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Sleeve Notes
Liam, who was supposed to write these lines couldn't leave the girls alone long enough even to be found to do the job. He's out somewhere in the west of Ireland in search of more songs and girls. Tommy Makem was last seen in a yellow convertible with a girl, heading towards Dublin. Tommy told me once that he would never marry. He said, "Why make one woman unhappy when there are thousands I can make happy?" If you'll notice, in the first song, Bold O'Donahue, the fellow comes from Keady. Well, that of course is where Tommy Makem comes from, and now that Tommy has been home for a few weeks, the reason for the yellow convertible is to make a quick getaway from all the broken hearts in Keady.
The fine balladeer Ewan MacColl is also a splendid songwriter. He wrote the next number, Shoals of Herring for a BBC programme on fishing and fishermen. I've never been a fisherman, but this song gives me the feeling of what it must be like out there on the deep.
It's something of a surprise to hear a sailor's song called Holy Ground. Now, I don't know exactly what the Holy Ground was, but I've been told it was a "place" in Cork City where the sailors went when they came ashore. Keep that in mind and the song makes a lot of sense.
Singin' Bird is a love song, except that it's about a bird. Some men love a dog, a horse, a car, a country, a woman, a mountain, a pub or an idea, so it's not so strange, really, that a man can sing about the love of a singing bird. If you want to substitute the bird for any or all of the above, you're welcome; but the song is, in itself, a beautiful thing.
Tom Clancy
