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Sleeve Notes
If you're looking for the Irish Balladeers, pick a dark night when the North wind is blowing … sleet and rain about. Up ahead... see that sign swinging above the soft yellow lights. In there … inside it's warm and you're welcome…a snug harbor. After a pint or two you'll feel like a song. Well, there's the Irish Balladeers over there in the corner… instruments up and singing away.
There's Bob and Chuck and John Rogers, Ted Andrews and the newest member of the group Joe Pacini. There's a friend Phil Kocan playing his banjo. [1] And Mary Jane, Ted's wife whose lovely lilting voice is a pleasant contrast to the rousing style of the Irish Balladeers.
Go on over, pull up a chair, join in. That's the way they like it. Maybe you can't force yourself out into the cold dark night. Then just settle back and listen. You'll hear "The Foggy Dew" that haunting song of the Easter Rebellion. "The Isle of Innisfree" will almost make you feel the pain of exile. A new song "Botany Bay" written by the Balladeers, tells of imprisonment with a twist. "The Kerry Recruit" about a young lad off to the Crimean War. If you close your eyes while listening to this recording, you're in that pub with the Irish Balladeers. All that is missing is the laughter and conversation. And if there is something you want to hear…well they don't mind if they do.
JOHN ROGERS