A customer asked me today what was a the "best" Irish ballad; we couldn't really help them, after all it's really a matter of opinion! but we did enjoy a productive half-hour of naming our favourites.
Some opted for the obscure (
instant kudus in Irish traditional circles if you can name some little known piece only sung between two parishes in the Wesht and even then only on a Tuesday and if you see a brown bull) while some opted for the old classics
We came up with the following list:
Fields of Athenry (comes under the heading of Guilty Pleasure)
Kevin Barry (top of the Rebel Songs Category)
Boulavogue (next most popular)
A Nation once Again (third popular rebel song)
Gortnamorna (representing the Music Hall Ballad)
Streets of New York (Modern Irish Ballad)
I know my Love (Catchiest Ballad)
Connemara Cradle Song (Sweetest ballad)
A Bunch of Thyme (most coyly suggextive ballad)
Feel free to add your own!
Of course there is a certain sameness to Irish Ballds, particualrly those of a certain ilk. If you ever want to write the classic Irish folk song, remember the following rules
- Bloody English (AKA the Auld Enemy, The Redcoats or the Yoemen) are to blame for starting it, whatever the aprticular "it" is this time
- Mention a rotten Landlord preferably one that threw you out into the snow, barefoot and pregnant, with four starving childer and your dying mother.
- Add in a hint of sex - either the landlord's son, a redcoat or the boy in the next parish. The former will ahve deserted the herione and the latter she regrets leaving behind.
- rebel against something, traditionally some combination of the above
- set it all to a lamenting air except the chorus which shoul be rousing and sound like you're exhorting your listener to murder!
have fun!
