Folk Tale - Christy Moore

Michael Collins

It doesn't seem that long since Christy's last album, Listen, which is actually over two years old now (released April 2009). His latest studio album is called Folk Tale, and it's going to be released this coming Friday.

I'm certaintly looking forward to getting my hands on a copy anway.

For those who might be interested here's the tracklisitng and some commentary on each one. My Little Honda 50 is getting some airtime I know, but I think Weekend in Amsterdam could well be a big hit!

Tyrone Boys
Crossing the Pennines one evening in 1987 I hit a Radio Éireann hotspot. The Long Note was coming in loud and clear. High above Halifax I parked the van, got into the sleeping bag, and listened to some music from home. That’s when this song started. I finished it recently in Innishannon House on the banks of the Bandon River. Some older verses have been replaced. The Silk Clad Pompadour
has been laid to rest. The Death Train finally came off the rails. Most songs remain in their initial form. Others are constantly being re-shaped by on-going exposure to the elements of live performance.

Folk Tale
These lines are from Paula Meehan. I love her poems, the way her lines flow in our direction. Requests for Folk Tale have increased in recent years. Sometimes, so softly, that they are barely audible. Paula gives readings of her poems and collections of her poetry are available, catch her if you can. Val was originally drawn to this piece and brought home a handwritten copy by Paula from an Aids Alliance Auction. It hung on the wall for years. I began trying to sing it each time I passed.

My Little Honda 50
The brother was driving down the old bog road that runs between Edenderry and Prosperous. He was running low on diesel so he pulled into Allenwood Services. When this song came over the forecourt tannoy he thought of me…. Soon as I heard it I went searching for the author who turned out to be the one and only Tom Tuohy. I love this song for its simplicity and its fun, for the pictures it paints of my native place. The arrival of the Honda 50 into the Heartland of Kildare changed our world forever. Overnight it became possible to ride to Dreamland without bicycle clips, to get home from Croke Park in time for Seán Óg O Ceallacháín. Overnight the world became our cloister.

Easter Snow
Easter Snow is the name of a slow air that Seamus Ennis (1919 – 1982) used to play. It was also the name that adorned his garden gate…. Hearing him play was one of my life’s great pleasures. Seamus Ennis was a Master in our world of music. In earlier times his arrival was always anticipated, his playing was legendary, his visits long remembered and cherished. He sang, played whistle and fiddle but, most of all, he was a magnificent player of the Uileann Pipes. I spent a week with him in Yorkshire in the late 1960s. In early Planxty days himself and Liam O’Flynn shared a house, Seamus encouraged us as we began to get our music together. Towards the end of his life, I spent days with him out in The Naul where he shared the mystery of his muse, talked of music and trawled up lost verses once again.

Farmer Michael Hayes
I came across this lyric in 1975 and recorded a version with Planxty back in 1978. Donal Lunny wrote a second part to the melody which enabled the pipes to soar. This song has been frequently requested so I am delighted to be singing it again 35 years on. Some new verses have brought Farmer Hayes on a slightly different journey. However he still sets out from Tipperary and, evading capture, makes his way to The United States of America.

On Morecambe Bay
This song was written by Kevin Littlewood of Lancashire. I heard it on an album that was recorded at The Bothy Folk Club in Southport where Kevin is a resident singer. I have not met him yet but he did come to our gig at The Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool last year where his song was very well received. Channel Four Television have transmitted a Documentary by Nick Broomfield called The Ghosts of Morecambe Bay. Vulnerable migrant workers, the world over, suffer greatly under unscrupulous gang masters who operate in a thousand different guises.

Tiles and Slabs
Nigel Rolfe and I have worked together on a number of projects. We visited Scariff, East Clare in April 1994. Shortly afterwards came the awful events which led to the tragic deaths of Imelda Riney, her 4 year old son Liam and Joe Walsh, a local priest who sought to intervene as events unfolded. Nigel wrote this lyric shortly afterwards and, together, we made this song.

