The old songs keep callin’ me …

Cashel July 1st 2016

I’m Playing tonight in Cashel, County Tipperary where I last gigged in 1976.

I wrote some verses here over the years. The opening line of “Derby Day” was gleaned when I stayed in the Cashel Palace Hotel. I was billeted there when playing the Siamsa Cois Laoí Festival in Cork back in the 1980s. This Palace was once the humble abode of The Bishop of Cashel…

“Bishop walked in circles inside the cloistered wall

Pondering in solitude on leather soles

Outside The Palace, down on bended knees

Johnny begged for whiskey beneath the Lilac trees”

Years later, on a visit to The Rock of Cashel, I met a man who spoke of Cricket still being played in Cloughjordan. This verse is from “Tyrone Boys” (aka The Other Side)

“Back Home there’s Cricket in Cloughjordan,

There’s the gentle clack of croquet on the lawn

While our children shackled by illegal status

Hold their heads down behind the Brooklyn Wall”

The SS Swift. Dublin – Holyhead, Tuesday July 26th 2016

Anuk visited the guestbook at christymoore.com recently, and asked about feelings of anger in singing and in song. Thinking back to my early days as a singer I don’t recall any feelings of anger. As a very young boy soprano I remember the excitement of going on stage (dressed in my confirmation suit) to sing “Kevin Barry” and “The Meeting of The Waters”. Back in 1958 my early stage experiences were fraught with nervousness and excitement, spiked with the high adrenalin of it all. I sang on through school choirs and concerts until 1962 when I had my first serious awakening to the emotional experience of singing. I was playing the part of Koko in the Gilbert &Sullivan operetta “The Mikado”. When I came to sing the song “Tit Willow” I was extremely nervous, but as soon as I launched into “on a Tree by a River a little Tom Tit sang Willow, Tit Willow, Tit Willow”, everything changed. There came stillness in the room and I was filled with my first experience of the power emanating from a gathering of intent listeners. Rock and Roll entered the picture around 1960 and I became aware of the excitement and sexual awakening that songs could propagate. Going see “Rock around The Clock”, “The Girl can’t Help it”, “Blackboard Jungle”, buying my first record (an Elvis 78” single copy of “Jailhouse Rock”) and learning to jive with Deirdre Murray. Then along came The Clancy Brothers who awoke yet another emotion in this young listener – A sense of pride in the Tradition hitherto gone unnoticed. I turned away from “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound dog” and began to boogie to “Brennan on The Moor”. This new awakening coincided with the discovering the pleasures of Drink and before long I had 3 chords in place and my Clancy repertoire was gathering momentum. Despite Rebel songs being part of that repertoire, anger had not yet entered the equation. In 1966 I hit the road and dedicated my life to singing songs. Hearing singers like Ewan McColl, Matt McGinn and Louis Killen pointed me towards songs that had contemporary relevance. Then on to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Ian Campbell and many others – I began to see that songs could be effective in a way I had not previously realized.

My earliest recollection of being angry in the act of singing would go back to songs like “Take it Down from The Mast”, “Follow me Up to Carlow” and “James Connolly” (Paddy Galvin’s version). After Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, anger could be found more often in my performances. I began to write and to cover songs that had anger in them. This probably peaked in the early to mid 80s when I was at times consumed by what was going on around me.

35 years on from that dark time and I’m still singing. The scope of the repertoire is broader now and singing brings on different emotions. “The Gardener” always takes me back to a young life – warm but lonesome feelings for a time and family long gone. “Wallflower” runs a film of mental torture and isolation that can disturb me in the singing. Anger pangs return with “Oblivious” as I am reminded of the utter cynicism that prevails in the corridors of power. One song that often brings anger pangs is “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”. When it comes to Dylan’s description of the Courtroom scene my blood seldom fails to rise, but this soon recedes as the next song arises. One of my happiest songs is “The Reel in The Flickering Light”. For some reason it seldom flickers these days but I find similar sensations in “Lightning Bird” and “Tuam Beat”. My most lonesome song might be Dylan’s “Pity the Poor Immigrant”, mainly for personal memories of an uncle long since gone. I like the mayhem of “Lisdoonvarna” and “Delirium Tremens” and the beautiful sweet melancholy of Shane’s “Fairytale”, “Brown Eyes” and “Aisling”. His songs are so distinctive. There is poetry in those lines and Jem Finer’s melodies carry Shane’s songs out for us all to hear.

Of course John Reilly’s Traditional Songs have a hypnotic atmosphere around them. Something I can neither define nor explain. No one knows the precise origin of “Lord Baker”, “The Well below the Valley”, “What Put the Blood” or “Green Laurel”. John learned them from his Father. These songs were handed down across centuries in the traditional style. Variations and entirely different versions are to be found scattered around the world. Many years ago a series of 7 programmes devoted entirely to different versions of The Raggle Taggle Gypsy was broadcast (I think) on BBC Radio.

So there are tears and laughter, wrongdoing and forgiveness, lonesome exile, heartbreak, joy, love and anger all to be found in these verses… “Come all you Dreamers, we’ll wander where there’s Marble Stone as Black as Ink”

Nell’s Jazz Club London. July 27th 2016

Just back in my room after a lovely hot sweaty gig at Vince Power’s club here in London. I first played a gig for Vince back in 1986 when I played the opening night at The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden. Since then I’ve played gigs with him in London, Glasgow, New York, Kentish Town, Dublin and Tramore. It’s a good buzz to be working with him again. My Grandfather Jack Power came from the same county as Vince so we may be connected. Played the gig with Declan Sinnott and Jimmy Higgins. Here’s the set that emerged;

Go Move Shift

A Pair of Brown Eyes

Rory’s gone to play the Blues in Heaven

Missing You

Cry like a man

Where I Come From

City of Chicago

The Tuam Beat

Burning Times

Quinte Brigada

Butterfly (aka So Much Wine)

Delirium Tremens

Lightning Bird Wind River Man

Hiroshima Nagasaki

Beeswing

Ride On

Weekend in Amsterdam

Yellow Triangle

Oblivious

No Time for Love

North and South of the River

Magdalen Laundry (Joni Mitchell)

Ordinary Man

The Gardener

Mattie

Nancy Spain

Joxer goes to Stuttgart

Spancilhill

Lisdoonvarna

Sweet Thames Flow Softly

Fairytale of New York

2 hours 15 minutes

The audience were superb – they raised the roof betimes but also listened closely when we brought it down low. It was great being back in a club gig – everybody in real close and intimate, just like it always used to be – I once played to an audience of 4 in Scotland in 1967!

Then we drank strong Tea and chatted with Cerys Matthews about Music, Wales at The Euros, Tom Jones, Welsh Male Choirs, Bodhráns, great divides, nationalism, next year at the BBC World Service and Luton Football Club…

Then it was back to base … get ready for tomorrow night when we hope to do it all again, just one more time, with feeling. (Happy too that my old Companero Tony Rohr was in the audience….we go way back to the days of Fin McCool)

Remembering London in 1966.

I had a single bedsit in Gunnersbury on the District Line. My Landlord was from Wicklow. His wife was an RC demon. She knocked on my door a few Sunday Mornings and asked “Are you not going to Mass??” My rent was £4 a week and I struggled to make it.  I was doing bits of work here and there as I tried to get my toe in the door. First entered a Folk Club in The Scots Hoose run by a man called Bruce Dunnett, the singer booked that night was Annie Briggs. It was my first time to witness a Folk Club audience as they sat enraptured by Annie’s a Capella singing. I moved from Gunnersbury to Chiswick where my landlord was from Mayo. I shared a room there with my old Moorefield Rd. buddy Pat McGowan. We grew up together in Kildare but in London we drifted apart. We rekindled our friendship 30 years later shortly before Pat died. I think of him often.

Nell’s London Night 2 – July 28th

Back in the room after show… nothing on the box, don’t feel like reading, got a feckin big burst blister on the saddle of my right hand. It all went astray an hour into the set and there was skin flying. We did some running repairs and the gig continued. It was a great night – sweet notes from my right, solid rhythm to my left and a roomful of chanters in front of me. What more could a singer ask for… we played;

Yellow Triangle

After The Deluge

City of Chicago

Pity the Poor Immigrant

Missing You

Black is The Colour

Honda 50

Butterfly

Where I Come From

Listen

Go Move Shift

Smoke and Whiskey

Stitch in Time

Nancy Spain

The Tuam Beat

Metropolitan Avenue

The Well below the Valley

A Pair of Brown Eyes

Tyrone Boys

Beeswing

On The Mainland

Back in Derry

Van Diemen’s Land

Ride On

Quinte Brigada

Ordinary Man

Voyage

The Time has Come

Lisdoonvarna

2 hours and 10 minutes

Writing out the set list after a gig in London is a far cry from the carousing of earlier decades – flying around Town half the night seeking the lock-in, chasing capers in the darkest of corners, looking for wild reels, slow airs and good company. The White Hart in Fulham Broadway, The Balloon  in Chelsea, The Irish Club in Eaton Square, Gerry Fitt, Lord Longford and Christine Keeler, Steeleye Span rehearsals, sleeping soundly in Donal Lunny’s bath, The Sense of Ireland Festival in 1979, The Albert Hall, The Brixton Academy, Donal McCann, out to The Fairfield Hall in Croydon with Ciaran Bourke, Brandy & Creme de Menthe with Joe Burke in Slough, Large Bottles with Martin Byrnes in The College in Harlesden, Margaret Barry, Michael Gorman, the beautiful music of Michael Dwyer, his brothers Finbar and Richie, Raymond and Rose Roland, Liam and Margaret Farrell, Johnny Bowe and a very young Kevin Burke just testing the waters, Dominic and Josephine Behan out in Middlesex, Bacardi and cigars, sick heads and promises (all fulfilled)  Eamon McCann and The Irish Militant, the first N.I. Civil Rights Concert in Shepherd’s Bush, forever waking up in Richmond at the end of the District  Line, always on the last train…

But I am very content here tonight, writing the set list with all those memories far, far behind me…All that is long gone, well done and very over… Now I must turn my attention to Cambridge Folk festival on Saturday Night.

This year will be my 7th time to play Cambridge Festival. Previous visits were 1973, 1974, 1984,1988,1993,2005 and 2016… 1973 & 74 with Planxty. I did three solo gigs in the 80s and 90s, played with Declan Sinnott in 2005 and now back to Cherry Hinton one more time with Declan Sinnott, Jimmy Higgins and Seamie O’Dowd. I’m looking forward to getting back out there in front of The Cambridge Fusiliers

Remembering Cambridge Festival 1973.

The first time I played Cambridge Festival was with Planxty. What I remember most is drinking Carlsberg Specials with Bert Jansch as we both struggled to make conversation. That special brew was lethal when caution was thrown to the wind. We were joined on stage by Alan Stivell’s Fiddle player Rene Werner. Later on I sat around a camp fire as Diz Dizley sparked the night with Django Reinhart riffs

Cambridge July 30th 2016

It was akin to playing in a gigantic Folk Club – 8,000 listeners standing in a huge Marquee. they were a perfect audience who listened carefully, sang beautifully and created an uplifting atmosphere for us to draw in. Our crew played a blinder – they had but 20 minutes to set the stage after The Afro Celt Fusion set. Without a sound check we took our positions to find everything in order. John Meade, Dikon Whitehead, David Meade, Geoff Ryan, Michael Devine and Paddy Doherty, alongside the Cambridge Stage Crew, had prepared the way carefully and we soon were on our way….

We played;

City of Chicago

How Long

After The Deluge

Burning Times

Go Move Shift

The Tuam Beat

Ride On

Quinte Brigada

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Beeswing

Brown Eyes

Morecambe Bay

Yellow Triangle

Missing You

Stitch in Time

Motherland

Ordinary Man

Lisdoonvarna

Nancy Spain

Not the precise running order – 1hour 20 minutes…

The concert was filmed and some of it may feature soon on Sky Arts. Click HERE for a review of the festival …

That’s it for now Listeners. Going to send this off and head away for a few weeks family time. Myself, The Band and The Crew are all heading in different directions. We plan to reconvene back in County Donegal at the end of the month. I’ll finish off with some additional notes for the recent Album release.

Thanks for listening and keep in touch

Christy

Lily
For many years I have sought to write a song about Newbridge. Most people have a life-long connection with their place of origin. As I get older those memories of early times seem to glow ever brighter. I must have written 50 verses in recent years about my native place but finally condensed it into Lily of The Shortgrass. As often before, I then sent the lyric across the river to Wally Page who came up with a sympatico melody that carries the words out on the air. I’m happy to have old friends and neighbours mentioned in the song. Regretfully there are hundreds left out. The Town I sing of here exists only in the memory of a few. Most of the sights and sounds have long since disappeared but some of the people mentioned are still to the good. Pat Eddery passed shortly before I recorded it. I remember him as a small boy back when his Father, Jimmy Eddery, was a leading jockey. His Mother came from The Moylan Family who were also deeply involved in the Horses. We measured our days by the sound of factory hooters. Every week lorry loads of Indian Sisal would arrive at The Ropes factory. Jack Lawlors anvil reverberated up the Moorefield Road and I knew all his family. Neesons was our local pub, behind it ran Rosy’s Lane called after Rosy Murphy who stood at Neesons Corner morning, noon and night. Darky (PJ) Prendergast was the leading Flat Trainer in the 60s winning many classics. His home was “Keadeen”, now a fine Hotel and leisure centre. Darky had the first TV in Newbridge. I went to National School with Tommy Tougher who went on to become one of the leading businessmen in Newbridge. I often cycled through Hawkfield on my way to visit my Fathers people in Barronstown. Tom (The Rubber) Keogh still lives there.

