A day in the life - celtic fiddle productions

I went to the Global Entertainment and Media Summit today in New York City. They had panels on various topics, one of which was blogging, so I decided to start a blog. The standard music business tips presented at many of these conferences is probably most relevant to people that are in certain musical genres-ones that follow the standard pattern.
I decided after listening to several sessions, that my life as an Irish fiddle player and working musician had a complete other set of challenges, and that by writing about them, I'd at least be able to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.

I came home and began dealing with the challenges. The main one for this week is that I have three major upcoming shows booked in the same week, and due to the various musicians and dancers availability,plus a singer with bronchitis, I am having to put together separate bands for each gig. To start with, there is the scheduling nightmare of who can rehearse when,
and that is really just the beginning.
When I used to be in classical music, it wasn't hard to find people to fill-in, because there were a lot of musicians that could play the style and were fairly interchangeable. Not so with Irish music. There are just not 500 uilleann pipers in Manhattan (those are the Irish pipes, played like bellows). So you go with the best musicians you can find, that know the style. The challenge is that certain instruments have limitations (i.e. highland bagpipes can only play in Bb or Eb and don't have all the notes), so if you're going with different instruments for each group, you have to change everything. It's like starting over, which would be fine, but is a little stressful a few weeks before a big show.
The exciting part, though, is that I'll get to try all sorts of combinations. Putting together a really hot band requires a certain chemistry, and it takes time to find that group of people that just blend.
I know more now than when I first started. I used to think that playing with great musicians was the best thing. Now after a little experience under my belt, I have decided that playing with great musicians is still great, but it is so much sweeter when they are also people you enjoy as people and can have a great time on the road.
While I was dealing with all my business transactions - writing letters, answering e-mails, dealing with booking agents, etc. I put on some music and it reminded me why I'm going through all this. The music is, after all, worth some challenges.