The only time of year I play is around St Pattys day down hyar in Southern MD. This is what we play:
Whiskey In The Jar
Daisy a Day
Rising Of the Moon
Jolly Tinker
Colleen Malone
Unicorn
Beer Beer Beer
Seven Deadly Sins
Brennan On the Moor
Whiskey yer the Devil
The Dutchman
Rosin the Bow
Fields of Athenry
The Black Velvet Band
Wild Rover
Nancy Whiskey
Rattlin Bog
The Regular Army O
Vincent Black Lightning (Amazing song… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o)
Bold O’Donohue
Four Strong Winds
Molly Malone
Whiskey On A Sunday
Halleluiah (Leonard Cohen)
Patriot Games
The Boxer
The Ferryman
Caledonia
In between breaks, the fiddler and I sneak in a few ITM tunes!
Paddy = nickname for Patrick Patty = nickname for Patricia
(Pat is a nickname for both Patrick and Patricia, thus the SNL skit.)
Now, there might well be a St Patricia! But whoever she is, she’s not the Saint that Americans are drinking to on March 17th.
Why does the ‘t’ in Patrick turn into ‘d’? Perhaps because the Irish form of the name has ‘d’ (Padraig).
Wouldn’t be the first time there was a letter change:
Elizabeth = Lisa (z to s)
Robert = Bobby (r to b)
Richard = Dick (r to d, and ch to ck)
William = Bill (w to b)
The very hillbilly-sounding Billy Bob is nothing the but the old English William Robert in disguise. It’s amazing how many Americans don’t know that.
About the music, sounds like a fine list to me.
When I’m playing background music for an “Irish” event, I like to cycle between three streams of “Irish music” in order to appeal to a wider audience
the Irish-American Tin Pan Alley songs. These are the songs that Americans of Irish descent think of as being “Irish music” though they were mostly written in New York. Irish people on this forum will turn up their noses at these, but most Americans of Irish descent know no other, and if you’re hired to play “Irish music” on St Patrick’s Day here you’re expected to play these.
Examples Irish Eyes Are Smiling
Danny Boy
Toora Loora
Irish ‘folk music’. These are the songs that many Irish-Americans, and many Irish themselves, think of as being “Irish music”. They’re the Irish equivalent of Peter Paul and Mary songs. Many are traditional and others were written in the 1950s-1960s ‘folk revival’.
Examples Fields of Athenry
From Clare to Here
Four Green Fields
Songs from the Irish-language Sean Nos tradition. Older Irish people, especially if brought up Irish speaking, brighten up when I play these.
Examples Ar Eirinn ni Neosfainn Ce Hi
A Spailpin, a Ruin
Roisin Dubh
I think we all know what they are talking about but why oh why post a repertoire list here? Who cares. We can all play or sing the great Irish classics like Halleluiah, The Boxer and, god forbid, Caledonia. Although, speaking for myself, I am probably a stranger to the finer points of a Daisy a Day and the Unicorn song.
I’m puzzled by some of the Canadian content. The Irish Rovers I can understand, but I’m not clear how songs by an Alberta cowboy (Four Strong Winds) or a Montreal Jew (Hallelujah) fit in an Irish celebration in Maryland. Great songs, but odd context.
And just a little footnote, if ya browse the videos down to Haley Richardson, 10 years old, she won the All-Ireland Fiddle Championship 2013. Look out 2014 and up!
I’m going to edit this, because I am going to go on the assumption ytliek that you were merely trying to drum up support for a local event. In Ireland, kids are actually welcome in pubs until 9 PM or so - there isn’t the gross stigma attached to consumption of alcohol and its corrupting influence that we have here in North America. So in Ireland, kids get exposure to ITM in one of its natural environments without having to create a special event.
Anyway all that aside, I just wish you hadn’t used that particular phrase “drunken Irish” - in this or any context. I’m not even sure how you can spin it to make it look okay.
And on a happier note, I never complied with a “Unicorn Song” request either, and was once asked - loudly and repeatedly - for “Son of a Preacher Man” - in an “Irish” pub playing with a “Celtic” band. Had to disappoint that Tarantino fan too.
