not crowded, the few people there looked like they were regulars and had come here from work. Kinda Charming!
Traditional Irish music was something I could always only listen to in small doses. Live, maybe it would be different and ‘jam session’ sounded promising. To me a jam session meant musicians creating a solid base of sound together and then each taking a turn, in which they go off – one at a time – on their instrument going into another sphere, while the others stayed more or less grounded, you know – just jammin’.
This jam was different. There were several musicians, a fiddle and a banjo of course, ok two banjos, and also an accordion, as well as a guitar – this mix was constantly changing as people were taking brakes or joining in. One of them would start and continue playing the same set of chords with little to no variation. The other 
musicians would focus only on him (in this session all musicians were men), experimenting with how to join in. Stopping and restarting with maybe something slightly different. Slowly building a jam, layer by layer.
My fascination lay mostly in watching the crowd, the tourists that had walked into this unassuming pub, or were led here by their guide, looked like they had found a pot of gold, something chill and authentic in this otherwise rather touristy area of Dublin. A few, who I don’t believe were tourists, but other regulars or locals were swaying and smiling, truly enjoying what they were experiencing.
And I? I will remain a listener that will take traditional Irish music in small chunks with the bonus of being reminded of my time in Ireland.
Keep jammin’,
Hanna