Yes, this has been an AWESOME week for me. I went to my first session, and while I didn’t play much because I’m still a newbie of sorts at this, it was heavenly none the less. Ava stayed at my house Wednesday and Friday night and we had a riot of a time between Wednesday and this morning. For those of you who have never met Ava, she’s a real first class, fun to be around gal. (Just in case you couldn’t guess that from her posts and chat.) Thank you Beth for sharing your whistling and company; I look forward to when you wend your way back around here again.
And I met a lot of the other local C&F folk here as well. What a wonderful and generous group of musicians! Thank you all for making me feel welcome… it was like coming home and finding long lost friends. Would that everyone had such a group of folks to play whistle with. I am so pumped now to learn some more tunes and practice so I can play along better in future sessions. SO much FUN!
And now for a question about Irish tunes with words. I have had I hard time finding lyrics for Irish Trad tunes in general. I know the words for the dreaded Danny Boy, and for The Minstral Boy and that is it. I know The Star of the County Down has words, but I don’t know what they are yet.
I love when a song has words. First because I enjoy singing (though whether others enjoy my singing is still out for debate ). Second because it is easier for me to remember/play a song if it has words.
So does anyone know the words that go with the more trad Irish tunes (and the names of tunes that have words)? Words in English are preferred, though if it’s not, that’s okay to. Where to find recordings of people singing these songs that I could borrow/download/buy?
Sara,
100 Irish Ballads, published by Soodlums Music Co. is a great source for traditional songs. It comes with a CD that contains the first verse and chorus of all the songs in the book, so you can hear how they are supposed to sound. I bought mine at a Celtic Festival in Grand Junction last year. I have a lot of CD’s with traditional songs on them. Cherish the Ladies and The Chieftans are really good. However, my favorites have been a couple of “The Clancy Bro’s with Tommy Makem” CD’s I borrowed from a friend. Sorry I don’t remember the names of the CD’s, but a search on Amazon.com or some other web site that sells CD’s should bring up whatever is available. Also, there is a local group called “Fiddlesticks” you may have heard them perform if you are on the Wasatch Front. They do some traditional songs on their CD’s. They sell them in local book stores and at their performances. I am an avid fan of theirs.
I’m always happy to see another Utah person on the board. I’ve been mostly a lurker on the board for about two years now and for a long time I thought I was the only whistler in the state. It’s good to know there are others. One of these days I’m going to show up at a session and meet all of you.
Marcee
Cool…another whistling Utahn! Good to know you’re there, Marcee.
Yes, the session at my house Thursday night was great…I wish the baby had let me participate more. Maybe next time.
Sara, have you checked out Greg’s (Wandering_Whistler) site before? It has great sheet music and some words to songs in the airs/ballads section (including “Star of the County Down”). Here’s the link:
I’ve got a bunch of links bookmarked to all sorts of music websites, so if I can think of any others, I’ll post later.
It was great meeting you! We should get together again sometime soon and let the kids play. Ciara and Jordyn seemed to hit it off at the movie on Friday.
Did Beth get a pic of the whistle cookie? That was really cool! I wasn’t sure if it was for eating or just for looking.
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Branches in London and Salt Lake City
[ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2002-11-24 11:41 ]
If you take a look at Greg’s site (Wandering Whistler Tune Archive), if a tune is listed on his site and has words to it, it will have an asterik, and will list the lyrics underneath the music.
The words for Star of the County Down
are much less lovely than the
tune, rather like the words to
Greensleeves. NO matter, of course;
but it’s interesting how some of
the most beautiful tunes have
dumb words.
Often tunes in the folk tradition have multiple sets of possible words…if you don’t find one set particularly appealing, often another is great. For example, the words to Greensleeves seem rather sappy for such a lovely tune, but the Christmas Carol set to the same tune (“What Child Is This?”) is quite beautiful. Ditto with The Ash Grove/The Master Hath Come.
One of my favorite “tunes with words” is “The Rocky Road to Dublin”
I went to my first session, and while I didn’t play much because I’m still a newbie of sorts at this, it was heavenly none the less. Ava stayed at my house Wednesday and Friday night and we had a riot of a time between Wednesday and this morning. For those of you who have never met Ava, she’s a real first class, fun to be around gal. (Just in case you couldn’t guess that from her posts and chat.) Thank you Beth for sharing your whistling and company; I look forward to when you wend your way back around here again.
Danny Boy, and for The Minstral Boy and that is it. I know The Star of the County Down has words, but I don’t know what they are yet.