We came all the way from Germany to your concert in Galway last year hoping you to play Beeswing. It was great, but the song wasn‘t on the set list. This year we are trying again on 31st August.
Love
Anja + Stefan
Christy's reply
thy will be done ..Dear listeners from land of Toten Hosen !!!
Back to music (and social history) to raise the spirits …
I’m looking into some info on Bill Leader…the search led me to. http://www.themeteor.org. If you click the menu,select ‘ culture’ ,scroll down to Mike Butler’s piece about Bill…it’s a cracking good piece.
Dave
Christy's reply
its a long time ago and my memories are from distant days….my good friend Hamish Imlach was recording on the Transatlantic Label….he thought that Label Owner Nat Joseph might be interested…I was introduced to Bill Leader who recorded 3 songs as a Demo for Mr Joseph….Bill and Helen welcomed me to their home which ,I think, was in Camden Town…I was very nervous,Bill was very encouraging and did all he could to settle me…I think I recorded 3 songs…. “Once Had a Love,” “Galtee Mountain Boy “and, I think, “Follow me up to Carlow”….. I never heard from Transatlantic… (in retro, Thanks Be)
…two years later and Bill opened up his own label….I cant recall the order of his early roster but he began to release excellent albums by artists many of whom I encountered in my early travels…Bill decided to record my second album for his label ( by now he had Trailer and Leader labels)…he agreed to come to County Kildare , to Downings House in Prosperous where my sister Anne lived with her Husband ,Davoc Rynne. Downings House is mentioned in the annals of Irish History ( Battle of Prosperous 1798) but in our time it was the scene of great music making and merriement. Bill arrived with Dave Bland, a Revox reel to reel, two stereo mikes and an echo “device”….he is a unique Sound Engineer and managed to capture the 4 of us withing the acoustic of an old Georgian Basement with none of the acoustic qualities of a studio ….he released “Prosperous” on Trailer …I moved back to Ireland to form Planxty….the Tara label approached Bill who allowed Prosperous to be re released on an Irish label….That old album is still on-the-go 53 years later. It still gets the odd spin on Irish Radio….
Many decades later I was invited to present Bill with a Life Time Award at the BBC Folk Awards in The Lowry Theatre , Salford…….
Bill Leader changed the course of our lives…without his willingness, foresight, adventursome spirit and good ears Planxty might never have happened…I might never have got home to Kildare….Bill Leader has recorded a legacy of music and song from a diverse array of Folk Singers and Musicians…I hold him in the highest regard
Hi Christy
I’ve had Yellow Triangle in mind for the last few days…went to the lyrics section here,for a read of the powerful words.
You dedicate the song to the memory of Phyllis McGhee…I’d appreciate some info about her,if you have time.
Thanks
Dave
Christy's reply
I used to meet the late Phyllis McGhee at XVth International Brigade Gatherings…she used to send me postcards from her travels…she once sent me a card from Spain that had Pastor Niemoeller’s words printed….I pinned it on the wall above my desk and read it every day for years until it became the song you mention
Again Christy
The lord of the Mournes has released a song this week, that he wrote with Paul Brady, one of his childhood icons.
What a thrill for Matt McGinn to get to write a song with Mr Brady.
Lovely song too, Matt’s music gets better and better (though Common Man is a hard album to beat). https://youtu.be/ZhmjfE5t3t8?si=0s3OjErd7-GVZigu
thanks rory
Christy's reply
Brady & McGinn has a ring to it….Strabane meets Ballymountain
hi Christy
whilst ‘our’ streets burn let us not forget the middle east and the bloodshed spreading to Lebanon.
They say the skies of lebanon are burning
those mighty cedars bleeding in the heat
they’re showing pictures on the television
women and children dying in the streets
i just happened to put on some Paul Brady in the car today and these 4 lines came to the fore just as that very country is being targeted.
rory
Christy's reply
what a powerful verse it is…..Paul is one of our great singers
On a cheerier note, the Mount Callan Garland book had just landed here. Songs sung by Tom Lenihan and collected by Tom Munnelly.
