Deb Montgomery

Galway has been lovely. Sheridan’s Cheese Mongers
and Tich Nachtain my two favourites…after a number of
guiness yesterday, I took a break by eating a big plate of
fresh fish and chips from McDonoughs……..read that name
carefully. Then met up with a lovely woman from Galway who
was the DJ at the University STation for 6 years…gave her
a few CD’s.. pretty cool.
Well, I’m feeling my late guiness night….so going to chill
and try and make some sense of this later. I can’t complete a
thought and I’m totally anxious about going into a structured
week of songwriting….even though THAT is what I came for!
Yikes, I’m a spaz. My nephew agrees.

Yesterday I met a nice guy from Chicago…he was on his
way to the cliffs today..I offered to split the gas and join
him…what beauties they are..and the coast off a little town
called Doolin…County Clare I think..stunningly beautiful.
I feel blessed and thankful…full of the sea, the blue, and
happy to have met a fellow traveller for a bit. The Irish Stew
mid day was a treat too!
Peace,
Deb

…..grand pub at the corner of Quay and Cross Streets…
someone tell Annie to meet me there :0……………and Val thanks
for the rec.

met a guy today that invited me to record a song in his studio..
may or may not..but great chat..

off to Sheridan’s Cheese Mongers for a glass of wine and some
cheeses……………………and stuff.
saw a boat today called “defiance”. took a pic and told the guy
(I dug his boat!

…can someone tell me where the phrase “under the weather” came from?
Canada? UK? Ireland? the USA?

thought I would have loads to say by last night, but seem to have picked
up a little flu thingy. so wandered rather unacceptingly yesterday around Galway
which is darling really…found the pubs and places friends have recommended..
the sweater shops..passed some talented buskers..and finally asked a local where
the best Indian Food was in Galway. yup, that’s right. ordered the hottest thing
on the menu, took it to my Hotel and hopefully made any little virus in my body
feel extremely unwelcome and in for it..lots of vit C to make it unpleasant for
anything to stick around…put the big “VIRUSES NOT WELCOME HERE” sign on every
organ in my body…and…here..wait..wait..
WENT TO SLEEP!

11 hours later, feeling like some of those Galway trecks might be possible.
so..will try later to write some more. CLiffs of Moher..on the list.

actually felt a tad lonely last night after all this amazing interaction.
but felt like I was up for that. called my sis. Hello to Liam..Little growing
Liam is 4 months almost!
peace,
deb

..just a quickie from a public booth……………
the title forecasts my few days here I think.
….and hello also to Loree and Leslie and Dawn
and Carla and Don…and Kel Bel and wee Liam..
later gators…
out til 3:30am at a session in an Irish pub that stayed open
won’t say where though so as not to get in trouble Pat the
bartender/owner?
but thank you thank you! what an amazing night of music..
and yes, I was asked to sing..I sang “Ask for Angels”
the woman at the bar told me in the bathroom that I reminded her
of Celine Dion…?????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
ok. well. Celine should sing one of my tunes and make me a lot
of money.
Gareth says that Ask for Angels will be a worldwide hit…cool!!!
I’m ok with that.

..and we all sang Helpless..and I did Bruce Springsteens’ Downbound Train..
Craig will like that..
with Irish flutes and banjos to go with..
running out of time
back later beauties!!!
Deb

…Perhaps I will figure out how to transfer my pics from dig camera to disc
to the library computer in Drumshambo…but for now you’ll just have to trust that
I was walking barefoot in the Irish Sea a couple days ago. Beautiful and fierce.
Fierce and Beautiful. Like life sometimes. Funny that we often trust the calm in
our everyday lives more than the fierce moments…times.

My uncle asked me some pretty cool questions which I could not answer. “So Debbie,
yep he calls me Debbie…and he can cause he’s cool..so Debbie, you seem fun and funny and tough and lovely..and I was just wondering if you ever think of writing a happy song? Your stuff seems fairly dark in places….” It’s a great question and a fair question..but I don’t know the answer and that’s what I told him. I thanked him for asking me though. I’m sure a few people have wanted to ask that in my time…

but maybe it’s in my partly Irish Blood to catch the songs that express the hard parts…or hard bits as one friend calls them…there are times in my life when I feel like I hit a wall and I’m knawing on it…that’s just how impossible it feels to
get through it…some obviously far more intense or awful than others..but still there it is…and crying doesn’t move me through it, nor laughing nor drinking nor praying nor raging like the sea…so I pick up my guitar and begin to pick or strum and hum or wail in a musical kind of way..you can sing an ugly thing and make it beautiful..you can sing a grief and make it song..you can distort and guitar and scream something angry to a rhythm…and make it fun..

out of nothingness something comes..and there is the song. and it feels like a gift and it feels like there’s a giver..and somehow faith is restored.

