I hope you’re well and you’re on the way to having a mighty 2022.
I am sure you’ve seen the terrible events surrounding young Aisling Murphy. I listened to your song (Shane’s song) Aisling the other day and lyrically it really tells a beautiful story and is very poignant to the situation.
Thanks Christy for another mighty set.. great to hear Mick Blake’s Oblivious with some new lines..December 1942 is moving..(apologies for my blurt in d’first verse, I sensed you may have drew a blank at “Curses, blows and whips rained down on those exhausted people”)..Biko Drum is like a tribal call.. Bishop TuTu is singing it wherever he is I’m sure.. John O Dreams was special.. and the bould St.Brendan… Lisdoonvarna continued out into the alleyway.. though I’d say the lads singing it are only on verse 3..
Christy's reply
I always appreciate any assistance when “blanks” loom…as in last verse of “Sonny’s Dream” last night…
hoping for good news this week…be good to get a few gigs into the diary….
audiences have been electric over the Vicar St run
The Vicar St run finished on a crescendo of energy , magic night again. Whatever those tablets are , keep taking them !!
We all look forward to seeing the gigs page gill up with a list of venues again as we hope for better times in 22.
You said last night that Dec 1942 is hard to sing and hard to listen to….. but please do keep singing it….. it’s such an important song.
Hello Christy,
Well, if having too many good songs is a problem then it’s got to be the best one ever.
The way I feel about it is that all those different things you mentioned, time, place, people, culture, events, feelings etc… They all have to pass through one heart and mind to become the gig. Ok, we all contribute, as you said, but what would be the point of 70 years practice and honing if it’s not allowed to do its thing and bring everything together to create the gig.
So, this may not be a popular view, but I think you should be able to sing whatever comes to you at a gig.
As someone once said, buck the fegrudgers.
Tonight is a night we will never ever forget. Enjoying a fantastic concert from our far most favourite folksinger, surrounded by all those enthusiastic Dubliners – who can by the way sign along beautifully. Thanks a million for dedicating Ride on to my husband and me. And for the surprise after the concert! We love you Christy! Geert en Maryse from Belgium
Christy's reply
Welcome to Dublin Maryse & Geert….We all had a good night….Everyone there contributed to everything that happened…Ride On
I’m delighted you liked the song so much i thought he put it together well he covered all your singing life with it I was going to post it here in a week or two but he sang it at last nights zoom session so I decided to put it up after the session and during the session another singer sang the two connelly’s and I sang if I get an encore so you were well represented last night
The buzz of another gig beckons.. you gotta love it..out the gap early and on the road.. looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces.. no requests here for you have more than enough..we’ll sing the verses to Quinte Brigada.. it’s been some Vicar St run given all the bumps.. credit to all who have made it happen..enjoy..
Kev
Christy's reply
all set for early kick off…low sun shines in the window…late moon and early sun side by side at dawn…surely augurs well..chariots trundling towards the Black Lagoon from many provinces…Ballybrack, Cavan, Dún na nGall, Trá Lí,Belgium, London,Inse Cóir, Ballymountain, there will be;
“Hippies there with lurchers from Dunmanway
Flash Harrys down from Killiney Hill
Quare Hawks in limosines and helicopters
all there to hear the King of Vaudeville”
Hello Christy,
I’ve been thinking about what you said about getting some of the new songs into the set. The album versions are so complete aren’t they. It’s like looking at an archipelago of islands in the, sea. Call connected and all different.
So is it a question of making the complete in a different way?
I don’t know, I’m just musing. But I know when I learn songs that you sing I have to let them become something different. Your versions are so complete, so I have to let them become something else, so they’re strong enough to be with me, rather than with you.
Its a conundrum because you’re competing with your own versions here. Is that rubbish?
Not sure I’m making any sense.
I hope it’s a great gig tonight
Rebecca
Christy's reply
tis the very divvil itself …..I played 26 songs at the last gig..not one of them from “Flying into Mystery”.. shure tis an awful dilemna.. but also a quality problem…it was not my intention….just the way that the gig emerged… as tonight draws near, I have them all rehearsed….Myra is chomping at the bit….Bord na Móna Man straining on the leash… Greenland forever calling….December 1942 has had 5 outings….Gasún is hanging around the stage door….Clock tick-tocking..Johnny Boy is courting Nancy Spain… I’ve been to Tasmania thrice….Zoz and Zim cant get a look in….thon fry is going cold on the back of her neck…Pity resonates….I’m constantly lured by the rocking horse….and there is another one…
such a basket of riches I’m lugging around….some might say I’m taking easy options…lets see what way the wind blows…
Hello Christy I know a singer songwriter called John Murphy through zoom sessions around a year ago he wrote a song about yourself called song for Christy this is the video of john singing the song this is the https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1k0marguM
Christy's reply
be the lord jasus vince but aint that some start to my week…to wake up of a monday morning and find Sean Ó Murchú singing a song about me…I’m bowled over here in the bed…I better get up and get tuned for tonight
Been lying in the long grass for a while now…. trying to avoid the damn Covid…. so far so good . Bit we can’t hide away forever, so , Vic st beckons and draws us from the hills…..
