Transplants: From The Old World To The New

Local recording (SF/North Bay) - Folk/Irish/Historical – with a surprise children’s song (track 1). Hogan leads workshops in the local folk music scene and demonstrates her love for revived folkways, stories and musical styles here. It is an earnest album – the artist’s interest in a connected past parallels the song’s interest in connecting immigrant lands to homelands. Listen if you like Maddy Prior, Joni Mitchell, local folk revival. Favorites 1, 2, 10. No FCCs.

*1. Nead Na Lachan 2:38 Children’s song about a nest of ducks, in Gaelic; great example of traditional Irish mouth singing, which is a bit like jazz skat. You can hear why this often accompanied dancing, as a genre.
*2. Fiddler of Dooney 2:07 W.B. Yeats poem; female vocal and plucked strings; ballad
3. Wild Mountain Thyme 3:58 Sentimental folk song from mid 1900s, vocal and strings, downtempo
4. The Wind That Shakes the Barley 3:16 Ballad from 1800s, doomed rebel on resistance and love. A Capella, some nice trills but very stripped
5. The Praties They Grow Small 3:06 Torrid traditional song about famine, as seen on Bob Dylan’s show a century ago. Cello, strings, vocals
6. Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore 5:07 Immigration song; may have heard the Chieftains’ version or heard it in a pub! Lots of trilling, vocals, plucked strings
7. No Irish Need Apply 4:59 Anti-Irish-immigrant discrimination - strings, vocals, a bit jaunty/rolling, medium tempo, Irish accent?! Very story-tellingish. Blaggards, ahoy!
8. Lakes of Pontchartrain 4:29 Irish-American ballad, strings/vocals, mellow
9. Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies 4:32 American folk ballad, Appalachian, recorded by everyone from Pete Seeger to Joan Baez to Dolly Parton, slow tempo
*10. Bright Morning Stars 3:24 harmony! fresh a capella. early american country hymnal feel
11. Sixteen Tons 2:50 Life of a coal miner, 1900s, swinging bluesy/jazzy, americana. Sold my soul to the company store.
12. A Stor Mo Chroi 3:09 Gaelic “Treasure of My Heart,” patriotic song of Irish uprising, early 1900s. Downtempo/mournful.
13. The Boys of Barr Na Sraide 3:46 1900s - recollection of growing up through troubled times in Ireland. Straightforward ballad.
14. To Welcome Poor Paddy Home 2:27 Trad song of expats in America. Rollicking vocal and strings. Fairly on-the-nose.