The Quiet Glen
Track Listing
Click on a tune to read about it
Click on (Real
Audio) to Listen to Tune
This limited edition album is not
available to buy in shops outside Ireland
You can purchase your
copy by clicking here
1 Jocelyn's Waltz
My Granny's Hieland Home
The First tune I wrote as a jig.I named it after an American girl, Jocelyn Goodall,who live in the north Clare area for a year or more, and played fiddle at a lot of the local sessions.I sometimes play it as a waltz, as here.The second tune is the air of a Scottish song of that title and contains the lines.
When the heather bells are blooming,
outside Granny's door,
When as laddies there we played,
In days of long ago,
'Neath the shadow of Ben Bragin.
How I Wish that I could see,
My Granny's Hieland Home
I used to hear my mother sing this song when I was a child.The melody stayed with me, but not the words.
2 Kitty come down to Limerick
Mamore Gap
The First slip jig is an old tune, listed in O'Neill's Collection.
The second tune I wrote a couple of years ago and named after a beautiful spot in the
Inishowen peninsula in north east Co.Donegal
I wrote both of these tunes in the late sixties.The first reel I
named after the next townland to mine in Donegal.It is a beautifully hilly area where one
can look across the river Foyle to counties Tyrone and Derry.It's main claim to fame was a
slate quarry that operated in the early half of this century.The quarry holes are still
there, hundreds of feet deep with very deep water.They are easily accessible and not
recommended to anyone afraid of heights.
The second tune erroneously acquired the title "Jackson's no.2" possibly because
it is of a similar genre as another reel called "Jackson's" which I recorded on
the " High Part of The Road "album.It's proper title is as above, I gave it this
title as a mark of respect to Mulligan Music Ltd. with whom I was briefly involved in the
seventies.
4 The Mouse in the Attic
The Fat Cat
these two hornpipes I wrote around the same time.The little runs in the first suggested the title.As no mouse cartoon would be complete without Mr. Cat the second tune developed.I'm expecting these two tunes to sit easily beside other great Irish descriptive pieces like "the Battle of Aughrim"? no ! even "The Fox Chase"? no! Ah well, as Brendan Behan would have said " Don't mind the begrudgers".
5 Hector the Hero
The Coffin Ships
The first of these laments is in a Scott Skinner collection with the lines,
Come weep for the mighty in battle
Come sound ye the coronach's strain,
For Hector the Hero, of deathless fame,
Will never come back again.
The second tune I wrote in 1997."The Coffin Ships" was the name given to the sailing ships that transported Irish emigrants forced into exile by the Great famine of 1845 - 51,particularly " Black 47 " the year when the famine was at it's worst.Many of the ships were barely seaworthy, with inadequate supplies, or drinking water .Many passengers died on the journey or on arrival in Canada, or the U.S.A.
This limited edition album is not
available to buy in shops outside Ireland
You can purchase your
copy by clicking here
6 The Blooming Meadow
Beautiful Gortree
These are old, well known jigs.The first is listed in O,Neil's collection, in two very different versions.
7 The Cup of Tea
Beautiful Gortree
The first is a well known fiddle tune.It was a favourite tune of a
fiddle player,Tom Mc Menamon, R.I.P. who live near my home in Donegal.
The second tune I wrote a couple of years ago.I named it after the area where my mother
was born.It is situated on Dooish mountain looking out on Lough Swilly just three or four
miles from my birthplace.The tune is in E Major, a lovely bright key, that reminds me of
that area on a summers day and the sound of a cuckoo.
the first two tunes I dedicate to an area known as "The
Glen" half a mile from where I spent my formative years.It was an uninhabited spot
with a small river, a picturesque little waterfall and pool and a flax mill with
waterwheel. The mill had ceased to operate around 1950.A lot of flax was grown in the area
to supply the linen mills of Belfast. It had a beautiful little blue Flower and when ripe
it was pulled by hand, backbreaking work. It was then half rotted in dams to help the
extraction of the fibres in the Flax mills.This process involved"scutching" and
"jarging".The waste product was called "shows",short hard
particles,scutched from the inside flexible fibres.This was used as fuel in open
hearths.To set the fire , two "beetles" ( cylindrical foot long wooden lengths )
were used. One placed flat on the hearth the other upright against the back of the
fireplace.The "shows were built around the beetles and the beetles then removed to
allow a draught.Most houses had a corner set aside foer "shows" and this was
often used by travellers stuck for a bed for the night."the shakedown by the
wall" mentioned in the song "The homes of Donegal" refers to this.
The third track in this set I named as the reel of the nearly similar title in track 7,
both bright sounding joyful tunes.
The first tune I named after my first cousin, Patrick Peoples, affectionately known as "Black Pat", due to his hair colour in his younger days, not his temperament.At all times he shows great heart. Tom Hegarty a lovely fiddle player, who played with the Kilfenora Ceili Band, always played this tune, Bonny Kate in C, as I do here.I dedicate this tune to my first grandchild, Roisin Kate.
10 Don't touch that Green Linnet
Doolish
Grainne's
The first tune I named after a small bird, to which innocent
children got too close, unaware of it's voraciousness.
The second tune I named after Doolish Mountain where I went to school as a child.
Grainne's Jig, I wrote many years ago.I since named it after my youngest daughter.
11 Mayor Harrison's Fedora
The bird on the bush
I do not know in what city Mayor Harrison wore his fedora, but these are both well known, often played, and old reels.
12 The Green Fields of America ( Slow
Air )
The Battering Ram (jig)
The first is the air of the song of that title.
"Oh who could stay here amongst want and starvation,
To hear the poor children crying for bread,
And many poor creatures without habitation,
Or even a roof to cover their heads.
Come pack up your store and consider no longer.
Six dollars a week isn't very bad pay.
No taxes or titles to devour up your wages.
When your in the Green Fields of America.
The battering ram was used to demolish homesteads during evictions, which in all cases led to the homelessness or emigration mentioned in the song.
13 The First Day of Spring
The Kinnycally Klansmen
The first is a G minor tune that I wrote.It's a bit lonely and bleak
but it has it's moments.
Kinnycally is my place of birth.The home I grew up in has been unlived in for ten years or
more.I still go up there to converse with the spirits of my ancestors.It's situated in
that area of east Donegal known as the Lagan, rich tillage land stretching from
Letterkenny to Strabane to Derry between the rivers Foyle and Swilly.
Hiring fairs were held in the larger towns such as Letterkenny or Strabane until the
1930's where workers, often as young as twelve years were hired for six month periods by
the large farm owners,the males as farm labourers and the girls as servants.
The workers for hire lined up on the footpath and were chosen by the landowner's criteria
of build, appearance or whatever.These workers lived on the landowner's premises, worked
long hours and were paid little or nothing.
| I hope you enjoy the music, |  |
