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 Why these 11 choices

This album was recorded during two live concerts on July 31 and August 1, 1991 at the Grand Opera House in Belfast. It gives a nice sample of the Chieftains current live music. It shows how they can mix traditional Irish music with a country singer from Texas, Nanci Griffith and a former rock star, Roger Daltrey. This album has several medleys and the last track features a solo by each Chieftain and Nanci Griffith. It also has Roger Daltrey do Any Old Iron an English folk song. This cut is an interesting one, in which, if you listen closely you may hear Paddy and the boys join in.

Year: 1992
Label: BMG (RCA)
The Players:

  • Martin Fay: fiddle
  • Seán Keane: fiddle
  • Kevin Conneff: bodhr&aacuten & vocals
  • Matt Molloy: flute
  • Paddy Moloney: uilleann pipes and tin whistle
  • Derek Bell: harp, tiompan, and keyboards
    &
  • Nanci Griffith: guitar and vocals
  • Roger Daltrey: vocals
  • Billy Nichols: vocals
  • Dave Early: drums
  • Clive Cuthbertson: bass
  • Jean Butler: traditional Irish dancer

Tracks:

  1. Opening Medley
    9:17
  2. North Americay
    4:09
  3. Lilly Bolero
    The White Cockade
    3:11
  4. Little Love Affairs
    3:00
  5. Red Is the Rose
    3:26
  6. The Mason’s Apron
    5:21
  7. The Stone
    6:31
  8. Miscellany
    8:56
  9. Raglan Road
    5:23
  10. Behind Blue Eyes
    4:24
  11. Medley
    4:17
  12. Damhsa
    3:00
  13. Rachamid a Bhean Bheag
    10:19

(Phrase’s alternate between low and high every two lines.)

Ye lovers all both great and small
Who dwell in Ireland
Oh I pray you pay attention
hilst I my pen command
It was my father’s anger
That drove my love away
But I still have hopes
We’ll meet again in North Americay

My love he was fair and handsome
And to him I gave my heart
Ah but little was our notion
That we would ever part
It was in my father’s garden
That this flower it did decay
But I still have hopes twill bloom again
In North Americay

Now I did not want for money
Kind fortune on me shone
So out of my father’s castle
I took 300 pounds
It was in the town of Belfast
My passage I did pay
And then set sail across the sea
To far Americay

Now the captain’s wife was kind to me
As you may understand
And she kept me in her cabin
Until we reached dry land
It was in the town of Quebec
We landed on the cay
But I knew not where to seek my love
In all Americay

Now I being sick and sore and tired
Well I went into an inn
And it was there I found my William
The lad I loved within
He took me gently by the hand
And to me he did say
Oh I never thought I’d see your face
In North Americay

Now I hear this couple has got wed
As you may understand
And I hear they live quite happily
In a town they call St. Johns
And the money that she took from home
Well in gold she paid it down
And they think no more of Ireland
Nor Enniskillen town.

Thanks to Tom Seck for transcribing the lyrics.