The Boyle Singers' group held an extra singing session on Friday of the October Bank Holiday as part of the general celebrations of an open Boyle weekend. There was a good crowd, with some new faces from over south Sligo direction.
Some of the regulars were missing, due to the fact that the South Roscommon Singers Circle has its annual gathering the same weekend in Knockcroghery. The theme for the Friday night Knockcroghery crowd was Heroes and Patriots.
The South Roscommon Singers Circle meet on the first Saturday of every month, from September to June in Murray's. So you can have a pre-run to Boyle Singers' 3rd Saturday every 1st Saturday.
October 2011
Eugene, MC for the night, started in great style with
‘Oh it was one pleasant evening, all in the month of May
Down by a shady arbour as I carelessly did stray...’
About false young Johnny, cruising the main ocean for honour and for gain, and then wrecked off the coast of Spain or was he? Nah, he wasn’t: ‘Betsy I’m your man’, and they met up on the “Banks of Claudy” again.
Tony followed with “The lambs on the green hills”, with less luck,’ I would be your man, although you are wed to another’. Joe, visiting from Scotland, gave us another unlucky love story, ‘Our young lady a hunting’s gane' ... 'so’s she’s rowled him in her apron’.
Joe’s family passed the parcel (or bundle) on to George, who gave us a great version of “Dear Old Skibbereen”,
‘How well I do remember that bleak December day,
When the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all away;
They set the roof on fire with their yellow demon spleen,
And when it fell, the crash was heard all over Skibbereen.’
There were songs from Helen (‘Along the wild plains of Mayo’), Paddy (rousing version of ‘Keep your hands off Red Haired Mary’), Frank (“Deartháirín Óg mo chroí”: ‘Now I’m alone like the desolate bird of the night), John (“Nancy Spain”), Frances (“A maiden who is forty”), Breege (“Annan Waters”), John (“The road and the miles to Dundee”), Clíona (“Reynardine”), Noreen (“Heave away”).
Clare by special request sang Liam Weldon’s “My love is a well” beautifully.
‘My love is a well, a deep-seated well,
As deep as the bottomless sea
Immersed am I in the well of my love,
Immersed in ecstasy.’
Murt Collins had
‘A young mother stood on Queenstown Dock
With a handkerchief up to her eye’.
And ‘no one to welcome you home’.
Eugene’s guager out of Dublin was looking for a private still (‘Here’s fifty pounds if you can show me where there’s a private still’):
‘We’re coming near to it now, says I, at a barracks close at hand’...
‘Says I, me brother Bill,
They wouldn’t make him a corporal, so he’s a ... Private, still!’
started off the second part of the evening. Tony followed up with another Liam Weldon song, “Blue tar road”, ‘I am a true born Irishman, a traveller am I’.
Joe (“Anne McPherson”, sailing out from Scotland bound for Montreal), Mary said the “Fiddler of Dooney”, Murt (“My dear old home in the Kerry hills” and his native Brosna town), George (‘Some folks say I’m a dreamer’ from the Isle of Inisfree).
Helen (On Easter Day, you passed my way), Paddy (Willie MacBride), Frank (‘A man in the fields with his horses and plough’). After a couple more recitations from Sean and Frances, Breege sang “The home I left behind”).
When it came around to John again, he sang of ”Beautiful Meath”, Clíona (Tráthnóinín aoibhinn), Noreen (Mountains of Mourne) and Clare, at her turn, sang of Wicklow and Dunlavin Green (‘In the year 1798...’).
The free-for-all go another song from most people before we headed for home, including the Twangman from Eugene, and Frank’s “Happy are we, all together”, "When I first said I loved only you Nora" (Clare).
Thanks to all who came and sang and listened. Hope to see you all at another singing session soon.
‘Oh it was one pleasant evening, all in the month of May
Down by a shady arbour as I carelessly did stray...’
About false young Johnny, cruising the main ocean for honour and for gain, and then wrecked off the coast of Spain or was he? Nah, he wasn’t: ‘Betsy I’m your man’, and they met up on the “Banks of Claudy” again.
