Nuala Kennedy:
The New Shoes
"This album is full of beauties"
~ Norman Chalmers
New Shoes Video
Nuala Kennedy and band perform Dolphin School live at the Fruitmarket as
part of the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow 2008.
New Shoes Video
Celtic Connections
2007
CD Track Listing & MP3 Sound Clips
01. The Pink Flamingo
The Pink Flamingo Jig (N. Kennedy) PRS/MCPS / Eight and Forty Sisters /
The Return of the Whistles (N. Kennedy) PRS/MCPS
I wrote the first tune to commemorate the arrival of a lone pink flamingo in my home town of Dundalk. It was many moons ago, but I can still see its lonely little figure against the grey backdrop of the bridge over the Castletown river. The second seems to be a version of the more popular ‘Toss the Feathers’. And the last I wrote to celebrate the return of my bag of whistles from a brief holiday in a local supermarket. Thanks Damian!
02. Cáit i nGarráin a Bhile
A man searches for his fair-haired darling,
the beautiful Kate.
The Wolf Tones did a version of this song on their recording “As Gaeilge”.
According to Aidan O’ Hara who kindly helped research this, Garráin a
Bhile translates roughly as “The grove of the sacred/historical tree”.
And the song describes a man’s search there for the beautiful
golden-haired Kate or Cáit in Irish. During the song he describes her
tremendous beauty and prays that she and her family are safe from harm.
An raibh tu riamh i nGarráin a Bhile?
An bhfaca tu í i nGarráin a Bhile?
An t-suairc bhean óg, na gcuacha óir
‘S i Cáit mo stór i nGarráin a Bhile.
Is gile í na eala air linn,
‘s na sneachd air bharr na craoibhe cruinne,
‘S is mils’ a póg na drucht air rós,
‘S i Cáit mo stór i nGarráin a Bhile.
Is binn a ceol na lon’s na smeol,
‘S na filí meol air chraobh na sáile,
Mar long faoi sheol air thonn gan ceo,
‘Sea chím mo stór i nGarráin a Bhile
Chugatsa a Chríost, le fonn mo ghui,
Ma tá aon bhrí i nguí an fhile
Gan cháin gan chíos, gan phráin gan dith
Go raibh Cáit’s a buíon i nGarráin a Bhile.
English Translation:
Have you ever been in Garráin a Bhile?
Have you seen her there in Garráin a Bhile?
The beautiful young girl, with the curly golden locks
She’s my darling Kate, in Garráin a Bhile.
She’s brighter than the swan on the lake,
or the snow atop the round trees
Her kiss is sweeter than the dew on the rose
She’s my darling Kate, in Garráin a Bhile
Her song is more melodious than a blackbird
or thrush.
Or than the sweet words of the poets by the side of the sea
Like a ship under sail, clear over the waves,
That’s how I see my love, in Garráin a Bhile
To you, O Lord, I sing my prayerful and
If there’s any meaning in the prayer of a poet,
I pray that Kate and her family are free from the rent demands,
safe and without troubles in Garráin a Bhile
03. Hop Jigs
Michael Gorman’s / Nead na
Lochan [The Nest in the Lake] /
Top the Candle
I played these tunes with my good friend
Dana Lyn, a superb fiddler now living in New York when we did a short
tour in Scotland with Marc. She taught the last one to me, which she
learned from Brian MacNamara’s recording ‘Fort of the Jewels. It is also
found in the tune bible O’ Neill’s 1001. We are big fans of the old hop
jigs. As well as playing fiddle and piano, and philosophising on life,
Dana also writes really great tunes. She has recorded some of these on
her beautiful album ‘Looking for the Early Opener’
I love the easy-going pace of this set, and the full and rich sounds of
the e flat and b flat flutes with Julian and Marc’s gorgeous chordal
arrangement. I feel a deliberate weight and intension to every note
played here. We went for a hint of the Windimiller in the last tune and
Donald found just the right percussion sound to top it off.
