This is a wonderful cover for an exceptional cause. Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' has been recorded by some of Ireland's finest musicians to raise money for Lily-Mae Morrison to get the care she needs. Four year old Lily-Mae Morrison from Claregalway is suffering from Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a rare and extremely aggressive childhood cancer of the nervous system. She is the daughter of professional ballet dancers, Judith Sibley and Leighton Morrison. When she grows up, she wants to be a ballet dancer like her Mummy and Daddy but Neuroblastoma is not playing nicely, it wants to kill her. [...]
Members of a New York Police Department tactical team rescue Haley Rombi, 3, in the Dongon Hills neighborhood of the Staten Island borough of New York, Oct. 30, 2012. (Michael Kirby Smith/The New York Times) I try to avoid sharing two thematic posts in a row. But Halloween has come and gone with nary a fanfare in our town, making it All Saints Day - and though having grown up Jewish, I don't really have a coherent sense of the role of the saint in the everyday life, I do [...]
I had something else planned for this weekend's feature, but even as Massachusetts downgrades the danger, the "perfect storm" barreling towards the East Coast is clearly atop everyone's minds, smothering election news in its wake, and leaving us resigned to yet another reminder that no matter how advanced our civilizations become, our lives are still lived on earth's fragile lifeboat. It's a lesson that we've learned well, here in our tiny rural Massachusetts town. Last October, still reeling from the aftereffects of the massive tornado that slammed through our downtown area and left five [...]
Download: mary-black-columbus-p.mp3
The world and the Sun has worked against this blog in recent times. Apologies if my lack of regular posts is letting anyone looking for new Irish music and news down! In the last number of weeks I've been notified about 5 fantastic videos which you need to check out! A Dark Horse - Take Me Home This is simply gorgeous and brought back lots of memories of being a kid during the World Cup of 1990. http://www.facebook.com/adarkh orsemusic [...]
Widely regarded as one of the most important vocalists of her generation, legendary award winning Irish musician Mary Black returns for her first UK tour in 6 years. Beginning at London's Union Chapel on June 6th, Mary's vocals will be filling venues in Birmingham and Gateshead before the final show at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. "It's been far too long since I've toured the UK and I am delighted that we're getting the opportunity to tour there again. I'm really looking forward to it." [...]
Stream the debut album from Fermanagh folk singer Helena Connolly.
Mary Black: The Dimming Of The Day [ purchase ] I'm cheating a little here, posting a cover which I've handled recently. But I suppose sharing it is a sort of penance, at that. Because although Mary Black's sort of folk music once turned saccharine in my ears, I've recently come around to the Irish siren, even posting a full-fledged feature on her long career at the top of the Irish trad-pop scene over at Cover Lay Down . And now that [...]
This blog has been the blogging media partner of Play Irish which is an initiative by IASCA over the last few months and I've seen a huge spike in my daily views since! It's a super initiative to get Irish artists played regularly on daytime radio! The PLAY IRISH Galway format has changed from Artist of the Week, to ‘Artists of the Month’ with each song played on that day every week in March by Jon Richards on Galway Bay FM at the [...]
As with many of our more folk-oriented Covered In Folk subjects, I discovered the work of Dougie MacLean through two primary sources: through my father, who handed me one of his albums over a decade ago, and through label-watching, after discovering the same poignant song twice over, in separate female voices, and realizing that neither of them had written it. The song in question is Caledonia , the Latin name for Scotland, and as its matronymic title implies, though it treats its subject as an anthropomorphised object of desire, its lyrics truly [...]
Twenty years ago this fall my wife-to-be and I broke into a deserted chapel at our college to sit by the piano and make this song our own, staking our claim for the future and for each other through natural harmony and a shared sense of adventure. And now, if we have a song, it is this: a traditional English ballad which we knew before we met, that jumped out at us from the page that sunny afternoon, and, in doing so, guided us to forge ourselves as something more than the sum of our parts. [...]
