|
|
|
|
ContraBand's first CD is Arrivals, and is now available from the ContraBand store! To buy a copy for your friends, family, or just to enjoy by yourself, click the Buy Now button below. All the songs featured below were carefully selected to be on the CD. To listen to a sample of a song, click on the Listen! link under the name.
Gilderoy/Saratoga Hornpipe (7:15) The opening tune is published in The Fiddle Music of Scotland (James Hunter, Chambers Press, Edinburgh, 1979) and is attributed to J. Scott Skinner. The other tunes are found in dance music collections. Star of the County Down (6:23)Jack sings this popular Irish love song, arranged here by ContraBand and dedicated to Nicholas. Near Banbridge Town in the County Down One morning last July, Down a boreen green Came a sweet colleen, And she smiled as she passed me by. She looked so neat from her two bare feet To the crown of her nut-brown hair, Such a winsome elf, sure I shook myself For to see I was really there. From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay, And from Galway to Dublin town, No maid I’ve seen like the sweet colleen That I met in the County Down. As she onward sped, sure I scratched my head, And I looked with a feeling rare, And I says, says I, to a passerby, “Who’s the maid with the nut-brown hair?” He smiled at me and he says to me, “That’s the gem of Ireland’s crown, Young Rosie McCann, from the banks of the Bann, She’s the star of the County Down.” CHORUS At the Harvest Fair she’ll a’surely be there, So I’ll dress in my Sunday clothes, With my shoes shone bright, and my hat cut right, For a smile from her nut-brown rose. No pipe I’ll smoke, no horse I’ll yoke, Till my plow is a rust-colored brown, Till a smiling bride by my own fireside Is the star from the County Down. CHORUS King of the Fairies/Blackberry Blossom (6:37)John and Trudi wrote the first tune for their daughter. The other three reels are popular contra dance tunes. The Bells of Ireland (4:40)Idaho songwriter Rosalie Sorrels wrote this beautiful work, arranged by ContraBand and sung by Trudi. These are the Bells of Ireland, that in my garden grow, My great-grandmother brought those seeds from Ireland long ago. Their music it is wild and sad, like orphaned angels sing, And you must listen in your soul to hear the Bells of Ireland ring. My mother’s father had the look of Ireland’s heroes bold, Strong broad shoulders, raven eyes to look into your soul. My father’s mother’s face was a map of the roads Maeve’s feet had trod. Rose of the world, I’m named for her. Lord, I love her lost old sod! CHORUS I’ve never been to Ireland, though I sing of the cool green shores, And I dream I must have lived there some century before. I weep for the blood and the troubles, and I tend my garden well. Let the sweet green bells of Ireland out-ring the bells of hell. CHORUS © Grimes Creek Music 1991 Rosalie Sorrels Kitty Magenis/Swallowtail Jig/Irish Washerwoman/ Tarboltan Reel/David Eunson’s Lament for his Late Wife/ Derry Air/Cul Aodh/The Blue Angel (13:58)The opening air is credited to O’Carolan and is arranged by John. Two popular jigs and a reel follow. David Eunson’s Lament was composed by David Eunson of Deerness, Orkney Islands, Scotland, and was collected, transcribed, and arranged by John. Donna arranged Derry Air for vocal trio. The final two jigs appear on Buttons and Bows (Green Linnet Records, 1984.) Would God I were the tender apple blossom, That floats and falls from off the twisted bow, To lie and faint within your silken bosom, Within your silken bosom as that does now. Or would I were a little burnished apple For you to pluck me, gliding by so cold, While sun and shade, your robe of lawn will dapple, Your robe of lawn and your hair’s spun gold. Si Baeg, Si Moer/Penny Hill Jig/E minor Reel (6:40)The opening air is attributed to Turlough O’Carolan. Penny Hill Jig is from Cape Breton. Kerry Elkin from Soir et Matin (Watertown, MA, 1990) attributes E minor Reel to the playing of Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy. Waltz for Camille/Vals från Enviken (5:12)John and Trudi wrote the first waltz for Lara’s daughter. The Swedish waltz comes from Delarna and is credited to Vilhelm Hedlund. Skagen (2:27)JJ wrote this tribute to the northernmost port of Denmark in honor of the 10th anniversary of his marriage to Kirsten. “We met at a music festival in Skagen, which crowns the Jutland peninsula. The lyrics tell the story pretty much the way it happened.” Well, someday I’ll return to the northern tip of Jutland, To the faces I remember from days of long ago. And we’ll “Skaal” each other, and the ones who’ve gone before us. O, Skagen, Crown of Jutland, how I miss your harbor so! T’was there that I met her, and there we were married, And there we would’ve stayed, if we hadn’t’ve moved away. And I hear those memories calling through the passing of the seasons, “When’re you coming home again?” is what they seem to say. CHORUS Although I’m not a sailor or a fisherman by nature, There’s a warm and welcome feeling there that makes me feel at home. It’s a love of simple pleasures, the art and all the music. It makes me want to settle there and never more to roam. CHORUS But if I grow too feeble, if death should overtake me, I pray the Lord will grant me just one final dying wish: To see the Buried Church again and all the boats at anchor, To fill my lungs up one last time with the smell of all that fish! CHORUS |