Picking out The Rocks of Bawn with the best brain and pick I can muster. It’s a gorgeous tune.
Christy's reply
dont feed him on soft turnips
take him down to your green lawn
Me neither Dave. It’s frightening how powerful stupidity can be and how there are some people who seem to enjoy violence. While the rest of us quietly wait in our homes. Christy said United Ireland . . What about United Kingdom. I wish we were.
In the same way that they don’t represent me at the paint factory in Coolock, they certainly don’t represent the vast majority of Dubs when the join with Unionist killers in attacking nationalists homes on the Ormeau road. Like the peelers calling in the dark of night, these people have “No time for love”.
True that Christy,
If only as much effort was put into building houses
as into building hotels and office blocks.
But no ! Look over there a new shiny bridge !
In other news, members of the far right who traveled
from Dublin to Belfast for an anti-immigration rally
spent the night drinking with uda members in a
loyalist bar where they received a heroes welcome.
Jesus wept. Is this where we are now ?
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Christy's reply
Dublin festers with empty pointless mausoleums as builders/developers/bankers/planners /Bureacrats keep mixin the mortar for more office blocks….
Free State Far Righters wave Tri-Colours in UDA Sheebeens…a United Ireland ?
Morning Christy from a soaking wet Derry. Just listening back to your chat with the 2 Norries and you where asked your top 5 Christy songs and you said to him you’d get back to him next year and funny enough that’s over a year ago. It’s a terribly hard question to answer cause songs are about that moment your in. I tried to give it a go and struggled but here you go for me in no order:
City of Chicago – cycling with my best pal when I was about 12 in Donegal singing it in the sun at the top of our voices somewhere behind burnfoot
Bright Blue Rose – a magic night in bundoran you gifted me and my daughter with – magic
Natives – a very hazy night in Nottingham after a long session with the same person I cycled with in Donegal all those years before
The Voyage – a song full of love and life
Back home in Derry – alot of meaning and passion in that song
Christy's reply
its a scorcher here this Monday morning….its a Bank Holiday…seems quiet adout, having a lazy one here, listening to a few songs….Johnny Broderick sent me a beautiful song about O’Carolan, thats spinning this morning…
David Ross from New York sent me an unnamed song ( Via Uileann Pipers Jimmy O’Brien Moran and Ronan Browne…it came upon the Piper’s Path) its based upon the Liffey…its quirky and I like it but I might not be able to sing it… I keep going back to it ..there are elements that I really like
sourcing the songs you mention all clear in my mind….how and where they came from….
Keen to avoid headbangers and demos,I stayed close to home at weekend….rewarded by great TV Olympics and a trawl through Steeleye Span music…
I finished with ‘Est’d 1969’…the 2019 album,marking their first 50 years…a highlight is Maddy Prior singing The January Man…sleeve notes refer to Tim Hart’s version from 1960s…I’m not aware of that one,but like you,love the song and played it in many a folk club
Can you recall discovering this gem and does it ever feature on your current setlists?
Have a good day
Dave
Christy's reply
the way things are going its gonna become harder to “avoid headbangers and demos”….they aint going away, they are getting bigger as thuggery starts to prevail….
I first heard ‘The January Man” when Ifirst played in Edinburgh…if memory serves Dave Goulder, who wrote this beautiful song, was one of the singers/organisers of The Auld Triangle Folk Club..it was there I first met the Scottish singer Owen Hand….started visiting Edinburgh frequently always stayinfg with Owen and his Wife Ruth….they ran the coolest shop in town called Hand in Hand….many happy days ensued in that most beautiful City….(including trips to Easter Rd, Sandy Bells and Khushis )
Hey Christy – hope you are keeping well and enjoying the summer.
I was just wondering if you got my last few emails? Please let me know if you are still up for helping with that project we discussed – If you have not got the time with all the gigging and the new album then no hassle. Thanks again for all the music, the memories and for always speaking out calling for a better, fairer Ireland ¡No Pasarán! Pádraig
Feck sakes Christy,
Fair play to yoursel and Michael Traynor
106 cds (must go back to the well again)
If you need a hand like …
The women of Kerry fairly destroyed us.