Green Grows The Laurel (aka The Captain)
Another song from the repertoire of John Reilly. It is featured on his 1974 album “The Bonny Green Tree”. I had not heard it for about 25 years until Helen Grehan sang it at John’s Memorial Concert in Boyle two summers back. She stilled the night with her version. Later, and with Helen’s encouragement, I sought to inhabit John’s old song. Whatever it is about John Reilly’s songs they seem to be imbued with a lonesome emotion that emerges almost every time his songs are sung. Previously I have sung  “The Raggle Taggle Gypsy” “The Well Below The Valley”  “Lord Baker” “What Put The Blood” and “Tippin it Up” from John’s repertoire and there may be a few more to come yet. He was a quiet gentle man who loved a pint and a woodbine. He sometimes seemed perplexed (but appreciative) by the interest shown in his singing. He was never sure how to respond to this attention but always did so with humility and warm gratitude. John endured a hard life. We were all shocked to learn that was still in his 40s for we considered him to be an older man. I should also mention that it was through Mrs. Bridie Grehan and her daughters Francie, Marie and Helen that we got to hear the songs of John Reilly. I spent a lovely day with Lynched singing this song (and others). Hope we get to sing it again.

The Tuam Beat
I was touring the UK in the 90s with Eleanor Shanley and her band. That’s when I first met the percussionist Jimmy Higgins. 20 years later and he is playing on this album. Jimmy introduced me to the songs of Pádraig Stevens and I was smitten by The Tuam Beat. The verses almost appear to be random but for me, there is a narrative that carries me along each time I sing it. I won’t burden you with my interpretation lest it might interfere with yours. I finally got to meet Pádraig when we both sang at a Memorial Concert to Tony Small in The Town Hall Galway in 2014. More recently he came to a concert in Athlone where we played his song to him.  When introduced to the audience he received a great welcome for they too had enjoyed The Tuam Beat.

Mandolin Mountain
There exists a genre of dream-songs in our tradition known as Aislings. When I first heard Tony Small sing this song it sounded to me like an Aisling of his life in four short verses.  From Finsbury to Berlin, back to Dingle then on to Tuam, Tony carries us on a journey where we encounter old time singers and listen to their songs… On and on he travels forever seeking Mandolin Mountain.
I first met Tony in a Folk Club in London back in 1969.We remained in touch until his untimely death in 2014. His voice and songs remain with all of us who were blessed to have known him.

Oblivious
The Ballad singers are still at work. All over Ireland men and women are writing and singing songs even as we speak. There are more songwriters here now then at any time in our History. Mick Blake is one such. He wrote and recorded this song in Leitrim Village. I first met him when we sang together at a concert in aid of Middle East Children’s Alliance during the last assault on Gaza. Mick is currently working towards his own first album. His work can be heard on YouTube where he has posted a number of home made videos of his songs. We recently sang together at a 1916 Commemoration concert in Liberty Hall. That performance will soon be released by SIPTU who hosted the concert in the presence Of President Michael D. and Sabina Higgins. Mick permitted me to record a version of his song. His original version has an additional verse;

“Imagine a country where people are free not slaves to a Gombeen economy
sold into bondage that ill fated September night.
No smooth talkin sleeveens to spin and pretend
where a promise is not just the means to an end
where Justice is not just what’s legal but also what’s right.
But the Man from Islandeady echoes the cries of the clown
as he preys on the sick and the needy
to soften the Ice maidens frown

Wallflower
I do not know Peter Gabriel but I have long admired his work. Declan Sinnott suggested this song and I spent long hours getting to know it. Learning certain songs can be a labour of love. Sometimes my work process can be very slow. It is often made possible by Declan’s patient guidance. I struggle with chords and accompaniments but latterly it has become a struggle that I relish. The opening line of Wallflower brings me straight to that place where none of us want to be. I have yet to understand certain lines in “Wallflower” but time will reveal more. Repeated gigging often reveals hidden meaning within songs. (Meanings the author may not have intended) As life and events unfold songs can take on different nuances. Sometimes a song can fall from the list only to return years later imbued with new significance.

The Lost Tribe of the Wicklow Mountains
Dave Lordan’s poem has been the most difficult to nail. We laid down 4 different versions before settling on this. Also spent some happy times with Moxie, but or schedules prevented us from getting it finished. Hope I get to play with the bowsies again – they are a great Band.

I first heard Dave perform this in Avondale, Co Wicklow at a “Save Our Trees” gathering. I was straight onto him and he gave me the nod and his blessing to play around with it. I feel this piece may still have a way to go and I hope to have another cut at it. The lilt before is from “The Dingle Regatta”, the verse after is from “Dunlavin Green”
“Bad luck to you Saunders their lives you sold away.
You said a Parade would be held on that very day.
Such grief and such sorrow in one place was ne’er before seen.
As when the blood ran in streams down the Dykes of Dunlavin Green”

Lightning Bird Wind River Man
Declan O’Rourke has the gift of song. I first met him when he opened for Planxty back 2004. Then we happened upon his gig in Kenny’s of Lahinch, County Clare two summer’s ago. When he sang this song I got the shiver – always a good sign. The imagery, the audacity, the beauty, the tune – its all here. I hear a song like this and I give thanks for the wonderful and powerful tradition of song and music on this Island. Such an amalgam of styles and genres. From the songs of Joe Heaney, The Clancys, The Dubliners, Margaret Barry on to John Spillane, Eleanor McEvoy, Jimmy McCarthy, Luka Bloom, and on again to Declan O’Rourke, Soak, Damien Dempsey and the hundreds of other songsmiths working around The Island this very day … Jinx Lennon, Paul Doran, Padraig Stevens … I could go on for a week!

The Ballad of Patrick Murphy
John Spillane was asked by the Family of Patrick Murphy to write a ballad for the centenary memorial on 2011.
The picture John painted caught my ear when he sang it for me.  I added a “turn” for the first verse and used it as a chorus, all with John’s blessing. I sang it at The Marquee in Cork last year for Patrick’s Grandsons who came to the concert. There were 4,000 people in The Marquee that night and together we remembered the life of the slain Fisherman. The bailiff who shot him was arrested. The trial was transferred to Dublin. The authorities feared the shooter might not get a fair trial in Cork. He was eventually found guilty of manslaughter and given a six month sentence – just like William Zanzinger.

The Gardener
30 years ago I recorded Paul Doran’s song “Natives”. He sent me “The Gardener” 10 years ago and it has taken me all these years to find my way into singing it. Paul has a distinctive style of delivering his songs that I find very difficult to absorb. With Declan’s help I finally found a way to sing this most beautiful of songs. I am reminded of so many of the old Gardeners in my family. On both sides of my family there were those who devoted their lives to “self-sufficiency” gardening. They would have had a few flowers here and there but their main concern was the growing of vegetables and fruit. I sang this song recently at the funeral of John Bowen in Ahakista on The Sheep’s Head. If ever a Gardener lived the lines of this song it was John Bowen, formerly of Rathoora on The Mizen, now at rest in Schull.

 

Click HERE for a review of the album in Fatea magazine.

 

Concert in aid of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre …

On Thursday September 8th at Vicar Street, Dublin we will perform a Concert in aid of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre whose funding has been cut substantially in recent years. The work of the Rape Crisis Centre has been severely compromised by these cutbacks. We fully support the essential service they provide. Every cent raised on ticket sales will go to support the RCC. Tickets are available HERE.

“Summer Comes and then we’ll see just what’s been done” – The Gardener -Paul Doran

Dear Listeners,

Stop Press!!! On Thursday September 8th at Vicar Street, Dublin we will perform a Concert in aid of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre whose funding has been cut substantially in recent years. The work of the Rape Crisis Centre has been severely compromised by these cutbacks. We fully support the essential service they provide. Every cent raised on ticket sales will go to support the RCC. Tickets are available HERE.

Another project completed, another basket of songs dispersed. It has been a joyful experience – gathering, learning, chording, arranging, rehearsing, recording, re-recording, mixing and mastering these 10 songs before releasing them to fly away upon the air. Declan was at my side most of the way. His encouragement, his suss and his beautiful playing are a constant source of inspiration. As I’ve said before, Declan is the only guitar player I know to have said “this song does not need a guitar break “

Thanks to the writers who shared their work with me and allowed me leeway when required. To those writers whom I’ve never met, I also express my gratitude. 9 of the 10 songs have been performed and “Lost Tribe” is almost ready to roll. I had to dig my heels in with title, artwork and packaging. Now it’s all there for you to see. Brian Maguire’s painting of Lilies hangs above me on the wall as I write this chat. Some of you may remember Brian’s “Death of an American hero” from the album “Burning Times” which was dedicated to the memory of Rachel Corrie.  Feedback for LILY has been positive in the main but there may still be naysayers lurking in the long grass – come out yiz feckers…

Many people maintain that reviews don’t matter to them, that they do not bother reading them. Not Me – I love to get a good review, it always gives me a buzz. I hate to get a bad review, but we gotta take the rough with the smooth. I still remember my first print review. It was in the Melody Maker back in 1969 and I still have it…

Last weekend at Croke Park Kildare played Wexford in the first round of the Leinster Championship. “Lily” was played over the Tannoy. What a moment that was. It reminded me of “Quinte Brigada” getting a spin at Parkhead a few years back. Myself and Michael Devine were in the stand and could not believe our ears!

For any of you who might be interested I’d like to share original versions of some of the songs on LILY as performed by those who wrote them;

My good friend Tony Small sent me Mandolin Mountain before he passed. I first met Tony in London back in 1969. A native of Galway, Tony devoted his life to singing, playing and writing. Click HERE for his version of Mandolin Mountain

I first met Declan O’Rourke when he performed with Planxty in Vicar St Dublin back in 2004. Click HERE for clip

Dave Lordan is a poet and activist whom I love to meet and hear. Click HERE for clip

Mick Blake, a teacher in County Leitrim, is writing some vital songs. I first met him on the net and since then we have performed together a number of times. Click HERE for clip.

Padraig Stevens has been at the hearth of Music in Tuam Co Galway for many years. Jimmy Higgins introduced me to his work. Click HERE for clip.

Here is the debut performance of Johnny Spillane’s memorial to the murdered Fisherman Patrick Murphy of Passage West, County Cork. Click HERE for clip.

I have never met Peter Gabriel but have long since admired his work. Click HERE for clip.

Click HERE for a new clip from Lynched. I had a lovely day with them some time back. We played “Green Grows the Laurel” together. I hope to perform with them at some time in the future – diaries and weather permitting….

Click HERE for a clip of John Reilly singing “True Lovers”, from the album “Bonny Green Tree” which also features “The Captain” AKA “Green Grows the Laurel”.

I had some fun with Moxie as we sought to uncover “The Lost Tribe of The Wicklow Mountains” and hope to perform it with them in the future. Click HERE and HERE for a couple of recent clips from Moxie – as fine a bunch of bowsies as a gunt could hope to meet.

RTE transmitted “Journey” over two nights last month. Filmed by Mark McLoughlin and his crew over a 5 month period it has been very well received (in the main). I viewed it carefully a fortnight before transmission. I feel privileged that the work of 50 years received such a documentation on RTE. ( Ireland’s National Broadcasting Station ).That so many of the songs were re-visited, that people associated with the songs were remembered  gave me great satisfaction. Mark McLoughlin dealt sensitively with whole project and I wish him and his colleagues’ success in all their future endeavours.

Getting ready now to return to work. All the songs from LILY are now ready for live performance. I’m looking forward to a whole host of new venues when we return to work. Glenamaddy, Connemara, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel, Westport, Sligo and Ballinasloe all coming up soon. Then we have Killarney Festival and Cambridge Festival to savour as well as Bantry and two small club dates in London.

After that it’s an Ulster Tour in September and then back over to England and Wales in October.

We have our boots polished and trousers pressed. Points and plugs in order, brakes and tyre pressure all checked…we are read to Shimmy-Shammy once again.

See you along the way…

Christy

PS….all the above gigs are on the gig page here and LILY will be available at all upcoming gigs

 

 

Lily – Out Today!

Dear Listeners –
Just a little reminder that my new album “LILY” is out today and is now available from my website  …
Also – I will be singing a few songs on the Late Late show tonight, 20th May on RTE 1 from 9.35 pm.
All the best,
Christy

New Album – Lily – Out Friday …

Greetings Listeners,

The new album “Lily” will be released on Friday, 20^th May on the Colombia label by Sony Music.

I have assembled 10 songs over the past few years and gathered them into this new collection.

I rehearsed, arranged, recorded and mixed them with Declan Sinnott, Jimmy Higgins, Séamie O’Dowd, Mairtín O’ Connor, Cathal Hayden, Vickie Keating and Andy Moore.

It has been a labour of love for us. I hope that you will find something that appeals to you.

It will be available from my website from this Friday.

Thanks for listening,

Christy

PS … I will be singing some songs from LILY on the Late Late show this Friday (20^th May) on RTE1 at 9.30 pm

New Album – Lily

Dear Listeners,
We are about to release a new basket of songs – simply titled “Lily”, this collection has been a joy to record. We worked at different locations over the past 2 years and now it’s time to let it off upon the air.
Let us know what you think… we like your feedback. By the time Lily is released 9 of the 10 tracks will have been gigged. “Lily” will be in stores and on sale on this website from 20th May. You can pre-order the CD  by clicking HERE. You can also pre-order “Lily” on iTunes & Google Play by clicking HERE.

All the best,
Christy

JOURNEY

Dear Listeners,

The documentary film “Journey” will be screened over 2 nights on RTE 1. Part One this coming Sunday April 10th at 9.30 pm and Part Two on Monday April 11th.

Filmed over 5 months by Mark McLoughlin “Journey” gets deep into the songs. Mark and I travelled back to the source and we encountered many people along the way who shared their insights and told their stories.

