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Sleeve Notes
The songs and tunes are all traditional unless otherwise noted. Attribution of a song's source is relatively easy but the tunes prove to be a little more difficult. Those tunes were learned from a variety of players and texts over many years, and, unfortunately, the dimness bom of the passage of time means that a complete listing is no longer possible. However, I would like to mention several people for their contributions: Rose Murphy for The Whistler and his Dog and Drowsy Maggie; Sue Sternberg for Kay Girroir; Mark Roberts for The House on the Hill. Also I would like to thank John Skelton and Chris Parkinson of The House Band for their input into the original arrangement of The Diamantina Drover. My thanks are also due to Bernie, Matthew, Bruce, Gay, Steve and Cal for their invaluable help with this project.
— Patrick
Song Notes
Barna Hill — I heard an old man sing this song back in 1963 at a Fleadh Cheoil in Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick. I had been looking for it ever since until a friend supplied a tape recording made by Deirdre Scanlon of Co. Limerick. The view from Barna Hill is well worth a visit! And … where would we be without this multi-purpose tune!
— Andy
If We Had Built a Wall & The March of Time — Kevin and I first heard Dominic (Madden) sing this song a few years ago and I knew, there and then, that I would like to learn it. Dominic comes from Tullamore, Co. Offaly, and is one of the many fine musicians who began their playing careers under the tutelage of the famous Mrs. Flannery. He was inspired to write the song by the news coverage of the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
— Ged
Down in Matewan & Lost Indian — I spent a lot of my youth listening to Old Timey music, buying old 78s from collectors and swapping tapes. A considerable number of the musicians who recorded in the '20s and early '30s had worked at some time in the West Virginia coal mines and I was surprised at the lack of songs relating the turbulent history between coal operator and miner. The labor troubles, strikes and violence go all the way back to the beginning of these mines in the 19th century and culminate with the Battle of Blair Mountain where the US Army and Air Force was called out to quell the angry coal miners. I decided to write a song, keeping the words as close as possible to the Old Timey tradition, about the way the miners, trying to organize, had been abused by all the institutions available to the powerful coal companies. The Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency was, like the more famous Pinkertons — largely made up of violent men who were hired out to the coal companies. Mother Jones was born Mary Harris, in Cork sometime in the 1830's. She became a union organizer and agitator at an advanced age and traveled wherever she saw the miners — "my boys" — in need of her support. Ludlow refers to the massacre of 13 children in Ludlow, Colorado in 1915. Mother Jones was there as well. The tune, which follows the song, is Eck Robertson's version of Lost Indian.
— Andy
The Diamantina Drover — I learnt this song in Edinburgh in 1984 from Martin College and have been singing it ever since. I believe the song was inspired by a conversation Hugh had with an old drover during a train journey. The Diamantina is a river in Queensland, Australia.
— Ged
Green Grows the Laurel — I heard the late and seriously lamented Luke Kelly sing this song in O'Donoghue's Bar in Dublin in the early sixties. It was also in the repertoire of Al O'Donnell — a very fine singer and banjo and guitar player. I think I probably learned it from Al.
— Andy