And things not looking mighty agin The Rebels next week.
Sin a bhfuill.
Bourkey
Christy's reply
a Silver medal bates a kick in the arse
Ye are a mighty tribe….ye hold your own across the codes, the GAA, the Sliotar, and The Oval Ball,
Presidents, Poets, and Pipers abound amongst yourTribe…Thespians and Lesbians welcomed
Shame about The Harbour….who in the name of the almighty allowed such an atrocious series of mostrosities to be thrown up….there must have been a glut of brown envelopes changing hands in that beautiful place ( excuse me, I seem to have roamed off topic here
we’re in serious training here for The Hanger
Rest in Peace Mickey Finn, Corky, Pete Galligan, Tony Small to mention but four who helped make the wonderful memories that still linger
your delightful Spike Milligan book came to hand late last night..thanks Bourkey
Hi Christy
i have managed to watch a few races from Galway this week, and so thought of Shane and the lads’ medley including these words about the Galway races, pity the street thugs don’t resonate to them
And it’s there you’ll see the jockeys
And they mounted on so stably
The pink, the blue, the orange, and green
The colors of our nation
The time it came for starting
All the horses seemed impatient
Their feet they hardly touched the ground
The speed was so amazing!
There was half a million people there
Of all denominations
The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian
Yet there was no animosity
No matter what persuasion
But failte hospitality
Inducing fresh acquaintance
rory
Christy's reply
First heard Liam Clancy sing this ,the original version, then heard Luke Kelly sing it….sang the original version myself back in the 60s ….then tried a new version reflecting what goes in Ballybrit these days….
back in 1962 I went to the Galway Races with my old buddy Johnny Flood. we never managed to leave Salthill for the week..we had very little spondoolicks, and a two man tent. I had half a dozen songs, we were in O’Connor’s Pub every night….the late Christy O’Connor invited me up to sing The Jig of Punch and Rosin The Bow…as well as being a fine Musician and Singer , Christy O’C was a fine number 10 who played for Corinthians of Galway and also played for Connacht..he went to the USA where he sand and played foer the remainder of his days
Hi Christy,
Any excuse to go back to The Box Set.
How in the name of God did you collect
and sequence it ? How feckin long did it take?
I have the disc of red on.
Aisling, I love the way Pierce Turner sings and
fair play to whoever taped the Hamburg Medley.
When you think it’s all over,
A live version of The City of Chicago.
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Christy's reply
everything accrued was brought together and delivered to my companero and curator Michael Traynor….He listened with incredible patience and focus for about a year….it was manna from heaven when he arrived here with 106 CDs……from those the 100 tracks were gleaned ( not always with agreement between Singer and Curator, we came to blows on a few occasions, once with his cricket bat)…..then we separated them into 6 CDs and I got the idea to colour code which worked very well…then I went to Robyn Roberts studio in Enniskillen where Robyn and I mixed the tracks to gain some form of continuity….that was a brilliant experience ..we did quite a few all-nighters…
I always appreciate getting feedback from that project 20 years ago…If memory serves The Hamburg Medley was on a cassette sent me by an audience member…I remember the gig very well…The Market Halle in Hamburg (mid 1980s) ….. Hamburg always a great city to play…German audiences always listened intently and responded enthusiastically…
I’m in an Irish trad group, and we used to do Craic was 90 (did not go over too well, here, in the states), but now we are doing Raggle Taggle Gypsy – with the wedding song, and hoping for the best
Christy's reply
I had the same experience singing “Hey Ronnie Reagan” 40 years ago…..
I’ve no words, and so many questions. I’ve listened to your songs since I was 15 years old, and I am 50 now. I would be honored to meet you, someday. But, if I never do – ‘d just like to say, “thank you, so very much, for what you’ve given us. You’ve no idea how important your voice is.”
We came all the way from Germany to your concert in Galway last year hoping you to play Beeswing. It was great, but the song wasn‘t on the set list. This year we are trying again on 31st August.
Love
Anja + Stefan
thy will be done ..Dear listeners from land of Toten Hosen !!!