It’s still not an answer to my uncles good question…but I like the question.

Speaking of Irish Songs, I am staying with the multi-talented Eileen O Toole in Drumshambo..tonight off to a local Irish Session complete with flutes, accordians,
fiddles, pipes and bodhran with a little accent above the a….
when Ei picked me up she explained she lives in a little Irish Farmhouse…Old as the hills..truly but is out of oil so no hot water…this morning I had THE coldest
bird bath EVER!!! But it makes me feel good. like I’m REALLY in the country!

Today I was on a riverboat on the SHannon…a two hundred mile river which apparently starts at what Eileen calls a burp of a beginning..puddle…
you see how much water can come from little things…lots of life from a small place.. sometimes the things of God are born in little burps. Be prepared to be surprised. Try that one on today.

Met a man on a boat today off to hunt ducks with a cute yellow Lab by the name of Sam…”He won’t quit looking for the bird til I call him off!” Well… lovely.

I met a woman today who’s Irish and wants to marry a canadian guy…asked if I knew any…I told her to go to Sarnia and hang out at a bar….was that ok?

I’m hungry. It’s almost dinner time. Off for some guiness. High in the B vitamins and Iron apparently,….if that’s not true please don’t ‘contact’ me to tell me the
truth on this one!

Peace…and more peace within and around.
Deb

not much time to write, but I’m hanging out with
my Dad’s twin brother…only met him once for short time.
we’re having fun..had a guiness today in Bangor..
Belfast had a hard week. Reminds me of my grandmother
talking about the troubles when I was a kid..

walked by the sea yesterday..green blue Irish Sea with
two of my aunts…very cool, very cold very beautiful.
did I mention how much I like the Irishmen? ah yes.

Of to Yeats home soon……..terrible and beautiful..
should pick some of his writing up to read on the bus.

Contacted by Swedish JOurnalist yesterday. heard the cd
on cdbaby and wants one to write about. very cool.
Belgium,,Sweden..hm…sounds like a tour en route.
hello to vic friends, dba friends..and Jacob, Benny, Maddie and Liam.
Josh and Abbey, Sarah and Pam and Valerie..Shea, Lisa, Mr. K…
squish. love Deb

David is the drummer. THere is nothing sexier than watching/hearing him
play drums. He’ll make you feel like you can fly. Anyhoo….last night
I took Gareth to Bang on a Can, who were playing DUBLIN…Mark Stewart (on
my CD, plays with Paul Simon etc……………)is in B.O.A.C. and
threw us on the guest list….what a treat! If you, whoever you are, ever
get a chance to see these guys…go go go!SO inspiring. So Aikido…
Yeh, too bad I’m not having any fun right…oh well. www.bangonacan.org

Working on learning Bruce Cockburns’ ‘All the Diamonds in the World’.
Been going through my head for over a week. time to cover it I think.

Got a call from a DJ in Belguim who heard the CD and CDBABY.COM and wants
to play in on his station…very cool. Off to Bangor via Belfast tomorrow.
My Dad’s twin brother lives there with my aunt.

Dublin has been a blast. I really like this city. I hear Galway is stunning.
But as big cities go, this has been a treat. thank you again to my hosts and friends
Gareth and Louise.

I am off to write again in a cafe…perhaps before I leave Dublin, I will leave
you with some of my writing writing…to sum up Dublin..or dip you a little in
my deeper waters..

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my brain and eys are swimming in my stomach.

dublin is fun and my hosts Gareth and Louise ROCK!
cutest couple in Ireland I think…thanks for that
I will be walking ghost-like today through Southside Dub
…need a VIC coffee…hello to all you cuties in Brooklyn.
someone build a fort with Jackson..tell him I said hi
from across the sea.
peace and gurgling gut for now.
deb

p.s. wrote yesterday in small cafe called Lovin Spoon..lovely
bartender/waiter..he was so patient with this elderly couple.
it made me smile and cry a tad because so much of our culture
is fast, youth, sex oriented….and we so need wisdom and
patience..so we don’t miss what really matters.
oh, and he did make a mean expresso!

Learning something new involves not just listening but
listening in very new ways sometimes. It took the whole aikido
class before I realized that listening with the body, not unlike
dance, is very different. not disturbing the flow. staying present.
allowing something difficult, unfamiliar to turn you in whatever
direction you FEEL it turning you..to go with and into it..and
let whatever is harmful about it find its own end while you
just turn in and move..dance with it..but to stay present and centered
..not to shrink away from it..

it reminds me, of course, of life…at least a lot of mine. songwriting
for me has been a lot like that..letting that which feels unbearable
move me in a direction..and turn turn accordingly..and what appeared to
be after me becomes something I master by listening/feeling/turning
into a song. there are a thousand metaphors for songwriting .. I just happened
upon a new one last night..and some sore muscles to prove it today.

peace,
deb