It was betimes an emotional journey but we got to share many happy moments too.

Click HERE for a clip …

I hope you will enjoy it.

All the best,

Christy

 

 

March 2016

October 14th

Yesterday I visited the Island of Inis Oírr. The day was perfect. The Atlantic was perfectly still and the Sun shone brightly as the ferry left Doolin pier. I last visited this Island in 1972 when Planxty played there. I remember that very clearly. This time the visit was part of the ongoing film project which is based on the songs. I was there to visit the memorial stone to all those taken by the sea and to sing “The Two Conneeleys”.I simply cannot find words to describe the experience. Hopefully when the film is transmitted next spring it will capture some of yesterday’s experience.

Back in The Royal Spa Lisdoonvarna to prepare for tonight’s gig here, which is also being filmed. I hope to sing quite a few songs that don’t feature very often in performance. Declan Sinnott and Jimmy Higgins will arrive in a few hours and we’ll get cracking on the songs. I hear the crew setting up down below in preparation. It’s an exciting process.

Just finished rehearsal and soundcheck. Now it’s an hour to gig time. Trying to get some new songs into the set tonight. The stage is tight. It’s a small room and it’s to be a 5 camera shoot. Hope the crowd won’t be intimidated by the presence of film crew – hope I won’t be intimidated either! I’m happy that the work is to be marked but it’s times like now that I wish it was just an ordinary gig…  Still the film crew are very laid back and focused and have not interfered with the gig so far. Fair play to them

Later…the gig was very good. Hope he gets some footage from what was a great night

October 17th

Last night played a Concert for the workers from The Clery’s Lockout. We organized it with Frank Connolly of SIPTU to show solidarity with the victims of the Lockout. As Mick Blake’s song says, just coz its legal don’t mean its right…

October 24th

We kicked off this UK tour in Buxton Opera House – A hidden gem of a venue in the Peak District of this great country. It’s great to be back among the neighbours who turned out in great style and numbers. I last played up around here in 1968 in various Folk Clubs scattered around the region

October 27th

After Buxton we rolled down from the Peaks until we landed on The Mersey and once more into The Philharmonic Hall where a mighty gaggle of songsters gathered for the songs and music

“There was lashings a drink and wine for the ladies, potatoes and cake there was bacon and tay”

Ian Prowse was there for “This Train” and the crowd loved him for it. Janice Long was there from the BeeB; always a great supporter and always a joy to meet. My longest standing listeners Margaret and Irene were there but, as always, did not wish to intrude so I never saw them.

“They were doing all kinds of nonsensical dances, all around in a whirligigig – Jimmy, Declan and I soon banished their nonsense, out on the floor for a reel and a jig”

After the gig we swooped high over The Pennines on our way to Tyneside arriving in at 2am with a free day to loiter by The Quay. Newcastle and Sunderland were hard at it so the town was empty. Being a long standing Blythe Spartan I had little interest but Michael, our TM, was devastated by the news from Roker (I’m old fashioned).

Last night we purred at the beautiful architecture of The Sage in Gateshead – One of the great venues of the world. 1,000 faithful listeners turned up on a Monday Night and surrendered their ears to the songs. Declan had a nose bleed during the gig but never missed a note. Spancilhill had a rare outing and went down a treat

After supper we galloped out the Scotswood Road, on out through Hexham astride Hadrian’s Wall, turning right at Carlisle we cantered on up to Glasgow where I pen these few words this lovely Autumn Morning

October 31st – Cairnryan Ferry Port.

Its 4 hours since we played the last song at Barrowland. It was a stunning gig for us. Perhaps my 10th time to play the old venue. This occasion surpassed all expectation. With the full house gone up a week in advance the room was rammed with loyal listeners. From the off we were all in the zone. Starting with “Come all you Dreamers” at 8.05 we wrapped it up 2 hours later with “Sonny’s Dream”. I have never before experienced audience participating to this degree. Almost every song in the 28 song set was harmonised, chorused and celebrated but great silence descended when required for the quieter songs. We sang for Paddy Hill and MoJo (Miscarriage of Justice Organisation) and all 2,000 voices joined in on “Scapegoats”. We played (not in this order)

Come all you dreamers

Wallflower

No Time for Love

Blackjack County Chains

Galtee Mountain Boy

Quinte Brigada

Quiet Desperation

Missing you

Ride On

Black is the Colour

Biko Drum

Lakes of Pontchartrain

Sleep out on The Beach

Billy Gray

Joxer

Lisdoonvarna

Yellow Triangle

Smoke & Whiskey

Rory is gone

City of Chicago

Back Home in Derry

How Long

North & South

Biko Drum

Sonny’s Dream

Having been rewarded an encore we came back out and took our seats as the crowd chanted enthusiastically. After what seemed an age I attempted to sing “The Time Has Come”. I set off in the wrong key and approaching the high notes realized I was doomed. Stalling the digger I admitted my error to the audience, most of whom were singing the song with me.Their response was totally forgiving – They simply started their paradise chant again … Earlier, in the dressing room, I received a presentation from The Barrowlands Committee. It’s a new initiative to honour those who have contributed to the ongoing History of this great venue. The song myself and Wally Page wrote earned me this plaque.

We are on the ferry now and soon as the anchor is hauled we’ll be on our way to Belfast and then South to Dublin. Its 4am and the tour is done … Thank you all.

November 1st

Back again on home turf with my family. After 10 days on the move through hotel rooms, concert halls, soundchecks, rehearsals, cars, buses, vans ,trains and gigs (with the occasional Rogan Josh) it was pure joy to come through the front door and be greeted by loved ones. The first pot of calming brew is very settling as we catch up on household events and swap yarns from our time apart. Home Sweet Home. Blessed and Privileged to be a part.

November 7th

Here I am arais arís in The County Meath, home place of our dear Mother Nancy Power (1919-1992).She grew up on the Banks of The River Boyne near the Village of Yellow Furze. I was always attracted to the name of the place when Mammy spoke of her childhood days. I still have some cousins nearby in Stackallen. My grandfather Jack Power came from Hayestown and married Ellie Sheeran of The Cotton Mills circa 1916. I have always felt the Meath connection. My Godmother Maeve Laffan also came from Beauparc. She and Nancy remained close friends for all of their years and I could not have had a better Godmother. Whatever about her spiritual duties Maeve always welcomed me to her home and never forgot important dates. The card would always arrive with the red ten shilling note!

A good turn out in The Headfort Arms, Kells last night. I played here before in 2003 and 1981. I clearly recall the 1981 gig for it was during the Hunger Strike of that year. The gig was part of the Anti-Block campaign and the guest speakers Goretti McDonnell whose Husband Joe was soon to die on day 63 of his Hunger Strike. Many of last nights audience were not born back then, others among us will never forget those dark days.

Last night we introduced some new songs. Mandolin Mountain, Oblivious and The Tuam Beat are making their way into the set. We also played Scapegoats after its resounding outing in Glasgow last week. It feels like we are playing well, Jimmy Higgins has tightened us up with his rock solid percussion and Declan and I now have a more solid groove in which to rattle the auld ramalama and roll along with the boogaloo… you know yourself

November 12th

How often did we travel slowly through Newtownmountkennedy down the years? Before by-passes and Motorways were opened, the main road to the Sunny South-East wound its way through the main Street of this Wicklow Town. Having waited 70 years to play a gig in N T M K Y we were welcomed royally last to The Garden County. Never known to be a regular gig county, Wicklow has bucked that trend in recent months with 2 fine gigs…Kilruddery was a funky groove and tonight was perfect for a windy November Night as Abigale rattled the slates and we 3 did our best to stay in tune with the passing storm. New songs are slipping into the set as we prepare to record the next collection. We had a lively crowd in from near and far. Hilary came from The Kingdom, Lar was out from The Rock, and Adam came all the way from Arklow. The Curator of the Box Set (1964-2004) was also present in the room. His ears may have popped coming through “The Glen of The Downs” for he spoke later of hearing pedal steel during the set. The only time I ever sang to pedal steel was back in 1979.  Back then, Jimmy Faulkner and I were driving through Castleblayney when Jimmy remarked that Basil Hendrix, that legend on Pedal Steel, was living in the Monaghan town and had a studio there. I did a quick handbrake turn in the old Peugeot 404 diesel and before you could say Bo Diddley we were recording a song in Basil’s studio. It was all done, mixed and dusted  in 2 hours and featured subsequently on that rarest of recordings, the 1979 12”Anti-Nuclear album. (not too many possess that one!) After NY we tracked the Wicklow Mountains crossing many rivers til we rived into Maryboro where the whole process was to begin yet one more time.

November 25th

Martin Egan has passed from this life. He will be missed. I first met him when he followed Planxty to Innis Mór in 1972 (along with Mary Coughlan).A few years later we connected again in The Meeting Place, Dorset St, Dublin. We became friends. Martin was a very special man who endured many setbacks in life but laughter was never far from his lips. He wrote and sang songs and poems; he painted and also wrote plays. He ranted and railed against injustice but also calmed and soothed the oppressed and depressed. He was a wild man in his heyday and we rollicked together betimes. A great friend and comrade in later years when we both found a different path. He reached out to many and helped us with his compassion and wisdom. He never shied away from the hard ball, he’d pull on it and drive it straight back. There was never a dull moment in the company of Martin A. Egan. The world is a quieter and darker place since Martin’s flame went out.

December 4th

Here in Tullamore, County Offaly, reuniting with the Trad Outfit. Jim Higgins won’t be with us – he’s laid up for a few days but hopefully will be back in jig time.

December 8th

We played the final gig of 2015 in Galway last Saturday. 72 gigs this year and, to the best of my memory I enjoyed every one of them. I also spent many days filming with Mark McLoughlin for the forthcoming Documentary “Journey” which will be shown on RTE 1 next Spring. I also filmed a documentary with The High Hopes Choir directed by David Brophy that will be shown on RTE this month. I recorded “Quiet Desperation” and “Fairytale of New York” with the choir. This is for release anytime soon. I recorded a documentary for RTE Radio on the Life and songs of Ewan MacColl which is due for broadcast around Jan 1st. I was scheduled to commence recording the next album this week but this was postponed when Jimmy Higgins took ill. Thankfully he is now on the mend and making a full recovery. We will reschedule as soon as he is back behind the traps

December 28th

Thank you for all your good wishes and greeting over the Christmas and New Year. It has not been possible to reply to you all individually. I wish all songsters, linnets, 4711ers and friends all the best for 2016. Hopefully, we will be united in song… We will commence work on the next album in early January. If all goes according to plan it will be released in The Spring.

February 28th 2016.

Wishing all our Listeners a Happy New Year… I have been rehearsing, recording, and mixing the next basket of songs. Gigging has re commenced. I have just played 6 gigs with The Trad Outfit. We finished in The Opera House in Cork last Saturday night. I’ve not had time to chat these past months. This one may seem a bit erratic and disjointed, but what matter – judging from feedback, the chats are reaching decreasing numbers as social media develops onto other platforms, but I appreciate those of you who take the time to respond.

See you later.

Christy

PS … A little light reading …

Browsing the net I came across this article written by Bent Sorenson some years back. The subject of his study was an album called “Listen” which I recorded in 2008  – Thanks to Hilary Scanlon for pointing it out. I was intrigued to read such an analysis of my work. I labour long and hard (willingly and enjoyably) over these collections. To find such a searching and in depth study was both surprising and very rewarding. It’s a treat when people engage with the work like this. They reveal dimensions I never imagined. Click HERE to read the piece. Thank you Bent Sorenson, wherever you may be … should you read this, get in touch – it would be nice to say hello

On we go, heel to the toe…

Cambridge Folk Festival

Dear Listeners,

I’ll be playing the Cambridge Folk Festival in July …

 

click HERE to see the rest of the line up so far …

All the best,

Christy

Fundraiser for Richard Boyd Barrett’s election campaign…

 

Dear Listeners,

I will play a fundraiser gig for Richard Boyd Barrett’s election campaign on Tuesday 16th February at the Royal Marine Hotel Dun Laoghaire. The doors are at 7pm and the gig will start at 8pm.

Tickets are €25 and are available from today, Friday 29th January at the People Before Profit office 91 Lower Georges street Dun Laoghaire. The office is open Mon 10am to 1pm Thur/Fri 11am to 2pm. Contact Sara 086 068 5549. E mail … Pbpadl@gmail.com

Tickets are also available via paypal – click  HERE  to buy.

All the best,

Christy

Killarney Folkfest

I’ve just received confirmation that we’ll be playing the Killarney Folkfest next July. I heard great reports about this year’s event and look forward to playing “The Kingdom” with Mairtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden, Seamie O’Dowd & Jimmy Higgins.

I include the press release below…

Following the huge success of the inaugural Folkfest Killarney, the INEC and Conor Byrne are very excited to announce that Christy Moore & The Máirtín O’Connor Band will be headlining the Saturday line-up next year!

Happening from July 8th to 10th 2016, this mighty weekend will be 3 days jam packed with the best of live music performances, from Ireland and beyond. Other Acts confirmed so far include Damien Dempsey, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Maria Doyle Kennedy and the Mike McGoldrick Big Band.

For a limited run, Early Bird tickets will be available, and go on sale Friday morning. 3 day weekend tickets are only €79.00. You can also purchase early bird Saturday tickets for just €39. All tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

With more top drawer acts to be announced, this is an offer that you don’t want to miss!

It’s important to note that this is mainly a Stand up gig, with a limited amount of unreserved seating available. 

Click HERE for a link to the Folkfest Killarney website.

Martin Egan is at Peace

Beautiful, wild, caring, angry, abused, compassionate, lost and found, funny, poetic, singing, painting, carousing, crying, laughing, dear friend Martin.

