1. |
Hills of Connemara
03:21
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Gather up your pots and your old tin cans
The mash and the corn, the barley and the bran
Run like the devil from the excise man
Keep the smoke from rising, Barney.
Keep your eyes well-peeled today
The excise men, they’re on their way
Searching for the mountain tay
In the Hills of Connemara.
The mountain breezes as they blow
Echo down to plains below
The big tall men are on the go
In the Hills of Connemara.
Swing to the left now swing to the right—
The excise men, they can dance all night
Drinking up the tay till the broad daylight
In the Hills of Connemara.
A gallon for the butcher and big Nick Klein
A bottle for the poor old Father Stein
To keep him off that altar wine
In the Hills of Connemara.
Stand your ground, for it’s too late
The excise men, they’re at the gate
Glory be to Paddy for they’re drinking it straight
In the Hills of Connemara!
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2. |
The Night Visiting Song
03:25
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I must away, love, I can no longer tarry
This morning’s tempest I have to cross
I must be guided without a stumble
Into the arms I love the most.
And when he came to his true love’s dwelling
He knelt down gently upon a stone
And through her window he whispered lowly
Is my true lover within at home?
Wake up wake up love it is thine own true lover
Wake up wake up love and let me in
For I am tired love and oh so weary
And more than near drenched to the skin.
She's raised her off her down soft pillow
She's raised her off and she's let him in
And they were locked in each other's arms
Until that long night was past and gone.
And when that long night was passed and over,
And when the small clouds began to grow
He's taken her hand and they’ve kissed and parted
And he saddled and mounted and away did go.
I must away love I can no longer tarry
This morning’s tempest I have to cross
I must be guided without a stumble
Into the arms I love the most.
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3. |
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Cigarettes in the morning
Walking hallways of this strange empty home
Cold whiskey in the evening
Every day now she’s gone.
Connemara’s on the bus route to Behan
It’s seven days since the last cow died
And when the barley’s gone and three lost women
Like the girls and boys in Rome used to cry.
Just give me cornbread in the morning so early
For you took my rags in the fold of your hand
And before you fall just like a feather and linen
Make sure you’ve taken off that black velvet band.
They say that roving’s like a candle at midnight
And some take it like the trot of a mule
But when the road is blind and your own tender lady
You’d take a match to find a firelit fool.
How come the way’s not like stairs in a castle
With crimson pictures there to guide you along
A gilded bottle with a few draughts inside it
Makes the lights in the rafters look so strong.
When your true love’s gone to run like an engine
After nine young women with no faces their own
And in America she spins like a dancer
With barrel straps and some shoes made of stone.
I’d guess the porches there are all clouded over
And pipes and fiddles might could use some repair
And all the horses have been broken in stables
And golden fleeces could be worse for the wear.
But if you ever come to Clifden by sunset
Just before the Autumn rains touch the shore
To stroll along Cleggan’s grey-hooded harbor
Cutting hard like the blade of an oar.
You take yourself to a hill past the pierline
To find a cabin of whiskey and milk
Where St. Coleman used to ply to his master
Like colored linen and mulberry silk.
Cigarettes in the morning
Walking halways of this strange empty home
Cold whiskey in the evening
Every day now she’s gone.
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4. |
French Broad River
03:45
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Last morning I did tread the creek
Thinking how my boots do leak
‘Twas then that I was fain to speak
To all you Naiads dear.
Well I’ll swim the french broad river
And become a little thinner
When I lay me down to dinner
At Dixie’s house to dine.
Well I’ll order in the brandy
And wine and summer shandy
A stronger braver man I’ll be
For thee and me and mine.
A year ago today I sprung
From stone to rock aye every one
Amid the river wash and run
With my sweat-heart near.
The river-rocks did hold their fire
And with them my true love’s desire
And Johnny if you’ll be my squire
I’ll take you as my dear.
But Janus meant to bind the lees
With a tether of ice about the knees
And when the river walk did freeze
My true love to me sang.
Last year I drank you down so wild
When you were cordial as a child
A tasty draft of bitter-and-mild
The glass it loudly rang.
Had I the cocky red-breast song
To whistle Dixie all night long
For all the world that’s suffered wrong
And all you naiads dear.
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5. |
Roarin' Mary
03:45
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You’re a bear in a sheepskin coat
And O’Donnell caught you on the boat
And three little piggies on Walkin street
Have gobbled up all your corn to eat.
With a too-ra-loo-ra-loo-rae-ay
Whack fol da diddle loora-da-o-may.
Now Buckeye jim has lost his way
Saving his corn for a rainy day
And North Country beagles did run awry
With a Billy O’Neil just a-wonderin’ why.