So much has happened…. guess there is still a meanness in the soul of Man.
Will it ever change.
Fare thee well.
Christy's reply
Hope you free wheel down from The Hills and roll safely into an Dubh Linn anocht…beidh fáilte róimh arais go dtí an gaggle
I’m hoping the forthcoming series of ‘Afterlife’ (Ricky Gervais’ project) is as poignant/funny as the previous ones. Pathos and humour, so effective when really well handled.
You’re right about The Rolling Stones. I’ve seen them three times, last time at Slane Castle, 2007. Stunning sound, lights, the whole bit…but like me (and I think you’re the same) when playing with companeros, it’s so good to be in close proximity, no matter how big the stage. I noticed how much of the gig was played like that – a highlight being a blues duet featuring Richards and Wood on electro acoustic guitars.Great use of screens too – the gig started with a grinning Keith Richards, weeks after he’d fallen out of a tree!
Rock ‘ n’ roll
Dave
Christy's reply
The final series of Afterlife struggles a bit before departing….
Hello Christy,
Listening is one of my favourite things, so it’s great to read Rory’s post about Quiet Desperation and waking up to its depths.
Its fab to see people really engaging with the songs.
If you want to stand windswept on howling mountains or forge a connection that makes a whole room disappear, listening’s the thing to learn how to do.
Caught quite a bit of rugby yesterday, and some GAA football in Dublin. I’m ashamed to say that I still have no clue what’s going on in the football, but it looks like a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll understand it one day.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
A lovely post, full of varied reflection….
I’ve no idea what test cricket is about, same with American Football…
I may have mentioned it previously (apols if so…) but there’s an amazing link between Salford (not far from the site of The Lowry theatre/ Salford Quays) that resonates with Rory’s info.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Circus toured the world in the late 19th/ early 20th centuries.During time in the Salford area (early 1900s) several Sioux stayed and settled in the area. There are some excellent online articles about the people involved – one of the best documented being ‘Charging Thunder’. He and his family became permanent residents of the UK (he was known as George Williams) living in Manchester, working as a keeper at Belle Vue Zoo – he died in 1929.
It’s a cold Sunday. Anyone heading for internet rabbit holes can disappear for a good while, following up Rory’s sentiments and the ‘Salford Sioux’.
Have a good day
Dave
Christy's reply
Greetings Trusty Scout…… no problem here …I can barely remember what I watched on the box last night…I’ve seen “On The Waterfront” at least 3 times and it always appears fresh..same with “Shawshank Redemtion”, “Jean de Florette”…
Its coming back now…I watched a great Rolling Stones doc last night…a tour they did of “small” venues around the world….first time I ever realised the mojo of the band….they were so good….glimpsed M.O.T.D. by-passing all punditry and thentopped it off with a feast of Ricky Gervais….
have a bit of a TV hangover this morning , hopefully soon to be erased by the oncoming excitement of a gig pending in Vicar St,Dublin tomorrow night…
Hi Christy, in the wee small hours ( about 18 hours ago) and for the very first time i REALLY listened to Red Crow’s words on Quiet Desperation.
Of course i have listened to it hundreds of times , whether live at a gig, on a slighly scratched LP or as a beautifully raw track on the etermal box set.
Just listening in the dark, concentrating on the pain he must have written with, made me really understand his song for the very first time.
It is some complete coincidence that yesterday i unpacked, after 5 years in storage, my wonderful book of photographs titled Native Nations by Edward S Curtis.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce looks down at me everyday from my livingroom wall.
Red Crow’s beautiful song is a remarkable piece. Keep singing it when you can.