“O the sides are going up on Knightley’s Trailer … Anticipatin’ work that’s yet to come”

“O the low road goes from Killorglin all the way to Annascaul”

“I bust me head off a gable wall at the end of a top shelf stagger”

From the Aran Islands to Dingle, from the Meeting Place to Madonna House … he was a great Comrade. He never shirked the hard ball…

Farewell Martin, We’ll not forget you.

Christy, Val and Family

Vigil for Ken Saro Wiwa & The Ogoni 9

To mark the 20th anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 9 Afri is organising a vigil on Tuesday 10th November outside Shell Headquarters, 52 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 at 6pm. “I may be dead but my ideas will not die” – Ken Saro Wiwa. All welcome.

Save Our Harbour Protest this coming Saturday …

Please consider supporting this protest against the proposed cruise ship berth in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. This coming Saturday (10th October) at 1pm at the Seafront End of the Peoples Park Dun Laoghaire. For more information about the proposal and Save Our Seafront click  HERE

The Foxy Devil …

The correct answer to our recent quiz is “The Foxy Devil”. I recorded this song on the 1978 album “The Iron Behind The Velvet”. It was written by the late Joe Dolan who was one of the founder members of Sweeney’s Men in the mid 60s. He also wrote “The Trip to Jerusalem”, another song on that album.

We had 6 correct answers which went into the Hat. The winner drawn was Patsy from Moate, a regular correspondent to the guestbook on the website. Two tickets on the way Patsy.

Best wishes to all our Listeners and Readers.

Greetings from Letterkenny, where I am preparing for this evenings concert.

Work has commenced on the next album.

Keep in touch…

Christy

 

PS The quiz was posted a week ago and was available to all our readers.

Marian Finucane Show

Dear Listeners … A quick note to let you know I’ll be on the Marian Finucane show on RTE 1 this coming Saturday 12th September.

Christy

10th September 2015

Dear Listeners,

It’s been a while. This chat has been 3 months in the writing and may be a bit chaotic but that’s the way it has been. Currently in Tralee about to leave for Glengarriff. Gigs are going well.

I will meet Marian Finucane on her Radio Show at RTE 1 next Saturday Morning (12th September). I have been invited in to sing a new song from Mick Blake, a marvellous songwriter from Leitrim. Some of you may recall the song he sang at last years gig for Children of Gaza. I had an interesting talk with Iarla Ó Lionáird which was transmitted on Lyric FM recently as part of the Vocal Chord series. Click HERE to listen.

I will perform 2 songs with The Homeless Choir next month for release later on this year. This project is being led by David Brophy and is a follow up to last years TV series with the same choir. Already this year I have met and sung with choirs in Dublin and Waterford.

This month marks the beginning of year 50 on the road – a journey that commenced in 1966 when I got my first gig as a full time singer. Filming has commenced on a documentary that will chronicle the years of song, gigging and recording. As I reached my 70th year a few documentary makers showed an interest in marking the work. I am working with Mark McLoughlin, a filmmaker whose work I admire. There is talk that it will be transmitted next spring, if all goes well. This project is leading me back to some very interesting places.

I have commenced work on a new album which I hope to release in about 6 months time. Also work is underway on an album with The Trad. Outfit (Martin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden, Seamie O’Dowd and Jimmy Higgins) which I’m hoping will see the light at the end of 2016.

That’s my latest news – here is the rest of the chat;

May 9th 2015 – Back on the boat to Holyhead.

All packed up and ready to go. One more time into the belly of the boat as Michael Devine and I start out at 7a.m.  on this fine summer’s morning.

Its 54 years since I first crossed the Irish Sea. Back in 1961 Pat McGowan and I set out for London to work the summer months in Walls factory at Hayes in Middlesex. We were 16 years old and full of excited anticipation. Within days we had jobs and lodgings. Overtime was plentiful; we worked long hours and made good wages. Our sojourn lasted 8 weeks before we returned home to continue our studies in Newbridge. Half a century later it’s a very different story. The 2015 Club Class Lounge on Irish Ferries is a long way from 3rd class steerage on the old Holyhead Mailboat (or the Liverpool Cattle Boat). It should be said that there was a lot more crack on the old boats. Particularly in the late 60s and on into the 70s when music had become the purpose of my travels.  It’s hard to beat ballad sessions on the high seas. Bottles of stout appearing from all directions as fellow travellers showed appreciation for the impromptu sessions. This morning I’m surrounded by Macs, iPads and iPhones, large TV screens, tasty morsels, tea and coffee dispensers – not a bottle of stout or a bit of crack to be seen. If I got my guitar out now and tore into “Rosin the Bow” the Master at Arms would have me in the hold before we reached The Kish!

I find it increasingly difficult to leave home as the years pass by. However, I’m a working singer and this is what I do. I enjoy the challenge of playing “over the water”.  England Scotland and Wales have always been welcoming and provided a different atmosphere in which to perform. It gives me a necessary jolt, all the more so since I’ve ceased long haul gigging. Heading for Bristol now and I must assume a different frame of mind towards the work ahead. I will draw from the same Well of Songs but the delivery will be different.

We are billeted in Cheltenham for the first two nights of this week-long tour. My last time here was in 1968 when I played the Sunday night Folk Club. That gig was located in a Hall attached to the local Conservative Party HQ. It was a “serious” club with a tendency towards the Trad end of the Folk spectrum. I did two 30 minute sets and was paid the handsome fee of £10. Back then my repertoire would have included:

The Spainish Lady

The Ballad of James Larkin

The Cliffs of Dooneen

Come by the Hill

Bridget and the Pill

Take it down from The Mast

The Galway Races

The Little Beggarman

The Curragh of Kildare

Mary from Dungloe

Seth Davy

The Rocky Road to Dublin

O The Water O The Water – after the air we breathe it’s our most precious resource and we’ve been taking it for granted and misusing it. In my childhood I recall my grandparents drawing water from the well. How they cherished that Well. For farmyard purposes they gathered rainwater from every roof around the yard. Not a drop was wasted. They drank the well water, cooked and washed with it, always using it frugally. We have come a long way in 60 years – car washes use drinking water, Industry and Industrial farming use it on a mammoth scale with no thought (that I know of) towards efficiency. We water our lawns, flush our waste, sprinkle golf courses, and shower incessantly. My father’s people never had running water, shower or bath or water closet but they had the greatest respect for this precious resource. I too am guilty of waste – we’re all in this together. Water is life. We must prevent it falling into the ownership of the Denis O’Briens and other like minded capitalists, some of whom appear to hold elected representatives in their greedy palms. We need to keep a very close watch on what is happening. It would seem that we cannot rely upon our politicians to safeguard our water. Given free reign, they seem prepared to sell it off. It is not yet too late but if we don’t face up, it soon may be

May 13th

Half way mark of tour achieved last night at The Anvil Theatre in Basingstoke. It is a lovely room for sound and comfort. It kicked off solid with Yellow Furze Woman turning up after a lay-off. Well Below Valley also re-appeared this time with fresh harmony vocals that were followed by a grand bit of Bowrawn Bashing by Jimmy and I.  Declan’s guitar outro after Quinte Brigada was the best ever since we first played it in 1985. Sweet Thames and Curragh of Kildare also appeared out of nowhere and had me mesmerised. Then the M3 was closed on the way to Cambridge and we lost an hour on detours but there was a good side; Jimmy and I started a little Ballad Session in the back of the van. We sang The Nightingale, The Maid from Dungannon, Cúnla, The Rocks of Bawn, Sam Hall, Dunlavin Green and Carrickfergus and before we knew it we were driving up the main street in Cambridge with neither don nor bicycle to be seen.

Free days on the road are essential, that’s when we get to rehearse. Recently we have introduced Tony Small’s “Mandolin Mountain” and John Spillane’s “Ballad of Patrick Murphy” into the set.  We are currently working on Paul Doran’s “The Gardener” and Peter Gabriel’s “Wallflower” .They are almost ready. I’m also working on a poem from Dave Lordan called “The Lost Tribe of The Wicklow Mountains”. Wally Page and I have been writing a song called “The Bundle of Sticks”. New songs are essential to keep fire in the belly of the singer – the excitement of hearing it all begin to gel, the tension as first public airing comes close, the joy of getting a new piece into the repertoire. It still exhilarates this auld singer.

It was good to return to St. Davids Hall is Cardiff.  Afterwards we sped Northwards through the night. After the gig is the best time to travel – The roads are quiet and good time can be made. Watching movies on the computer with the headphones on is like being at the old picture house in Newbridge. I Watched American Sniper and Fury on the trip to Manchester and arrived shaking and shell-shocked.

June 26th – Glastonbury.

This is my fifth time to play on Michael Eavis’s farm. What a privilege it has been. My first visit was 30 years ago. Back then Michael Eavis himself was very involved in the programming. I was told that he liked the idea of putting a solo folk-singer on the Pyramid Stage and there I was that Sunday afternoon. I opened my set with a long Bodhrán solo dropping various lyrics in along the way. About 6 minutes in Jim Donohoe pressed the sub-bass button and the audience began to swell to the old drum – that’s what I remember from that year. I returned 6 or 7 years later with Jimmy Faulkner. We both played a set together in the acoustic tent. For whatever reason it did not gel. I did a solo set again on The Pyramid and gave the old drum another rattle. This time we managed to record it and it surfaced many years later on an album called “Traveller”

Visit 3 was in the early noughties when I played with Declan Sinnott and Donal Lunny. I’m a bit hazy on this one but it must have been alright because 7 or 8 years later the call came again. On Visit 4 I played the Acoustic Stage with Declan Sinnott. We had a real good time under canvas with a very enthusiastic audience

So it’s on to Visit 5 tonight and I’m really looking forward to it once more. This time I’m with Declan Sinnott, Jimmy Higgins and Vickie Keating. We had a good 2 hour rehearsal last night running through a bunch of songs that may get played tonight. This is VERY different to our usual performance – no sound check, a stand up audience who will have been revelling around the festival all day, a gaggle of 8,000 sunburnt, gambolling, expectant, happy listeners all gathered to hear and sing songs. I love this kinda gig – couldn’t do it all the time but when it comes around I embrace it. Going to have another rehearsal this morning and then lie low ’til gig time

July 11th – The morning after Waterford.

It was great to be back in a room last night. After Glastonbury, The Cork City Marquee and The Groove of Kilruddery it was like being back on Terra Firma. An audience of 100s rather then 1000’s makes for a very different performing experience, one that I much prefer. At our regular gigs we can play as quietly as we wish, we can bring it right down before soaring back up with foot to the floor. There is an interaction that is simply not possible at large events. I feel I have reached a significant milestone these past 2 weeks. I believe its time to reassess the tack to take for the remainder of this journey. There is an energy required for big festival gigs. It’s an energy that crushes the very life out of certain songs.  It’s an energy that I need to consider. Watch this space!!!

Rumours were rife about my joining Ed Sheeran on stage in Croke Park. Ed did make contact a few months back and invited me to join him at HQ.I thought long and hard about it but decided to decline his generous invitation. However we did get together for a few hours and swapped a few songs. I love his singing and playing, his attitude and focus, his down-to-earth-ness.We hope to meet again….

Christy

PS … A couple of things worth checking out …

Bogmans Canon – a piece about the writings of Pádraic Pearse – Click HERE to read.

A poem called Cúchulainn by Stephen Murphy – Click HERE to watch.

PPS … At the moment I am concerned about (and involved with) a local issue here in my hometown of Dun Laoghaire. You might consider reading the following. You might even consider adding your voice.

The  Harbour Company (an unelected body)  are proposing to build a berth for Super Cruise ships in the harbour. They are trying to sell the idea to the community as a positive development which will bring much needed business to the town of Dun Laoghaire but this is simply not true. If it is allowed to go ahead it will do nothing but destroy the beautiful Victorian harbour which serves as a wonderful amenity for generations of Dubliners. It will be of little or no benefit to the town.

Please consider signing and sharing Save Our Seafronts petition against the proposed Cruise Liner berth in Dun Laoghaire. Save Our Seafront are a voluntary group whose aim it is to protect the foreshore of Dublin and maintain it as a public amenity so that local people have safe access to the water/seafront.

Find out more about Save Our Seafront and the proposed cruise berth by clicking HERE

You can Sign the petition by Clicking HERE

Please access, like and Share the Save Our Seafront facebook page by clicking HERE

Lyric Documentary & Extra Show …

Dear Listeners …

Just a short note to mention an interview and performance on RTE lyric FM on Friday 14th August at 7 pm. I recorded it with Iarla O’Lionáird as part of the Vocal Chords documentary series. Click HERE for a link to the lyric FM website.

Also, an extra show has been added next week in The Palace Theatre, Fermoy, Co. Cork on Friday 14th August. Tickets are available now from The Palace Theatre Box Office on 025 32042.

I am working on a chat which will soon be posted

All the best,

Christy

Killarney Folk Festival 24th – 26th July …

Good Listeners…

There is a bit of confusion in the air over the upcoming Folk Festival in Killarney. It will take place July 24th -26th. (Click HERE for details of the festival)

An event  was cancelled in Kerry two weeks ago. That unfortunate cancellation had nothing to do with next weeks Festival. I should declare an interest; The Festival features many of my favourite Bands and Conor Byrne, my nephew, is the main organiser of this event.

Moving Hearts have reunited after many years. Both Declan Sinnott and I were in the original line-up back in 1981. It will be great to hear them again. Liam O’Flynn will perform with his new quartet. Liam’s music resounds daily in my mind since I played with him in Planxty all those years ago. Recently I have had the pleasure of playing with both Moxie (http://www.moxiemuso.com/) and Lynched (http://lynchedmusic.com/) – I love the music that both these bands are making and both bands are Killarney bound next weekend. I have been gigging these past few years with Mairtín O Connor’s band and hope to record with them before too long, they will shake The Mangerton Mountain. The younger Brother, Luka Bloom, also features and has a brace of new songs to sing. Aldoc (http://www.aldocmusic.com/) are heading for the Kingdom too. I catch them any time I can, I love the wizardry of Alan Doherty.

