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The Irish Rover’s cover of Tom Paxton’s “Bottle of Wine” is great.
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Wow, I haven’t heard THAT in a long long time!!! In looking in Amazon for it, came across a couple more Rover tunes I liked…“Goodbye Mrs Durkin”, and “Wasn’t That a Party.”
There was a local Irish/Folk band that played where I was bartending years ago, and they used to play “Seven Drunken Nights”…now, that was a fun song!!! http://www.jonathanramsey.com/songs/SevenDrunkenNights.shtml
I think I found it on a cassette several years ago, but not a very good version.
“Back Home in Derry” and “The Fields of Athenry” for ballads; “Come out ye Black and Tans” and “Follow me up to Carlow” for singing along in a pub. (I love the last verse on “Carlow”!)
Ben and Jerry’s has a “Black and Tan” flavor ice cream, and for the week it was in my freezer I’d be humming “…come out and fight me like a man” every time I went for ice.
The Shantyman (Greg Csikos) does a version of “The Minstrel Boy” that he came up with while he was with the Corsairs that I really like. The first part is the traditional song, then he bridges into a take on it from the minstrel’s perspective. It’s something of an emotional roller coaster, and I really like it.
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The second song in that piece is also called Minstrel Boy, and was written by Ty Billings of the Minstrels of Mayhem, and originally recorded by them.
Galway Bay -( Not sure of spelling on “Galway”, but that’s what it sounds like)
Once, in a “Irish” pub, here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, this young man got up at his table of Irish Expats, and with a little prodding sang this song.
It was a noisey, bustling night, but the young man’s clear soprano soon made the whole bar so quiet that you could have heard a pin(t) drop…
A round of thunderous applause followed, and I don’t think that lad bought another drink that night… It was haunting and beautiful, and really sent shivers down my back…
[QUOTE=Spavined Gelding] The Parting Glass. The Clancy Bros and T. Makem have a lovely version but there are any number. I hope to have it sung at my funeral – as my moldering corpse is rolled out.
Oh, all the money that e’er I spent
I spent it in good company,
And all the friends that e’er I had
Are sorry for to see me go,
And all the girls that e’re I had
Would wish me one more day to stay.
And so it’s fall’n
Unto to my lot
That I must rise
And you should not,
I’ll quietly rise and softly go.
Good night and joy be with you all.
Or something like that, more or less. I don’t think my widow wold stand for it, however.
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I want the first verse on my tombstone:
Oh, all the money that e’er I spent
I spent it in good company,
And all the harm that e’er I’ve done,
Alas, it was to none but me,
And all I’ve done for want of wit,
To memory now I can’t recall,
So fill to me the parting glass,
Goodnight and joy be with you all.
(I love the last verse on “Carlow”!)
