Smart Like Tractor

About Last Night: March 14, 2013 at the Hunterdon Library in Clinton NJ

Terrific night; standing room only; a delightful audience; great collaborators:

• On piano and vocals: Judy Minot.
• On fiddle, solo: Paul Morrissett. 
• On fiddles, ensemble: The Hunterdon Fiddlers
  • Pavana Chandrasekhar
  • Stephen Horiuchi
  • Nick Volkov, and
  • Director Nancy Roth.

Enervated, thrilled, grateful. An especially big thank-you to Dana Neubauer and the staff at the North County Branch of the Hunterdon Library!

More later; as a downpayment-- the program and the set list:

• The Ferryman
• The Galtee Mountain Boy
• Carrickfergus and If I Have to Go
• Don't Look Now
• With the Hunterdon Fiddlers:
  • The Swallowtail Jig, The Blackthorn Stick, The Irish Washerwoman
  • Lannigan's Ball, Biddy from Sligo
  • Danny Boy
  • Wind that Shakes the Barley, Timour the Tartan (AKA Peter Street)
  • Flowers of Edinburgh, Drowsy Maggie
• Freeborn Man of the Traveling People
• The Shoals of Herring
• The Leaving of Liverpool
• Mary from Dungloe
• With the Hunterdon Fiddlers:
  • Sir Roger de Coverley, The Peacock Followed the Hen
  • Red Haired Boy, The Mason's Apron
  • The King of the Fairies
  • Star of the County Down
• The Parting Glass

Concert for WDVR-FM (7 of 7): The Shoals of Herring

Ewan McColl was one of the great folk songwriters of the last century.

If you listen to folk or Irish music you probably know him best for writing "Dirty Old Town." If you don’t, you probably know him best for writing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” (No kidding!)

He also wrote "The Shoals of Herring" for a BBC show about fishermen. The interesting thing is that the song is so masterful, so timeless in its theme and expression, that people immediately began insisting that they remembered their grandfathers singing it.

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Concert for WDVR-FM (6 of 7): Sea-Fever

John Masefield was an English poet from the early twentieth-century. He's most famous for a poem called "Sea-Fever." This is a musical setting of that poem; it appears on the American Wake CD

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Concert for WDVR-FM (5 of 7): Marrowbones

This is a song about marital discord, betrayal, attempted murder... and other Irish pastimes.

I used to call it "Tipping It Up to Nancy." Then I heard it called "Marrowbones," which I prefer, as a more evocative title. But recently I learned that it's best known as “The Woman from Wexford.” Somebody get me the Indexing Department on the phone.

Anyway, if you learn it from an old Clancy Brothers LP, I’m sure it’s roguishly clever, coy, and well-mannered. But if you learn it in Peggy Gordon’s Pub in Queens NY on a bleary, sweaty Saturday night, it comes out more like this.

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Concert for WDVR-FM (4 of 7): McAlpine's Fusiliers

Before the days of paternity leave and OSHA, there were employers like Lord McAlpine, a contractor in London.

"McAlpine's Fusiliers" was written by Dominic Behan, the brother of playwright Brendan Behan, about his near-death experiences on the job.

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Concert for WDVR-FM (3 of 7): Mary from Dungloe

From the County Donegal in the northwest, this is yet another heartbreaking story of a young man forced to leave Ireland. Only, this time, he's not fleeing from famine or persecution, but his girlfriend’s father.

This song is usually done as a slow ballad but that takes too long, so I prefer this jig tempo.

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Concert for WDVR-FM (2 of 7): The Night Visit (As I Roved Out)

"As I Roved Out" is an exceedingly common title for Irish/Celtic folk songs; apparently it's because that phrase is a time-honored way of starting a tale in song, like "once upon a time." To avoid confusion, I started using Christy Moore's alternate title, "The Night Visit."

If the later verses are sung fast, it can still be included in a family show like this.

Stick with this one; about halfway through we do "The Narrowback," an original from my American Wake album.

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Concert for WDVR-FM (1 of 7): The Auld Triangle

Dominic Behan wrote this song as part of his brother Brendan's play, “The Quare Fellow,” which is set in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. Before you ask: A "lag" is a prisoner; a "screw" is a guard.

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About Last Night: Mannion's 10/21/2011

I've played tired, I've played under the influence of many things, I've played happy, sad, confused, ecstatic, dejected, inspired, and disenchanted. I've played standing, sitting, and falling over. However, to the best of my knowledge I've never played while afflicted with a biosafety level 2 disease, until Friday, October 21, 2011.

The prior Tuesday night, I caught what I thought was the cold that was going around: Everyone in my house had been hit before me, so when I got fever and chills, I figured it was just my turn. Except everyone else was over their cold in 24 hours or so, and mine continued for days, actually getting worse as it went along.

On Friday morning I knew I had to make a decision about whether or not to do the gig, so I broke down and went to the doctor, where I discovered that I, in fact, had Lyme Disease. So I got a  prescription filled, started taking my Doxycycline, and figured I was at the beginning of the end, or at least the end of the beginning. I was sure I felt better already; the show must go on.

All was well until about 10:30, when my back muscles started tightening up, other muscles (including the ones I use for, you know, strumming) started to spasm, and my jaw (the one I use for, you know, singing) started clenching. Two songs into the second set, I was ready to pack it in and hail an ambulance home. We had Pete play another set of tunes, to buy some time, and hoping it would loosen up my muscles a bit. It seemed to do the trick, long enough to finish the night after cutting the second break short.

I'm still not sure whether I made the right decision to go ahead with it: On the one hand, I'm pretty sure I set my cure back more than a few days by staying out late, hauling equipment, and tapping my foot so vigorously. On the other, I've got to say, it was a pretty great audience at Mannion's that night. We sold CDs and signed up a bunch of new people to the mailing list. We were able to play a number of requests, including one for "The Parting Glass." That one came in during the first set, but the requestor was patient enough to stick around until we played it as scheduled, to close the night.

The set list:

1. The Night Visit + The Narrowback
2. Mary from Dungloe
3. Leaving of Liverpool
4. Sea-Fever
5. Shoals of Herring
6. Tipping It Up To Nancy + Jigs (The Kesh + Sean Ryan's)
7. The Auld Triangle
8. Carrickfergus
9. The Western Shore
10. The Ferryman
11. McAlpine's Fuselliers + Reel (Whiskey before Breakfast)
12. Jigs
13. I'll Tell Me Ma
14. The Fields of Athenry
15. Country Roads + Morning Sun
16. The Patriot Game
17. Shores of Amerikay
18. Jigs
19. All I Really Want to Do
20. Whiskey in the Jar + The Silver Spear
21. The Lakes of Pontchartrain
22. From Clare to Here
23. If I Should Fall From Grace With God + The Mason's Apron
24. Muirshin Durkin
25. Irish Rover
26. Pole to Pole
27. Back Home in Derry
28. Reels
29. Thousands Are Sailing
30. The Parting Glass

American Wake: Songs of Irish Emigration (7 of 7): This Land Is Your Land

I can’t speak for emigrants in England or Australia, and I probably shouldn’t presume to speak for them in America, either, but I thought it appropriate to finish up with what I think is that happiest ending to any emigration story, American citizenship. Written by Woody Guthrie, this has become the folk-music national anthem.