Hi Christy/all
Back to music (and social history) to raise the spirits …
I’m looking into some info on Bill Leader…the search led me to. http://www.themeteor.org. If you click the menu,select ‘ culture’ ,scroll down to Mike Butler’s piece about Bill…it’s a cracking good piece.
Dave
its a long time ago and my memories are from distant days….my good friend Hamish Imlach was recording on the Transatlantic Label….he thought that Label Owner Nat Joseph might be interested…I was introduced to Bill Leader who recorded 3 songs as a Demo for Mr Joseph….Bill and Helen welcomed me to their home which ,I think, was in Camden Town…I was very nervous,Bill was very encouraging and did all he could to settle me…I think I recorded 3 songs…. “Once Had a Love,” “Galtee Mountain Boy “and, I think, “Follow me up to Carlow”….. I never heard from Transatlantic… (in retro, Thanks Be)
…two years later and Bill opened up his own label….I cant recall the order of his early roster but he began to release excellent albums by artists many of whom I encountered in my early travels…Bill decided to record my second album for his label ( by now he had Trailer and Leader labels)…he agreed to come to County Kildare , to Downings House in Prosperous where my sister Anne lived with her Husband ,Davoc Rynne. Downings House is mentioned in the annals of Irish History ( Battle of Prosperous 1798) but in our time it was the scene of great music making and merriement. Bill arrived with Dave Bland, a Revox reel to reel, two stereo mikes and an echo “device”….he is a unique Sound Engineer and managed to capture the 4 of us withing the acoustic of an old Georgian Basement with none of the acoustic qualities of a studio ….he released “Prosperous” on Trailer …I moved back to Ireland to form Planxty….the Tara label approached Bill who allowed Prosperous to be re released on an Irish label….That old album is still on-the-go 53 years later. It still gets the odd spin on Irish Radio….
Many decades later I was invited to present Bill with a Life Time Award at the BBC Folk Awards in The Lowry Theatre , Salford…….
Bill Leader changed the course of our lives…without his willingness, foresight, adventursome spirit and good ears Planxty might never have happened…I might never have got home to Kildare….Bill Leader has recorded a legacy of music and song from a diverse array of Folk Singers and Musicians…I hold him in the highest regard
Hi Christy
I’ve had Yellow Triangle in mind for the last few days…went to the lyrics section here,for a read of the powerful words.
You dedicate the song to the memory of Phyllis McGhee…I’d appreciate some info about her,if you have time.
Thanks
Dave
I used to meet the late Phyllis McGhee at XVth International Brigade Gatherings…she used to send me postcards from her travels…she once sent me a card from Spain that had Pastor Niemoeller’s words printed….I pinned it on the wall above my desk and read it every day for years until it became the song you mention
Again Christy
The lord of the Mournes has released a song this week, that he wrote with Paul Brady, one of his childhood icons.
What a thrill for Matt McGinn to get to write a song with Mr Brady.
Lovely song too, Matt’s music gets better and better (though Common Man is a hard album to beat).
https://youtu.be/ZhmjfE5t3t8?si=0s3OjErd7-GVZigu
thanks rory
Brady & McGinn has a ring to it….Strabane meets Ballymountain
hi Christy
whilst ‘our’ streets burn let us not forget the middle east and the bloodshed spreading to Lebanon.
They say the skies of lebanon are burning
those mighty cedars bleeding in the heat
they’re showing pictures on the television
women and children dying in the streets
i just happened to put on some Paul Brady in the car today and these 4 lines came to the fore just as that very country is being targeted.
rory
what a powerful verse it is…..Paul is one of our great singers
On a cheerier note, the Mount Callan Garland book had just landed here. Songs sung by Tom Lenihan and collected by Tom Munnelly.
Picking out The Rocks of Bawn with the best brain and pick I can muster. It’s a gorgeous tune.
dont feed him on soft turnips
take him down to your green lawn
Me neither Dave. It’s frightening how powerful stupidity can be and how there are some people who seem to enjoy violence. While the rest of us quietly wait in our homes. Christy said United Ireland . . What about United Kingdom. I wish we were.
