|
|
|
|
ÉG Á LÍF Eurovision Contest Song From Iceland
|
The Dubliners To Retire 2012
|
|
The Dubliners are to retire after 50 years of touring and recording. The group will call it a day when their
current tour of Ireland is complete. They have just finished their tour of Denmark where the shows were a sell out. It was
after the passing of their banjo player Barney McKenna that the rest of The Dubliners decided to call it a day. Gerry O'Connor
who had being playing banjo with the Sharon Shannon band replaced Barney McKenna. Gerry is regarded by many as one of the
finest 4 string banjo players in the world along with Christy Sheridan.
1984 marked a hugh turning point for The Dubliners with the passing of Luke Kelly. Luke was always hungry
for new songs to play. Since his death the rest of the group pumped out the same songs year after year, the same songs they
had being playing since the early 60s when the band were formed. Luke and to a lesser extent Ronnie Drew were always on the
look out for newly written songs that would keep the group sound fresh.
A hugh wealth of talent passed through the group over the years and it's always being surprising that The
Dubliners never wrote songs. They have always being reliant on a others for materal. Songwriters such as Phil Coulter ,
Pete St. John and Ewan McColl made up half their set list with the remainder being traditional songs. The fact that they
didn't write their own songs or didn't add much new materal after the passing of Luke and Ronnie never held them back.
The band continued to tour around Europe but on a smaller scale. They recorded several new albums but most
of the songs on the albums were already released years earlier. They still attracted hugh crowds where ever they played. When
The Dubliners came to town everbody wanted a ticket, even though John Sheehan is the only original member. John joined the
group a year or two after the group was formed but he's still regarded as an original member.
The original name of the group in 1963 was The Ronnie Drew Group which consisted of Ronnie Drew on guitar
and vocals. Ciaran Burke on tin whistle, John Sheehan on Mandolin, Barney McKenna on 4 string banjo and Bobby Lynch on guitar
and vocals. Luke Kelly joined two years later and when they were looking to change their name from The Ronnie Drew Group it
was Luke who suggested The Dubliners as Luke had being reading a James Joyce book of short stories called ''Dubliners''.
With The Dubliners retiring it's a sad time for folk music fans. We have already lost every member of The
Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The only remaining group that started out in the 60s that are still with us are The Wolfe
Tones who celebrate 50 years together in 2013. All three members of the 'tones are original members that started out as a
four piece in 1963. This must be a record regarding all original members of a band still together after 50 years.
|
New Mandolin / Banjo Section Open
|
A new page has been opened for mandolin players looking to learn the basics before moving on to the sheet music section. Im aware of the amount to mandolin players
who come to the site learning songs and looking for ''tabs'' but unfortunatly I don't know how to write banjo or mandolin
tabs. This new part of the site is mainly for beginners looking to learn the scale and get some easy chord shapes. If there's
anybody out there with tabs can you please send them to me.
|
New Songwriters On The Site
|
If you're looking out for new songs to sing or record you are spoilt for choice her as singer songwriters
continue sending me new songs they have written. Some of they may not be very well established in the folk world but there
sonwriting skills are second to none. I'm thinking mainly of John Keogh who regurally sends me new lyrics and Mick Higgins.
John hales from Ireland and made a life for himself in England where he spent the best part of his life at this stage and
has put pen to paper writing about his life experences working in England, from songs about working on building sites and
building roads to re-writing Perch French songs in his own style of humour. Mick Higgins is also from Ireland but now lives
in Malta, Mick also loves to write funny songs about anything from the ''Ash Cloud'' to the Irish having a ball in Malta.
Mick also wrote one of the best songs I've heard in ages called Herbies Song , I won't say what it's all about but you can take your own meaning from the words
 |
How Blind People Read Chords For Guitar
|
Have you ever wondered how blind and vision impaired people read guitar chords on a website ? well I never
really knew until I got an email from a blind man who comes to the site regulary. Blind people use a text reader for reading
the lyrics on the screen. The man in question gave me some praise for the format I use to place the guitar chords between
the lyrics and not over the words like most guitar sites do. When a text reader programme scans the text all it can do is
read it line by line and if the chords are above the lyrics it will speak out the chords on top before moving to the next
line of text which is the lyrics of the song. With the system I use the text reader will read for example the first word then
the chord the next few words then the next chords and so on. This is not what I had in mind all them years ago when starting
the site, it just so happenes the format I use is of great benifit to the visually impaired and I was delighted to know
the site was of great value to all those who have a problem with their sight.