Other acts include Kila, Sharon Shannon, The Unthanks, Tinariwen, Begley and Cooney in what promises to be a great celebration of music. I wish everyone a great time

All the best,

Christy

On Friday 22nd May …

Dear Listeners,

Just been gigging away out foreign for the past 10 days. I have arrived home to this referendum hotbed. It would seem that new protagonists have entered the fray in recent days. I dont wish to intrude upon you, I merely ask you to consider using your vote. It is easy NOT to vote. I urge you to avail of this hard earned opportunity to express yourself at the polling booth come Friday – it will be an hour well spent and you never know who you’d meet…

Ride On….

Christy

I Never Met Bob Dylan But I Sang With The Pecker Dunne

2 Vicar St Dublin Gigs re-scheduled from Christmas cancellations

20th April –   2 hours 8 mins	21st April – 2 hours 13 mins
After the Deluge	After the Deluge
Matty	Go Move Shift
Natives	Matty
Missing You	Gortatagort
Dunnes Stores	Missing You
Folk Tale	Black is the Colour
Casey	Delirium Tremens
Farmer Michael Hayes	Magdalene Laundry
City of Chicago	Casey
Hattie Carroll	Where I Come From
Ruby Walsh	Viva La Quinta Brigada
Motherland	Ride On
Ordinary Man	Biko Drum
Beeswing	Easter Snow
Hiroshima	Dunnes Stores
Easter Snow	City of Chicago
Go Move Shift	Little Lightbox
North & South	Ordinary Man
Contender	Hattie Carroll
Two Island Swans	Companeros
Viva La Quinta Brigada	Voyage
Little Light Box	Joxer
Quiet Desperation	Smoke & Strong Whiskey
On the Mainland	Shovel
Back Home in Derry	Beeswing
Time Has Come	Lisdoonvarna
Joxer	No Time For Love
Ride On
Fairytale of New York Delirium Tremens

 

The rescheduled Christmas gigs went very well. Again, regrets for any inconvenience caused but the poor auld Lungs were wracked with infection.

On Monday night we had MOXIE in. This young band of bowsies has been making great sounds this past while. I caught them in Whelans last year at The Liffeybanks Sessions. I like their sound, energy and dedication. Their next gig is in The Sugar Club, Dublin on Thursday May 21^st. It promises to be a Hot Night on Leeson Street – Click HERE to watch Moxie video.

On Tuesday night in Vicar St. we had a visit from Johnny McEvoy whom I first heard sing way back in 1966 in Leeds. It was great to see him again, looking fit and still singing the songs. My erstwhile colleague Bill Whelan from Planxty (mark 4) also dropped in. We reminisced about our work together on Timedance (Bill composed the suite with Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, I played Bodhrán) we recalled fun and capers as we travailed around Europe. The Planxty line up at that time was Liam O’Flynn, Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Bill Whelan, Nollaig Casey and myself. We recorded an album “Words and Music” and also performed the Timedance suite during the Eurovision Interval – when 600 million people around Europe got off the couch, put on the kettle and made a few sambos! Click HERE to watch Timedance YouTube.

Maurice Cassidy also came to the gig the other night. I first met Mossy in 1972 when Planxty did their first UK tour. We had just been signed to Polydor Records. Some executive put us out on the road with a band called Iguana. Maurice was the tour manager and it can’t have been an easy task. The gigs were utterly unsuitable and we were all disillusioned by the experience. We made it back to Dublin where Planxty soon regained a “head of steam”. 43 years later and Maurice is still a gig man. Thankfully, all us Planxty sailors are still making our own individual music. Others who played in various Planxty line-ups include Johnny Moynihan, Paul Brady, Matt Molloy, Noel Hill, Tony Linnane, and (I think) Arty McGlynn, John Kelly, Dolores Keane…

April 22^nd

Declan Sinnott is in the UK to perform some gigs with Vickie Keating and promote his second solo album “Window on The World”. They will play a gig in Whelan’s of Dublin on Sunday May 31st. He has a great bunch of new songs. Click HERE to see video for Declan’s song “Time to gather in”.

I’m looking forward to re-joining the Trad Outfit in Loughrea, County Galway and Spanish Point in West Clare. We will play two concerts and also prepare for our Ulster Tour in June when we play Belfast, Derry, Enniskillen and Dungannon.

After that I will catch up again with Declan and we’ll head over to play Glastonbury on Friday June 26th when we will be joined by Jimmy Higgins and Vickie Keating. This is my 5th time to play Glastonbury since first playing there in the mid 80s.Over the years I’ve played before (and after) a huge diversity of musicians. Met quare hawks, thirsty ducks, hard chaws, high priests, dodgy dealers, hardy christians and cold cats there over the decades. I experienced the highs and lows associated with such mammoth events, got to hear Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Housemartins, James Brown, and Robert Cray. My abiding memory is playing a bowrawn solo on the main stage one Sunday afternoon in the mid 80s… When Jim Donohoe added Sub Bass to the Bowrawn the audience quadrupled in a matter of minutes. (I subsequently used this solo on the “Traveller” album in 1999) Farmer Michael Eavis’s best Jersey Herd looked up momentarily but soon returned to green pasture.

I have so many great Festival memories from across the decades – Sherkin Island with Norman King, Randall’s Island with the NYPD, Leeds with Moving Hearts, hearing Fairport Convention, Cambridge with Diz Dizley, Blairgowrie with The Marsden Rattlers and Jeannie Robertson… Krumlin nr Halifax with Elton John sharing Brandy as the heavens opened and the entire festival was washed down the mountain at Barkisland. The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival with Red Ken in London. Watching Sting do an interview backstage at the London Fleadh was interesting. Chuck Berry at Ballisodare, Seamus Ennis at Lisdoonvarna, Rory at Macroom, Philo in Mullingar. Singing “A Pair of Brown Eyes” at Dranouter. Planxty at Lorient ……

The Lift arrives at the 70th floor this month … May 7th 1945 (VE Day), Nancy Power and Andy Moore made way for their first born. Andy was in The Irish Army; Nancy had been working in The Majestic Hotel in Tramore. I was born in Dublin. They brought me home to Newbridge where I lived until 1963. Andy, our beautiful Dad, died tragically in 1956, Nancy re-joined him in 1992 .She spoke of him lovingly every day in the interim. I am sometimes amazed that this journey continues and I’m always grateful to all those of you who share it. You create the space and the air in which the songs breathe. I am one of six all of whom, thankfully, live on The Island. Most of the family are involved in, or connected with, music in some way. Nancy instilled that in us while Andy, for the short time we knew him, could hold a tune and sing a song …. “I’ve got a lovely Bunch of Coconuts”

My Brother Luka Bloom has a new Band. They are called O’Sahara and I’m hoping to hear them at the Junefest in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Click HERE to see the Junefest programme.

My sister, Anne Rynne, took up the guitar 4 years ago. After a life of singing “for the crack” she has buckled down to working at her music, the results are wonderful (keep it up Sis!)

May 1^st

Writing this paragraph in The Armada Hotel, back again on The West Coast of Clare. Great fun last night in Spanish Point, the music was leppin, the songs reverberated, listeners from many quarters, soldiers home from The Leb, confectioners from the land of Toten Hosen, Emissaries from the land of parlez vous, one Miltown-Malbay resident extremely challenged by the bar being closed –  the last of the thirsty ducks… There were good requests too, Butterfly, Brendan’s Voyage, Gortatagort, even Casey got a mention. My sister Anne was in the room, I could hear her voice singing gently along… when I sang of Barronstown, of Bridie, Frank and Nan I could sense her emotion as we remembered our roots…

Two great nights with The Trad Outfit in Loughrea and Spanish Point … good rehearsals and gigs as we look forward to June when we play Belfast, Derry, Dungannon and Enniskillen… our sets were;

April 29th – Loughrea 2 hours 1 min	April 30th Spanish Point 2 hours 7 mins
Beeswing	Beeswing
Missing You	Missing You
Go Move Shift	Go Move Shift
Easter Snow	A Pair of Brown Eyes
Ordinary Man	Farmer Michael Hayes
Farmer Michael Hayes	Mountains of Pomeroy
A Pair of Brown Eyes	Where I Come From
Honda 50	Honda 50
January Man	Easter Snow
Mountains of Pomeroy	St Brendans Voyage & The Armada Reel
Where I Come From	Matty
Inagh Valley & Cooley’s Reels	Inagh Valley & Cooleys Reels
McIlhatton & Far From Home	Gortatagort
Nancy Spain	Shovel & Duke of Leinster
Joxer	Butterfly
Black is the Colour	Delirium Tremens
Motherland	Ride On
Lisdoonvarna & Richie Dwyers	Raggle Taggle & Whatever
Voyage	Cliffs of Dooneen
Shovel & Duke of Leinster	Lisdoonvarna & Richie Dwyers
Ride On	If I Get an Encore
	Joxer

It’s such a buzz to sit amongst “the music” again. Mairtín O’Connor and Cathal Hayden are players of the highest order. Both are accomplished and immersed in the Tradition of our Music. Seamie O’Dowd and Jimmy Higgins have spent their lives in the engine room of accompaniment. They are totally focused on where the tunes lead and how best to travel with them. All four have the added attraction (for me) of being songsters. Not all trad players have an antenna for songs.  Similarly not all guitar players have a natural antenna for following Reels and Jigs. Personally I have always needed guidance on chord patterns when trying to accompany Irish Music. Seamie calls out chords for me in rehearsal just as Donal Lunny used to do in Planxty days. These past nights, listening to Cathal’s “ Mountains of Pomeroy”, to Mairtín’s “Inagh Valley”, I have been carried away to that special place where music takes many of us… I’ll be practicing my chords between now and our Northern Tour in June …

On Sunday we attended “The Night before Larry Got Stretched” – A monthly gathering of singers and listeners in the Cobblestone, Smithfield.  As advised, we arrived early and got 2 good chairs. The room filled rapidly to full capacity and the singing began. Over the next 3 hours we heard (perhaps) 40 singers sing 40 songs. Fergus Russell kicked it off with a powerful version of Paddy Galvin’s “Where is our James Connolly”. The session was on. Singers young and old followed. Songs old and new, mainly unaccompanied got the greatest respect and attention. We met and spoke with many friends. The general consensus is that unaccompanied singing is enjoying a glorious revival amongst a new generation of singers and listeners. Songs of love, woe, laughter, bawdiness, subtlety, sneakiness, loyalty and betrayal. Song Sessions are on the rise – unpublicised, the listening continues to gather momentum.

Some New Dates for your consideration

The Groove Festival in Kilruddery, Co Wicklow  –  July 5th.

Waterford Woodlands Hotel – Fri July 10th

Claremorris Town Hall – Sat July 18th

Tralee Ballyroe Heights Hotel – Fri Aug 28th

Clifden Arts Festival – Fri Sept 25th

 

See you along the Way,

 

Christy

 

PS …

Click HERE to listen to Dave Lordan’s Interzone – a groundbreaking live arts cabaret show broadcast at 8pm on Monday nights on Garden County Radio… Click HERE for the Garden County Radio website

Click HERE to read a nice review of the Spanish Point gig by one of our Antipodean listeners, Bob Singer.

 

 

 

Some more gigs …

A bit of Gig news.
These dates have been added.Full details on Gig page at Website.

April 29th…..Loughrea, Co Galway
April 30th…..Spanish Point, Co Clare.

Oct 24th Philharmonic. Liverpool.
Oct 26th. The Sage.Gateshead

Just heard that I’m to play Glastonbury on Fri June 26th.

Vicar Street April 20th & 21st

April 20th  & 21st  @ Vicar St Dublin – Some seats are still available for these two gigs.I will be gigging with Declan Sinnott and Jimmy Higgins.

Gradam Ceol – Sunday 22nd February

Mairtín O’Connor is to be honoured on GRADAM CEOL on Sunday February 22nd on TG4 at 9.30 PM. (next Sunday)   “GRADAM” is the highlight of the year within the Traditional Music community. This year it will be transmitted live from Cork Opera House. It’s a not-to-be-missed programme for anyone who likes the tradition. I have been fortunate in recent years to share stages with Mairtín O’Connor. He is a consummate player and a sensitive accompanist of songs. I have been aware of his playing for almost 40 years. It is wonderful and fitting, that his contribution is being honoured and recognized. TG4 are to be congratulated and supported for their ongoing endeavours to feature Traditional Irish Music and Folk Song.

Bob Dylan’s MusiCares acceptance speech – Well worth a read …

Here is the full transcript, via L.A. Times:

I’m glad for my songs to be honored like this. But you know, they didn’t get here by themselves. It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of doing. These songs of mine, they’re like mystery stories, the kind that Shakespeare saw when he was growing up. I think you could trace what I do back that far. They were on the fringes then, and I think they’re on the fringes now. And they sound like they’ve been on the hard ground.

I should mention a few people along the way who brought this about. I know I should mention John Hammond, great talent scout for Columbia Records. He signed me to that label when I was nobody. It took a lot of faith to do that, and he took a lot of ridicule, but he was his own man and he was courageous. And for that, I’m eternally grateful. The last person he discovered before me was Aretha Franklin, and before that Count Basie, Billie Holiday and a whole lot of other artists. All noncommercial artists.

