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Le guth amháin - Unaccompanied Singing From The Irish Tradition

Galway, 17.03.22

Le guth amháin - 'with one voice'.

An hour of Sean-nós, lilting, funeral keens, migrant working ballads, rebel songs, songs of the Irish travelling community, Dublin street songs and other tunes from the Irish tradition, without instrumental accompaniment.

“If you're asked to sing a song in a country house, you'll make sure or try and make sure that nobody sees you while you're singing it - don't you see anybody - you turn your back.  Not through disrespect, but out of shyness - I don't know how you call it - and if you have a cap on, you pull it over your eyes, so you won't see or hear or listen to anybody else, except for the song you're singing… …You’ll find the man what they call dhorais dúnta (closed door) in the back door, what they call the cúinneach; the man who goes into the corner and sings a song, the song is heard but he’s not seen… …You'll hear the song, but you don't know where it's coming from half the time.  You know, they don't stand up or face an audience at all.” - Joe Heaney in conversation with Ewan McColl

Image Credit: “The Photographic Collection, N120.29.00134” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Collection: St Paddy's Day

Tracklist

  • Seamus Ennis 
    The Farmer's Cursed Wife
  • Joe Heaney
    Explains The Meaning Of Sean-Nós
  • Thomas Moran
    The Cruel Mother (Fragment)
  • Elizabeth Cronin
    Siúil A Rún (Go My Love)
  • John Reilly Jr 
    The Jolly Tinker
  • Molly Dineen
    Interview With An Irish Tunneller At Angel Tube Station, London
  • The Johnstons 
    The Tunnel Tigers
  • Luke Kelly 
    The Hot Asphalt
  • Margaret Barry 
    I Sang Through The Fairs
  • Joe Heaney 
    Wife Of The Bold Tenant Farmer
  • Elizabeth Cronin
    Interview With Alan Lomax About Singing
  • Mrs Sarah Makem 
    I Courted A Wee Girl
  • Rita And Sarah Keane
    A Stór Mo Chroí (Treasure Of My Heart)
  • Aodhán
    The Custom Of Keening At Irish Funerals
  • Kitty Gallagher 
    Keen For A Dead Child
  • Paddy Tunney 
    The Old Man Rocking The Cradle
  • Ewan MacColl, Dominic Behan 
    Home, Family, Neighbors, Streets & Oaths
  • Brendan Behan 
    The Zoological Gardens
  • Margaret Barry, Michael Gorman 
    The Flower Of Sweet Strabane
  • Christy Moore 
    James Connolly
  • Dainí Maidchi Ó Súilleabháin
    John Twiss (Live From St. Patrick's Cathedral)
  • Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin
    A Ógánaigh An Chúil Chraobhaigh (The Unquiet Grave)
  • Liam Weldon 
    The Blue Tar Road
  • Luke Cheevers
    Ulysses (Introduction)
  • Mary Doran 
    When I Was In Horseback
  • Ronnie Drew 
    The Dunes