TONIGHT! Fri 2/28 - John & Peters, New Hope, PA 8:00 w/ Loose Panic and Adventure Lost. Check out the show poster below designed by Jarret Crawford from the band Loose Panic (this is a full band show—we’re planning a rockin’ set. FYI- SF on first at 8:15.
Help us kick off the full band run of Irish shows at Broken Goblet Brewery by getting advance tickets. The Goblet is an awesome spot for live music with pro stage, lights, and sound. Facebook event here. Ticket sales here. Our full schedule for March is here.
Happy Friday!
I fell in love with Irish music when I started gong to an Irish bar* in Trenton NJ a few years before I was 21 (they weren’t too strict with checking ID’s). The owner, Billy Briggs, played his banjo and sang traditional Irish songs with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, sitting on a stool on the tiny stage. I had a spot not far away, leaning on a small shelf…pictures of Bobby Sands and John F Kennedy and various IRA propaganda hung on the walls (and still do!)—visible through the hazy cigar and cigarette smoke (you came home smelling like an ash tray). I heard songs like “Dirty Old Town” and “Whiskey in the Jar” for the first time. Every night, near the end of the night, everything stopped while Billy led us all in singing “God Bless America” (you were expected to shut up and sing along or at least be quiet and if you didn’t patrons would let you know that you should). If a place like this still exists please let me know. Everything seemed so real. It felt like you were a part of something. It was about this time in my life when I first started listening to The Pogues—and what an education. It was the beginning of a life long love affair with Irish music and culture.
I recently heard a story that Ireland is considering legislation that bans imports from Israel’s occupied territories. Considering Ireland’s centuries-long struggle against English occupation there is obviously some Palestinian sympathy there. There is also a large population of Palestinian immigrants in Ireland who have some influence. I learned that Ireland made a similar protest against South Africa in the 80s—voicing their opposition to that country’s state sanctioned apartheid. The thing about this recent ban is that it is mostly symbolic. According to the article I read “The bill will not affect the $6 billion in annual trade Ireland does with Israel proper. It only applies to Irish trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, which is….very, very, very little, if any at all.” One Irish politician, Daniel Mulhall, is worried that the legislation could invoke retaliatory tariffs from the Trump administration. Mr. Mulhall asked, “So why risk it?” The senator who introduced the bill, Frances Black, made it very clear—”because it is the right thing to do”.
The spirit of Irish music is the same thing I hear in American roots music, especially in jazz, blues, punk, and folk music. Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Cash. I hear it in the music of Bob Marley…in the voice of Joe Strummer and many others. It’s the sound of struggle—common people voicing their humanity in simple terms. As our country is taken over by billionaires who care little about common folks (and in fact seem to use us as pawns for political power), the music of the Irish feels relevant. It got me thinking of this Irish song The Successful Failures started playing a few years ago called “The Fields of Athenry”. Like a lot of the songs I fall in love with it tells a story. It’s kind of like the Victor Hugo tale Les Miserable—a man stealing bread to feed his family (in “The Fields of Athenry” it’s corn). In this case the man is sent off on a prison ship to Australia. Reminds me of migrants today in the USA being rounded up and sent off to prison camps without any legal representation. After all most people who come here illegally are just trying to feed their families. They are not more likely to engage in criminal behavior than natural born citizens. That’s the truth. I’m going off on a tangent here but this all reminds me a bit of a Johnny Cash song that I go to as a helpful reminder to see the humanity in all people.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime But is there because he's a victim of the times.
It sure feels like the characters in “The Fields of Athenry” are exactly that: ”victims of the times”. Aren’t we all? I don’t know the answer but I like to remember that everyone has a story…a father, a mother, a girl they love…a kid back home…a reason for their actions. And they should be treated with decency. And we all deserve fair, even-handed justice. Songs like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Fields of Athenry” and countless others are important because they help us to be more compassionate…to see things from a different point of view. Anyway the line that really got me thinking was the Irish senator, Ms. Frances Black, saying “because it’s the right thing to do.” Love that.
On Monday I sat around in my studio and recorded a little intimate version of “The Fields of Athenry”. Then on Wednesday the band started practicing it—it’s a work in progress but we plan on performing it at our upcoming shows. Here’s a little clip of our rehearsal (warts and all).
Read long with the lyrics while you listen and have a great weekend!
- Mick
Fields of Athenry By a lonely prison wall I heard a young girl calling "Michael, they have taken you away For you stole Trevelyan's corn So the young might see the morn Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay" Low lie the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the small free birds fly Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry By a lonely prison wall I heard a young man calling "Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free Against the famine and the crown I rebelled, they cut me down Now you must raise our child with dignity" Low lie the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the small free birds fly Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry By a lonely harbour wall She watched the last star falling As that prison ship sailed out against the sky For she lived in hope and pray For her love in Botany Bay It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry Low lie the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the small free birds fly Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry
Notes and Sources
* the bar I am writing about in paragraph one is called The Tirnanog. Sadly Billy Briggs died in 2008. The Tirnanog is now owned by Todd Faulkner and looks pretty much the same way it did in the 1990s. You should go there. Todd is a great guy and has us play there every year on St. Patrick’s Day. So I get to sing on the same little stage where I first heard Billy Briggs! This year we are also playing at Tirnanog on Sat. March 8th - the day of the Hamilton St. Patrick’s Day Parade (Todd is serving as the Grand Marshall this year!)
The Johnny Cash song I reference is “Man in Black”.
“Fields of Athenry” feels like an old song because it relates historical events that probably occurred during the Irish potato famine in the mid 19th century. However it’s relatively young—written in 1979 by Pete St. John. Since then, it has been covered by hundreds of performers. According to AI, “The song's themes of greed, inequality, and extreme hardship are still relevant today.” I agree.
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