The Star Of The County Down

 "Star of the County Down" is an Irish ballad set near Banbridge in County Down, in Northern Ireland. The words are by Cathal MacGarvey (1866–1927) from Ramelton, County Donegal. The tune is traditional, and may be known as "Dives and Lazarus" or (as a hymn tune) "Kingsfold".

The melody was also used in an Irish folk song called "My Love Nell". The lyrics of "My Love Nell" tell the story of a young man who courts a girl but loses her when she emigrates to America. The only real similarity with "Star of the County Down" is that Nell too comes from County Down. This may have inspired MacGarvey to place the heroine of his new song in Down as well. MacGarvey was from Donegal.

"The Star of the County Down" uses a tight rhyme scheme. Each stanza is a double quatrain, and the first and third lines of each quatrain have an internal rhyme on the second and fourth feet: [aa]b[cc]b. The refrain is a single quatrain with the same rhyming pattern.

The song is sung from the point of view of a young man who chances to meet a charming lady by the name of Rose (or Rosie) McCann, referred to as the "star of the County Down". From a brief encounter the writer's infatuation grows until, by the end of the ballad, he imagines himself marrying the girl. 

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics: 

Near Banbridge town, in the County Down
One morning last July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by
She looked so sweet from her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut brown hair
Such a winsome elf, I'm ashamed of myself
For the see of her standing there

From Bantry Bay of the Derry's Quay
From Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down

As she onward sped, sure I scratched my head
And I looked with a feelin' rare
And I says, says I, to a passer-by
"Who's the maid with the nut brown hair?"
Well he looked at me and he said to me
"That's the gem of Ireland's crown
Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann
She's the star of the County Down"

From Bantry Bay of the Derry's Quay
From Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down

She had soft brown eyes with a look so shy
And a smile like the rose in June
And she sang so sweet, what a lovely treat
As she lilted an Irish tune
At the Lammas dance, I was in a trance
As she whirled with the lads of the town
And my heart did race just to see the face
Of the star of the County Down

From Bantry Bay of the Derry's Quay
From Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down

At the Harvest Fair she'll be surely there
So I'll dress in my Sunday clothes
With my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked right
For a smile from my nut brown rose
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
'Til my plough was a rust colour brown
And a smiling bride by my own fireside
Sits the star of the County Down

From Bantry Bay of the Derry's Quay
From Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down

From Bantry Bay of the Derry's Quay
From Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the fair colleen
That I met in the County Down

The Snowy-Breasted Pearl

The Snowy-Breasted Pearl, these words are translated from the Irish by George Petrie (who wrote Ancient Music of Ireland (1855). The tune appears in A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music by Edward Bunting (1796). It is there credited to Turlough O’Carolan.

Some would say that the person writing/thinking/singing these words, in today’s world, would be very unusual, but when you think of them in the context of the time, they are beautiful. 

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:
There's a colleen fair as May
For a year and for a day
I have sought by every way
Her heart to gain
There's no art of tongue or eye
Fond youths with maidens try
But I've tried with ceaseless sigh
Yet tried in vain

If to France or far off Spain
She crossed the wat'ry main
To see her face again the seas I'd brave
And if it's heaven's decree
That mine she'll never be
May the Son of Mary me in mercy save

But a kiss with welcome bland
And the touch of thy fair hand
Are all that I demand
Would'st thou not spurn
For if not mine, dear girl
My snowy breasted pearl
May I never from the fair
With life return

Down By The Salley Gardens

 "Down by the Salley Gardens" (Irish: Gort na Saileán) is a poem by William Butler Yeats published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889.

Yeats indicated in a note that it was "an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself." The "old song" may have been the ballad The Rambling Boys of Pleasure which contains the following verse:

"Down by yon flowery garden my love and I we first did meet.

I took her in my arms and to her I gave kisses sweet

She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from the tree.

But I being young and foolish, with my darling did not agree."

The similarity to the first verse of the Yeats version is unmistakable and would suggest that this was indeed the song Yeats remembered the old woman singing. The rest of the song, however, is quite different.

Yeats's original title, "An Old Song Re-Sung", reflected his debt to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure. It first appeared under its present title when it was reprinted in Poems in 1895.

It has been suggested that the location of the "Salley Gardens" was on the banks of the river at Ballysadare near Sligo where the residents cultivated trees to provide roof thatching materials. "Salley" or "sally" is a form of the Standard English word "sallow", i.e., a tree of the genus Salix. It is close in sound to the Irish word saileach, meaning willow.

The verse was subsequently set to music by Herbert Hughes to the traditional air The Moorlough Shore (also known as "The Maids of Mourne Shore") in 1909. In the 1920s composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) set the text to her own music. The composer John Ireland (1879–1962) set the words to an original melody in his song cycle Songs Sacred and Profane, written in 1929–31. There is also a vocal setting by the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, which was published in 1938. Benjamin Britten published a setting of the poem in 1943, using the tune Hughes collected. In 1988, the American composer John Corigliano wrote and published his setting with the G. Schirmer Inc. publishing company.

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics: 

Down by the Salley gardens, my love and I did meet
She passed the Salley gardens with little snow-white feet
She bid me take life easy, as the leaves grow on the trees
But I, being young and foolish, with her I did not agree

In a field by the river, my love and I did stand
And on my leaning shoulder she placed her snow-white hand
She bid me take love easy, as the grass grows on the weirs
But I was young and foolish and now I am full of tears

Down by the Salley gardens, my love and I did meet
And she passed the Salley gardens with little snow-white feet
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs
But I was young and foolish and now I am full of tears

Cockles and Mussels / Molly Malone

"Molly Malone" (also known as "Cockles and Mussels" or "In Dublin's Fair City") is a popular song set in Dublin, Ireland, which has become its unofficial anthem.

A statue representing Molly Malone was unveiled on Grafton Street by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ben Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations, when 13 June was declared to be Molly Malone Day. In July 2014, the statue was relocated to Suffolk Street, in front of the Tourist Information Office, to make way for Luas track-laying work at the old location.

The song tells the fictional tale of a fishwife who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin and died young, of a fever. In the late 20th century, a legend grew up that there was a historical Molly, who lived in the 17th century. She is typically represented as a hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night. In contrast, she has also been portrayed as one of the few chaste female street hawkers of her day.

There is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman in the 17th century or any other time. The name "Molly" originated as a familiar version of the names Mary and Margaret. Many such "Molly" Malones were born in Dublin over the centuries, but no evidence connects any of them to the events in the song. Nevertheless, the Dublin Millennium Commission in 1988 endorsed claims made for a Mary Malone who died on 13 June 1699, and proclaimed 13 June to be "Molly Malone Day".

The song is not recorded earlier than 1876, when it was published in Boston, Massachusetts. Its placement in the section of the book titled "Songs from English and German Universities" suggests an Irish origin. It was also published by Francis Brothers and Day in London in 1884 as a work written and composed by James Yorkston, of Edinburgh, with music arranged by Edmund Forman. The London edition states that it was reprinted by permission of Kohler and Son of Edinburgh, implying that the first edition was in Scotland, but no copies of it have been found. According to Siobhán Marie Kilfeather, the song is from the music hall style of the period, and one cannot wholly dismiss the possibility that it is "based on an older folk song", but "neither melody nor words bear any relationship to the Irish tradition of street ballads". She calls the story of the historical Molly "nonsense". The song is in a familiar tragicomic mode that was then popular and was probably influenced by earlier songs with a similar theme, such as Percy Montrose's "Oh My Darling, Clementine", which was written in about 1880.

A variant, "Cockles and Mussels", with some different lyrics, appeared in Students' Songs: Comprising the Newest and Most Popular College Songs As Now Sung at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, ... Union, Etc in 1884.

A copy of Apollo's Medley, dating from around 1790, published in Doncaster and rediscovered in 2010, contains a song referring to "Sweet Molly Malone" on page 78 that ends with the line "Och! I'll roar and I'll groan, My sweet Molly Malone, Till I'm bone of your bone, And asleep in your bed." Other than this name and the fact that she lives in Howth, near Dublin, this song bears no resemblance to Molly Malone. The song was later reprinted in the collection The Shamrock: A Collection of Irish Songs (1831) and was published in The Edinburgh Literary Journal that year with the title "Molly Malone".