Regards
Rory
Christy's reply
I first met Red Crow in Belgrave Square , Monkstown,County Dublin when he performed a beautiful gig there about 40 years ago….a few years later he came to a gig I did in Culver City nr L.A….I love to sing his song “Quiet Desperation”….I believe he adapted “Irish Ways,Irish Laws” (replacing Irish with Indian) but I’ve never heard it
Dear Christy, my husband Geert has been diagnosed with young dementia/Alzheimer disease last year. N° 1 on the Bucket list he made was “go to a concert of Christy Moore in Ireland”. So we pretended Covid didn’t exist, booked two tickets (and finally four tickets) for your concert on Monday 17 January in Dublin, and two tickets for the plane from Brussels to Dublin. Since we met, 32 years ago, we both have been big fans of you and your songs. The song that always has been his favourite song is “Ride On”. I think you would do him a great great pleasure singing this song next Monday. And you cannot imagine how grateful I would be to see him happy. Lots of love from great fans from Belgium, Geert and Maryse (PS: Geert doesn’t know I’m writing to you). And a big thank you for all the great music you make
Christy's reply
Thank you Maryse…I wish you both a safe and happy visit to Ireland
How’s the form Christy. I’ve been thinking about leaving a comment for a while. Anyway, here goes; ye may not remember given all the gigs and mad fans shouting requests up, but, at least once a year for several years at Vicar street, when you’d ask for suggestions from the floor, someone in the first or second row would roar up asking for Jesus Christ And Jesse James.
I’m hoping you do remember as that fella roaring was my brother, who died suddenly and tragically just over a year ago.
Now, even if you do remember that, what you would not know is that my brother, during the Covid-19 lockdowns and after an encounter with a certain ‘Gemma’, also became widely known, not by his name, but by his shoulder number: Garda F390. Unfortunately he won’t be there and I can’t roar like that, but myself and our mother will be at the gig on Monday and look forward to it as always. Wishing you good health.
Is mise le meas,
Paul Leblique
Christy's reply
Thanks for sharing Paul.. I hope you and your Mother will have a good gig tomorrow…thank you too for sharing about your beautiful brother….Yes ! I do recall requests for Jesus & Jessie but could never oblige as I only ever performed it when recording it…they may have been the only requests I ever heard for Brian Moore’s great old song…I first heard it on an album from “The Men of No Property”…..great 70s band from Belfast
Hi Christy,
I hope you’re well and you’re on the way to having a mighty 2022.
I am sure you’ve seen the terrible events surrounding young Aisling Murphy. I listened to your song (Shane’s song) Aisling the other day and lyrically it really tells a beautiful story and is very poignant to the situation.
A touching tribute for a life lost too soon?
Just an idea boss. Have a great day.
Thanks Christy for another mighty set.. great to hear Mick Blake’s Oblivious with some new lines..December 1942 is moving..(apologies for my blurt in d’first verse, I sensed you may have drew a blank at “Curses, blows and whips rained down on those exhausted people”)..Biko Drum is like a tribal call.. Bishop TuTu is singing it wherever he is I’m sure.. John O Dreams was special.. and the bould St.Brendan… Lisdoonvarna continued out into the alleyway.. though I’d say the lads singing it are only on verse 3..
I always appreciate any assistance when “blanks” loom…as in last verse of “Sonny’s Dream” last night…
hoping for good news this week…be good to get a few gigs into the diary….
audiences have been electric over the Vicar St run
Are you sure there’s another one? Vlooks like all of them to me?
Don’t ask gtoo much
You’ll never get enough when you’re flying into mystery
spot on there Rebecca….
The Vicar St run finished on a crescendo of energy , magic night again. Whatever those tablets are , keep taking them !!
We all look forward to seeing the gigs page gill up with a list of venues again as we hope for better times in 22.
You said last night that Dec 1942 is hard to sing and hard to listen to….. but please do keep singing it….. it’s such an important song.
Look forward to you returning to the Hills.
Hello Christy,
Well, if having too many good songs is a problem then it’s got to be the best one ever.
The way I feel about it is that all those different things you mentioned, time, place, people, culture, events, feelings etc… They all have to pass through one heart and mind to become the gig. Ok, we all contribute, as you said, but what would be the point of 70 years practice and honing if it’s not allowed to do its thing and bring everything together to create the gig.
So, this may not be a popular view, but I think you should be able to sing whatever comes to you at a gig.
As someone once said, buck the fegrudgers.
Rebecca
Tonight is a night we will never ever forget. Enjoying a fantastic concert from our far most favourite folksinger, surrounded by all those enthusiastic Dubliners – who can by the way sign along beautifully. Thanks a million for dedicating Ride on to my husband and me. And for the surprise after the concert! We love you Christy! Geert en Maryse from Belgium
Welcome to Dublin Maryse & Geert….We all had a good night….Everyone there contributed to everything that happened…Ride On
I’m delighted you liked the song so much i thought he put it together well he covered all your singing life with it I was going to post it here in a week or two but he sang it at last nights zoom session so I decided to put it up after the session and during the session another singer sang the two connelly’s and I sang if I get an encore so you were well represented last night
Sail on Vince
The buzz of another gig beckons.. you gotta love it..out the gap early and on the road.. looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces.. no requests here for you have more than enough..we’ll sing the verses to Quinte Brigada.. it’s been some Vicar St run given all the bumps.. credit to all who have made it happen..enjoy..
