Album Notes

The first album by Northern California's most in-demand Celtic duo (or trio or quartet, depending)...

Notes on the tracks
1. Lad O'Beirne's/Saddle the Pony: A reel, thought to come from the Co. Sligo fiddler, into a jig, both well known. We like to play them in F. We like the spare duo sound and the fuller multi-tracked sound, and on this one we go for the fuller with guitar, high strung bouzouki, 2 whistles, and bodhran
2. Trip to Pakistan/Cathal McConnell's/Sculley Casey's: Tunes we got from the Tannahill Weavers, Lunasa and Laurence Nugent respectively.
3. The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite: Learned from the great fiddler and singer David Kidron (with whom we made "Shalom Ireland", also available from CDBaby). It's an a capella English sea song but we couldn't resist some instrumentation. Amphitrite was a goddess of the sea, daughter of the Titan Oceanus. We use our full sound here with bouzouki, vocals, bodhran, uillean pipes and whistles.
4. John Brady's (by John Brady)/Tim Maloney's: Vince learned the first reel at a session in Cork City. Kit Slawson taught us the second.
5. Sixth Street: A waltz written by Lewis who plays it on the Commodium, a resophonic mandolin with a bedpan body (http://www.keithcary.com/commodium/).
6. Noisy Curlew/Brenda Stubbert's/Glass of Beer: Reels from the playing of Seamus Egan and Eileen Ivers, the second written by Jerry Holland of Cape Breton, the third from the Boys of the Lough. Thanks to the mighty Lee Martin for the Scottish small pipes on the second and third tunes
7. Welcoming Table/The Wandering Jew: A version of this American song we leaned from a tape of Barry Schultz and Cathy Whitesides playing at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. Lewis wrote the jig on the bouzouki.
8. Out on the Ocean/Crooked Road to Dublin: A jig we like to play slowly, then a reel.
9. Thunderhead (©1981, Grey Larsen): Another one we learned from David Kidron. Jeff Simons on bass, Shawn King on rattles and mouth percussion, Vince using a bodhran tipper on a clipboard and playing the kettle drum.
10. Erin's Waltz: Written by Vince, it has become a wedding standard for us.
11. Gallant Soldier: From Paul Brady and Andy Irvine's amazing album. Also in Gale Huntington & Lani Herrmann's revision of Sam Henry's Songs of the People.
12. Rise A Mile: A slip jig we have from Kevin Burke and Patrick Street.