I lost three dimes on a horse called Stewball,
By a dozen lusty mares was called
And when they got him back to his stable
Owner says I hope to God you’re able.
Had a girl by the banks of the Ohio
Suckled by wind and rain and snow
No honest man on earth could keep her
So she ran off with a Scottish preacher.
I had a girl called Roarin’ Mary
And with her I am feign to dally
No hope left on that blind man’s table
So I’ll settle down with a cock-right fable.
Oh Roarin’ Mary I beg your pardon
Over by the hills near Craggie Garden
There never was a skite like Dick McSherry
And never was a girl like Roarin’ Mary!
With a too-ra-loo-ra-loo-rae-ay
Whack fol da diddle loora-da-o-may.
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6. |
Carrickfergus
04:26
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I wish I was in Carrickfergus
Only for a night in Ballygrand
I would swim over the deepest ocean
Only for a night in Ballygrand
But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over
And neither have I the wings to fly
I wish I had a handsome boatman
To ferry me over my love and I.
My childhood days bring back sad reflections
Of happy days so long ago
My boyhood friends and my own relations
Have all passed away now like melting snow
So I'll spend my days in endless roving
Soft is the grass and my bed is free
Ah to be home now in Carrickfergus
By the the long road down to the salty sea.
Now in Kilkenny it is reported
On marble stones there as black as ink
With gold and silver I would support her
But I'll say no more now till I’ve had a drink
For I'm drunk today and I'm seldom sober
A handsome rover from town to town
Ah but I'm sick now and my days are numbered
So come all ye young men and lay me down.
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7. |
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Well you heard the ballad of Jesse James how he robbed that Glendale train
But that don't compare to the do-or-dare of the famous Barrow Gang
They're crooks and killers the papers say and society drags ‘em down
Calls ‘em low-life scum no better than mud and they run ‘em right out of town.
And I said hey pretty honey of mine ride along with me
We'll shoot the night just to stay a-right
Till we climb up the hanging tree
So when you leave your house shut the garden gate
Tell your mother and your father not to stay up late
We’re gonna fight for our freedom right down to the day we die.
Well it was gas-filling stations convenience stores to those home-spun county banks
We took 'em all both great and small steering clear of the cell block tanks
You can feel the freedom of the open road blowing smoke rings out of your hair
But you'll never find a feeling that's more alive than throwing lead through the gravelly air.
And I said hey pretty honey of mine what are you gonna do
‘Cause there's a gas-can man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna blow you to Waterloo
She said I told you twice and I'll say it again
I’m not a cooped-up chicken or a huckleberry hen.
Gonna fight for my freedom right down to the day we die.
It was roundabout the spring of '34 we were skirting state border lines
Oklahoma, Mississippi, Creole Country, Kansas City, Dallas, and the Great Divide
But in the gun-light's gleam I could see in her eyes as she stood in the barn door-way
Saying Clyde I know it's a coal-black road gonna send you to Judgment Day.
And I said hey pretty honey of mine tell me and tell me true
If you could take it all back would you walk the right track
And obey them boys in blue
She said I walk a road paved with regret
But the Law don't forgive and it’ll never forget
We’re gonna fight for our freedom right down to the day we die.
I know we're not that smart or desperate love the law it always wins
We've been shot before but we can't ignore that death is the wages of sin
Some day we'll ride to the end of the trail and they'll bury us side by side
For your ma there'll be grief, for the law relief, but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
And I said hey pretty honey of mine life can lend you a bitter taste
When the whole world's view of the gutter and you has got you feeling like a human waste
We’re not the people that they think see
And we've payed our debts to society.
We're gonna fight for our freedom right down to the day we die.
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8. |
The Girls in Old Ireland
04:35
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Sure the Girls in Old Ireland they come to me
Bloody shillelagh clubs for to set me free
I said my lady’s fair won’t you listen to me
And I’ll bring you to your bonnie lass
In fifty-two the hunger took us by surprise
Water fell into my mother’s crying eyes
We wailed just like a dove in the morning cries
And the crops were sick in harvest time.
But my mother she was wise and she raised me well
She told me all the things that there was to tell
Precious you sure listen cause you need me now
In the years to come I won’t be there
You take a hard shillelagh in your hands so strong
Always hold it gently when they do you wrong
But when you hear John Henry’s solemn hammer song
God give you strength like turpentine.
And darling you’re a peach tree in the summer sun
With bonnie little branches always on the run
And when cold winds shake your branches like a crooked gun
I’ll be there my cherub son
Like a mockingbird who laughs because there’s someone there
To wonder if they ever would discover where
We’re hiding in the trees without a worried care
Streetcars in the alleyway.
