About the Songs on "Notes from Home" 1. “This Old House” is a three story brick townhouse in South Boston, bought by my great-grandfather, John McCarthy in 1913, after he had settled in Boston, having emigrated from Butlerstown, West Cork, Ireland. He and my grandfather, Gerald Emmet, close out “Notes From Home” singing a rebel song in the parlor in June of 1941. I should have stuck with my plan to open up with it, so if you could think of it as a prelude as well as a finale, that would help ease my guilt. Dozens of cousins, nephews and nieces followed over the next few generations; the devout, the drinkers, and the dancers, often all three in one. Some would stay for weeks, some for months, some for years; sharing their joys and sorrows, their stories and songs. One cousin arrived at the house in her early twenties and stayed the rest of a long lifetime. Which brings us to… 2. “Maggie’s Song” My cousin Madge, who fled the tans, the troubles, and the town she loved so well, for a Boston that in the roaring, radical, and reactionary 20’s, was still a place where very often “no Irish need apply”. She was my grandfather’s first cousin, the family’s direct and permanent connection to the “Old Country”, and my personal guru on all things Irish and many things musical. She was a hard woman from hard times on the long road to who knows where, and I’m eternally grateful that she shared that road with me. More than anyone, she taught me that songs and tunes were not just a reflection of popular culture and an industry of “personalities”, but a hard-wired connection to our past and present, both public and private, and… 3. “Something That Rings True” 4. “What It Is” that rings true, to me at least, is music. My religion, I suppose; a blessing and an addiction for as far back as I can remember, and beyond. One thing I do believe is that there’s more truth to be found in the songs that are passed down than in the “history” that’s printed up. Sometimes it’s a hymn, sometimes it’s a joke; most often it’s the blues in one form or another. Sometimes the hymn is a dream, and you awaken to the joke and the blues, and that’s… 5. “Circus Time” – three rings, no waiting, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream… 6. “The Ballad of Big Bill Currency” is a blues from a cellblock, which is as good a place as any to find the blues. The story escaped one day when the first line came into my head to the tune of an instrumental number we’ve been playing for years we called “the March of the Asparagators”; mythical critters who were half vegetable, half reptile, all mean and green. Bill’s name comes from a radio report of a bank robber who escaped with “big bill currency.” Best getaway driver in the business, I assumed. Tried my best to give it a happy ending – hope to record it live with a dixieland band someday. Dad would have liked it; clarinets run in his side of the family, as well as tall tales (as on asparagators). 7. “The Colonel and The King” is an American fairy tale about the music business, with a handsome young Prince and a mean old ogre. Like most fairy tales, it starts out once upon a time and ends up Grimm. 8. “Mick Ryan’s Lament” is a ghost story about two brothers who escape post-famine Ireland for the Land of the Free, and fight for the Union in the War Between the States. Mick stays in the army and ends up dying with Custer at Little Big Horn; forever haunted by, and to, the tune of “The Garryowen.” (official tune of the 7th Cavalry and the fighting 69th, and God knows how many military units full of Irishmen fighting for flags that were not green, and lands that were not Ireland). Woke up with the first verse in my head, along with a splitting headache, after a night of drinking Bushmill’s at the Celtic Arts Center on Hollywood Boulevard in LA, USA. Finished it before the hangover was history. Sometimes we do suffer for our art. Thanks, Lads. One reason I’d ended up at the Celtic Arts Center is that before moving to sunny California I had lived a year in rainy West Cork, living with cousins and playing music most nights with Noel Redding (bass player in the “Jimi Hendrix Experience”) at… 9. “Shanley’s Bar” with Mossie Shanley on piano, and a cast of characters who I cherish to this day. Seventeen years later, Kathi and I returned to Clonakilty and got to play music with Noel and Moss at Shanley’s. The next year they both passed away. I remained three thousand miles away in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Shock and Denial until one day I wrote this song. I recorded it soon after; me and the guitar, and the memories. Thanks, my friends, for the memories and the music. 10. “Every Day” we wake up in a world full of worry and wonder…and whatever we want to make of it. Taking a spin on a small sphere; get your bets down and swallow the rules. 11. “Love Turned Upside Down” Is love still. Damn, I gave it away. 12. “This Old House-Different Day” Hopefully, a fun and funky take on the opening song, featuring drums, percs and harmonies from Kathi. And some echo on the strat… 13. “Safe Home” – A short prayer, an Irish blessing, two of the best words in this or any language. I promise to record the full version soon. 14. “Auld Lang Syne” A short clarinet and guitar intro for my Dad, leading into New Year’s Eve at the old house with the McCarthys, (1940-ish?). I swear I can hear my Mom, her mother and two sisters, Madge and more. My grandfather was an avid amateur sound recorder, and thankfully he left us this, as well as the aforementioned rebel song “God Save Ireland”. At the end he says “that’s the first time I ever heard Popsie (his father) sing”. Thanks Papa…Thank you all. 'Twas the Faith of our Fathers Mothers, Sisters, and Brothers... Song, like a prayer to the Gods in the air And one was as fair as the other... RED