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Sleeve Notes
I can never thank Dónal Lunny enough for his commitment, musicianship and hard work. Dónal loves a challenge and I'm pretty good at presenting him with one!
Thanks to all the other musicians who played on this album, Liam O'Flynn, Máirtín O'Connor, Annbjørg Lien, Lillebjørn Nilsen, Nikola Parov, Jacky Molard, Bruce Molsky, Rens van der Zalm, Rick Epping, Graham Henderson, Paul Moore, Liam Bradley, Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton.
Thanks to Leon O'Neill for tireless work in the studio and Tim Martin for equally tireless work after the recording was finished. Thanks to Ross Martin and Deirdre Costello at Westland Studios, Dublin.
Three Huntsmen — I learned this graphic song, to a different tune, back in the early sixties from Johnny Moynihan who got it from Dave Smyth who got it from Paddy Lawless in Dublin. We always loved the line — "out sprang three bold and swaggering men with swords keen in hand". It has been collected as far afield as Ireland, England, Appalachia and Canada. Sam Henry prints a version from Coleraine with a unique ending, the three huntsmen staying together and killing all eleven of the highwaymen and the girl, their captain.
Willy of Winsbury — Learned back in the sixties from Professor Child's collection of traditional ballads which was like the bible at the time. This is Child 100. I collated words from different versions and as the story goes, on looking up the tune, I lighted on the tune to number 101. I'm not sure if this is true but it's a good story.
I recorded it solo on Sweeney's Men's eponymous first album in 1968 accompanying myself on guitar.
Emptyhanded — Written by George Papavgeris. George tells me the song relates to "Convicts in Australia who upon completing their sentence were given the option of 100 free acres of land. Unfortunately, thanks to the regular droughts, many found themselves defaulting on their loans and losing their land. The story was repeated later with many of the early immigrants, and the banks did very well out of them too."
The Close Shave & East at Glendart — My friend in Nelson, New Zealand, Bob Bickerton wrote this. Bob had heard me sing a song called "Patrick Street" in which a sailor, home from a long voyage, gets extremely drunk and winds up being robbed of his money and clothes by a prostitute. Bob thought this a bit tame and re-located the song to New Zealand during a gold strike. If you ever go to Waihi, beware of masculine looking women!
James Magee — Collected in 1970 by Robin Morton from John Maguire who farmed near Rosslea in Co. Fermanagh. This was printed in Robin's lovely book "Come Day, Go Day, God Send Sunday".
Also collected by Sam Henry from Charles Dempsey, "a man who learned most of his songs from hearing the old women sing who plucked feathers for his mother — a fowl merchant..."
Green table is an Ulster phrase for the Court of Justice.
One of my earliest influences was GB Grayson and other Old Time Appalachian, musicians who sang while accompanying themselves on the fiddle. A lot of the ballads they sang still had distinct musical connections with songs from the North of Ireland that their ancestors had left 3 or 4 generations previously. I get that feeling with this song, though obviously not with the words. It has the same feel as "Omie Wise" or "Willie Moore".
The tune we play at the end was written especially by Bruce Molsky. He calls it "Isambard's Lament"
The Girl from Cushendun & The Love of my Life — I got the idea for this song from good old Sam Henry's collection again.
I think I was trying to do something with the song "Kate from Ballinamore". This intervened.
The Spirit of Mother Jones — Mary Harris who later became know as Mother Jones was a militant agitator for the rights of working men and women in America — especially miners and their families — from the late 19th century until her death in 1930.
I visited her grave & monument in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois about 12 years ago.
Unfortunately it was a long drive and by the time I got there it was pitch black on a cold winter night. I viewed the monument and cemetery at midnight by the headlights of the car, expecting — and hoping — to meet a Union ghost at any moment! The Spirit of Mother Jones and I were walk leaders on the 2005 Afri Walk in Co. Mayo. The theme that year was Defending the Rights of Migrant Workers.
The song was written for that event.
John D. Rockefeller Jr. owned The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company that mined most of the coal in the southern Colorado coal fields. He had declared that he would lose his entire fortune before recognising organised labour.
The strike at Ludlow in the bitter winter of 1914 caused international outrage when the state militia fired on the striking miners' tents and 13 people, including 11 children, died of asphyxiation in an underground shelter the miners had dug for the protection of their women and children.
Victory at Lawrence — The Lawrence Woollen Mills strike of 1912 was nearly a watershed in the social history of USA. For a moment, at the height of the victory, it seemed to employers and workers as though social revolution might be about to dawn. However a combination of Depression in 1913, unemployment caused by the closing of mills by the owners and an inability by the IWW to build a strong organised union after the strike led to the resumption of employer/worker relations as before.
A huge gratitude of thanks is due to my former agent, Maureen Brennan, who, when living in Massachusetts, regularly visited the library in Lawrence and supplied me with enough documentation on the strike to open a library of my own!
The Demon Lover) — Not for the faint hearted! This is another Child Ballad — #243. Though the basic elements of this song have often been found in Appalachia, as The House Carpenter, the song seems to have died out in Britain and Ireland.
Hence the tune is my own, though just what is the time signature, is beyond me. I remember singing this — to the House Carpenter tune — back in the sixties at The Green Lounge, a long vanished pub and folk club in Dublin. When I got to the verse about the cloven foot, the frightened intake of breath from the audience nearly sucked me and my guitar off the stage!
Banks of Newfoundland — Rescue at sea averts the eating of a shipmate. Learned from the late Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, Co. Derry. I visited Eddie and his wife Gracie a few times back in the 70s and was always made very welcome there. Probably got this from Hugh Shields' book — "Shamrock, Rose and Thistle — Folk Singing in North Derry". Sam Henry collected a similar version in 1934 from a man in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim.
Oslo & Norwegian Mazurka — Some years ago I spent a boozy week in Oslo with my good friend, Lillebjørn Nilsen.
I was completely knackered when I got home to Ireland and decided to write a song about my experiences. Unfortunately I could remember almost nothing, so this may or may not be true! No one will ever know. The lovely tune afterwards is from the repertoire of Annbjørg Lien.