TC Celtic Monday Night Session

I used to play with TC Celtic a couple of years ago and it was a fabulous experience. 30+ musicians crowded onto that tiny stage and virtually all of them having a wonderful time doing what they like best...playing music. There were multiple instruments of nearly every variety and it all worked together. The Loading Dock was PACKED (standing room only and many were doing exactly that), high energy and clapping and stomping of feet. Attending the jam last Monday was, however, and entirely different experience.
How disappointing that the group has dwindled to about 10 players, the crowd has thinned out to nothing much but friends and family of the musicians, and there was no interaction between audience and musicians.
A discussion was had after the very first tune played about "long background notes" being inappropriate to the style of music that was being played, and that it "brings the dancers down". This is simply not true. In traditional Irish music played by Uilleann pipes there are drones and regulators, be it jigs, reels or whathaveyou. Those drones may be droning the same notes constantly, but there is a chord represented there. The regulators, on the other hand, change at will. Long tones in the background are the glue that holds the rest of the music together, and without it, it pretty much means that everyone is playing the melody. If you cannot play other than the dots on the page and a few chords, fine then. Go ahead and play the melody, but do not criticise those who are able to find that chord and move about in it appropriately to the tune and provide harmony and something other than the melody.
Everyone playing the melody is a reproduction of what? A bunch of people who play instruments (not musicians) and happen to be sitting in the same room practising the same tune at the same time. There is so much more music that can be made! It should not be played exactly the same way every time....that's not music.
In 30+ years of teaching Highland dance, Scottish country dance and Irish step dance I have never experienced the long tones "bringing the dancers down" as everyone knows that the dancers dance to the percussion. The change in the long background tones alerts them to a chord change, as something must then change in the dance.
The music is no longer alive. What a pity the group is being held to such "strict standards" that neither the instrumentalists nor the audience are having any fun any more.
I will continue with solo work, occasionally play with friends, and will not return to TC Celtic.
J.

I'm anxious to session again. Once from a metropolis where we had 3 sessions a week, for the past 6 years I've been without a regular dose of therapy of Irish music. So, Gail and I will make the hour plus drive tonight 11/17/08. Hope to see and hear you there. John Ri

does anyone know how to locate the t.c celtic book song list on line