Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Karan Casey and John Doyle - Exiles Return - lyrics of "Sailing Off to the Yankee Land"

Mountain Stage host Larry Groce chats with Irish guitarist/singer/songwriter John Doyle Backstage at Mountain Stage:



Review on http://musicroad.blogspot.com/2010/03/exiles-return-karan-casey-john-doyle.html Music Road blog by Kerry Dexter "writer, producer, photographer, manager, teacher, storyteller

The dozen tracks are all stories of loss and longing and leave taking in one way or another, and in Casey’s and Doyle’s hands they become companions on the journey of figuring out one’s own experiences with these emotions. They are all not positive tales, exactly. ... Sailing Off to the Yankee Land tells of emigration in famine times, a song with an edgy sentiment set to a jaunty tune.



Lyrics at http://www.donalmaguire.co.uk/lyrics.html (scroll way down)

http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/cg_harte_frank_hungry.html FRANK HARTE: THE HUNGRY VOICE - THE SONG LEGACY OF IRELAND'S GREAT HUNGER

Frank Harte: vocals

Donal Lunny: bouzouki, guitar

In fact, the companion booklet, which contains extensive historical notes as well as full lyrics of all the songs, has become so thick it is difficult to put it back underneath the little plastic tabs of the jewel case without fraying the cover. A small price to pay, to be sure, for the motherload of information within. Some of the songs, of course, are fairly well known, standards like "Skibbereen" or "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore" for instance, but Harte also includes some lesser known gems like "Sailing Off to the Yankee Land." The concluding "City of Chicago" is a lovely contemporary song penned by Luka Bloom (Barry Moore) which, despite its newer vintage, fits very nicely and appropriately with the rest of the collection.

No comments: