Albums

Traditional.
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals

The story of Michael Considine, who emigrated to the United States around 1870. Spancilhill is a place which, today, is little more than a crossroads four miles from Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, but was once was the site of one of the largest horse fairs in the British Isles. Unlike this popularized version of the song, the original lyrics told of Michael's Sweetheart as 'Mack the ranger's daughter', Mary MacNamara. Though it was his intention to bring Mary over to the new world to wed her, he never manged to save enough money. Plagued by ill health and knowing that he had little time left to live, Michael wrote the song and sent it back to his family in Ireland shortly before his death in 1873. Remaining faithful to his memory, Mary never married.

Traditional.
Performed by:
Stacy Hilton - Lead Vocals
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals
Dan Lindenberger - Vocals
Christina Zaenker - Cello

A delightful but obscure ballad that seems to defy any of my attempts to find out more about it. This was a doubly satisfying track to include on Fields of the North, as it marked my first opportunity to record both with the other two-thirds of Polaris Rising (Dan Lindenberger and Stacy Hilton, aka Abraham of Safed and Moirne within the SCA) and Christina Zaenker, whose stellar work with the cello I've long admired.

Traditional
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals

Often it seems that even the most upbeat of songs that come out of the British Isles have a certain measure of sad tidings buried in their subject. I've long been fond of the various jolly, raucus renditions that I've heard done of this song, yet it has only been recently that I've thought to consider it good material for the laments and ballads more common in my usual fare.

Music and Words © 1994 Catherine Faber. Used with permission.
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Bodhran, Vocals

A roleplaying-derived song of Cat's that I chanced to learn a number of years ago, little suspecting that it would be adopted as a near personal anthem to several groups of friends with wolf-themed households across Canada and the USA - Clan Nightwolf, The Wolfpack, and the Wolfpack Southpaws being foremost among them. For those listeners distant from the convention circuit or otherwise unfamiliar with her songwriting, I heartily recommend checking out more of her work at Echo's Children.

Words and music © 2003 Michael Kelly.
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals
Christina Zaenker - Cello

This is the first half of one of the tales of Ogun, one of the Loa of African mythology and religion. The Loa are similar in many ways to gods or saints, Ogun being the patron saint of fire, blacksmithing, and (indirectly) war. The tale holds several parallels with Greek myths. Ogun himself is a Promethean figure, and shares certain traits with Hephaestus and Demeter, particularly in the consequences of his displeasure. Many thanks to Little John and his household for the inspiration to put the tale to verse and music, and for info about Ogun and the other Loa.

Traditional.
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Bodhran, Vocals

Originally a scathing criticism of the Jacobites in particular, this later and more popular version of the song has been adapted into a more general criticism on the dangers of romanticising war. In 1689, James VII of Scotland (James II of England) was deposed from the throne of England for his unpopular political stances. During the sixty ears that followed, there were five attempts to restore James and his descendants to the throne. Three of these uprisings were major, and following the last of these in 1745, the Jacobite movement and its leaders never fully recovered.

Traditional.
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals

This song refers to the Easter Uprising of 1916, when a handful of ill equipped Irish fighting men struck out against the oppression and occupation of the British Empire. Given the odds, the outcome was predictably disastrous in terms of their losses. Large parts of the city of Dublin, often hailed as one of the fairest cities in Europe, were reduced to smouldering rubble. However, the bravery of those who fought in protest inspired many others to fight for the freedom of the nation.

Music ©1997 Catherine Faber
Under the Gripping Beast lyrics © 1997 Catherine Faber
Into the Fire lyrics © Michelle Dockrey. Used with permission.
Performed by:
Michelle Dockrey - Vocals
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals
Christina Zaenker - Cello

A long awaited duet, combining the haunting original by Cat Faber, and its answer by Michelle Dockrey. I had known and loved both of these songs already, but when I first heared Michelle and her band, Escape Key, perform live three years ago, I knew that this collaboration was something that I wanted to see happen. As one who often finds finding inspiration for writing to be a challenge, I found these songs about musicians that risk their souls for love and inspiration particularly evocative. There might come a day that singing certain lines will no longer give me the shivers, but I don't imagine that it will be any time soon.

