County Kerry to Kerry Park

Track 1.  So Early in the Spring/Red Haired Boy

The album kicks off with a verse of a capella in the Irish sean-nos tradition then the full band kicks in.  This is a Scottish song modeled after the version by Judy Collins on her 5th Album, right down to what she described as the “Dancing Guitars” in her memoir.  The song morphs into the reel “Red Haired Boy”.

Jim- vocals, 6-string guitar
Jon- 12-string guitar
Pete- mandolin, fiddle
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

Track 2.  St. Peter’s Lament

Jon wrote this one, an ode to the New England fisher-people and the struggles they are experiencing complying with regulations related to overfishing and global warming.  St. Peter is the patron saint of fishermen and honored in festivals where the ships are blessed to protect them from harm.

Jon- vocals, 12-string guitar
Jim- vocals, baritone banjo
Pete- mandolin
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

Track 3. The Humours of Ennistymon/Old as the Hills

Pete pulled these jigs out in the middle of the recording sessions and the band was all in.  Dale kicks up the intensity moving from bodhran to drum kit as we move into Old as the Hills.

Pete- fiddle
Jim- bouzouki
Jon- guitar
Chetz- bass
Dale- bodhran, drums

Track 4. Big Old City

This tune was written by Jim as a glimpse into family lore.  In the first verse Jim’s grandfather and his twin brother arrive in America from County Kerry and the twin becomes engaged to young Mary Scanlon.  When her fiancé dies Mary travels to Chicago for the wake where she meets her beloved’s identical twin- spoiler alert!

The second verse takes Jim’s dad and his brother to New York City where they bellhop at the Empire Hotel in Columbus Circle.  The song ends with the brothers are off to Europe to take part in the Normandy invasion and ends with a shipboard carol on Christmas eve.  We love singing this song in Holyoke MA on St. Patrick’s Day with ancestors of the cast in the audience.

Jim- vocals, guitar
Jon- vocals, 12-string guitar
Pete- mandolin
Chetz- bass, vocals
Dale- drums

5. Coal Tattoo

This song was written by the great country songwriter Billy Ed Wheeler.  This song has been part of the O’Connor and Lees repertoire for decades and we never tire of playing it.

Jon- vocals, 6-string guitar
Jim- vocals, banjo
Pete- fiddle
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

6. Geese in the Bog/Pipe on the Hod

Here are a couple of traditional jigs, very popular with Irish session players. Pete tells us a “hod” is a sack for carrying bricks or in this case, a fireplace mantle.

Pete- fiddle
Jim- mandolin
Jon- 6-string guitar
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

7.  Billy in the Lowlands

Jim’s dad Bill O’Connor was a master Irish storyteller, well known in Western Mass for is tales of growing up Irish in the tenements of Holyoke MA.  This song takes young Billy on a walk to the “flats” of Holyoke to bring his father dinner. Along the way several stories are incorporated…

Jim- vocals, bouzouki
Jon- 6-string guitar
Pete- mandolin
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

8.  Sam Adams/Shores of Lake Cochituate

Sometimes a new instrument seems to come with a song buried inside.  These tunes were written by Jim on a mandolin made in Austin TX, of spruce and mesquite, and called Sam Adams. Lake Cochituate is in Natick, MA where Jim lives. Lovers of the Boston Red Sox may remember huddling with a transistor radio, listening to the Sox, brought to you by Carling Black Label, “brewed on the shores of Lake Cochituate”.

Jim- mandolin
Jon- 6-string guitar
Pete- bouzouki
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

9.  Black and Tans

Jon sings this traditional rebel tune from the Clancy Brother’s catalog about the Black and Tans, a British Army platoon famous for their brutality.

Jon- vocals, 6-string guitar
Jim- vocals, 6-string guitar
Pete- fiddle
Chetz- vocals, bass
Dale- drums

10.  McCall’s March

A beautiful tune by Chetz- cinematic in scope!  Jim’s son Evan, then in high school, arranged and played the 3-part flute chorus.

Chetz- bass
Jim- bouzouki
Jon- 12-string guitar
Dale- drums
Pete- fiddle
Evan- flute

11. Lose Your Troubles

Here is another song that dates to the O’Connor and Lees repertoire.  Jon wrote this song, performed in a bluegrass, Americana style.

Jon- vocals, 6-string guitar
Jim- vocals, 5-string banjo
Pete- fiddle
Chetz- bass
Dale- drums

12.  The Ballad of Mike Moylan

Jim wrote this song, a response to the trad staple, “All Things are Quite Silent” told from the perspective of the lad pressed into service by the “press gang” rather than the lass left behind. Mike Moylan is a friend of the band, years ago he submitted this song to his Irish lit class as his own and received an A for it!

Jim- vocals and 6-string guitar

13.  The Donkey Pilgrim

Chetz wrote this jig with a nod to the book of the same title, “Last if the Donkey Pilgrims” a great memoir of a trip around Ireland with cart and donkey, by author and friend Kevin O’Hara.

Jim- mandolin and 4-strting banjo
Pete- mandolin
Jon- 5-string guitar
Chetz- bass
Dale- bodhran