Sure the Girls in Old Ireland they come to me
Let their bloody kings and clubs be their melodies
A whiskey-fog still burning in my memory
Scattered all along the grass.
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9. |
Saint Therese
05:11
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Darling mother would you guide my hand
My love she’s in America with a terry band
Her dark-flowing hair rolls all down her breast
It’s as soft as the night that she went and left
Sandy was the river that she walked
It was out the door and it was off the dock,
The thunder ahead and the steamboat’s dreams
Of lily-white smoke and fine rafting things.
She boarded that ship and she sent it well
Fast and lonesome as a kind farewell
I asked her grace for twelve little towns
With a market in all and open fields around
She took the East, and she took the West
Elizabeth’s the girl that I love the best
My house was robbed when I shut the door
And boarded it up with a rusted oar.
Bring me a rose, St. Therese, St. Therese
Would you bring me a rose St. Therese
All the little flowers are covered and blessed
Would you bring me a rose St. Therese.
I saw her at the market just yesterday
I said hello but she looked the other way
She wore a coat of black and two old shoes
And my eyes were light with the devil’s dues
I gave her a whistle and three hundred cries
And there I found a rose as white as lye
You can wash with water every day
But that dirt will stain your hide in the same old way.
Now two little devils danced on a barrel of lime
You know they’re devils, mama, but you took a bad time
It was a slipped-up jig with iron feet
That fled like a coward when lovers meet
But there in the garden I can see you fine
Your hand full of roses smell better than wine
To scatter your flowers for the one you love
As tender as the lightning in the sky above.
Bring me a rose St. Therese, St. Therese
Would you bring me a rose St. Therese
All the little flowers are covered and blessed
Would you bring me that rose St. Therese.
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10. |
Midnight Moonlight
03:57
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If you ever feel lonesome, and you’re down in San Antone
Beg steal or borrow two nickels or a dime and call me on the
phone
And I'll meet you at Alamo Mission where we can say our prayers
And the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mother will heal us as we kneel there.
In the moonlight in the midnight
In the moonlight midnight
moonlight.
If you ever feel sorrow for things you might have done
With no hope for tomorrow and the setting of the sun
And the ocean is howling of things that might have been
And that last good morning sunrise will be the brightest you've ever
seen.
In the moonlight in the midnight
In the moonlight midnight
moonlight.
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11. |
Love in a Watercan
03:25
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This is a love song
To whom that I don’t know
I took me to a woman’s house
Where wine and water flow
I love a girl like a watershed
But she sure don’t love me
She’s got a sullen crawfish head
All full of old whiskey.
But who is she with rosy cheeks
And hair like trickling fire
Soft and clear as mountain creeks
And music in your ear
And has she got a silver bell
Beneath that noon-time dress
That’s got me in her sunny well
And near her sighing breast.
This is a love long
To whom that I don’t know
When you’re laughing at my door
You melt that lasting snow
This is a love song
To whom that I don’t know
But I’ll take your hand in a watercan
And a-drinking we will go.
This is a love song
To whom that I don’t know
I took me to a woman’s house
Where wine and water flow.
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12. |
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He was stranded in a tiny town on fair Prince Edward Island
Waiting for a ship to come and find him
A one horse place, a friendly face, some coffee, and a tiny trace
Of fiddling in the distance far behind him.
And a dime across the counter then, a shy hello, a brand new friend
A walk along the street in the wintry weather
A yellow light, an open door, and a welcome friend there's room for more
And then they're standing there inside together.
He said I've heard that tune before somewhere but I can't remember when
Was it on some other friendly shore, did I hear it in the wind
Was it written on the sky above, I think I heard it from someone I love
But I never heard it sound so sweet since then.
And now his feet begin to tap and a little boy says I'll take your cap
And he spun off in the magic of her smile
And leaped the heart within him went when off across the floor he sent
His clumsy body graceful as a child.
He said there's magic in the fiddlers and there's magic in this town
There's magic in the dancers' feet and the way they put them down
People smiling everywhere, boots and fiddles, locks of hair,
And laughter oh blue suits and Easter gowns.
The sailor's gone, the room is bare, the old piano's sitting there
Someone's hat's left hanging on the rack
The empty chairs, the wooden floor that feels the touch of shoes no more
A-waiting for the dancers to come back.
And the fiddle's in the closet of some daughter of the town
The strings are broke, the bow is gone, and the cover’s buttoned down
But sometimes on December nights when the air is cold and the wind is right
There's a melody that passes through the town.
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The Stillwater Hobos Asheville, North Carolina
The Stillwater Hobos formed in 2010 one night in Galway while on the way to Rome.
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