Tony followed with “The lambs on the green hills”, with less luck,’ I would be your man, although you are wed to another’. Joe, visiting from Scotland, gave us another unlucky love story, ‘Our young lady a hunting’s gane' ... 'so’s she’s rowled him in her apron’.
Joe’s family passed the parcel (or bundle) on to George, who gave us a great version of “Dear Old Skibbereen”,
‘How well I do remember that bleak December day,
When the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all away;
They set the roof on fire with their yellow demon spleen,
And when it fell, the crash was heard all over Skibbereen.’
There were songs from Helen (‘Along the wild plains of Mayo’), Paddy (rousing version of ‘Keep your hands off Red Haired Mary’), Frank (“Deartháirín Óg mo chroí”: ‘Now I’m alone like the desolate bird of the night), John (“Nancy Spain”), Frances (“A maiden who is forty”), Breege (“Annan Waters”), John (“The road and the miles to Dundee”), Clíona (“Reynardine”), Noreen (“Heave away”).
Clare by special request sang Liam Weldon’s “My love is a well” beautifully.
‘My love is a well, a deep-seated well,
As deep as the bottomless sea
Immersed am I in the well of my love,
Immersed in ecstasy.’
Murt Collins had
‘A young mother stood on Queenstown Dock
With a handkerchief up to her eye’.
And ‘no one to welcome you home’.
Eugene’s guager out of Dublin was looking for a private still (‘Here’s fifty pounds if you can show me where there’s a private still’):
‘We’re coming near to it now, says I, at a barracks close at hand’...
‘Says I, me brother Bill,
They wouldn’t make him a corporal, so he’s a ... Private, still!’
started off the second part of the evening. Tony followed up with another Liam Weldon song, “Blue tar road”, ‘I am a true born Irishman, a traveller am I’.
Joe (“Anne McPherson”, sailing out from Scotland bound for Montreal), Mary said the “Fiddler of Dooney”, Murt (“My dear old home in the Kerry hills” and his native Brosna town), George (‘Some folks say I’m a dreamer’ from the Isle of Inisfree).
Helen (On Easter Day, you passed my way), Paddy (Willie MacBride), Frank (‘A man in the fields with his horses and plough’). After a couple more recitations from Sean and Frances, Breege sang “The home I left behind”).
When it came around to John again, he sang of ”Beautiful Meath”, Clíona (Tráthnóinín aoibhinn), Noreen (Mountains of Mourne) and Clare, at her turn, sang of Wicklow and Dunlavin Green (‘In the year 1798...’).
The free-for-all go another song from most people before we headed for home, including the Twangman from Eugene, and Frank’s “Happy are we, all together”, "When I first said I loved only you Nora" (Clare).
Thanks to all who came and sang and listened. Hope to see you all at another singing session soon.
September 2011
This session spy was away scouting for singing sessions in Europe so the Boyle singers' session details went unrecorded, though we're told, we missed the BEST session yet... as you do.
August 2011 ... Harvest time
Tony made his debut as MC for the night and some of the new faces met at the Arts Festival session in July were welcomed back again.
Gearing up for the winter and don't forget the Sligo Traditional singers weekend at the beginning of October.
Gearing up for the winter and don't forget the Sligo Traditional singers weekend at the beginning of October.
July 28th, 2011: I wanna sing... Boyle Singers host Phil Callery
As part of the Boyle Arts Festival, the Boyle Singers' Session hosted Phil Callery of the Voice Squad on July 28th, 2011.
The evening kicked off with a short, too short, workshop with Phil organising amazing on-the-spot harmonies from the gang who arrived. And what a gang. About 15 were present for the start, then someone turned on a tap somewhere and buckets-full of singers poured through the door! "I wanna sing" .
