I have been in love with music all my life. Although my tastes range from Bach to Bluegrass, my years in Ireland created a particular fondness for Irish music. Over the years, I have messed around with the guitar, the fiddle, banjos (four and five strings), the octave mandolin, the bouzouki, the tin whistle and the bodhran. If the phrase “Jack of all trades, Master of none” comes to mind, you would be right. I fear that as an instrumentalist I am all Jack and no Master, although I have written a few tunes. And I like to sing.
Over the years I have recorded a few Irish and Irish-American songs that I would like to share with you. On this page I have my settings of several poems, including W. B. Yeats “The Song of the Wandering Aengus” and the traditional “South Winds”(A Gaoth Andeas). In addition there are a few of my original fiddle pieces.
“The Salmon Song”
“The Salmon Song” is based on a poem written by my friend, Cincinnati poet Kevin McHugh. Some years ago, Kevin traveled to Ireland and located the ruins of the cottage where his grandmother had been born in Caracastle, County Mayo. The whole experience of exploring his Irish roots had a profound effect, which he describes in this poem. With his permission I set the second half of the poem to one of my tunes.
“South Winds” (A Gaoth Andeas)
This is one of my favorite old harp airs, dating from the eighteenth century. The poem that the tune accompanied was written by Domhnall Meirgeach Mac Con Mara (Freckled Donal Macnamara) in praise of his home in Castle Edmond, Irrul, Co. Mayo. Unfortunately, I do not know Gaelic, and existing English translations do not seem very “singable.” So I worked with two versions from Donal O’Sullivan’s Songs of the Irish, one a literal translation and the other rhymed, which I tweaked to produce my own version. It reflects most of the sentiments of the Gaelic original. However, my all-too-modest skills at rhyming prevented me from including the poet’s beloved Castle Edmond in the last verse. The song represents a conversation between the poet and the gentle winds from the south. This version was recorded with Ceol Mhór for our Drop by Drop album.
“Song of the Wondering Aengus”
“Song of the Wondering Aengus,” with its “silver apples of the moon, golden apples of the sun,” is one of William Butler Yeats’ most beloved poems. I have set it to “Blind Mary” (Máire Dhall), a beautiful melody attributed to the eighteenth-century harper Turlough Carolan. Composer of over 200 tunes, Carolan is Ireland’s most prolific and, today, its best-known composer. Yeats, of course, was Ireland’s first poet to receive a Nobel Prize for literature. From Ceol Mhór’s Drop by Drop album, the song is followed by an instrumental version of Máire Dhall.
A Few Original Tunes: “Fiona’s Waltz”
I composed “Fiona’s Waltz” for my stage version of “Tho It Were Ten Thousand Mile.” It is played here by myself and band mates Dafydd Jones and Dave Copley.
“The Drop by Drop Set.”
Some years ago when the World Cup was held in Asia, had to get up a weird hours of the morning to watch “the beautiful game.” To stay awake I took to noodling on the banjo, and over the course of the tournament I came up with two tunes: “Drop by Drop,” “Paddy’s Welcome to Goat Hill” (a former Irish section of Cincinnati), played here by Ceol Mhór.
For the Drop by Drop album, visit our CDbaby site.
And while you are at it, drop by Ceol Mhór’s Web Site.
For TRACKS OF IRISH-AMERICAN SONGS from ‘Twas Only an Irishman’s Dream, CLICK HERE.