Kev
all set for early kick off…low sun shines in the window…late moon and early sun side by side at dawn…surely augurs well..chariots trundling towards the Black Lagoon from many provinces…Ballybrack, Cavan, Dún na nGall, Trá Lí,Belgium, London,Inse Cóir, Ballymountain, there will be;
“Hippies there with lurchers from Dunmanway
Flash Harrys down from Killiney Hill
Quare Hawks in limosines and helicopters
all there to hear the King of Vaudeville”
Hello Christy,
I’ve been thinking about what you said about getting some of the new songs into the set. The album versions are so complete aren’t they. It’s like looking at an archipelago of islands in the, sea. Call connected and all different.
So is it a question of making the complete in a different way?
I don’t know, I’m just musing. But I know when I learn songs that you sing I have to let them become something different. Your versions are so complete, so I have to let them become something else, so they’re strong enough to be with me, rather than with you.
Its a conundrum because you’re competing with your own versions here. Is that rubbish?
Not sure I’m making any sense.
I hope it’s a great gig tonight
Rebecca
tis the very divvil itself …..I played 26 songs at the last gig..not one of them from “Flying into Mystery”.. shure tis an awful dilemna.. but also a quality problem…it was not my intention….just the way that the gig emerged… as tonight draws near, I have them all rehearsed….Myra is chomping at the bit….Bord na Móna Man straining on the leash… Greenland forever calling….December 1942 has had 5 outings….Gasún is hanging around the stage door….Clock tick-tocking..Johnny Boy is courting Nancy Spain… I’ve been to Tasmania thrice….Zoz and Zim cant get a look in….thon fry is going cold on the back of her neck…Pity resonates….I’m constantly lured by the rocking horse….and there is another one…
such a basket of riches I’m lugging around….some might say I’m taking easy options…lets see what way the wind blows…
ps they try to cut the Spainish look
Hello Christy I know a singer songwriter called John Murphy through zoom sessions around a year ago he wrote a song about yourself called song for Christy this is the video of john singing the song this is the https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1k0marguM
be the lord jasus vince but aint that some start to my week…to wake up of a monday morning and find Sean Ó Murchú singing a song about me…I’m bowled over here in the bed…I better get up and get tuned for tonight
Been lying in the long grass for a while now…. trying to avoid the damn Covid…. so far so good . Bit we can’t hide away forever, so , Vic st beckons and draws us from the hills…..
So much has happened…. guess there is still a meanness in the soul of Man.
Will it ever change.
Fare thee well.
Hope you free wheel down from The Hills and roll safely into an Dubh Linn anocht…beidh fáilte róimh arais go dtí an gaggle
Hi Christy
I’m hoping the forthcoming series of ‘Afterlife’ (Ricky Gervais’ project) is as poignant/funny as the previous ones. Pathos and humour, so effective when really well handled.
You’re right about The Rolling Stones. I’ve seen them three times, last time at Slane Castle, 2007. Stunning sound, lights, the whole bit…but like me (and I think you’re the same) when playing with companeros, it’s so good to be in close proximity, no matter how big the stage. I noticed how much of the gig was played like that – a highlight being a blues duet featuring Richards and Wood on electro acoustic guitars.Great use of screens too – the gig started with a grinning Keith Richards, weeks after he’d fallen out of a tree!
Rock ‘ n’ roll
Dave
The final series of Afterlife struggles a bit before departing….
Where once you have been you can go back again you can go anytime you can go anytime
Because it’s only in your mind
“The Lark of Mayfield”
Hello Christy,
Listening is one of my favourite things, so it’s great to read Rory’s post about Quiet Desperation and waking up to its depths.
Its fab to see people really engaging with the songs.
If you want to stand windswept on howling mountains or forge a connection that makes a whole room disappear, listening’s the thing to learn how to do.
Caught quite a bit of rugby yesterday, and some GAA football in Dublin. I’m ashamed to say that I still have no clue what’s going on in the football, but it looks like a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll understand it one day.
Rebecca
A lovely post, full of varied reflection….