Names were collected as people arrived, and the list used to organise the solo singing spots in the session which followed. Eugene did a masterful MC job of getting around to every one who wanted to sing. The spotlight was back on Phil a couple of times during the night and he definitely didn't disappoint! On top of that, we all heard over 40 singers sing a huge variety of songs, local, national, international (thanks Katya and the Italian classical musicians over in the corner), old and new. The storytellers didn't stint either and the contributions were lively. There was was a good turn out from our neighbouring singing circles in South Roscommon (... below in Knockcroghery... with Declan Coyne, Paddy Logan and others) and the Sligo Traditional Singers Circle (Joe, Breeda, Michael, Assumpta, Deirdre). Both those groups have singing weekends coming up in October, so keep an eye out for them. There were visitors, frequent to Boyle, but the first time at the Singers Session, from singing clubs as far away as Bray and ... Drumkieran.
The highlights of the night (and early morning) were a couple of new songs, both composed in the neighbourhood, or near neighbourhood: Killykelly (the one with the jacuzzi in it) sung by Joe Corscadden and MacCostello's Una by Helen Grehan. Jackie Boyce sang a song he learned from Phil's singing, years ago. Hughie, Donna, Breege, Mairéad, Frank, George, Clare, Eugene, Gerry, Jimmy, Barry, Derval, Martin, Declan, Seán, and ... many more.
We'd love to see you all back again, whenever you can make it. Or we'll catch you in Knockcroghery, Sligo, Dublin.
The evening kicked off with a short, too short, workshop with Phil organising amazing on-the-spot harmonies from the gang who arrived. And what a gang. About 15 were present for the start, then someone turned on a tap somewhere and buckets-full of singers poured through the door! "I wanna sing" .
Names were collected as people arrived, and the list used to organise the solo singing spots in the session which followed. Eugene did a masterful MC job of getting around to every one who wanted to sing. The spotlight was back on Phil a couple of times during the night and he definitely didn't disappoint! On top of that, we all heard over 40 singers sing a huge variety of songs, local, national, international (thanks Katya and the Italian classical musicians over in the corner), old and new. The storytellers didn't stint either and the contributions were lively. There was was a good turn out from our neighbouring singing circles in South Roscommon (... below in Knockcroghery... with Declan Coyne, Paddy Logan and others) and the Sligo Traditional Singers Circle (Joe, Breeda, Michael, Assumpta, Deirdre). Both those groups have singing weekends coming up in October, so keep an eye out for them. There were visitors, frequent to Boyle, but the first time at the Singers Session, from singing clubs as far away as Bray and ... Drumkieran.
The highlights of the night (and early morning) were a couple of new songs, both composed in the neighbourhood, or near neighbourhood: Killykelly (the one with the jacuzzi in it) sung by Joe Corscadden and MacCostello's Una by Helen Grehan. Jackie Boyce sang a song he learned from Phil's singing, years ago. Hughie, Donna, Breege, Mairéad, Frank, George, Clare, Eugene, Gerry, Jimmy, Barry, Derval, Martin, Declan, Seán, and ... many more.
We'd love to see you all back again, whenever you can make it. Or we'll catch you in Knockcroghery, Sligo, Dublin.
July 16th 2011
A grand night in the middle of the Festival season. Willie Clancy and Tubbercurry just over, the Joe Mooney in Drumshanbo about to begin.
Gearing up for the session with Phil Callery on the 28th July.
Gearing up for the session with Phil Callery on the 28th July.
June 18th 2011
Frank Brennan elected unanimously, despite his protestations, as MC. First definite decision he made, i.e. that he was too busy to sing himself, was ruled out of order by the masses. Elphin was well represented, some irregular regulars welcomed back and songs were plentiful.
Looking forward to the Boyle Arts Festival Special Session, Thursday 28th July, with Phil Callery. Singing workshop 8.30-10pm, in Dodd's Crescent Bar, with Phil Callery. Singers' session, 10 ish, onwards, with songs from the floor and from the guest. Be there early to get your name on the list if you want to sing. Be there early anyway. Free in.
Looking forward to the Boyle Arts Festival Special Session, Thursday 28th July, with Phil Callery. Singing workshop 8.30-10pm, in Dodd's Crescent Bar, with Phil Callery. Singers' session, 10 ish, onwards, with songs from the floor and from the guest. Be there early to get your name on the list if you want to sing. Be there early anyway. Free in.
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