04. Dolphin School
Thane’s Hornpipe (J.S. Skinner)
/ La Ridé /
Hip Hip Bourée (P. Yates)
Antigonish fiddler and pianist Troy MacGillivray taught me the first tune one year during the Celtic Colours International Festival. I have played at Celtic Colours in various guises over the years, and have found great friendship and support amongst the people of Cape Breton. I adapted this hornpipe from its original fiddle origins to fit a little better on the flute. The second tune is from Brittany, and we all discovered we had it in common while playing tunes at the tearoom on the fabulous Island of Eigg, off Scotland’s West coast. While we were playing a school of dolphins came right up into the sound and got their fins out for the lads! Julian learned the last tune after he heard it played on the radio by a scottish harp-player, he never found out who it was though! Marc the retro vibe man plays a Hammond organ on the last tune.
05. The Groves of Donaghmore with ‘Bluenote’
(tune: R. J. MacNeil, (SOCAN)
lyric: trad.)
A version of this song, which I learned from Christy O’ Leary’s album ‘The Northern Bridge’. I was given the tune by Ryan MacNeil who wrote it while I was in Cape Breton researching contemporary composers there. As well as playing a mean set of pipes, and writing lovely music, Ryan also makes fine whistles.
The Groves of Donaghmore
My love he is a nice young man, he’s
handsome, tall and thin.
He’s manly in proportion, there’s none to equal him
With his gunbelt and his bayonet and his broad sword by his side
Oh if I could find my Micheál Bán
I’d surely be his bride.
‘What regiment is your true love in?’ the
sentry he did say
‘Or is he in some barracks? come tell to me I pray’
‘He listed in the ’88, he being a fine young man,
He commands one hundred and forty-four in the front line where he
stands’
I will go unto some foreign land my mind
for to diverge,
For to banish grief and sorrow all from my broken heart,
For my love’s absence I will mourn for seven long years or more
And while I’m a maid I will still remain by the Groves of Donaghmore
My name it is young Micheál Bán I’m not
afraid to tell
I come from the county of Tyrone, a place you all know well.
I’m sailing from Philadelphia three thousand miles or more
And I’m going home, no more to roam from the Groves of Donaghmore.
This couple they got married and they’re
living at their ease,
They go out when they’re ready and they come in when they please.
Such a happy couple you have never seen before,
As young Micheál Bán and his Mary-Ann from the Groves of Donaghmore.
06. Over to Brittany
Là-Bas Dans La Prairie [Out
there in the Field] /
La Valsounette (J. Molard)
Claire learned the first tune here from the box player Leo McCann, and taught it to me over a cup of tea and a biscuit. We used to be neighbours on Edinburgh’s Easter Road – handy for a tune. The second she got from a fantastic recording of Breton music by the band Pennou Skoulum.
07.
Erin on the Rhine
with ‘Through The Back Yard’
Through The Back Yard (J. Sutton) PRS/MCPS
This song was given to me by my good friend and musical mentor Cathal McConnell. Cathal and I have spent many’s the happy hour investigating tunes and songs together and tryingout ideas. He has been a great influence on my music. He has also been an inspiration to Claire, who recorded one of his slow airs on her recording ‘Secret Orders’ with Aaron Jones. I was so happy he could come to record on this, and Daniel adding the trumpet was the icing on the cake. We went to Lakewind Sound studios during Celtic Colours to record on this, managing to fit it in between rehearsals for the Unusual Suspects show. My thanks again to Fred and Mike at Lakewind for their much-appreciated help.
Erin on the Rhine
A soldier stood on the village street and
bid his love adieu,
His gun and knapsack on his back, his company to renew -
With tears he kissed her once again and turned away his head
He could but whisper in his pain and this is what he said:
Love dear, love be true, be only only mine,
When the war is o’er we’ll part no more at Erin on the Rhine.
They marched along through the village
streets, their banners floating gay,
The children cheered, their tramplin’ feet that went to the war away -
But one amongst them turned around once more to look again,
And though his lips gave out no sound, his heart sighed this refrain:
Love dear, love be true, be only only mine,
When the war is o’er we’ll part no more at Erin on the Rhine.
On the battlefield the pale cold moon was
shedding her peaceful light
And shining on a soldier boy, on his last discerning flight.
Amid the dying the soldier lay, his comrades close at hand
He said when I am far away and you in your native land:
Say to my love be true, be only only mine
My life is o’er we’ll meet no more at Erin on the Rhine (x2)
08. Slippy
Cò Nì Mire ri Mairi? [Who will
dance with Mairi?] / Rogha Iníon de Brún [Miss Brown’s Fancy] / Tar Suas
Staighre Liom
[Come Upstairs with Me]
Another luscious e and b flat combo this
time featuring Donald Hay on percussion. I have known Donald for many
years from the session scene in Edinburgh, where he plays with a whole
host of people - most famously with the first-class rockers Mystery
Juice.