|
A new section for abc notation has been added. Abc is a form of music for anybody that doesn't use sheet music but prefares simple lead notes. It's not just
for tin whistle but for most musical instruments including banjo, mandolin piano accordion and so on. The sheet music section
on the site gets about one third of all the visits I will ad to this section when I have more time.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
A bit of a storm blew up recently over a song that slags off the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The
song reached the top end of the British music charts. It's an old song ''Ding Dong The Witch is Dead'' from the film The Wizard
Of Os 1939. Some radio stations in Britain are refusing to play the song, including The B.B.C. R.T.E. which is a state
owned radio and television broadcaster joined the debate and featured the story on their main evening news ''6 one''. They
asked for comments from D.Js if they would have any problems playing the song on their programme. All the D.Js said they would
play the song and said the B.B.C. should also play in. One of R.T.Es longest searving broadcasters ''Larry Gogan'' said if
a song is in the charts regardless of it's topic it should be played.
Now this got me thinking [ a dangerous thing] about all the songs that were in the Irish charts over the last 30
years that R.T.E. refused point blank to play on the air waves. Anyone who has visited this site regularly over the years
would know I have been campaigning to get Irish folk songs played on Irish radio and television. Anyway, when The Wolfe Tones
song Admiral William Browne reached the top of the charts in 82' it was black listed by R.T.E. The same D.J. who now says
that when any song reaches the top of the charts it should be played refused to play Admiral William Browne. It's very rare
to hear The Wolfe Tones played on R.T.E. , even the non-rebel songs dont get an airing.
It's not only The Wolfe Tones who don't have their music played on the radio, folk and ballad music in general
is shunned. Recently some well known singers and songwriters including Phil Coulter met with the n Minister for Communications
Pat Rabbit in the hope of forcing the radio and t.v. station to have a percentage of their output dedicated to Irish
music. I don't hold out much hope on this one as the majority of the independent media in Ireland is owned by big business
who also control the music business.
R.T.E. is funded by the tax payer who pays €160 a year for a licence. A large proportion of the population's
music taste is not catered for by R.T.E. On the one hand you have D.J.s who bend over backwords to to get their message out
that they would have no problem playing a song that slags of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and on the
other hand refuse the play their fellow countrymen's music.
If anybody's intersted in the lead notes for The Dublin Minstrel I now have them on the site. They were requested by
Joe who plays piano accordion. I put together a small video lesson on how to play along playing the keyboard as I don't have
an accordion. Here's the lnk. The Dublin MinstrelI have now added more of these video lessons for playing the keyboard. The latest are The Foggy Dew, Only Our River Run
Free and that beautiful old song The Snowy Breasted Pearl which is a favorite of mine, and again I have written down the notes
in an easy to read format.
|
The Pecker Dunne Dies Aged 80 Years Old
|
20/12/2012 The Pecker Dunne has died, he was 80 years old and died at his home in Killimer Co. Clare. He was from Crumlin
in Dublin and his parents were from Co. Wexford. The Pecker wrote many's a fine song over the years and several are included
on this site. His most famous would be O'Sullivan's John which he recorded himself but Johnny McEvoy made a huge hit from it. Other songs by ''The Pecker'' were Wexford Town and Tinker's Lullaby. Pecker made his living on the road like man's a tinker in Ireland, you'd often hear him
playing his ballads on his 5 string banjo outside G.A.A. football grounds on Sunday's. He will be truly missed by all folk
singers in Ireland.
|
|
|
Macaronic songs consisting of phrases, verses and couplets
usually alternating between the Irish and
English
language or even between the Scots Gaelic and the Irish
Gaelic languages. Most of them are from the middle of
the
19th century as the Irish language was declining.
Many of the old ballad sheets in Ireland from the 1850s
have macaronic
text and in many cases the English part
was transcribed from the Irish.
