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To celebrate the new release of Trad., here are two of the pieces available for download in mp3 format: Ril Ui Raghaille (Reilley's Reel)/The Bucks of Oranmore, and The Wealthy Squire.
This is an album of all traditional music and songs. There was no particular notion of returning to our roots--those roots are too many and varied to be gone back to easily. We just found ourselves playing and learning these songs and tunes from each other when we had down time on the road or were just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Some came from books, some from sessions and friends. Many of the songs have been favorites of mine for a long time--in a couple of cases since childhood. A few of the tunes are warhorses of the traditional repertoire--others are more obscure. Our interpretations may not be "fierce traditional," but neither have we tried to impose some preconceived stylistic gloss: we just played them as they seemed to us to want to be played.
The Ale is Dear/The Glass of Beer
This set was an arranged marriage predicated on the names of the tunes and we thought it
worked pretty well. The first tune is often played much faster, but the title suggested to us
something of a more solemn pace, so we slowed it down -- for a while, anyway. Brian learned
The Glass of Beer from his friend, John Favier, and brought it to us. It is also the name
of a famous James Stephens poem which, in turn, was a loose translation of a poem from the
17th Century Irish of Dáibhí Ó Bruadair. The original was a scurrilous slandering of a poor
woman who once refused Ó Bruadair service in a pub. Great poems, the pair of them.
Mollaí na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin (Curly-haired Molly Hollywood)
The words to this song are traditional. The music, however, is more recent. Rod introduced me
to it number of years ago via a Lá Lúgh recording and this melody, by Eithne Ní hUallacháin,
is such an improvement on the original that it has already become the definitive tune to which
the song is sung. The song is one of lost love. Curly-haired Molly has gone away and the singer
vows never to drink again. He will save his money, build a house on the hill and have four fine
speckled cows. He will become prosperous to win her back ...
The chorus translates as:
She’s far from me, far from me
She’s far from me since she left me
I miss her everywhere
Curly-haired Molly Ní Chuilleanáin
Ríl Uí Raghaille (Reilly’s Reel)/The Bucks of Oranmore
Our rehearsals aren’t always the most organized or disciplined occasions. Sometimes we just
sit around slopping tea and putting sets together -- medleys of tunes that work particularly well
in tandem. The Bucks‚ of course, is a classic and a staple of the session but finding a tune to
precede it -- no tune would dare follow it -- was a challenge. Ríl Uí Raghaille -- pronounced
Reely Riley -- was originally picked off the page for its irresistible name. Then, one day, we were
sitting around playing it when someone in the band segued into The Bucks and we’ve been doing
it that way ever since.
Benjamin Bowmaneer
To my mind, one of the unfortunate side effects of the surge of affection for all things “celtic”
has been the overlooking of the great English folk tradition. Brian came across this little gem
in the Penguin Book of English Folksong. The editors’ notes on it are vague and noncommittal
but the song is clearly an anti-war satire. Benjamin Bowmaneer would seem to be
a reference to the staunch English bowman heroes of Agincourt; “castors away” means “hats off”.
The identity of the proud tailor is unknown -- a saying of the day was “nine tailors doth make
one man” -- but listeners of the time would have surely known who was being referred to.
We were having some difficulty at first trying to get forward movement with the insistent 3/4
rhythm, when Mike, in a moment of playful inspiration, started playing in 2, quoting from the
bass line of Stravinsky’s Histoire d’un Soldat (appropriately enough). The eccentric two-againstthree
rhythm that he set up gave the piece both direction and musical tension.
Aoibhneas Éilis Ní Cheallaigh (Éilis Kelly’s Delight)/ Droim Chonga (Drim Cong)/ Ryan’s Rant
Éilis Kelly has had at least two tunes named for her -- the eponymous Éilis Kelly’s and this, Éilis
Kelly’s Delight. Brian plays whistle on Aoibhneas Éilis and it was he who taught it, and Ryan’s
Rant to the band. Droim Chonga -- named for Drim Cong in Co. Galway -- came from Rod.
Jimmy, mo Mhíle Stór
Just for a change, here’s an Irish love song that is not totally miserable. It’s also one of my alltime
favourite melodies. The singer (a young girl) explains that this time last year her Jimmy
went off to see the world. When he comes home she’ll run to him and cover him with honey
-- that’s what the song says. In the meantime, her parents are making her life miserable -- as,
no doubt, she is making theirs. All she wants is to go away, live in the woods and daydream
about Jimmy.
Hunt the Cat/The Hatter from Nenagh
Brian gets to play mandolin on this one -- the role in which he originally joined the band. We like
to think that the word “hunt” in the title is actually the cat’s name (and I have known a cat called
Fiach, meaning “hunt”‚ in Irish) but all the alternative titles for the tune echo the notion that the
word is a verb. So, we think of it as a playful, friendly hunting -- no cats were hurt in the recording
of the album. The Hatter from Nenagh‚ follows ... we found both tunes in the Roche collection.
Alan Tyne of Harrow
Another English song, though I have heard claims for it being Scottish or Irish. In common with
our other recorded highwayman song, The Newry Highwayman, the geography surrounding the
background of our hero is quite confused. The song itself, though, seems pretty English to me
even if the hero isn’t. As in The Newry Highwayman‚, there are references to Covent Garden,
Ned Fielding, the protagonist’s aversion to robbing the poor and, of course, to the imminent
doom of our “hero”.
Julia Delaney/McFarley’s
Julia Delaney is also a staple of the session and has always seemed to just be around. McFarley’s
has also been around hiding behind a ream of aliases. Jean first learned it from a John Doherty
recording.
The May Morning Dew
This a wonderfully powerful song. In many ways it’s a sean nós song in English. As with the
old sean-nós songs, it combines directness of language and honesty of feeling with a more
elaborate structure than might, at first, be apparent. The prosody of these songs is often highly
structured but the simplicity and directness of the language tends to soften and obscure that
structure. Ars est celare artis. You’ll have noticed that rather than provide translations of the songs
in Irish on this recording, I’ve tried to give a summarized “gist”. I’ve found (some great translations
notwithstanding) that songs in Irish tend not to weather the translation process terribly well. The
relationship of structure and words tends to unravel when translated into another language and
the force of the song evaporates. That, of course, is not a problem here.
The New Road/Nelson’s Pillar/An Bóthar Cam (The Crooked Road)
We’ve been playing this set for a while now so its provenance is a bit obscure. We have
recorded The New Road before on a project we did with Windhorse Productions and
storyteller Eddie Lenihan.
The Wealthy Squire
Another one of those perfect little stories. The song is very short but, perhaps, all the
more powerful for that and some of the word-pictures are beautifully drawn e.g. “I spun
around upon my heel not knowing what to do”. I can’t help but feel that Hank Williams
would have been proud to have written it.
Aililiú na Gamhna
This one I’ve known so long ... I think I first heard it in the Kerry Gaeltacht when I was
about 10. There are a number of songs that I’ve known for forever and I’m pretty sure
I learned a good number of them at school in Cuas. The singer of the song is a young girl,
the daughter of a herdsman. Her job in the summertime is to care for the calves and, to her,
it’s the best job in the whole world.
Young Terence MacDonough
Well, you have to do a Carolan tune, you know, and this lament is one of his loveliest.
It was written for Counsellor MacDonough, on the occasion of the early death of his son,
Young Terence, and is sometimes known as Counsellor MacDonough’s Lamentation.
We left it pretty sparse and let it speak for itself.
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