Rebecca
Hi Christy
Thanks for this forum,to let off steam,as well as discussing great music….
Woody is playing here. Loud and proud…the English flag shaggers don’t represent me…
Have a good day all
Dave
In the same way that they don’t represent me at the paint factory in Coolock, they certainly don’t represent the vast majority of Dubs when the join with Unionist killers in attacking nationalists homes on the Ormeau road. Like the peelers calling in the dark of night, these people have “No time for love”.
True that Christy,
If only as much effort was put into building houses
as into building hotels and office blocks.
But no ! Look over there a new shiny bridge !
In other news, members of the far right who traveled
from Dublin to Belfast for an anti-immigration rally
spent the night drinking with uda members in a
loyalist bar where they received a heroes welcome.
Jesus wept. Is this where we are now ?
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Dublin festers with empty pointless mausoleums as builders/developers/bankers/planners /Bureacrats keep mixin the mortar for more office blocks….
Free State Far Righters wave Tri-Colours in UDA Sheebeens…a United Ireland ?
Morning Christy from a soaking wet Derry. Just listening back to your chat with the 2 Norries and you where asked your top 5 Christy songs and you said to him you’d get back to him next year and funny enough that’s over a year ago. It’s a terribly hard question to answer cause songs are about that moment your in. I tried to give it a go and struggled but here you go for me in no order:
City of Chicago – cycling with my best pal when I was about 12 in Donegal singing it in the sun at the top of our voices somewhere behind burnfoot
Bright Blue Rose – a magic night in bundoran you gifted me and my daughter with – magic
Natives – a very hazy night in Nottingham after a long session with the same person I cycled with in Donegal all those years before
The Voyage – a song full of love and life
Back home in Derry – alot of meaning and passion in that song
its a scorcher here this Monday morning….its a Bank Holiday…seems quiet adout, having a lazy one here, listening to a few songs….Johnny Broderick sent me a beautiful song about O’Carolan, thats spinning this morning…
David Ross from New York sent me an unnamed song ( Via Uileann Pipers Jimmy O’Brien Moran and Ronan Browne…it came upon the Piper’s Path) its based upon the Liffey…its quirky and I like it but I might not be able to sing it… I keep going back to it ..there are elements that I really like
sourcing the songs you mention all clear in my mind….how and where they came from….
Morning Christy
Keen to avoid headbangers and demos,I stayed close to home at weekend….rewarded by great TV Olympics and a trawl through Steeleye Span music…
I finished with ‘Est’d 1969’…the 2019 album,marking their first 50 years…a highlight is Maddy Prior singing The January Man…sleeve notes refer to Tim Hart’s version from 1960s…I’m not aware of that one,but like you,love the song and played it in many a folk club
Can you recall discovering this gem and does it ever feature on your current setlists?
Have a good day
Dave
the way things are going its gonna become harder to “avoid headbangers and demos”….they aint going away, they are getting bigger as thuggery starts to prevail….
I first heard ‘The January Man” when Ifirst played in Edinburgh…if memory serves Dave Goulder, who wrote this beautiful song, was one of the singers/organisers of The Auld Triangle Folk Club..it was there I first met the Scottish singer Owen Hand….started visiting Edinburgh frequently always stayinfg with Owen and his Wife Ruth….they ran the coolest shop in town called Hand in Hand….many happy days ensued in that most beautiful City….(including trips to Easter Rd, Sandy Bells and Khushis )
Hey Christy – hope you are keeping well and enjoying the summer.
I was just wondering if you got my last few emails? Please let me know if you are still up for helping with that project we discussed – If you have not got the time with all the gigging and the new album then no hassle. Thanks again for all the music, the memories and for always speaking out calling for a better, fairer Ireland ¡No Pasarán! Pádraig
I’m on it Pádraig
Feck sakes Christy,
Fair play to yoursel and Michael Traynor
106 cds (must go back to the well again)
If you need a hand like …
The women of Kerry fairly destroyed us.
And things not looking mighty agin The Rebels next week.