Quiff that hair and shine up those dancing shoes, Ireland's own queen of Rock & Roll is home again. Even though she is loaded with the spoils of commercial success, critical praise and international stardom, Imelda May still retains that which brought her this far in the first place – style, charisma and bucket-loads of talent. State catches the last date of her sold-out, four night stint in Dublin's grand old Olympia. It's the last show of a hectic year of touring and there's a party atmosphere inside the Dame St. venue, one of homecoming celebration and proud admiration. There [...]
As folk critic Scott Alarik notes in his seminal 2004 essay compilation Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground , though the original American folk revival presented a plentiful mix of both female and male voices and songwriters, a quick "where are they now" look at the last few generations of folk artists reveals numerous women who went on to folkpop stardom - take, for example, eighties Fast Folk movement graduates Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin - with few male counterparts. In their stead, we find a set of male voices from that era [...]
The Waterboys: Why Look At the Moon [ purchase ] Mary Black: Columbus [ purchase ] We're nearing Last Call at the Star Maker Machine Pub - I offer up two more raised glasses of mayhem and melody to help close out this festive St. Patrick's Day week! Mayhem comes in the form of The Waterboys - I was not familiar with them until I bought the Sweet Relief tribute, which [...]
This is my official Columbus Day song! MP3 File yousendit
The entrance to Long Kesh prison We only made it to one play at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival and what a play it was. Chronicles of Long Kesh at the Assembly Hall told the story of the prison situated outside Belfast that was variously known as Long Kesh, the Maze and the H Blocks. The prison opened as HM Prison Maze in 1971 and housed thousands of paramilitary prisoners before its eventual closure in 2000. This two-hour play could have been heavy going for its midday audience, but it managed to blend a hearthy dose [...]
Maura O'Connell's unparalleled vocal power is beautifully displayed in her impressive new album. Naked With Friends is the Irish singer's humorous way of describing this very serious and poignant work of vocal art. Determined to show that "just a singer" can possess as much talent as any musician, O'Connell recorded this collection of a cappella performances with the help of singers Kate Rusby, Dolly Parton, The Settlers Connection, Jerry Douglas, Crooked Still's Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Dugas of The Duhks, Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Clannad's Moya Brennan, Mary Black, Alison Krauss, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Paul Brady, Liam Bradley, [...]
Though I consider myself a folk blogger first and foremost, as our masthead notes, coversong has its own appeal, both as kitsch and culture. And I make no apologies for the focus, nor do I regret the readership it brings. After all, even if just a few of you get hooked on a new song or artist each week, we all win in the process. Of course, it's worth noting that, as a coverblogger, I'm somewhat of an anomaly. The community of coverbloggers is a small one, and it tends [...]
Joni Mitchell 's early influence on her peers is part of the mythos of her era, and their support a major factor in her future success; it's telling that David Crosby, Fairport Convention, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Buffy St. Marie, and Judy Collins all thought enough of Joni's songwriting to cover her work long before she won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance in 1970 - or indeed, in many cases, before she had a chance to record those songs herself. But though Joni Mitchell's emergence is often lumped in with the transformation of [...]
I have a strong memory of being halfway up the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Hill, the sun setting, the stage small in the distance, trying to figure out what people see in Richard Thompson . The man was clearly a legend, and a draw indeed; the hill was as full as I've seen it. But that voice, and the signature solo electric guitar, echoed off the hills like a sour note in my ears. I wandered off to put the kids in their bunks, and tucked Thompson away in my mind for [...]
Swear I'm Not Paul
Cover Lay Down
Keep the Coffee Coming
2 U I Bestow![Time Is A Thief - Eyes [Official Music Video]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/m1S0cIEHxpM_130.jpg)
Band Weblogs
Star Maker Machine
State Magazine
A Town Full of Losers
Muruch
Old Photos of Football Fans from 1900–1940
Song Diary / The Dig – Without Your Love
R.F.T.W.E. pt.2
DANCE BITCH DANCE: disclosure - when a fire starts to burn