Music and lyrics © Michael Kelly
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals

The oldest of my original works, it remains my favourite. A comment on the sometimes difficult realities of fame, and both the hard truth that there will always be many that can never look past one's title or appearnce to know the true person beneath, and, more hearteningly, that there are a precious few who always will. On a lighter note, I owe this song's creation in large part to a Robin Hood themed event that I wanted to attend, and to my knowing not a single Robin Hood song at the time.

Music and Lyrics ©Hughie Jones - Wee Huge Publications
Used with Permission
Performed by:

Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals
Cassandra Chowdhury - Vocals
Christina Zaenker - Cello

This song tells the story of the shipwreck of the SS Ellan Vannin on December the third, in 1909. Captained by James Teare of Douglas, a seaman of 18 years experience, the ship set out in what began as untroubled waters but steadily grew into storm force 11 winds and 20-foot waves. Of the twenty-one crew and fifteen passengers, none survived the wreck. This version of the song is one that I learned from a father/daughter fiddler and flutist duo a number of years back, and is short by a verse from the full version penned by Hughie Jones of Spinners fame.

Music and Lyrics © 2003 Michael Kelly
Performed by:
Michael Kelly - Guitar, Vocals

A song of homecoming written when I was just beginning my trek back to Vancouver, BC after much time spent abroad in far-flung corners of the continent. I've had several folks suggest that it would make a good anthem for Antir. While I don't have any expectation of anyone official pushing the idea, I would like to dedicate it to all those who find themselves distant for any length of time from the Northwest. Wonderfully green in the summer but gloomy and rainy through most of the winter, I never imagined that I would miss it so much until I had occasion to be away from it for a few months.

The oldest copy of this tune is Gilderoy, which appears in Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs [Tea Table Miscellany] by Alexander Stuart (c 1726). Gilderoy also appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge the Melancholy III (1707), although that version is less recognizable as this tune. The tune has been used for numerous songs, including Divers and Lazarus, The Murder of Maria Martin, and Claudy Banks. In addition, the tune is used for several English and American Hymns and Carols.

Musicologists have traced the ballad, "Thomas the Rhymer", back at least as far as the 13th century. It deals with the supernatural subject matter of fairy-folk. The theme of this song also closely relates to another song, that of Tam Lin, which follows the same general topical lines. Its more general theme relates to temptation and mortal pleasures. There is also a 14th century romance "Thomas of Erceldoune", with accompanying prophecies, which clearly relates to the ballad, though the exact nature of the relationship is not clear.

Several different variants of the ballad of Thomas Rhymer exist, most having the same basic theme. They tell how Thomas either kissed or slept with the Queen of Elfland and either rode with her or was otherwise transported to Fairyland. One version relates that she changed into a hag immediately after sleeping with him, as some sort of a punishment to him, but returned to her originally beautiful state when they neared her castle, where her husband lived. Thomas stayed at a party in the castle until she told him to return with her, coming back into the mortal realm only to realise that seven years (a significant number in magic) had passed. He asked for a token to remember the Queen by; she offered him the choice of becoming a harper or a prophet, and he chose the latter.

After a number of years of prophecy, Thomas bade farewell to his homeland and presumably returned to Fairyland, whence he has not yet returned.

"Carrickfergus" (Carrighfergus) is an Irish folk song. It is a typical lament of an Irish expatriate who wishes he was back in his homeland. The origins of the song are unclear, but it has been traced to an Irish language song, "The Sick Young Lover". In modern times, "Carrickfergus" became known after actor Peter O'Toole related it to Dominic Behan, who put it in print and made a recording in the mid-1960s. The middle verse was allegedly written by Behan.

