Midnight Rambles at The Oliver Plunkett

 At the Oliver Plunket Bar, the Midnight Rambles session  featured the second  piano player heard on an evening of Leeside musical rambles. Michael Young was an adroit accompanist to Amanda Neri at a cabaret evening of chanson at L'Atitude Wine Cafe. Later, on other side of the Lee,  Dee Power was a key (groan) element of a late night rhythm and blues 'jam' session adding chords and melodic interludes  to vocals from Hank Wedel et al. While it was lively, it was not quite 'what it said on the tin'. Although the website suggests that this regular slot is an acoustic session which I understand to mean un-amplified, all the players were plugged in. Neither was there  a sense that  participants rolled in unscheduled as the term, jam session suggests.  Among the comfortably full house of mostly middle aged insomniacs were members of the Cork Symphony Orchestra unwinding after their Opera House gig.
      The Oliver Plunkett is one of my favourite  venues with notably cheerful staff offering everything from  morning coffee to good value meals and live music from early to late in a city centre location. Recent memorable gigs  at the venue that escaped mention in these pages  included the Calvinists and pianist Pat Crowley with Elly O Keeffe,

*Speaking of piano players , fans of Franz the Flying Piano Man may like to note that they can hear the Bavarian on alternate weeks Wednesday and Thursday nights  at his regular spot in the Hi B Bar and he is due there next on Wednesday May 1st . Worth checking out of you are in Cork for the Choral Festival.