Iain MacDonald of Glenuig taught me the first tune, an old Scottish slip
jig, many years ago in Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s main Gaelic
college. The second two are slip jigs from Breandán Breathnach’s ‘Ceol
Rince na hEireann 2’ which is one of my favourite sourcebooks for
traditional melodies.
09. Highlands and Islands
Francie Dearg’s Highland /
Siùdaibh ‘Illean / Gabhaibh ‘m Port [Go On Boys, Give Us a Tune] / Angus
the Winemaker (K. Beaton) SOCAN / Ward Allen’s (K. Beaton) SOCAN
This set illustrates one path my musical
life has taken -it starts in Ireland with a Donegal highland, heads over
to Scotland for a strathspey, then ventures to Cape Breton for a couple
of reels. We have kept this set in the Cape Breton tradition of playing
the tunes only twice each.
The strathspey Siùdaibh ‘Illean, Gabhaibh ‘m Port I learned from fiddler
Gabe MacVarish. Gabe is originally from California, but now lives in
Mallaig on Scotland’s West Coast. This tune is also known in English as
Cawdor Fair.
Siùdaibh ‘illean gabhaibh ‘m port,
Siùdaibh ‘illean dannsaibh,
Siùdaibh ‘illean gabhaibh ‘m port,
Is mise bean na bainnse.
Go on boys, give us a tune,
Go on boys, dance,
Go on boys, give us a tune,
I’m the bride.
The Scottish puirt-a-beul or mouth music words here are reproduced with kind permission from Ceol nam Feis, pub. by Feisean nan Gaidheal and compiled by Valerie Bryan.
Kinnon Beaton is a wonderful composer and highly respected Cape Breton fiddler. He published these two tunes in his latest collection: ‘100 Original Fiddle Tunes’
10.
A Bhean Úd Thíos
A woman trapped in a fairy knowle hopes her song will be carried on the wind to her husband. She hopes he will hear her song and come to her rescue……
This song features the laid back and tasteful piano style of the extremely talented Mhairi Hall. I met Mhairi in Uist in the Outer Hebrides a few years ago when she was teaching at the college there. She has now quite sensibly decided to pursue her music full-time and as well as getting to play music together, I am also privileged to be her housemate on Alvie Estate near Kincraig in the Highlands. It’s a great spot!
A Bhean Úd Thíos
A bhean úd thíos, air bhruach an tsrutháin,
An dtuigeann tusa fáth mo ghearáin?
S’e bliain is lá inniu ó fuadaíodh mé om leannán,
Is go rugadh isteach mé i Lios a Cnocáin.
Seo é anseo mo theach mór maiseach,
Is mo leann úr agus seann leann ann,
Mo mil bhuí agus céir bheach ann,
Agus mo shean duine air a nasc ann.
Abair le m’ chéile teacht amáireach
‘S an coinneal chéireach i gcroí a dhearnáin,
Scian choise duibhe a thabhairt na láimh leis,
S’ an capall tosaigh a bhualadh sa bhearna.
An luib a bhuaint, tá i ndoras a leasa,
Mar shúil le Dia go raghainn leis abhaile,
No mura dtaga sé faoin tràth sin,
Go mbeidh mé im banríon air na mná seo.
11. The New Shoes
The Buddha’s Delight (J.Sutton)
PRS/MCPS / Seachdain nan Deuchainn [Exam Week] (N. Kennedy) PRS/MCPS /
El Paso (N. Kennedy) PRS/MCPS
Julian wrote the first tune and named it
after a Chinese meal with a particularly inspired title, which he
enjoyed in Glasgow during the recording of this album.
The first reel I wrote when I should have been studying for a Scottish
history exam. I spent a year in Inverness in 2004 studying Gaelic. It
was such a treat to be able to spend time learning this great language.
I loved every minute of it but still have an instinctual aversion to
tests!
The second is affectionately named after my hometown in Ireland.
This last set of melodies to me tells the story of a traveller,
venturing and exploring, meeting new people and visiting different
places before heading off further off along life’s path. This is the
title track of the New Shoes album, and with grace, we’ll be back with a
few more stories on the next one!
I hope you enjoy listening to it!
All the best,
Nuala