I’ve no idea what test cricket is about, same with American Football…
Mornin’ Christy/ all
Great post from Rory – lots to think about…
I may have mentioned it previously (apols if so…) but there’s an amazing link between Salford (not far from the site of The Lowry theatre/ Salford Quays) that resonates with Rory’s info.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Circus toured the world in the late 19th/ early 20th centuries.During time in the Salford area (early 1900s) several Sioux stayed and settled in the area. There are some excellent online articles about the people involved – one of the best documented being ‘Charging Thunder’. He and his family became permanent residents of the UK (he was known as George Williams) living in Manchester, working as a keeper at Belle Vue Zoo – he died in 1929.
It’s a cold Sunday. Anyone heading for internet rabbit holes can disappear for a good while, following up Rory’s sentiments and the ‘Salford Sioux’.
Have a good day
Dave
Greetings Trusty Scout…… no problem here …I can barely remember what I watched on the box last night…I’ve seen “On The Waterfront” at least 3 times and it always appears fresh..same with “Shawshank Redemtion”, “Jean de Florette”…
Its coming back now…I watched a great Rolling Stones doc last night…a tour they did of “small” venues around the world….first time I ever realised the mojo of the band….they were so good….glimpsed M.O.T.D. by-passing all punditry and thentopped it off with a feast of Ricky Gervais….
have a bit of a TV hangover this morning , hopefully soon to be erased by the oncoming excitement of a gig pending in Vicar St,Dublin tomorrow night…
Hi Christy, in the wee small hours ( about 18 hours ago) and for the very first time i REALLY listened to Red Crow’s words on Quiet Desperation.
Of course i have listened to it hundreds of times , whether live at a gig, on a slighly scratched LP or as a beautifully raw track on the etermal box set.
Just listening in the dark, concentrating on the pain he must have written with, made me really understand his song for the very first time.
It is some complete coincidence that yesterday i unpacked, after 5 years in storage, my wonderful book of photographs titled Native Nations by Edward S Curtis.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce looks down at me everyday from my livingroom wall.
Red Crow’s beautiful song is a remarkable piece. Keep singing it when you can.
Regards
Rory
I first met Red Crow in Belgrave Square , Monkstown,County Dublin when he performed a beautiful gig there about 40 years ago….a few years later he came to a gig I did in Culver City nr L.A….I love to sing his song “Quiet Desperation”….I believe he adapted “Irish Ways,Irish Laws” (replacing Irish with Indian) but I’ve never heard it
Dear Christy, my husband Geert has been diagnosed with young dementia/Alzheimer disease last year. N° 1 on the Bucket list he made was “go to a concert of Christy Moore in Ireland”. So we pretended Covid didn’t exist, booked two tickets (and finally four tickets) for your concert on Monday 17 January in Dublin, and two tickets for the plane from Brussels to Dublin. Since we met, 32 years ago, we both have been big fans of you and your songs. The song that always has been his favourite song is “Ride On”. I think you would do him a great great pleasure singing this song next Monday. And you cannot imagine how grateful I would be to see him happy. Lots of love from great fans from Belgium, Geert and Maryse (PS: Geert doesn’t know I’m writing to you). And a big thank you for all the great music you make
Thank you Maryse…I wish you both a safe and happy visit to Ireland
Hello Christy
Love this
https://youtu.be/Rt1qMs8Ualo
A Lullaby for barrowland
Rebecca
them was the days
Heart warmed by these posts…
I duck dive into the songs & come up with “Sail on Jimmy” – it’s a ripper…
Gigs must be a cracker judging by the posts
Excuse me whilst I sample some Moore…
gone with a mystic blessing from that peaceful pagan ritual….(Albert Niland)
How’s the form Christy. I’ve been thinking about leaving a comment for a while. Anyway, here goes; ye may not remember given all the gigs and mad fans shouting requests up, but, at least once a year for several years at Vicar street, when you’d ask for suggestions from the floor, someone in the first or second row would roar up asking for Jesus Christ And Jesse James.
I’m hoping you do remember as that fella roaring was my brother, who died suddenly and tragically just over a year ago.
Now, even if you do remember that, what you would not know is that my brother, during the Covid-19 lockdowns and after an encounter with a certain ‘Gemma’, also became widely known, not by his name, but by his shoulder number: Garda F390. Unfortunately he won’t be there and I can’t roar like that, but myself and our mother will be at the gig on Monday and look forward to it as always. Wishing you good health.
Is mise le meas,
Paul Leblique
Thanks for sharing Paul.. I hope you and your Mother will have a good gig tomorrow…thank you too for sharing about your beautiful brother….Yes ! I do recall requests for Jesus & Jessie but could never oblige as I only ever performed it when recording it…they may have been the only requests I ever heard for Brian Moore’s great old song…I first heard it on an album from “The Men of No Property”…..great 70s band from Belfast