Irish musicians, and writers, and home makers can all benefit by learning some rules and technical skills—and by allowing a little spontaneity and flexibility. But how much great technique do you need? Does that get in the way of the magic? In this episode, Nathan Gourley, Brendan Mulholland, and Sharon Murphy reflect on the alchemy of order and spontaneity: how rule following and rule breaking can make for a great journey; but how a total lack of plan can derail everything. _________________

For playlists, transcripts, links to videos, companion essays, and to contribute to this project, please head to IrishMusicStories.org ___________________

Thank you to everybody for listening. And a special thank you to this month’s underwriters: Michael Taylor, Edward O’Dwyer, Adele Megann, Peter Crimmin, the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, John Sigler, Randall Semagin, Ron Kral, Isaiah Hall, David Vaughan, Susan Walsh, Matt Jensen, John Ploch, Tom Frederick, Paul DeCamp, Jonathan Duvick, Gerry Corr, Mike Voss, Sean Carroll, Isobel McMahon, Bob Suchor, Finian McCluskey, Rick Rubin, Ken Doyle, Chris Armstrong, Ian Bittle, and Chris Murphy