I did manage to play along with a Conjunto Bernal recording in the afternoon. I rarely play with CDs, but this was useful to confirm keys, progressions, and melodies. Mostly they play in the flat keys, up through Ab, although one tune was in D, and one tune was a bit sharper than concert. I'm not sure what I picked up from Paulino Bernal's style, although I guess this is a necessary step in learning the tools in order to listen to his playing in a more informed manner.
Later I worked on "When You and I Were Young Maggie"... a beautiful tune, which most people have heard but never play. I got turned on to it awhile back from someone (Maura Connell?) singing in De Danaan or the Bothy Band, I forget who... great, hair-raising singing, although I couldn't make out what she was saying. The lyrics have been difficult to lock down... there are some copies out there that are long and don't mean much to me. I'm using the two verses found in J. Murray Neil's "The Scots Fiddle" vol2. I had always wondered how someone could sing that he had gone to the hill and seen the rusty mill and all... why didn't he take Maggie along? Turns out that the author had lost his wife to illness after a few months of marriage, and the song really means that he has seen her go, seen the town go, seen everyone regard him as different, but he still sees her as he knew her fifty years ago, and that beauty never fades. A deep feeling like that can mirror many things for many people.
Can pretty much go through Original Rags and Maple Leaf without checking the score. Not smooth yet, but I've broken the reliance on the visuals, and can now take it to the next step.
Now listening to Leon McAuliffe's Cimarron Boys... yes, it's accomplished, but nothing has reached me yet, I'm not sure I hear a person in there yet. Read a little in the afternoon on Kentucky fiddling and western swing steel.