Saint Bartholemew's Feast (Jean Bolger)
      Saint Bartholemew was one of the lesser known Apostles-Lebbeus, maybe, is more obscure-and the legend of his feast is one of the more engaging. By all accounts, people afflicted with epilepsy and other similar disorders would go to church on the eve of his feast and dance all night. They were, we are told, "sure to find relief." We once had a planned concert moved from a Baptist Church for fear dancing would break out. "A vertical expression of horizontal desire,"-indeed!

Little Drummer (traditional)
      No, not the Perry Como one though that might complement St. Bartholemew above. This one concerns a rather unconventional and very speedy courtship. Highly effective, too.

Dermot O'Dowd/The Cloud Peak Rant/Tip, the Wonder Dog (Rod Garnett)
      The first tune is traditional, though often ascribed to Carolan. Rod wrote the other two, naming the first for a mountain in the Big Horn range in Wyoming. The second title we discovered while sitting in Tryllions Cafe in Boulder, Colorado, waiting to start a gig. Among a pile of books we found an old volume of anecdotes about animals and there was his picture-Tip, the wonder dog. Rod had just introduced the tune to the band-and now we had a name for it.

Mary from Dungloe (Traditional)
      One of the loveliest old melodies from the great Donegal song traditional, with the perfect last line-"I'd roll my Mary in my arms in the town of sweet Dungloe."

Siamese Triplets (Brian Mullins)
      One of Brians'. Essentially it's a slip-jig but with the inclusion of the occasional bar of 12/8 instead of 9/8.

Henry Martin (traditional)
      We got this out of "The Penguin Book of Folk Ballads of the English-Speaking World." Vicki Levine of The Colorado College asked me to speak to her students about the ballad tradition and to pick a balland that we could all sing in class. I picked this one and enjoyed it so much I thought it might be a good one for the band.

Mo ghrasa ar maidin (My Love in the Morning) / Port Mhuineachain (The Monaghan Jig) (traditional)
      The name of an Irish traditional tune, Ciaran Carson reminds us in his book "Last Night's Fun," "does not describe its musical activity nor impute experience to it." In other words it's just the name of the tune. So, while I think "My Love in the Morning" is a wonderful title for a tune my own love is not nearly lively in the morning-lovely, though.

Cill Chais (Kilcash) (traditional)
      Cill Chais is an estate in County Tipperary, now in ruins. Deforestation, in general, and the demise of Cill Chais, in particular, have long been metaphors for the passing of the old Gaelic order and its hospitality. The third verse of this version sounds a note of optimism-ill-founded, as it turns out.

The Wife of Riley's Brother (Brian Mullins)
      Another chapter in the Riley saga. No questions have been answered yet-the enigma grows.

The Confession (Mick Bolger)
      The tradition of taking jokes and turning them into songs is an old one and is a great way to get mileage out of a joke. You can sing a song again and again for an audience, but don't tell them the same joke twice. Trust me.

The 3rd of January (Mike Fitzmaurice)
      Mike wrote this one-you can tell because the bass gets to play the melody. While composing this piece he was in a state of great angst as to what note would sound good after the one he had just written. And the 3rd of January? Well, that's just the name of the tune.

Yellow Doll (Mike Fitzmaurice and Mick Bolger)
      This is the first time Mike and I have written a song together-probably no bad thing considering the subject matter we came up with. Our friend, Mary Schmit of Deadwood, SD, told us the story of Yellow Doll and of her subsequent haunting of the building in which she was murdered-apparently she folds people's laundry in the middle of the night.

The Bellefield (Brian Mullins)
      Another tune from the prolific Brian. He saw this name on a railway car in Idaho and then, a while later on a street car in Dublin-Ireland that is-and just had to give that name to a tune.

Silas (Jean Bolger and Mick Bolger)
      There are many true stories such as this one: Greyfriars Bobby, at the turn of the last century in Edinburgh, Scotland or, for the last seven years, Canelo in Cadiz, Spain, who refuses to leave the gates of the hospital where he last saw his late master. In both the above instances these loyal animals were cared for by local people who provided them with food and shelter. Some politican is reputed to have said of an opponent, "He has all the qualities of a dog--except loyalty." It hardly bears thinking about.

Cnoic Fhada Muighdhorna (The Long Hills of Muighdhorna) / An Chos Tinn (The Sore Leg) / An Cailin sa Chrann Silini (The Girl Up the Cherry Tree) (traditional)
      Apparently the above hills didn't have much going for them in terms of altitude which would, I suppose, by default, make them long. Was this a charitable way of saying, "the quite stumpy hills of Muighdhorna (pronounced Mwee-gore-na)?" "An Chos Tinn" may be variously translated as either "the sore foot" or "the sore leg." However, in Ireland, there is an expression regarding an over-fondness for alchohol, to wit, "Sure, he'd lick it off a sore leg, he would." So "sore leg" it is. As for "The Girl Up the Cherry Tree," well, that's just the name of the tune.