Old friends and old mandolin

Yesterday I spent an evening with Jim O’Boyle and Dave Richardson.  Jim is a talented concertina player and Dave, who plays mandolin, octave mandolin as well as concertina, played for many years in The boys of the Lough, along with Cathal McConnell and Ali Bain.

I’ve been friends with both for over fifty years; Dave had some of my earliest instruments.  Here he is playing the second mandolin I made him in around 1975, a time when we both had hair.

Lovely to see Jim, Dave and mandolin still in such good condition.