Sin a bhfuill.
Bourkey
a Silver medal bates a kick in the arse
Ye are a mighty tribe….ye hold your own across the codes, the GAA, the Sliotar, and The Oval Ball,
Presidents, Poets, and Pipers abound amongst yourTribe…Thespians and Lesbians welcomed
Shame about The Harbour….who in the name of the almighty allowed such an atrocious series of mostrosities to be thrown up….there must have been a glut of brown envelopes changing hands in that beautiful place ( excuse me, I seem to have roamed off topic here
we’re in serious training here for The Hanger
Rest in Peace Mickey Finn, Corky, Pete Galligan, Tony Small to mention but four who helped make the wonderful memories that still linger
your delightful Spike Milligan book came to hand late last night..thanks Bourkey
Hi Christy
i have managed to watch a few races from Galway this week, and so thought of Shane and the lads’ medley including these words about the Galway races, pity the street thugs don’t resonate to them
And it’s there you’ll see the jockeys
And they mounted on so stably
The pink, the blue, the orange, and green
The colors of our nation
The time it came for starting
All the horses seemed impatient
Their feet they hardly touched the ground
The speed was so amazing!
There was half a million people there
Of all denominations
The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian
Yet there was no animosity
No matter what persuasion
But failte hospitality
Inducing fresh acquaintance
rory
First heard Liam Clancy sing this ,the original version, then heard Luke Kelly sing it….sang the original version myself back in the 60s ….then tried a new version reflecting what goes in Ballybrit these days….
back in 1962 I went to the Galway Races with my old buddy Johnny Flood. we never managed to leave Salthill for the week..we had very little spondoolicks, and a two man tent. I had half a dozen songs, we were in O’Connor’s Pub every night….the late Christy O’Connor invited me up to sing The Jig of Punch and Rosin The Bow…as well as being a fine Musician and Singer , Christy O’C was a fine number 10 who played for Corinthians of Galway and also played for Connacht..he went to the USA where he sand and played foer the remainder of his days
Hello Christy,
I’ve been listening to your lovely finger picking on Wandering Aengus and it’s set me off having a go myself. It might take a while…
Rebecca
it takes a while but will be worth the effort…Joan Baez was the first finger style player I heard
Hi Christy,
Any excuse to go back to The Box Set.
How in the name of God did you collect
and sequence it ? How feckin long did it take?
I have the disc of red on.
Aisling, I love the way Pierce Turner sings and
fair play to whoever taped the Hamburg Medley.
When you think it’s all over,
A live version of The City of Chicago.
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
everything accrued was brought together and delivered to my companero and curator Michael Traynor….He listened with incredible patience and focus for about a year….it was manna from heaven when he arrived here with 106 CDs……from those the 100 tracks were gleaned ( not always with agreement between Singer and Curator, we came to blows on a few occasions, once with his cricket bat)…..then we separated them into 6 CDs and I got the idea to colour code which worked very well…then I went to Robyn Roberts studio in Enniskillen where Robyn and I mixed the tracks to gain some form of continuity….that was a brilliant experience ..we did quite a few all-nighters…
I always appreciate getting feedback from that project 20 years ago…If memory serves The Hamburg Medley was on a cassette sent me by an audience member…I remember the gig very well…The Market Halle in Hamburg (mid 1980s) ….. Hamburg always a great city to play…German audiences always listened intently and responded enthusiastically…
Morning Christy
Today i have returned to ‘The Raven’ an enrapturing song by Niamh Dunne. Big talent.
Worthy of a listen.
Rory
sound Rory
I’m in an Irish trad group, and we used to do Craic was 90 (did not go over too well, here, in the states), but now we are doing Raggle Taggle Gypsy – with the wedding song, and hoping for the best
I had the same experience singing “Hey Ronnie Reagan” 40 years ago…..
I’ve no words, and so many questions. I’ve listened to your songs since I was 15 years old, and I am 50 now. I would be honored to meet you, someday. But, if I never do – ‘d just like to say, “thank you, so very much, for what you’ve given us. You’ve no idea how important your voice is.”
thank you