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Sleeve Notes
The Project …
was hatched over an evening of playing tunes together at Marla's house in Oakland, California in November 2009. We decided to indulge our shared love for mandolin-family instruments, to the obstreperous exclusion of all others, save Marla’s heavy foot for percussion. It was recorded in three days in April 2010.
Many thanks …
to Jim Nunally, you are a joy to work with; to Ed Sherry, for the generous loan of your beautiful instruments; to Sylvia Herold and Chuck Ervin, dear friends, for your support in so many ways; to Jamie Beil for your encouragement to do this harebrained project; to Dana and Fionn for your fabulous photos; and to Patrick, for your amazing quick work and great attitude.
The Humours of Bandon, A Fig for a Kiss & The Dusty Miller — Marla learned this set dance many years ago from Liz Carroll's 1978 recording A Friend Indeed Curiously, Jimmy first heard it on a round-back Neapolitan mandolin played by Jim O'Donnell at the old Group Theatre, South Main Street, Cork. We mandolin players seem to have a thing for it! We follow it with a few well-known slip jigs to open the album.
The Morning Star, Trip to Cullenstown & Good Morning To your Nightcap — Paddy O'Brien one evening at a session at the Plough and Stars in San Francisco in the early '80s. Jimmy took a trip to Cullenstown, Co. Wexford, on a recent winter voyage home and played this tune with harmonica player John Murphy, the son of Phil Murphy who composed the reel. John owns a lovely pub, Colfer's, in the village of Carrig-on-Bannow, in the southeastern corner of Ireland, headquarters for the Phil Murphy weekend held every summer. Marla learned it from her friend Frank Simpson, who plays it infectiously in A on the whistle. The enigmatic Good Morning to Your Nightcap is one of those tunes Marla would take with her to a desert island. It was recorded by Michael Coleman in the '20s and rightfully enjoys great popularity.
Eleanor Plunkett — Marla has always been moved by this loveliest of O'Carolan airs. Eleanor Plunkett is said to have been the only survivor of her family, who perished after shutting themselves in the Castle of Castlecome, near Robertstown, Co. Meath. The air seems to capture her deep loneliness.
Farewell To Whisky, Jenny Lind & Parnell's March — Jimmy was fortunate to have met the famous "Weaver," Dennis Murphy from Gneeveguilla in Sliabh Luachra, from whom he first heard the lovely Farewell to Whisky, a polka with "its own rhythm" and there's a Scottish song bearing the same name. He heard Jenny Lind on his first visit to England one golden summer in the '70s with Jackie Daly and Seamus Creagh. Jenny Lind was the anthem of England in that lovely time, mainly played by Morris men on every corner of every street and pub in Sidmouth, Devon.
Marla learned Parnell's March as a slide from her old friend Seamus Egan when he lived in San Francisco. It shares its air with Sweet Marie, a song about a racehorse, composed by the popular Irish songwriter Percy French and recorded by many singers, including Ireland's much-loved Brendan O'Dowda.
Jenny and The Weaver — Jimmy has a golden memory of playing before Johnny Moynihan with his early band Stokers Lodge at a concert at the Aula Maxima of Cork University in the late '60s. The bouzouki was a rare thing in Ireland then, and to actually see Johnny Moynihan's bouzouki up close and touch it was like touching the Ark of the Covenant. Johnny played Jenny and the Weaver then, and Jimmy recorded it from Johnny when he stayed at Jimmy's house about twenty years ago. It's a reel — but only just about — at the pace we play it!
The Rocky Road To Dublin, Comb Your Hair And Curl It & The New Mown Meadow — There are few things more fun than playing hop jigs! Comb Your Hair was recorded by Michael Coleman and has become quite a popular tune. The New Mown Meadow is one of those tunes that turns up in different keys to surprisingly different effect. This setting comes (more or less) from Seamus Begley's playing on his recording Meiteal.
Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile (The Bright Mountain of the Cuckoos — Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile is a Déise song (West Waterford) that Jimmy first heard from one of his favourite singers, the late and great Nioclás Tóibín from the Ring Gaeltacht near Helvic Head, Co. Waterford. It was a privilege and quite unforgettable to have been fortunate enough to have heard this man sing. The sharp, bitter tang of immigration and home thoughts from abroad combined with the lush, poignant melody evokes the very hills, the seas between and the sadness and the beauty, it was written by the great Déise poet Pádraig Ó Miléadha (1877-1947) as he pined in exile, labouring in the Mond Nickel Works in Clydach, in the Swansea Valley, in Wales.
The Adelphian Waltz (Marla Fibish) & The Gneeveguilla — Marla composed and named the first tune for the beautiful Adelphian Club Building in Alameda, California, built in 1908, which came into her care for some years and provided the home for many magic nights of music. The Gneeveguilla comes from the second of Mary Bergin's iconic Feadóg Stáin recordings, released in 1993, and is a popular tune played in the San Francisco sessions. It is a melding together of two tunes that were played as a medley on an early recording by Kerry-born fiddler Paddy Cronin — The Pride of Rathmore and The Girls of Farranfore. The combination makes for a great lift in the third part when the tune darts out of its E minor place into a bright moment of G major arpeggio.
The Saucy Polka & Nelly — Jimmy christened The Saucy Polka, otherwise known as Eileen Riordan's Polka, after the accordion player from Cúil Aodha, a good friend of Stokers Lodge in the old days and one of the floating "first subs" the band borrowed whenever they were a man down. The second polka, Nelly, was taught to Jimmy by John Benny, with whom he played at John's gregarious, musical tavern at the Head of the Quay, Dingle, when Jimmy lived in Feothanach, West Kerry. It's a much morn powerful tune than the Cork version, which has only two parts, and there is somehow an exotic Arabic feel with its sometimes ambiguous setting. Oddly (or not) it is popular in San Francisco these days, and rose to the surface within the first 40 seconds of our "we need a set of polkas on the album" conversation.
The Dunedin Jig & Honeymoon Island — Jimmy's American station is the lovely little town of Dunedin on the Gulf Coast of Florida. If you visit the quaint cafes of Dunedin it is no rare sight to see men wearing kilts tucking into their breakfast; nor is it unusual to hear the warpipes skirling in the distance whenever you take a swim, And to further cement the inexorable Scottish presence, Flanaghan's Irish Pub hosts the headquarters of the local Glasgow Celtic fans, who there assemble for the games, This winsome jig conjures up some of the magic and affection that Jimmy feels for his adopted home; while Honeymoon Island is a gorgeous place to swim or just relax and is about forty five minutes by bicycle from Jimmy's place.