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Description
If you're not in the mood for 6 minutes of droning melancholia then look away now. :)
I don't have many Irish songs in my repertoire but I've always loved this one - an emigration lament which has possibly the most heartbreakingly sad melody I've ever heard.
I learned the song from my friend Nigel Cole who I used to work with at the theatre (when I did theatre many years ago) ... he was a folk music fanatic who had seen Sandy Denny live in the 70s, and he took me to gigs and introduced me to all kinds of unusual folky stuff. He also played the fiddle so we used to jam sometimes and he taught me a load of songs, including Green Fields of Canada. He was the biggest influence in my plunging into British folk music and without him I wouldn't be doing what I do.
I joined MacJams in 2004 and recorded this in my first few months here as a tribute to Nigel, who died in early 2005. I didn't have much experience back then so I just set it to a simple drone, lacking the arrangement and GarageBand skills to do anything more with it. I've learned a few tricks since then so here it is again, THE ORIGINAL VOCAL with a completely reworked musical backing. I wanted to keep the old vocal because it was very heartfelt and charged with everything I was feeling at the time.
The photo was taken on the slopes of Croagh Patrick, Ireland, right on the edge of the Atlantic coast. Lower down the slope you could still see the broken remains of cottages once inhabited by the people who were forced to emigrate.
I don't have many Irish songs in my repertoire but I've always loved this one - an emigration lament which has possibly the most heartbreakingly sad melody I've ever heard.
I learned the song from my friend Nigel Cole who I used to work with at the theatre (when I did theatre many years ago) ... he was a folk music fanatic who had seen Sandy Denny live in the 70s, and he took me to gigs and introduced me to all kinds of unusual folky stuff. He also played the fiddle so we used to jam sometimes and he taught me a load of songs, including Green Fields of Canada. He was the biggest influence in my plunging into British folk music and without him I wouldn't be doing what I do.
I joined MacJams in 2004 and recorded this in my first few months here as a tribute to Nigel, who died in early 2005. I didn't have much experience back then so I just set it to a simple drone, lacking the arrangement and GarageBand skills to do anything more with it. I've learned a few tricks since then so here it is again, THE ORIGINAL VOCAL with a completely reworked musical backing. I wanted to keep the old vocal because it was very heartfelt and charged with everything I was feeling at the time.
The photo was taken on the slopes of Croagh Patrick, Ireland, right on the edge of the Atlantic coast. Lower down the slope you could still see the broken remains of cottages once inhabited by the people who were forced to emigrate.
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Lyrics
Eilean mo ghaoil, is caomh leam eilean mo ghràidh
Eilean mo ghaoil, is caomh leam eilean mo ghràidh
An eilean an fhraoich bidh daoine fuireach gu bràth
An eilean mo ghaoil, is caomh leam eilean mo ghràidh
Farewell to the groves of shillelagh and shamrock
Farewell to the lads of old Ireland all round
May their hearts be as merry as ever I would wish them
When far away across the ocean I'm bound
Oh my father is old and my mother quite feeble
To leave their own country it grieves their hearts sore
Oh the tears in great drops down their cheeks they are rolling
To think they must die on a foreign shore
But what matters to me where my bones may be buried
If in peace and contentment I can spend my life
Oh the green fields of Canada they daily are blooming
It's there I'll put an end to my misery and strife.
The lint dams are dry and the looms are all broken,
The coopers are gone and the winders of creels
Away o'er the ocean go journeymen tailors
And fiddlers who flaked out the old mountain reels.
Farewell to the dances in homes now deserted
Where tips struck the lightning in splanks from the floor
The paving and crigging of hobnail on flagstone
The tears of the old folk and shouts of encore.
For the landlords and bailiffs in vile combination
Have forced us from hearthstone and homestead away
May the crowbar brigade all be doomed to damnation
When we're on the fields of Americay.
splanks = sparks
Americay = old Irish generic name for the whole of North America
Eilean mo ghaoil, is caomh leam eilean mo ghràidh
An eilean an fhraoich bidh daoine fuireach gu bràth
An eilean mo ghaoil, is caomh leam eilean mo ghràidh
Farewell to the groves of shillelagh and shamrock
Farewell to the lads of old Ireland all round
May their hearts be as merry as ever I would wish them
When far away across the ocean I'm bound
Oh my father is old and my mother quite feeble
To leave their own country it grieves their hearts sore
Oh the tears in great drops down their cheeks they are rolling
To think they must die on a foreign shore
But what matters to me where my bones may be buried
If in peace and contentment I can spend my life
Oh the green fields of Canada they daily are blooming
It's there I'll put an end to my misery and strife.
The lint dams are dry and the looms are all broken,
The coopers are gone and the winders of creels
Away o'er the ocean go journeymen tailors
And fiddlers who flaked out the old mountain reels.
Farewell to the dances in homes now deserted
Where tips struck the lightning in splanks from the floor
The paving and crigging of hobnail on flagstone
The tears of the old folk and shouts of encore.
For the landlords and bailiffs in vile combination
Have forced us from hearthstone and homestead away
May the crowbar brigade all be doomed to damnation
When we're on the fields of Americay.
splanks = sparks
Americay = old Irish generic name for the whole of North America
LunaTrick
As with much of your work, your voice is spinning a tale - and the ear is carried along the portents of that narrative because your voice is so enchanting. Tonally, your pitch is stunning - the clarity of your voice especially with the slight inflections between notes is precise and steady. The backing instrumentation is deliciously sparse - ambient in some places and harmonic in others. I especially like what sounds like a hammered dulcimer just behind the melody line. This is very special work and I look forward to listening many more times.