Trends did not interest John, and I was very noncommercial but he stayed with me. He believed in my talent and that’s all that mattered. I can’t thank him enough for that. Lou Levy runs Leeds Music, and they published my earliest songs, but I didn’t stay there too long.

Levy himself, he went back a long ways. He signed me to that company and recorded my songs and I sang them into a tape recorder. He told me outright, there was no precedent for what I was doing, that I was either before my time or behind it. And if I brought him a song like “Stardust,” he’d turn it down because it would be too late.

He told me that if I was before my time — and he didn’t really know that for sure — but if it was happening and if it was true, the public would usually take three to five years to catch up — so be prepared. And that did happen. The trouble was, when the public did catch up I was already three to five years beyond that, so it kind of complicated it. But he was encouraging, and he didn’t judge me, and I’ll always remember him for that.

Artie Mogull at Witmark Music signed me next to his company, and he told me to just keep writing songs no matter what, that I might be on to something. Well, he too stood behind me, and he could never wait to see what I’d give him next. I didn’t even think of myself as a songwriter before then. I’ll always be grateful for him also for that attitude.

I also have to mention some of the early artists who recorded my songs very, very early, without having to be asked. Just something they felt about them that was right for them. I’ve got to say thank you to Peter, Paul and Mary, who I knew all separately before they ever became a group. I didn’t even think of myself as writing songs for others to sing but it was starting to happen and it couldn’t have happened to, or with, a better group.

They took a song of mine that had been recorded before that was buried on one of my records and turned it into a hit song. Not the way I would have done it — they straightened it out. But since then hundreds of people have recorded it and I don’t think that would have happened if it wasn’t for them. They definitely started something for me.

The Byrds, the Turtles, Sonny & Cher — they made some of my songs Top 10 hits but I wasn’t a pop songwriter and I really didn’t want to be that, but it was good that it happened. Their versions of songs were like commercials, but I didn’t really mind that because 50 years later my songs were being used in the commercials. So that was good too. I was glad it happened, and I was glad they’d done it.

Purvis Staples and the Staple Singers — long before they were on Stax they were on Epic and they were one of my favorite groups of all time. I met them all in ’62 or ’63. They heard my songs live and Purvis wanted to record three or four of them and he did with the Staples Singers. They were the type of artists that I wanted recording my songs.

Nina Simone. I used to cross paths with her in New York City in the Village Gate nightclub. These were the artists I looked up to. She recorded some of my songs that she [inaudible] to me. She was an overwhelming artist, piano player and singer. Very strong woman, very outspoken. That she was recording my songs validated everything that I was about.

Oh, and can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi Hendrix perform when he was in a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames — something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player. He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and pumped them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere and turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.

Johnny Cash recorded some of my songs early on, too, up in about ’63, when he was all skin and bones. He traveled long, he traveled hard, but he was a hero of mine. I heard many of his songs growing up. I knew them better than I knew my own. “Big River,” “I Walk the Line.”

“How high’s the water, Mama?” I wrote “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” with that song reverberating inside my head. I still ask, “How high is the water, mama?” Johnny was an intense character. And he saw that people were putting me down playing electric music, and he posted letters to magazines scolding people, telling them to shut up and let him sing.

In Johnny Cash’s world — hardcore Southern drama — that kind of thing didn’t exist. Nobody told anybody what to sing or what not to sing. They just didn’t do that kind of thing. I’m always going to thank him for that. Johnny Cash was a giant of a man, the man in black. And I’ll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there is no more days.

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Joan Baez. She was the queen of folk music then and now. She took a liking to my songs and brought me with her to play concerts, where she had crowds of thousands of people enthralled with her beauty and voice.

People would say, “What are you doing with that ragtag scrubby little waif?” And she’d tell everybody in no uncertain terms, “Now you better be quiet and listen to the songs.” We even played a few of them together. Joan Baez is as tough-minded as they come. Love. And she’s a free, independent spirit. Nobody can tell her what to do if she doesn’t want to do it. I learned a lot of things from her. A woman with devastating honesty. And for her kind of love and devotion, I could never pay that back.

These songs didn’t come out of thin air. I didn’t just make them up out of whole cloth. Contrary to what Lou Levy said, there was a precedent. It all came out of traditional music: traditional folk music, traditional rock ‘n’ roll and traditional big-band swing orchestra music.

I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that’s fair game, that everything belongs to everyone.

For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I’d heard it just once.

If you sang “John Henry” as many times as me — “John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain’t nothin’ but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I’ll die with that hammer in my hand.”

If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you’d have written “How many roads must a man walk down?” too.

Big Bill Broonzy had a song called “Key to the Highway.” “I’ve got a key to the highway / I’m booked and I’m bound to go / Gonna leave here runnin’ because walking is most too slow.” I sang that a lot. If you sing that a lot, you just might write,

Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose Welfare Department they wouldn’t give him no clothes He asked poor Howard where can I go Howard said there’s only one place I know Sam said tell me quick man I got to run Howard just pointed with his gun And said that way down on Highway 61

You’d have written that too if you’d sang “Key to the Highway” as much as me.

“Ain’t no use sit ‘n cry / You’ll be an angel by and by / Sail away, ladies, sail away.” “I’m sailing away my own true love.” “Boots of Spanish Leather” — Sheryl Crow just sung that.

“Roll the cotton down, aw, yeah, roll the cotton down / Ten dollars a day is a white man’s pay / A dollar a day is the black man’s pay / Roll the cotton down.” If you sang that song as many times as me, you’d be writing “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more,” too.

I sang a lot of “come all you” songs. There’s plenty of them. There’s way too many to be counted. “Come along boys and listen to my tale / Tell you of my trouble on the old Chisholm Trail.” Or, “Come all ye good people, listen while I tell / the fate of Floyd Collins a lad we all know well / The fate of Floyd Collins, a lad we all know well.”

“Come all ye fair and tender ladies / Take warning how you court your men / They’re like a star on a summer morning / They first appear and then they’re gone again.” “If you’ll gather ’round, people / A story I will tell / ‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well.”

If you sung all these “come all ye” songs all the time, you’d be writing, “Come gather ’round people where ever you roam, admit that the waters around you have grown / Accept that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you is worth saving / And you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone / The times they are a-changing.”

You’d have written them too. There’s nothing secret about it. You just do it subliminally and unconsciously, because that’s all enough, and that’s all I sang. That was all that was dear to me. They were the only kinds of songs that made sense.

“When you go down to Deep Ellum keep your money in your socks / Women in Deep Ellum put you on the rocks.” Sing that song for a while and you just might come up with, “When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez and it’s Easter time too / And your gravity fails and negativity don’t pull you through / Don’t put on any airs / When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue / They got some hungry women there / And they really make a mess outta you.”

All these songs are connected. Don’t be fooled. I just opened up a different door in a different kind of way. It’s just different, saying the same thing. I didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.

Well you know, I just thought I was doing something natural, but right from the start, my songs were divisive for some reason. They divided people. I never knew why. Some got angered, others loved them. Didn’t know why my songs had detractors and supporters. A strange environment to have to throw your songs into, but I did it anyway.

Last thing I thought of was who cared about what song I was writing. I was just writing them. I didn’t think I was doing anything different. I thought I was just extending the line. Maybe a little bit unruly, but I was just elaborating on situations. Maybe hard to pin down, but so what? A lot of people are hard to pin down. You’ve just got to bear it. I didn’t really care what Lieber and Stoller thought of my songs.

They didn’t like ‘em, but Doc Pomus did. That was all right that they didn’t like ‘em, because I never liked their songs either. “Yakety yak, don’t talk back.” “Charlie Brown is a clown,” “Baby I’m a hog for you.” Novelty songs. They weren’t saying anything serious. Doc’s songs, they were better. “This Magic Moment.” “Lonely Avenue.” Save the Last Dance for Me.

Those songs broke my heart. I figured I’d rather have his blessings any day than theirs.

Ahmet Ertegun didn’t think much of my songs, but Sam Phillips did. Ahmet founded Atlantic Records. He produced some great records: Ray Charles, Ray Brown, just to name a few.

There were some great records in there, no question about it. But Sam Phillips, he recorded Elvis and Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Radical eyes that shook the very essence of humanity. Revolution in style and scope. Heavy shape and color. Radical to the bone. Songs that cut you to the bone. Renegades in all degrees, doing songs that would never decay, and still resound to this day. Oh, yeah, I’d rather have Sam Phillips’ blessing any day.

Merle Haggard didn’t even think much of my songs. I know he didn’t. He didn’t say that to me, but I know [inaudible]. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs. Merle Haggard — “Mama Tried,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” I can’t imagine Waylon Jennings singing “The Bottle Let Me Down.”

“Together Again”? That’s Buck Owens, and that trumps anything coming out of Bakersfield. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard? If you have to have somebody’s blessing — you figure it out.

Oh, yeah. Critics have been giving me a hard time since Day One. Critics say I can’t sing. I croak. Sound like a frog. Why don’t critics say that same thing about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. That I have no voice. What don’t they say those things about Leonard Cohen? Why do I get special treatment? Critics say I can’t carry a tune and I talk my way through a song. Really? I’ve never heard that said about Lou Reed. Why does he get to go scot-free?

What have I done to deserve this special attention? No vocal range? When’s the last time you heard Dr. John? Why don’t you say that about him? Slur my words, got no diction. Have you people ever listened to Charley Patton or Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters. Talk about slurred words and no diction. [Inaudible] doesn’t even matter.

“Why me, Lord?” I would say that to myself.

Critics say I mangle my melodies, render my songs unrecognizable. Oh, really? Let me tell you something. I was at a boxing match a few years ago seeing Floyd Mayweather fight a Puerto Rican guy. And the Puerto Rican national anthem, somebody sang it and it was beautiful. It was heartfelt and it was moving.

After that it was time for our national anthem. And a very popular soul-singing sister was chosen to sing. She sang every note — that exists, and some that don’t exist. Talk about mangling a melody. You take a one-syllable word and make it last for 15 minutes? She was doing vocal gymnastics like she was on a trapeze act. But to me it was not funny.

Where were the critics? Mangling lyrics? Mangling a melody? Mangling a treasured song? No, I get the blame. But I don’t really think I do that. I just think critics say I do.

Sam Cooke said this when told he had a beautiful voice: He said, “Well that’s very kind of you, but voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.” Think about that the next time you [inaudible].

Times always change. They really do. And you have to always be ready for something that’s coming along and you never expected it. Way back when, I was in Nashville making some records and I read this article, a Tom T. Hall interview. Tom T. Hall, he was bitching about some kind of new song, and he couldn’t understand what these new kinds of songs that were coming in were about.

Now Tom, he was one of the most preeminent songwriters of the time in Nashville. A lot of people were recording his songs and he himself even did it. But he was all in a fuss about James Taylor, a song James had called “Country Road.” Tom was going off in this interview — “But James don’t say nothing about a country road. He’s just says how you can feel it on the country road. I don’t understand that.”

Now some might say Tom is a great songwriter. I’m not going to doubt that. At the time he was doing this interview I was actually listening to a song of his on the radio.

It was called “I Love.” I was listening to it in a recording studio, and he was talking about all the things he loves, an everyman kind of song, trying to connect with people. Trying to make you think that he’s just like you and you’re just like him. We all love the same things, and we’re all in this together. Tom loves little baby ducks, slow- moving trains and rain. He loves old pickup trucks and little country streams. Sleeping without dreams. Bourbon in a glass. Coffee in a cup. Tomatoes on the vine, and onions.

Now listen, I’m not ever going to disparage another songwriter. I’m not going to do that. I’m not saying it’s a bad song. I’m just saying it might be a little overcooked. But, you know, it was in the top 10 anyway. Tom and a few other writers had the whole Nashville scene sewed up in a box. If you wanted to record a song and get it in the top 10 you had to go to them, and Tom was one of the top guys. They were all very comfortable, doing their thing.

This was about the time that Willie Nelson picked up and moved to Texas. About the same time. He’s still in Texas. Everything was very copacetic. Everything was all right until — until — Kristofferson came to town. Oh, they ain’t seen anybody like him. He came into town like a wildcat, flew his helicopter into Johnny Cash’s backyard like a typical songwriter. And he went for the throat. “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”

Well, I woke up Sunday morning With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad So I had one more for dessert Then I fumbled through my closet Found my cleanest dirty shirt Then I washed my face and combed my hair And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything. That one song ruined Tom T. Hall’s poker parties. It might have sent him to the crazy house. God forbid he ever heard any of my songs.

You walk into the room With your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked You say, “Who is that man?” You try so hard But you don’t understand Just what you’re gonna say When you get home You know something is happening here But you don’t know what it is Do you, Mister Jones?

If “Sunday Morning Coming Down” rattled Tom’s cage, sent him into the looney bin, my song surely would have made him blow his brains out, right there in the minivan. Hopefully he didn’t hear it.

I just released an album of standards, all the songs usually done by Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr., maybe Brian Wilson’s done a couple, Linda Ronstadt done ‘em. But the reviews of their records are different than the reviews of my record.

In their reviews no one says anything. In my reviews, [inaudible] they’ve got to look under every stone when it comes to me. They’ve got to mention all the songwriters’ names. Well that’s OK with me. After all, they’re great songwriters and these are standards. I’ve seen the reviews come in, and they’ll mention all the songwriters in half the review, as if everybody knows them. Nobody’s heard of them, not in this time, anyway. Buddy Kaye, Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh, to name a few.

But, you know, I’m glad they mention their names, and you know what? I’m glad they got their names in the press. It might have taken some time to do it, but they’re finally there. I can only wonder why it took so long. My only regret is that they’re not here to see it.

