MP3 Tunes

I mentioned a few entries back that I was going to put up a recording of a couple tunes. Well, here they are.

The first tune is "The Humours of Glendart" and the second is "Donnybrook Fair". They are both played on a Clarke D whistle. The recording isn't perfect, but it gives an idea of the each tune and how they go.

Enjoy.

Two Jigs

Drum Pics

I've been playing bodhran for 4 or 5 years now (I can never remember exactly when it comes to these things). I've had two. The first was umber brown with a beige head and was very generic in every conceivable way. The sound wasn't bad, but was a bit sharp. The head itself was losing its colour and becoming transparent (not that this is a big problem, but it did annoy me). The thing cost me $40 and I ended up giving it to a friend of mine who wanted it either to learn or to use as some kind of decoration in his apartment.

The current bodhran I have is a real beauty. It's a handmade 19 inch Neil O'Grady with a red goat skin drum head. This one is about 3 years old and is locally made by Neil O'Grady, who is from Carbonear, Newfoundland. He is also the only local maker of ulieann pipes. Here's a couple pictures of this drum:

The last one here shows the three tippers I most often use. The first and second are my favourites.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to recording something on this insturment.

Song Book City

So I've completed another song book. This one, like the other big book I have, contains only traditional music, or songs written by artists working in the traditional style. This one contains 127 songs at last count and there is still room to add more.

I now have four books: a big 200 some odd page, smaller new 130 or so page, a small book with common party tunes, and a Christmas carol book. I've had the lyrics and chords to a lot of songs lying around on my hard drive and wanted to take the time to organize them into a new collection.

This book contains a few of my favourite songs, including "Annie Laurie", "The Bard of Armagh", "Bonnie Woodhall", "The Curragh of Kildare", "The Foggy Shores of Home", "Little Musgrave", "The Mermaid Song", "The Rose of Saigon", "Slip Jigs and Reels", and "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure".

Most of these I either know how to play already, or will very soon.

A Lovely Find

I was perusing my directory of songs today and thought I'd listen to a little Dolores Keane. I hadn't listened to anything by her in a while and, to be honest, I don't know much of her work. I clicked on a song called "The Low Lowlands of Holland".

I have never heard this song before and sure enough I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the guitar and tin whistle playing an intro. The melody really stuck me as beautiful with it's unexpected lows and highs. These help emphasize the lyrics, which, by the way, are here:

The Low Lowlands of Holland

The night that I was married and upon my marriage bed,
Up came a bold sea captain and he stood at my bed head
Saying "Arise arise young wedded man and come along with me
To the low lowlands of Holland to fight the enemy."

Now Holland is a lovely land and on it grows fine grain.
Sure it is a place of residence for a soldier to remain
Where the sugarcane is plentiful, where the tea grows on each tree.
I never had, but the one sweet thought and now he's far away from me.

Says the mother to the daughter, "Give up your soldier man
For there's man enough in Galway for to be your heart's content."
"Oh if there's man enough in Galway, alas there are none for me,
Since the low, lowlands of Holland have come between my love and me."

I'll wear no swathe around my waist, nor combs all in my hair,
No handkerchief around my neck for to save my beauty fair.
And never will I marry, until the day I die
Since the low, lowlands of Holland have come between my love and I.

Beautiful song of loss, the hurt of war, and the desire to hold on to the things that mean most to us. I've already worked out the chords to the song and all I need is a little time to getting the melody right then it's another song ready for my song book.

Two Choice Jigs

I've been back on a tin whistle kick lately, so I'm putting up two tunes that I've been working on: "The Humours of Glendart" and "Donnybrook Fair".

These jigs work very nicely together, the first being in the key of D and the second in G, allowing for a key change that is the equivalent of "dropping the car back in third and walking on her", as my brother says.

"The Humours of Glendart" I first met in a Planxty recording. On this track they called it "East at Glendart", but the tune is the same. "Donnybrook Fair" I heard paired "Glendart" on a ceiligh band recording (the band's name elludes me at the moment). The tune is also called "The Joys of Love".

Here they are in midi form. One of these days I may get around to posting the ABC notation for whistle playing:

The Humours of Glendart, Donnybrook Fair

Ah, visuals

I think I'll start things off with a link to a video. This is a song performed by a wonderful group of irish musicians known around the world as Planxty. There will be more to follow about this supergroup in the future, but for now I'll leave you with a classic of theirs, entitled "Arthur McBride", that really illustrates their style. Andy Irvine is the singer.

A-one, a-two, and a one, two, three, four

So here I am, starting a (we)blog. This is way overdone and hackneyed with at least a third of the internet's populous believing that the words ad nauseum cannot in any way apply to this kind of internet abuse. I've decided to see what the hype is, putting aside my fierce desire to do only the things that most other people do not, or will not.

That said, I hope to have this posting board concern itself primarily with one of my major hobbies: music. To be more specific, traditional/folk music from Newfoundland and Ireland (music from Scotland, Britian, and the odd Australian tune may also make an appearance). This is the kind of music popular in the pubs, bars, and houses of Newfoundland when parties and party people gather together. Songs, bands, instruments and anything else associated with this topic will likely appear here somewhere.

Alright then.