Much of the macaronic songs are funny light
hearted
in tone and often taking the form of a discussion
between a boy and girl who are courting. One such example
is ÉALAIGH LIOM But macaronic music isn't confined only to folk songs, the best know pop one is by Elvis Presley singing Wooden Heart
in English and German.
|
Playing Banjo Chords In Folk Songs
|
Playing banjo chords- The Irish tenor banjo is mostly played as a lead instrument but ou can also play chords
on the Irish 4 string banjo, there's a handy diagram which shows you how to play four of the most popular chords on the banjo
in the mandolin section. As the banjo is tuned the very same way as the mandolin then the chords are the same. Here's the
link to show you how to play chords on the Irish banjo.
|
|
|
|
Well, it's almost ten years now since I started colecting song lyrics and chords and placing them on the internet.
I started off with a very small site hosted by Expage who are no longer around. I had no experence at all when I started and
it used to take be over an hour just to type out the lyrics of only one song. I moved to this website around 2004 when Expage
closed down and it's been going well ever since. I'd type out the songs from memory or from playing a C.D. over and over and
go back and fill in the chords. It's been a hard auld slog but I got there in the end. I think it was around 2004 that I lost
half of my hearing, I went totally deaf in one ear. This was a big set back as I was never the same with working out chords
after that but I knew the basics of how music went in relation to chords and keys and soon got back into the swing of thing.
The site has grown leaps and bounds over the years with the addition of new songs. In 2004 the site was getting about
1,500 visitors a day which wasn't bad. Today on average it gets around 14,000 hits a day. in total since I started there have
been 13,518,926. I received much help over the years from folk music fans to which I'm very greatful. Marc in particular has
been a hugh help with working out the guitar part of some of the most complicated chord arrangement on certain songs.
I have received nothing but good will and support from all who come here, even well known singer songwriters have lent
their support. Singers like Johnny Duhan who went to the bother of sending me all his popular songs and who writes for
Christy Moore, others like Seamus Robinson [R.I.P.] who was a regular contributory and friend who wrote such classic songs
as Take Me Home To Mayo, there have been many more famous names who gave me encouragement but shall remain nameless for now.
A big thank you to you all for Keeping The Tradition Alive And Kicking
|
| |
There are several hunderd youtube videos on the site. These videos are only here as a guide to give you
the gist of the timimg of the song. The videos may not be in the key that I have set the chords to any given song unless I
have stated this. Several visitors to the site have written to be saying they are having problems playing along to the videos.
Once again I say, play the song in a key that suits your own voice. For example Tommy Byrne from The Wolfe Tones plays a lot
of songs in the key of F Major, this key won't suit most guitar players. If the chords I have given don't fit your voice then
change the key of the song with the key changer
|
The +1 button on this site
|
The + 1 button on this site is a way to recommend Irish Songs And Guitar Chords to your friends. The + 1 button
is by Google and if you have a google account and are signed in you'll see the + 1 logo when you do a google search and you
can also see the logo displayed on this site's homepage at the bottom. When you click the + one button you're recommending
this site to any of your friends that are also signed into their google account. You will be also helping this site gain new
visitors by just clicking the + 1 button. I just thought I'd explain that in case you didn't already know.
|
Tablature For The Green Fields Of France
|
The tablature notation is now on site for The Green Fields Of France, as you may know this site is primarily
for chords as opposed to ''tabs'' , but now and again I may place a bit of tablature to one or two songs. As The Green Fields
Of France is one, if not the most popular folk song in the world this is the one I have sought out. The tabs have been worked
out by a friend who teaches guitar and also plays in my local pub. It shows all the notes and how to play them. The link to
the song is in the Eric Bogle section.
|
Feedback On Ballad Groups Not Playing Rebel Songs
|
A while back I inquired as to why rebel songs were not being played at sessions anymore, I have received a considerable
amount of feedback. The ansers came from several scorces including bands, session players, songwriters and punters attending
gigs. To summerize the info. I will outline the main reasons in the fall off of rebel songs not being played. No1 reason is
there are litteraly only a handfull of ballad groups left doing the pub sessions in Ireland so there's little chance to hear
ballads as the norm in your local pub. No 2 reason is cowardice or fear my musicians who don't want to offend someone in the
pub that may take offence at rebel songs being played. No 3 is also related to the fear factor by the musicians who are afraid
to loose the gig by playing ballads insofar the publican may discontinue the gig.
|
|
|
|
|
|
