My friend Francis Devine, from Dublin, gave me the following poem, inspired by this photo of the morning scene behind my house. Thank you so much, Francis! , Poplar stands, enormous skiesGhosts of engineering DutchmenEchoing in folk with names likeSnart, Homan, van der ThisAnd, occasionally, van der…
The name is a tribute to Hendrick’s Pub in Alphen aan den Rijn, where we used to have a series of lovely Irish music sessions, unfortunately discontinued. I used this tune for a little video. Photo: John Richard.
Song in Dutch by Simon Oak about the strange unnecessary hesitation many people have to give a thumbs-up to people that show their creative work on Facebook. Lyrics Chorus: Wat leuk, wat leuk, een duimpje omhoog! Met een balk in m’n oog, een balk in…
As a 50 plus singer, songwriter and musician, I’m taking my first steps into the world of professional music therapy. I’m a Civil Engineer, always in love with bridges, selling software for engineers and designers of all disciplines, which is a great way to earn…
Old Hallowe’en Song in Dutch. I wrote this song for my kids back in 2002 and recorded it just now. Hope you like it. Lyrics Om twaalf uur in de nacht bij volle maanWanneer de uilen vliegen en de klokken slaanOm twaalf uur in de…
This is a little animation test. Exploring Ireland through Google Street View is already quite common, but time consuming. Better minimize your time behind the computer and spend more time for the real experience. So here’s what I found out: a quick view of a route I’m considering to go…
This is an old children’s poem from the USA that was set to music by Simon Oak, thanks to Wim van Gent who posted the poem after a silent night of snowfall. I took the photo in December 2009. Source: Edgar, M. G.: “A Treasury of Verse for…
While I was writing down this little tune, I received a message from a friend who was visiting Iran and, like all visitor stories about Iran, he reported great friendliness of the people there, so therefore this name “Tune For Iran”. Feel free to learn it and make…
After a visit to the weekly Irish session in the Blarney Stone Irish Pub in Shanghai, in 2013, the idea came to me to set up a map to mark down every place on earth where Irish sessions are on, so that travelling musicians, like…
Some songs can’t be sung just like that and to me “The Ballad Of Claudy” by James Simmons is clearly one of that kind. In the early days of our band The Doggy Dike we had regular gigs in a pub called “The Lowlander” in Bodegraven. It was at…