Traditional rock ‘n’ roll, we’re talking about that. It’s all about rhythm. Johnny Cash said it best: “Get rhythm. Get rhythm when you get the blues.” Very few rock ‘n’ roll bands today play with rhythm. They don’t know what it is. Rock ‘n’ roll is a combination of blues, and it’s a strange thing made up of two parts. A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it out. But it’s true.

The other half of rock ‘n’ roll has got to be hillbilly. And that’s a derogatory term, but it ought not to be. That’s a term that includes the Delmore Bros., Stanley Bros., Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley … groups like that. Moonshiners gone berserk. Fast cars on dirt roads. That’s the kind of combination that makes up rock ‘n’ roll, and it can’t be cooked up in a science laboratory or a studio.

You have to have the right kind of rhythm to play this kind of music. If you can’t hardly play the blues, how do you [inaudible] those other two kinds of music in there? You can fake it, but you can’t really do it.

Critics have made a career out of accusing me of having a career of confounding expectations. Really? Because that’s all I do. That’s how I think about it. Confounding expectations.

“What do you do for a living, man?” “Oh, I confound expectations.”

You’re going to get a job, the man says, “What do you do?” “Oh, confound expectations.: And the man says, “Well, we already have that spot filled. Call us back. Or don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Confounding expectations. What does that mean? ‘Why me, Lord? I’d confound them, but I don’t know how to do it.’

The Blackwood Bros. have been talking to me about making a record together. That might confound expectations, but it shouldn’t. Of course it would be a gospel album. I don’t think it would be anything out of the ordinary for me. Not a bit. One of the songs I’m thinking about singing is “Stand By Me” by the Blackwood Brothers. Not “Stand By Me” the pop song. No. The real “Stand By Me.” The real one goes like this:

When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me / When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me / When the world is tossing me / Like a ship upon the sea / Thou who rulest wind and water / Stand by me

In the midst of tribulation / Stand by me / In the midst of tribulation / Stand by me / When the hosts of hell assail / And my strength begins to fail / Thou who never lost a battle / Stand by me

In the midst of faults and failures / Stand by me / In the midst of faults and failures / Stand by me / When I do the best I can / And my friends don’t understand / Thou who knowest all about me / Stand by me

That’s the song. I like it better than the pop song. If I record one by that name, that’s going to be the one. I’m also thinking of recording a song, not on that album, though: “Oh Lord, Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.”

Anyway, why me, Lord. What did I do?

Anyway, I’m proud to be here tonight for MusiCares. I’m honored to have all these artists singing my songs. There’s nothing like that. Great artists. [applause, inaudible]. They’re all singing the truth, and you can hear it in their voices.

I’m proud to be here tonight for MusiCares. I think a lot of this organization. They’ve helped many people. Many musicians who have contributed a lot to our culture. I’d like to personally thank them for what they did for a friend of mine, Billy Lee Riley. A friend of mine who they helped for six years when he was down and couldn’t work. Billy was a son of rock ‘n’ roll, obviously.

He was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don’t stand a chance.

So Billy became what is known in the industry — a condescending term, by the way — as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who’s got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy’s hit song was called “Red Hot,” and it was red hot. It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life.

He did it with style and grace. You won’t find him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s not there. Metallica is. Abba is. Mamas and the Papas — I know they’re in there. Jefferson Airplane, Alice Cooper, Steely Dan — I’ve got nothing against them. Soft rock, hard rock, psychedelic pop. I got nothing against any of that stuff, but after all, it is called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy Lee Riley is not there. Yet.

I’d see him a couple times a year and we’d always spent time together and he was on a rockabilly festival nostalgia circuit, and we’d cross paths now and again. We’d always spend time together. He was a hero of mine. I’d heard “Red Hot.” I must have been only 15 or 16 when I did and it’s impressed me to this day.

I never grow tired of listening to it. Never got tired of watching Billy Lee perform, either. We spent time together just talking and playing into the night. He was a deep, truthful man. He wasn’t bitter or nostalgic. He just accepted it. He knew where he had come from and he was content with who he was.

And then one day he got sick. And like my friend John Mellencamp would sing — because John sang some truth today — one day you get sick and you don’t get better. That’s from a song of his called “Life is Short Even on Its Longest Days.” It’s one of the better songs of the last few years, actually. I ain’t lying.

And I ain’t lying when I tell you that MusiCares paid for my friend’s doctor bills, and helped him to get spending money. They were able to at least make his life comfortable, tolerable to the end. That is something that can’t be repaid. Any organization that would do that would have to have my blessing.

I’m going to get out of here now. I’m going to put an egg in my shoe and beat it. I probably left out a lot of people and said too much about some. But that’s OK. Like the spiritual song, ‘I’m still just crossing over Jordan too.’ Let’s hope we meet again. Sometime. And we will, if, like Hank Williams said, “the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.”

 

Guitar… Sleeping Bag … Travellin’ Light …

This is Year 49 of the  Ballad Lounge Tour – taking in Kips, Concert Halls, Bordellos, Picture Houses, Arts Centres, Pubs and Conveniences, Detention Centres, Dry Houses, Treatment Centres, Guards Barracks, R.A.F Stations, Officers Messes, Royal Albert and Carnegie Hall, plus many other centres of excellence and debauchery)…’Tis great to be alive…

Although there were a few gigs previously, I consider this current tour to have started in The Old House At Home (Wilson’s Ales), Blakeley, Manchester in The Winter of 1966. A Sunday night Folk Club run by Mike and Patricia Harding was where I got my first full Folk Club Gig (i.e. first time I was the main turn). I played 2 x twenty minute sets. (Photo from Mike Harding)

 

 

Curragh of Kildare.

Enniskillen Dragoon.

James Larkin.

Mary from Dungloe

Little Beggarman

Galtee Mountain Boy

Blackleg Miner

Verdent Braes of Skryne

Dark Eyed Sailor

The Spanish Lady

Rocky Road to Dublin

Galway Races

Unquiet Grave

Master McGrath

Back then I was dossing around anywhere I could get the lie down. After this particular gig I stayed with Mike and Pat Harding and their young family. Sleeping (very comfortably) in my sleeping bag behind their couch. I travelled by thumb, bus and train, I frequented Yates Wine Lodges, used Public Baths to clean up before seeking out the next venue. I was starting to hear the great variety of Folk Singers who were gigging around Britain in 1966. – The Watersons, Hamish Imlach, Alex Campbell, Martin Carthy, Tim Hart & Maddy Prior, Martin Wyndham-Read, Noel Murphy, Cyril Tawney, MacColl & Seeger, The High Level Ranters, The Marsden Rattlers, The Yetties, Diz Disley, Johnny Silvo, The Young Tradition – these  were just a few of the  performers  that I got to hear. I was absorbing songs and singing, getting my foot in the folk club door, making new friends, getting farther and farther away from what I’d left behind; That world fashioned by John Charles McQuaid and Eamon De Valera.  I was learning about Rogan Josh in Bradford, Hashish in Moss Side, Nuclear Power in Thurso and General Franco in Aberdeen. I was on a roll, everything I owned was in my guitar case – no fixed abode, irresponsible, at my own University, in my own gap years, hoovering up verses.  I heard Jeannie Robertson in Blairgowrie, Fred Jordan in Keele, Hamish Henderson in Auld Reekie, Freddie Anderson in The Scotia. The Beatles and The Stones were all the go but I hardly noticed. Martin Carthy was gigging with Dave Swarbrigg, Billy Connolly was gigging with Gerry Rafferty, I heard Pentangle in Kircaldy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee in The MSG, I met Dominic Behan and Ralph McTell, swapped my Spanish Guitar for a Yamaha FG180, learnt a new chord, I was in clover. then I settled down a bit, had keys to my own gaffs in Fallowfield, Cheetham Hill, Rochdale, Bury, Causeway Foot, Mixenden.  I got a manager in 1967.  He lasted 4 weeks.

Meantime back here in Ireland there was upheaval in the Music … The Dubliners – Luke, Ronnie, Barney, Ciaran and John were flying through a gap created by Liam, Paddy and Tom Clancy with Tommy Makem. Sweeneys Men were adding new flavours to the pot. The Irish top 20 chart was being frequented by Folk-Singers and Ballad Groups. The likes of Al O’Donnell, Maeve Mulvanney, Johnny McEvoy, The Ludlows, Emmett Spiceland, Anne Byrne & Paddy Roche, The Johnstons and Jessie Owens were all gathering followers of song. The “ballad scene” was flourishing – a cultural phenomenon unheard of a decade previously. At the same time Sean Ó Ríada was creating sounds that still reverberate around the world. He gathered a group of the finest musicians around him. Together they played the music of Séan’s vision, his dream.

The Fleadh Ceols (of the 1960s) were our Electric Picnics. These festivals were a lot more spontaneous then today’s gatherings. They were looser, cooler events. No need for security firms nor glampers, wristbands nor headliners. We had some good “messers” (anyone remember the “Red Messer” or the “Long Messer”?) The music throughout the Fleadhs  was sublime… word would spread that Willy Clancy was playing in Hennessey’s, Seamus Ennis might be in Friels, there’s a session at the campsite, Ciaran Burke in the middle of it all, Mairtín Byrnes is in Grehans (go round to the back door, knock on the window) the Gardaí were chilled, a Sergeant  playing a fiddle on The Square, two beatniks dancing on top of the telephone kiosk, exotic mots, rusty crusties, clean-cut buacaills and well manicured cailins, farmers and fishermen, flutes and fiddles … we slept in haybarns and old railway carriages. We lived on beans and burnt sausages. We went to Mass if only to get in out of the rain. Some even “received”; others thought that was going a bit far!  The PPs tut-tutted, disapproved and frothed from the pulpit. The Legionnaires of Mary had heartburn but the cat was out of the bag. We didn’t give a shite as we gloried in our new found cultural rebellion. Liam Clancy was “the man to lead the van”. We’d crawl home on Monday or Tuesday from  Boyle, Clones, Thurles, Portarlington, Scariff, Strokestown or Bunclody with music still ringing in our ears.

(Perhaps a slight touch of euphoric recall here, but nobody wants to read about hangovers.)

Out of all this emerged a Band called Clad which we subsequently renamed Planxty in 1972. Irish music was changing slightly, sometimes subtly. Around the same time Horslips were doing their thing. There was Spud, Mushroom, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange and Jon Ledingham. There were some bits of cross pollination going on…Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher ,Eric Bell, Philip Donnelly and Jimmy Faulkner were bending the notes. I started playing with Jimmy Faulkner in 1974, then we were joined by Declan McNelis and Kevin Burke. Paddy Spillane of The Meeting Place offered his function room and I began a residency there on Monday nights and then started doing Saturdays too. Over the following years it became The Hub of Folk, Trad, and Blues and sometimes beyond. I heard Wally Page there for the first time (I think with The Tara Band) Heard Declan Sinnott there with Southpaw – Jimmy MacCarthy was the singer in that Band, heard Rob Strong, De Danann, Red Peters and The Floating Dublin Blues Band, Clannad, The Bothy Band. Planxty played there once. I marvel to think that in that wee room, which held 140 people, all those musicians played there in the white light of Dorset Street. The “lock-ins” were legendary. Shay Spillane and his wife Hanna would pour the finest of pints til Dawn. The three Spillane brothers Paddy, Shay (Skinnier) and Sean (The Badger) ran the most colourful pub in Town. Downstairs was the Casbah, Beirut, The Khyber Pass, El Paso, the basement of Mountjoy, all rolled up into one, upstairs was sweetest music in town…

Then there came the 80’s,90’s and noughties but I gotta get out of this reflective groove, gotta get into the here and now – peel some spuds, assemble some muesli, work  the new songs, plan this years recording … gotta get back into Declan Sinnott mode. Next up are our re-scheduled gigs in Vicar Street. It seems like ages since we last played together and I am looking forward to catching up with him and to hearing his new album. He has been working on his second solo album. I think he is planning some solo gigs in the near future – check his Facebook for details.

It’s good to have the sister site back up at 4711ers.org. Since its inception it has become a meeting place for songsters, linnets, gig goers and gagglers. My special thanks to those few friends who look after 4711ers.org Since I first got this here site up and running it has given me a connection with listeners that I had not experienced before. The sister site has been a great addition to that phenomenon.

Great programme on TG4 the other night on Na Píobairí Uileann. The revival of the Uileann Pipes was lovingly mapped on this excellent documentary.

I am going to hear Sweeney’s Men this week – A band that greatly influenced my own journey. Andy Irvine, Johnny Moynihan and Terry Woods who recorded the first Sweeneys album back in 1968. Hearing that album led me to return home. Their sound led me towards the sound that emerged on the Prosperous album of 1971. Soon going to hear the band “Lynched” – I’ve wanted to see them live for a few years.  Heard The Bonny Men a few times recently on TV and Radio and hope to catch their gig. I see that Aldoc are due back in Dublin soon. Another very interesting band fronted by Alan Doherty. Also want to hear Ye Vagabonds. There are Lots of good grooves knockin’ about these days.

I have recorded a piece for “The Works” on RTE. The project is to find Ireland’s favourite poem. I have been asked to speak on behalf of Paula Meehan’s  “The Statue of The Virgin at Granard “. I would not consider myself at all to be a poetry person but there are a few Poets whose work I love dearly. Paula Meehan is one such. I am indeed very happy to talk on behalf of her vital work.  At school they tried to bate Wordsworth, Keats, Shakespeare, Milton into us. I never had a clue what they were on about. It was decades later before I encountered poetry that spoke to me.

