Ok, ok, Blogger might not be that new to the web, but it's new to me and I'm so excited to have this vehicle for expressing myself online now that I'm going to add a second part to my previous post. I wrote to Paddy Keenan today, the legendary travelling uilleann piper from Ireland and now living in New Hampshire. I had the good fortune of seeing him twice in St. Louis at the Focal Point. At the time, he was working with a new guitarist and they were still working some of the rough edges out. To make matters better (or worse in the sake of the turnout), the St. Louis Cardinals were playing an important game for the World Series that same night, so the turnout left much to be desired. Still, Paddy played brilliantly and told several great stories, like how he and Finbar Furey used to procur aluminum tubing to make whistles by drilling on parts of antennas, which were not still connected to the main antenna vein (by both natural and manmade means of disconnection).
What really impressed me during the show was, here is this great resource in terms of the life of a travelling musician in Ireland, a prodigious piping icon. For example, this guy was invited to audition for the Beatles at Abbey Road when they were auditioning new sounds for albums, but he lost heart and went to hawk his pipes at a pawn shop. Or maybe I'm mixing the stories up, but that's why I need to write the book! So, here is the letter that I wrote to Paddy in its entirety:
Subject: The Paddy Keenan Biography
Hi There--
I am a professional writer living near Springfield, Missouri and have met Paddy in St. Louis on two occasions. Also, I have had the good fortune of growing up with Paddy's music, listening especially to the "Brown Album" and other albums of the Bothy Band. There are many great stories about Paddy's life that I have read online or heard in person, but I think that it's time that these anecdotes were compiled into a single work that is befitting a man of his depth of talent and breadth of experience. Being a published writer and musician myself, I think that I could bring a unique qualification to the undertaking of writing Paddy's biography.
It would be entirely feasible to collaborate over the telephone and with the Internet, or I could also arrange to meet him again in person. I am currently researching the publishing of e-books for another project, and this might be one possible way to get the book not only published but also marketed through online book sellers such as Amazon. The publisher takes a small percentage of profits for marketing and distribution, I would take a percentage and Paddy would take the remaining and largest portion. The exact business arrangement can be worked out later. But the point is, I will not be paid anything up front but only when books are sold.
Paddy can view samples of my writing (and even my music, most humbly!) on my website http://www.jabuffington.com/about/mywriting.htm
Please email me or phone at ###-#### when you would like to begin this important project.
Sincerely,
Buffpiper
###
So, I changed my number to look anonymous and important. Of course, I have done so much shameless self-promotion on the Internet lately that I'm not much of either. But, I already have these pipedreams in my mind's eye about how I'm gonna write the book for Paddy and it's gonna be an international best-seller and we will go on a publicity tour with agents and talk shows and green rooms and groupies. Ok, strike that last one off the official record for my wife's sake, the most beautiful (and rhythmic) groupie that I've ever met.