Some elements of the song appear in several earlier songs. A character named Molly Malone appears in at least two other songs. The song "Widow Malone," published as early as 1809, refers to the title character alternately as "Molly Malone," "Mary Malone" and "sweet mistress Malone". An American song, "Meet Me Miss Molly Malone", was published as early as 1840. The song "Pat Corney's Account of Himself", published as early as 1826, begins, "Now it's show me that city where the girls are so pretty" and ends, "Crying oysters, and cockles, and Mussels for sale." During the 19th century, the expression "Dublin's fair city" was used regularly in reference to Dublin, and the phrase "alive, alive O" is known to have been shouted by street vendors selling oysters, mussels, fish and eels.  

Molly is commemorated in a statue commissioned by Jurys Hotel Group and designed by Jeanne Rynhart, erected to celebrate the city's first millennium in 1988. Originally placed at the bottom of Grafton Street in Dublin, this statue is known colloquially as "The Tart with the Cart" or "The Trollop With The Scallop(s)". The statue portrays Molly as a busty young woman in 17th-century dress. Her low-cut dress and large breasts were justified on the grounds that as "women breastfed publicly in Molly's time, breasts were popped out all over the place."

The statue was later removed and kept in storage to make way for the new Luas tracks. In July 2014, it was placed outside the Dublin Tourist Office on Suffolk Street. 

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

In Dublin's fair city,

Where the girls are so pretty,

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,

As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,

Through streets broad and narrow,

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

"Alive, alive, oh,

Alive, alive, oh,"

Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".

She was a fishmonger

But sure 'twas no wonder

For so were her father and mother before

And they each wheel'd their barrow

Through streets broad and narrow

Crying "Cockles and mussels alive, alive oh!"

(chorus)

She died of a fever,

And no one could save her,

And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.

But her ghost wheels her barrow,

Through streets broad and narrow,

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

(chorus) ×2 

Anti-Confederation Song

"The Anti-Confederation Song." This folksong originated around the time of the heated 1869 election in which Newfoundland was to decide whether or not to join the newly formed Dominion of Canada.

"The Anti-Confederation Song." This folksong originated around the time of the heated 1869 election in which Newfoundland was to decide whether or not to join the newly formed Dominion of Canada. Pro-Confederationists argued the advantages of lower prices for goods; Anti-Confederationists countered with the prospect of high taxes on fishermen's boats and gear and played on Newfoundlanders' pride in being Britain's oldest overseas colony.

The traditional tune is possibly a variant of the widespread "Villikins and His Dinah." The song was published first by Gerald S. Doyle in Old-Time Songs and Poetry of Newfoundland (St. John's 1940), and is included in the Fowke-Johnston Folk Songs of Canada (Waterloo 1954) and the Fowke-Mills Singing Our History (Toronto 1984). Alan Mills recorded it (Folk 3000).

The song's lyrics express pride for the island and convey a sense of distrust in the proposed terms of union.

To download the easy alphanotes and chords, look here. Enjoy! 

Lyrics: 

Ye brave Newfoundlanders who plough the salt sea,

With hearts like the eagle so bold and so free,

The time is at hand when we'll have to say

If Confederation will carry the day.

 

Men, hurrah for our own native Isle, Newfoundland,

Not a stranger shall hold one inch of its strand;

Her face turns to Britain, her back to the Gulf,

Come near at your peril, Canadian Wolf!

 

Cheap tea and molasses they say they will give,

All taxes taken off that the poor man may live;

Cheap nails and cheap lumber, our coffins to make,

And homespun to mend our old clothes when they break.

 

If they take off all taxes, how then will they meet

The heavy expenses on army and fleet?

Just give them the chance to get into the scrap,

They'll show you the trick with pen, ink and red tape.

 

Would you barter the right that your fathers have won?

Your freedom transmitted from father to son?

For a few thousand dollars Canadian gold

Don't let it be said that our birthright was sold.

Ophelia Letter Blow 'way

Ophelia Letter Blow 'way song dates back in 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago). This song is describing as life is like a letter that wind can blow away, but the person whose life has been lost is not dead but blown away to some other place, like Arima.

Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "In 'Ophelia letter' we have a beautiful metaphor of a woman losing her husband or spouse and the sheer impossibility of saying just where the dead man is."

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

 Lyrics: 

Ophelia letter blow way, It blow 'way in Arima (repeat).