Farewell, farewell, to my native home, those shores to see no more
Farewell, farewell to my own true love, abandoned at the door
Not by my will I leave my land, but the poor law's cold decree
And I my birthright most forego, to cross the stormy sea

The passage it was long and dire, 'til we docked at New Orleans
And those of us who did survive, were cast on fevered streets
I made my way from job to job, until I had the fare
To take me to the great divide and the Rocky Mountain air

For I craved to scale the highest peak, my lost heart yearning east
In hopes a vision I might see, of my beloved island green
As if my soul could fly me home, across the ocean deep
And ease the keening of a heart, cast out on stormy seas

I worked the darns and railroads, the timber and the mines
I wrote to Ireland year for year, 'til there was no one left to write
If Ireland can be my home no more, there will be no home for me
I'll drift like the wind from keep to keep, a wild and rootless seed

And come each day at sunrise, as the long years pass me by
I'll gaze across the troubled waves, and drearn of my green isle
For longing is a tender song, that can never, ever cease
The keening of a lonely heart, cast out on stormy seas

According to Ewan MacColl in his "Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland", "James Hogg in his 'Jacobite Relics' places this song as belonging to one of the Jacobite risings, either in 1715, or 1745. MacGillavry of Drumglass is one of the chiefs mentioned in the Chevalier's Muster Roll of 1715, and in the Forty-Five rebellion the powerful clan MacIntosh was led by a Colonel MacGillavry. A bard belonging to this clan may well have written the song; on the other hand, the name might have been used as a convenient designation for loyal highlanders."

The song's exact origins are unknown. A number of its lines and the general plot resemble those of a contemporary broadside ballad Patrick Fleming (also called Patrick Flemmen he was a Valiant Souldier) about an Irish highwayman executed in 1650.

In the book The Folk Songs of North America, folk music historian Alan Lomax suggests that the song originated in the 17th century, and (based on plot similarities) that John Gay's 1728 The Beggar's Opera was inspired by Gay hearing an Irish ballad-monger singing Whiskey in the Jar. In regard to the history of the song, Lomax states, "The folk of seventeenth century Britain liked and admired their local highwaymen; and in Ireland (or Scotland) where the gentlemen of the roads robbed English landlords, they were regarded as national patriots. Such feelings inspired this rollicking ballad."

At some point, the song came to the United States and was a favorite in Colonial America because of its irreverent attitude towards British officials. The American versions are sometimes set in America and deal with American characters. One such version, from Massachusetts, is about Alan McCollister, an Irish-American soldier who is sentenced to death by hanging for robbing British officials.

The song appeared in a form close to its modern version in a precursor called The Sporting Hero, or, Whiskey in the Bar in a mid-1850s broadsheet.

A battle took place on 30 April, 1690, in which a Jacobite force was routed on the low ground (haughs) at Cromdale in Morayshire by government forces. James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, later wrote a song about the defeat which became very popular. But then an unknown bard, unhappy with the story of a lost battle, added an exaggerated description of Montrose's victory over the Covenanters at Auldearn in 1645. Despite the muddled history and the fact that Montrose had been dead for 40 years before the conflict at Cromdale, the ballad remained popular. Many a Highland regiment has marched to the tune of this song.

The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes", mass unmarked graves which slain rebels were thrown into, symbolising the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule.

"Danny Boy" is a song whose lyrics are set to the Irish tune Londonderry Air. The lyrics were originally written for a different tune in 1910 by Frederick Weatherly, an English lawyer, and were modified to fit Londonderry Air in 1913 when Weatherly was sent a copy of the tune by his sister.

The first recording was made by Ernestine Schumann-Heink in 1915. Weatherly gave the song to Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular in the new century. Weatherly later suggested in 1928 that the second verse would provide a fitting requiem for the actress Ellen Terry.

Though the song is supposed to be a message from a woman to a man (Weatherly provided the alternative "Eily dear" for male singers in his 1918 authorised lyrics), the song is actually sung by men as much as, or possibly more often than, by women. The song has been interpreted by some listeners as a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora.

The song is widely considered an Irish anthem. It is nonetheless widely considered by many Irish Americans and Irish Canadians to be their unofficial signature song. It is frequently included in the organ presentation at Irish-American funerals. The song has sent off many fallen fire-fighters, and is a standard with many fire department bands.