There Ye Have It

Christy

PS.  Some Seats available for Vicar Street on Feb 17,18, April 20, 21… also for Castlebar Feb 28th… the UK Tour in May also includes Warwick Arts Centre on May 11th

PPS. I was delighted to hear of a return to Tipperary Town. I’ll play a solo gig there on Saturday 21st March in the Excel Theatre. Details will shortly appear on the gig page.
Red Peters once sang “I had my breakfast in Mississippi and my dinner in Tipperary Town”.
The late Red Peters, a proud Tipperary Town man, was Dublin’s leading blues singer through the 70’s and 80’s. Recently his family released a memorial double CD “Red Peters – Rare Recordings 1968 – 1989”. It’s a gem. If you are a blues fan you may be interested. It’s on the Blue Navigator Label and is available on www.redpeters.ie

PPPS. Just saw this clip this morning on Youtube … I have been watching a series of different programmes commemorating the holocaust. It was 70 years yesterday since Auschwitz was liberated. I thought that it would be an appropriate time to share this clip with you. It contains some very disturbing footage … I’d like to thank Joasha156 for taking the trouble to visualise the song. Click HERE to watch.

In Kilkenny It’s Reported…

Dear Listeners,

I wish you all peace of mind in the coming year.

Thank you for your messages these past weeks. 2014 ended in a most unfortunate manner with the cancellation of four gigs in Vicar Street Dublin. Your messages of goodwill by email, website, text and phone were appreciated. Some of you gallant Shelmaliers even put pen to paper. There was Carrigeen Moss, Manuka, Cloves, Garlic, Lemon and Honey comin’ at me from all sides in various concoctions. I was submerged in Olbas laden steam, sweating, coughing and spluttering with the benylin exputin’ from out of my every orifice … but t’was only worse that I was getting. Finally I surrendered and, barely able to breathe, I went to the Doc.

He looked me up, he looked me down, at me he looked with a frown – “Drop your trousers and cough” sez he checkin’ under the bonnet for oil and water. “Say Agh” sez he, assessing me points plugs and tappets.  He sent me home with Anti-Biotics, Steroids, Mucadyne, Nasal Spray and Codeine. He also gave me a go on his Nebulizer. Here I am 2 weeks later, finally able to say thanks to everyone. Thanks to my family for their love and forbearance. Thanks too to all the crew for leaping into action with news of cancellations. Crossroads, Aiken Promotions and Ticket Master got the word out rapid to as many as possible. Paddy Doherty showed up at all cancelled gigs to meet anyone who had not heard of cancellations.  Approx. 25 people showed up over the 4 nights – A phenomenally small number out of approx. 4,000 ticket holders. I also had to postpone the first gig of 2015 in Castlebar which has been re-scheduled for February.

 

Vicar Street:December 22nd – rescheduled to Tuesday, February 17th. December 23rd – rescheduled to Wednesday, February 18th. December 29th – rescheduled to Monday, April 20th. December 30th – rescheduled to Tuesday, April 21st. Castlebar: Rescheduled to Saturday 28th February.

 

One of my favourite gigs of 2014 was the John “Jacko” Reilly gig in Boyle on June 26^th. This raised Funds for the commemorative bronze plaque since unveiled on the Square in Mainistir na Búille. There is a review of this gig on the website. There were many great gatherings across the year in a huge variety of venues. I enjoyed the different line-ups (6 in all) across a year that brought a variety of sounds and atmosphere to the music. The Greyhound Workers Strike Support Gig at Liberty Hall on August 16th was a belter. The Gaza Gig in Vicar St on October 12th was unique in many ways. Contributions from Mick Blake, Vickie Keating and Paula Meehan still resound. Visits to Kavanagh House in Inchicore, Keltoi in The Phoenix Park and The Hospice at Harolds Cross were occasions of special sharing. Iveagh Gardens, right in the heart of Dublin City, saw a great gig on July 11th. I’m hoping for a rerun next summer and have ideas for a bit of a knees-up. I can’t forget Johnny-Forty-Coats collapsin’ with the heat in Kiltimagh. Sitting with Val at the Cork Film Festival watching “Come All You Dreamers” was a lovely hour on November 9th. I was a bit paranoid at the prospect but soon as the lights went down I got lost in the songs. It was like watching someone else.

I am working on some new projects. I have a collection of songs coming together. At the moment I’m interacting with songs, enjoying the challenge. Wondering how I might record them, where I might record them and with whom. Sounds are developing in my head, I may keep it sparse … I feel something different is required.

Another project has been discussed for years. The record label would like me to gather all of my  most popular songs together in a collection of new recordings…I’ve not been able to get my head around this until now. Playing the songs with The Trad. Outfit has developed into an enjoyable process. The four men – Mairtín, Cathal, Jimmy and Sheamie have brought fresh colours to the hardy perennials of the last 40 years…looking at trying to tie that down.

There have been a number of film/doc proposals about documenting the work. (As the lift approaches the 70th Floor!) Some blow smoke, others seek the tried and tested but one proposal is very interesting. They seek to take a radical approach and appear enthusiastic to (rather then phased by) ideas. Also, they are familiar with the work, always a good starting point.

Big Dee sent me this set list from 31 years ago. I recall this Italian tour but not this Roman gig (I was giving the Chianti a bit of a lash)… of the 23 songs 6 were performed at the last gig in 2014… others have occasional outings whilst 11 have not been around for manys the year. Thanks BigDee, a grand flashback.

Cinema Espero, Rome 22.3.84

1 – Before The Deluge
2 – Black Is the Colour
3 – The Good Ship Kangaroo
4 – The Peoples MP
5 – Go move shift
6 – El Salvador
7 – All I Remember
8 – Lanigan’s Ball
9 – The Well Below The Valley
10 – Irish Ways And Irish Laws
11 – Don’t Forget Your (Zappa) Shovel
12 – Viva La Quinte Brigada
13 – Faithful Departed
14 – Sacco & Vanzetti
15 – The Wicklow Boy
16 – Nancy Spain
17 – Jesse James & Jesus Christ
18 – Back Home In Derry
19 – Only Our Rivers Run Free
20- Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette
21 – No Time For Love
22 – The Least We Can Do
23 – The Crack Was Ninety In The Isle Of Man

Have a look at this, my favourite video for manys the year, (posted by chanter Dylan Walshe who plays at The Harbour in Bray, Thanks Dylan); Ye Vagabonds got the marrow here – great video, great performance. Click HERE to watch

Started back in Kilkenny, what a night in The Marble City, we were all mad up for it. I was gaggin’ for a gig. The feckin Christmas after-shave and perfume had the room smellin’ like a Stena duty free! Traudel posted the set on 4711ers.org – our sister site is now back on line. Great room, 900 listeners, some good requests, vinyl flashbacks, people down from Coolcullen, over from Goresbridge, from Germany, France, England, The 4 corners of Bognia, Coolnacupogue, great to be back in front of the lamps

Solo:
1 January Man
2 Ordinary Man
3 Ruby Walsh
4 Nancy Spain
5 Lovely Young One

with MOC Band:
6 City of Chicago
7 Butterfly
8 Missing You
9 Black is the Colour
10 Farmer Michael Hayes
11 Bright Blue Rose
12 Mattie
13 The Tulla Set – Instrumental
14 Gortatagort
15 Honda 50
16 Back Home in Derry
17 John O’Dreams
18 Go Move Shift
19 They Never Came Home
20 Beeswing
21 Joxer
22 Tippin’ It Up to Nancy
23 Voyage
24 Quinte Brigada
25 Ride On
26 DTS
Encore:
27 Cliffs of Dooneen

28. Lisdoonvarna

That’s it for now … See you along the way,

 

Christy

 

Rescheduled Dates …

Vicar Street:
December 22nd – rescheduled to Tuesday February 17th.
December 23rd – rescheduled to Wednesday February 18th.

December 29th – rescheduled to Monday April 20th.
December 30th – rescheduled to Tuesday April 21st.

Castlebar:
Rescheduled to Saturday 28th February

Happy New Year to all,

Christy

Castlebar Gig Postponed …

 

Message from Christy …

Dear Listeners.

I was shattered to have to cancel gigs in Vicar Street. Knowing that listeners are going to be let down is a horrible feeling. I had no other option.

What started out as a “bit of a cold” turned into a severe bronchial lung infection. When I went to my GP last Friday I was still confident about being able to perform. Then come Friday and Saturday nights, my lungs literally closed down. I got no sleep and was struggling to breathe. I went to out patients in my local hospital on Sunday Morning, they put me on a nebuliser and now I’m on Steroids, Anti Biotic, Mucadyne, Nasal Spray and Olbas Oil inhalation. Still not sleeping too well but getting good air supply into the lungs again. Thankfully I am healing but that is all I can say for now.

I love my work and the connection built up over the years with you listeners. I deeply regret any inconvenience and disappointment caused by these unavoidable cancellations.

Very Best Wishes.

Christy

22nd & 23rd December – shows to be re-scheduled…

 

December 18th Show Cancelled …

Dear Listeners,

We have run into an unforeseen problem regarding our December 18th Gig at Vicar Street. We have had to cancel this performance.

Anyone holding tickets for this gig will be offered seats at the remaining Vicar Street dates  on December 22nd,23rd,29th,30th, or alternatively, at The Bord Gais Theatre on January 16th,17^th The number to call is 01 648 6015.

We regret any inconvenience caused.

Christy

More Shows Announced …

The following shows have just been announced …

Friday February 20th 2015 – Mullingar Park Hotel – on sale October 30th
Thursday February 26th 2015 – Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy – on sale October 30th
Friday March 6th 2015 – Clonmel Park Hotel – on sale November 6th
Friday March 13th 2015 – Kilronan Castle, Roscommon – on sale November 6th
Saturday March 14th 2015 – Radisson Blu, Athlone – on sale October 30th
Saturday April 4th 2015 – Nuremore Hotel, Carrickmacross – on sale November 6th
Saturday April 18th 2015 – INEC, Killarney – on sale now.
Friday/Saturday June 6th/ 7th 2015 – The Waterfront, Belfast – on sale November 6th
Thursday June 11th 2015 – Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen – on sale November 6th
Friday June 12th 2015 – Dungannon Leisure Centre – on sale November 6th
Friday/Saturday June 19th/20th 2015 – Forum, Derry – on sale November 6th
Saturday July 4th 2015 – Live at the Marquee – not on sale yet.

Here is some info about October 2015 – Scotland and England – tickets are not on sale yet…

Friday October 23rd 2015 – Buxton
Saturday October 24th 2015 – Liverpool
Monday October 26th 2015 – Gateshead
Tuesday October 27th 2015 – Edinburgh
Thursday October 29th 2015 – Glasgow RCH
Friday October 30th – Glasgow Barrowland

October – November 2014

Dear Listeners

Some New gigs for your consideration. Full details on the Gig Page on the website …

Friday February 20th 2015 – Mullingar Park Hotel – on sale October 30th
Thursday February 26th 2015 – Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy – on sale October 30th
Friday March 6th 2015 – Clonmel Park Hotel – on sale November 6th
Friday March 13th 2015 – Kilronan Castle, Roscommon – on sale November 6th
Saturday March 14th 2015 – Radisson Blu, Athlone – on sale October 30th
Saturday April 4th 2015 – Nuremore Hotel, Carrickmacross – on sale November 6th
Saturday April 18th 2015 – INEC, Killarney – on sale now.
Friday/Saturday June 6th/ 7th 2015 – The Waterfront, Belfast – on sale November 6th
Thursday June 11th 2015 – Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen – on sale November 6th
Friday June 12th 2015 – Dungannon Leisure Centre – on sale November 6th
Friday/Saturday June 19th/20th 2015 – Forum, Derry – on sale November 6th
Saturday July 4th 2015 – Live at the Marquee – not on sale yet.

Here is some info about October 2015 – Scotland and England – tickets are not on sale yet…

Friday October 23rd 2015 – Buxton
Saturday October 24th 2015 – Liverpool
Monday October 26th 2015 – Gateshead
Tuesday October 27th 2015 – Edinburgh
Thursday October 29th 2015 – Glasgow RCH
Friday October 30th – Glasgow Barrowland

Recently I decided to try and further my computer skills. In doing so I encountered some problems. I accidentally erased a lengthy chat and also lost 83 separate documents containing ongoing work, thus the brevity of this chat. Life goes on … new lyrics and songs are beginning to emerge from the enforced fresh start.

Today MECA received €27,871 – the proceeds of our recent Gig for Gaza. Thanks to everyone who contributed. We received the following communication today;

We thank you very much for your all of your efforts – not just your practical support but your show of humanity. Through your music and concert, you conveyed a message to the world and to the people in Gaza that we are not alone or forgotten.

Your funds will help the traumatized Palestinian children in Gaza who went through a very difficult time during the latest Israeli attacks. We are trying to help them overcome the traumatic experiences through our project “Let the Children Play and Heal” which uses drawing, writing, singing, drama and other creative games. These creative outlets are always needed for children in Gaza living under siege and occupation but they are even more vital now with so many children suffering after the horrors of 51 days of Israel attacks from the air, sea and land.

From Gaza, with love,
Dr. Mona El-Farra
Director of Gaza Projects for the Middle East Children’s Alliance

Josie Shields-Stromsness
Middle East Children’s Alliance
www.mecaforpeace.org

The Cork Film festival will screen “Come All You Dreamers” at the Cork Opera House on Sunday November 9th at 6pm. Click HERE for tickets …
It will be followed by a Q&A with myself and Philip King. They are also screening the 1990 Film “Christy” later the same evening. See Cork Film Festival for further details – click HERE for the film festival website.

Mick Blake performed at the recent Gig for Gaza. Below are some of his songs;

1 Oblivious – Click HERE to listen
2 Heaven – Click HERE to listen
3 The Giveaway – Click HERE to listen
4 Martyrs – Click HERE to listen
5 Mr Tepper – Click HERE to listen
6 Catch Cries – Click HERE to listen
7 Another Child Another War – Click HERE to listen
8 Leitrim (a brief history) – Click HERE to listen

See you along the way …

Christy