It blow way in Arima, It blow' way in Arima (repeat). Oh!

 

Ophelia where your letter? It blow 'way in Arima (repeat).

It blow 'way in Arima, It blow' way in Arima (repeat). Oh! .

Ophelia where your letter? It blow 'way in Castara (repeat).

It blow 'way in Arima, It blow' way in Castara (repeat).

Hill And Gully Rider

 "Hill an gully rider" is a call and response work song from Jamaica which used to be sung by workmen constructing new roads. In its topical way it refers to the uneven and hazardous terrain through which the new road had to be cut. The response can be sung in unison or in two part harmony. 

Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music.

Mento is often confused with calypso, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as calypso, kalypso and mento calypso; mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques. As in Calypso, Mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Sexual innuendos are also common. 

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy! 

Lyrics

Refrain
Hill and gully rider, Hill and gully. (repeat)

1. Took my horse and come down, Hill and gully,
But my horse done tumble down, Hill and gully.
And the nighttime come a-tumblin’ down, Hill and gully.

2. Oh the moon shone bright down, Hill and gully,
Ain’t no place to hide in down…
An’ a zombie come a ridin’ down… Refrain

3. Oh, my knees they shake down…
An’ my heart starts quakin’ down…
An’ I run ’til daylight breakin’ down… Refrain

4. That’s the last I set down…
Pray the Lord don’ let me down…
Ain’t nobody goin’ to get me down… Refrain

Fan Me Solja Man

 Fan Me Solja Man is from Jamaica. It's about a young wife, whose husband has gone to war. This young wife  loses her good reputation, although she continues to be well dressed, because she is carousing with and accepting the gifts of (ill reputed) soldiers. 

Around 1945 Lion (Hubert Charles) wrote and recorded "Fan Me, Saga Boys." A "saga boy" was "a lower-class male whose garb and behavior were copied from American zoot-suitrers of the 1940s.... The song utilizes images of World War II to metaphorically describe sexual intercourse.... 'Fan Me Soldier Man, Fan Me' is probably based upon the same lavway as this song" (Donald R. Hill, "Calypso Calaloo" (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 264; The Lion with Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos, "Fan Me Saga Boy", Guild 125A, 1945?)). It seems unlikely that the source for "Fan Mi Solja Man" is a Trinidad lavway (calypso road march). Lion's chorus is "Fan me, saga boys, fan me / I said, Oh! fan me, saga boys, fan me / Long live our gracious king / But I kiss me saga boy Christmas morning." The chorus from Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory is "Fan me, soldier man, fan me / Fan me, soldier man, fan me/ Fan me, soldier man, fan me oh! / Gal, you character gone.' 

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Fan me solja man, fan me,
Fan me solja man. fan me,
Fan me solja man, fan me, oh !

Gal, yuh character gawn.

Wey de use yuh dah shawl up, shawl up, (3x)
Gal yuh character gawn.

Wey de use dah lace-up stays-up, (3x)

Gal, yuh character gawn.

Sake a Coolie-man bangle, (3x)

Gal yuh character gawn.

Fan me solja man, fan me,
Fan me solja man, fan me,
Fan me solja man, fan me, oh,

Gal yuh character gawn.

Cudelia Brown

Cudelia Brown  (also known as "Cordelia Brown") is a Jamaican folk song from a tradition of "Mento Music".

 "Mento Music is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music...

Mento is often confused with calypso, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms...

Mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on poverty and other social issues. Sexual innuendos are also common. Mento was strongly influenced by calypso, the musical traditions of the Kumina religion and Cuban music. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently referred to as calypso, kalypso and mento calypso; mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques.

To download the easy alphanotes and chords sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics: 

O Cudelia Brown,
Wha mek yu head so red? (Yu head so red!)
O Cudelia Brown,
Wha mek yu head so red? (Yu head so red!)
Yu si' dung eena di sunshine wit' nut'n 'pon yu head,
O Cudelia Brown,
Wha mek yu head so red? (Yu head so red!)

On a moonshine night, on a moonshine night,
I met Missa Ivan, an' Missa Ivan tol' me,
Sey dat 'im gi Neita di drop, Jamaica flop, and di moonshine drop,
Ee-hee-aw, haw; Ee-hee-aw, haw; Ee-hee-aw, haw.