Haiti
Since the horrific events in Haiti there have been further disasters in different parts of the world. Today, satellite communications bring us immediately to epicentres of destruction. Unimaginable images are beamed into our living rooms, spliced between X Factor and Sky Sports…. Val and I went to hear John Spillane sing in The Button Factory, Dublin, shortly after the Haitian earthquake. One of John’s songs that night sowed the seed for this piece. John and I went at it immediately and two weeks later performed this song at a Gig for Haiti in Vicar Street, Dublin. The proceeds went towards the efforts of GOAL in Port au Prince. Such songs and gigs are sometimes viewed cynically. There are people who maintain that such events, in the face of enormous tragedy, are pointless. Nevertheless many musicians continue to write and sing songs, to offer the support of benefit gigs, to reach out … it is all that some of us can do.

Weekend in Amsterdam
Val and I went to the Goilin Singers Club one Friday night in 2008. It was very late when this song was sung by Gerry O’Reilly (No.2). It caught my ear straight away for the tune and structure were that of ‘The Crack was 90 in The Isle of Man’ which I had learned from Barney Rush back in 1969. Gerry told me the song had been written by ‘some fellow down in Kildare’. No stone was left unturned until the bard was found. It turned out to be Paul McCormack, a neighbour from Newbridge, whose family I’ve known since I first drew breath. With Paul’s blessing I have added a few lines here and there and reshaped a few of his verses …this could be described as a Moorefield Road version of a Páirc Mhuire song which has been set to a Sallynoggin tune – The Lily Whites and The Boys in Blue.

Ballydine
Clonmel was my home for 18 months in 1963/64. It was a very happy time despite my incarceration there as a junior bank clerk. However, come 4 o’clock, I’d scarper out the door into that Vale of Honey (Cluan Meala). There I embraced every aspect of what life offered. I sang for porter, played cards, gaelic football and rugby. I had a half share in a hopeless (but very friendly) greyhound. I went horse racing in Powerstown Park and danced in The Collins Hall to the sounds of Mick Delahunty’s Orchestra. I began writing this song all those years ago. My landlady was the late Annie Kehoe. No one ever had better lodgings. Occasionally Annie would call on me to sing and twas then the ‘Dannos’ would fly. We demolished them, we lowered them up.

God Woman
This is how it all happened. If you go to Pollardstown you can see it for yourself. Only recently the Dalai Lama arrived to visit the sacred place. He came quietly and with great dignity. God bless that Holy Man. Soon after came Queen Elizibeth. She made straight for The National Stud to gaze fondly upon the very best of our stallions. Renowned Kildare woman, Lady O’Reilly, welcomed Her Majesty. A week later President Obama arrived into the Sacred Bogland. He lowered a quick pint of black porter and never even had to put his hand in his pocket. Diageo gained free worldwide publicity and celebrated by issuing redundancy notices. (They suggest that we drink sensibly). The rest of us danced around the beehive.

Michael Collins

Interview in the Sindo:

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/incoming_dailyfeed/our-christy-is-neither-a-fashion-nor-a-passing-fad-2921108.html

Christy was also recently interviewed by KRFC in Colarado! Here's the links:

Christy Interview - Part 1
Christy Interview - Part 2

Check out the interview's page here: Cindy Reich

Runonewon

Was really looking foward to Folk Tales if only to confirm that Christys last outing was not an indication of a downward trend,alas i was so dissapointed,Folk Tales is an album Christy has made many times before in different forms,in the past the quality was much better,the repetition undermines the record at every turn.Declen Sinnott's magic can only take this record so far.A fading force.

The Scientician

I dunno about the rest of it but I love that song Tyrone Boys. It might have old references but hey the past is never truly past. A beautiful, heartbreaking song.

Michael Collins

The Scientician wrote: »

I dunno about the rest of it but I love that song Tyrone Boys. It might have old references but hey the past is never truly past. A beautiful, heartbreaking song.

Interestingly this is apparently Christy's reply to Paul Brady's song The Island. It's kind of obvious after you know that, but I never copped it myself.

The Scientician

Michael Collins wrote: »

Interestingly this is apparently Christy's reply to Paul Brady's song The Island. It's kind of obvious after you know that, but I never copped it myself.

Ah yeah I got that allusion on first listen. The whole song is like a time capsule of mid-late '80s Ireland. Just need a chant of "50/50 Cashback!" at the end.