Notes
The multi hued Sound of Iona, between the islands of Mull and Iona, is only one of the many bodies of water we cross to glean our Celtic musical bouquet: the Irish and North Seas, the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean. The group IONA presents the multi hued Sound... 1. Fosgail An Daras Dhan Tàilleir Fhidhleir (Open the Door for the Fiddling Tailor)/Old Wife of the Mill Dust (Scotland)4:11 We open--and close--this set with puirt-a-beul, or mouth music, a song in Gaelic from the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland. The words of puirt-a-beul are composed to dance tunes, and are often simply mnemonics for the tunes-in this case exhortations to open the door, and bring goat's milk for the king's son-in-law, who is the fiddling tailor, or tailoring fiddler... The 6 part jig, which Bob sandwiches in between, has an equally irrelevant name. 2. Bonnie Charlie/Song of the Travelling Beggars (Arrane Ny Jinnyn)/Ina MacKenzie/Walking the Floor (Scotland, Isle of Man) 6:14 We play Bonnie Charlie as a hornpipe, and follow it with a Manx song in 3 part vocal harmony. It describes the trials and tribulations of a poor farm hand whose master wakes him up at the crack of dawn to feed a bunch of shiftless itinerants. Bob follows with a hornpipe by P/M R. Lawrie and jig by Jack Chisholm on great pipes--just to be sure the poor kid's awake. 3. Y Gwcw Fach (the Little Cuckoo)/Nyth y Gôg (Cuckoo's Nest) (Wales) 3:14 The song, an interesting example of how Celtic traditions have been transplanted to the New World, was collected from a Welsh American in Utica, NY, who had learned it from her Powys born mother. As with many songs with birds as their subject, Y Gwcw Fach is one in which the singer sends her true love a message. Not to say she's bird brained... Bernard arranged the Welsh hornpipe as a fitting conclusion. 4. Braigh Loch Iall/Paddy's Green Shamrock Shores (Scotland, Ireland)7:50 Bob launches us from the mists of the Banks of Locheil, an air on the great pipes, into an Irish song of emigration. During the potato famine (1845-51), a million people fled Ireland. Most of them never saw their families again. Departures to America were called 'American wakes', and many songs detailing the poignant combination of homesickness and anticipation evolved during this time. Paddy's Green Shamrock Shores is one of the finest, and most upbeat: everyone ends up drinking in New York. And still does... 5. An Alarc'h/Tri Marghak (Three Knights) (Brittany, Cornwall)5:07 We intersperse the tune of a popular Breton song with a medieval Cornish tragedy. Three knights court a sweet young thing. The one she chooses gets the thumbs down vote from her brother, who promptly decides to kill her. Typical folk song. 6. Sgt. Early's/Bean Pháidín/Frieze Britches (Ireland) 6:25 And here's another one. Pháidín's ex doesn't appreciate being dumped, and lays a nasty curse on the new wife, calling for both her legs to be broken, followed by her death. What is it with these Celts? We play Sgt. Early's jig slowly, working up to that vicious little song, and complete the set with the 5 part jig that Bernard and Bob arranged for the great pipes in the finale. 7. Brewer's Lament/Queen Among the Heather/The Ale is Dear (Scotland) 4:27 Bob composed this variation on pibroch (a pipe competition thing) as a comment on the reel, The Ale is Dear. Obviously also a comment on Scottish parsimony. The song is a spirited love song: nobody kills anybody! 8. Cock o' the North/Silver Tip/Monymusk/Sportin' Jamie/Gravel Walk/Congress Reel (Scotland, Ireland) 4:05 Bob and Mary get to strut their stuff. We start off with a Scottish march on small pipes, segué to an Irish jig on harp and flute, whip back to Scotland for a couple of strathspeys on the great pipes, and finish off back in Ireland, with two rousing reels. Quite a frenzied jaunt across the Irish Sea and back and forth and so on. 9. Lark in the Morning, Wild Geese at Night (Words by Loralyn Coles, tune trad. Irish)4:04 When our f