An Interview with David Kincaid David Kincaid is a professional musician, a member of the Irish Brigade Association and has been a Civil War reenactor for the last 10 years. He recently released a CD on Rykodisc Records called, "The Irish Volunteer." All 12 songs on the CD are about the participation of the Irish on the Union side during the American Civil War, probably the very first such album ever released. Only one of the 12 songs on the album was written in this century, and of the 11 written during the Civil War, 9 were uncovered through extensive research (and little luck, too) by Kincaid. Those 9 songs have probably never been recorded and some perhaps not even been previously heard performed by any person now living. David was interviewed by WGT Managing Editor Joe Gannon. DISCOGRAPHY FOR 'THE IRISH VOLUNTEER' Q: When did you first become interested in Irish music? Kincaid: When I was just a kid my father had this old record of Irish folk music he used to play, I remember it was a woman singer, I don't remember her name, I wish I did. But I grew up with Irish music and have been interested in it even since. Q: When did you get into Civil War reenacting? Kincaid: I have been interested in the Civil War since the Centennial Celebrations in the '60s and in the 1970's I discovered I have a Civil War ancestor, James McCormack Kincaid of the 63rd PA, which increased that interest. I'm in a rock band called The Brandos, and in 1987 we recorded an album that included a song called "Gettysburg," that I wrote along with Carl Funk. Everywhere we played I would have these guys from Civil War reenactment groups coming up to tell us how much they loved the song. Some of them would show me these pictures of themselves up on "Little Roundtop" in Gettysburg in full uniform; it seemed pretty wild, but I was interested in what the experience might be like, the idea of really experiencing the daily life of a Civil War soldier. Eventually I joined Co. I of the 116th PA, partly because they pursued me the most persistently, but also because they were from Pittsburgh, which is where James Kincaid was from, and another thing I liked was the fact that the 116th PA had been part of Meagher's Irish Brigade. Q: The packaging on the CD is really outstanding. The 35 page liner note booklet, which contains all the lyrics, a short history of the Irish Brigade, explanations of the origins of the songs, and some great Civil War art is almost worth the price of the album by itself. The harp on the disk and a copy of an old map of the Fredericksburg, VA area on the inside are also very nice touches. Was it hard to convince Rykodisc to put that much into the production? 'The Irish Volunteer' CD, showing an Irish harp taken from a Civil War era recruiting poster. Kincaid: Not really, they were very supportive. They did want me to keep the booklet much smaller but I convinced them that we really needed to give people some information about the songs and the Irish in the War. Joe Bilby, a well known historian of the Irish in the Civil War, wrote the historical information on the liner notes. I suppose I was the art coordinator for most of what's there, because no one at the record company was as knowledgeable about the Civil War. They did come up with the idea for the map on the inside though, which I think looks great, but I came up with the idea of showing the Fredericksburg area, where the Irish Brigade was so devastated in 1862. Q: When did the idea first come to you to do this type of recording? Kincaid: As soon as I started reenacting, in 1988, I heard people singing Civil War songs all over the camps, but only a few of them were Irish songs and I was told those were the only ones that anyone knew about. I knew the Irish were always writing songs about the things that are happening to them, especially when they were involved in wars, so it was hard for me to believe that these few songs were all there were. I had the idea in my mind to find some of those lost Irish Civil War songs and record an album of them from the beginning but I didn't start doing any serious research until 1995. Q: I have a pretty extensive collection of both Irish and Civil War music and there are nine songs on this CD that I have never heard before, where did you find them? Kincaid: Most were found through with the help of the folks at the Brown University Library, where they have an extensive collection of Irish related material. Two of the songs, "Boys that Wore the Green," William Woodburn, and "The Harp of Old Erin & Banner of Stars" which is anonymous, came out of a songster-book called "John Brown And The Union Right Or Wrong Songster " from D.E. Appleton & Co., San Francisco, 1863. We love the land of liberty, its laws we will revere, "But the divil take the nobility!" Says the Irish volunteer. -- From 'The Irish Volunteer.' Four of them, "The Irish Volunteer," "The Opinions Of Paddy Magee," "My Father's Gun" and "The List Of Generals," all by Joe English, came from another songster- book called "Joe English's Irish And Comic Songster," Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, 1864. From the armory of the 69th New York I received two broadsides: "Meagher Is Leading The Irish Brigade" and "Pat Murphy Of Meagher's Brigade." Neither of these titles had date nor author listed, but were published by H. De Marson, New York. One look at these sheets gave me no doubt that these were early-war period, probably early 1862, not only from the style of the printing and the art work, but also the subject matter and attitude in the lyrics. These were not lyrics that would have been written post- war. "The Boys Of The Irish Brigade" by a Mrs. Gore, came from "The Book of Irish Songs" by Samuel Lover, from Charles Lever & A. Winch, Philadelphia, 1860. "Paddy's Lamentation" remains a mystery. I learned it the way everybody else did, and the way true to Irish tradition-by hearing it. I did look for it, but it has not turned up in any written collection I've looked through, and I've looked at a lot of them, I can tell you. The origins just may not be available to us now. For myself, I don't care if its post- war or not, its one of the greatest pieces of song writing I've ever heard in my life, and it tells a side of the story that must be told, in a way that no other has. The lyrics for "The Irish Volunteer" (No. 2) were written by S. Fillmore Bennett, and the music was written by J.P. Webster, J.L. Peters, New York, 1862. The song was Entered according to Act of Congress, which means copyrighted, in 1862 in the Court of Northern Illinois, for this reason it's believed to have been written for the 23rd Illinois, which was sometimes called the Illinois Irish Brigade. The hardest thing was finding the music that went with these song. The second version of "Irish Volunteer" was the only one that I got with music, and it also had a four part harmony arrangement for the vocals, which was a wonderful find. Most of the rest of them were written to old Irish airs that were known to the songwriter, a practice that was very common with Irish songwriter. [Ed. note: There is an old Irish saying, "There are a 10,000 Irish songs, but only a 100 Irish tunes."] Q: Do you have a favorite song on the CD? Kincaid: Everyone always asks that about any album. By the time you're finished with an album you have spent so much time with all the songs that it's hard to say. Sometimes you end up liking the one that gave you the most problems. I guess if I had to chose I would say it might be "The Irish Volunteer," the title track. Q: The one modern track on the CD, "Free and Green," I find to be very compelling, especially the chorus, which could apply to Irish soldiers in any time or place. Can you tell us a little about the origins of that song? Kincaid: My friend and song writing partner, Carl Funk was going from France to Ireland on a ship with a group of Irish musicians one night and he wrote the lyric after listening to them sing many songs about the various uprising and other military actions throughout Irish history. The original lyric called the main character Capt. Farrell, but I told Carl that there was already a well known Irish song, "Whiskey in the Jar," that had a Capt. Farrell. Carl later got the name Taggart from the side of a delivery truck he saw one day. Captain, later Brevet Major, Samuel Taggart Years after we had written the song, when I began reenacting with Co. I of the 116th PA, I played the song for Mike Kraus, the Capt. of the 116th, his face got kind of pale and then he told me the story of the a real Capt. Taggert. Just like the Capt. in our song, he had been loved by his men but had been killed at Ream's Station, VA in 1864. He had a been serving with Co. I of the 116th PA, the same Co. that we were reenacting, when he was killed. It all seemed a little mystical. Q: The lyrics on these songs are quite remarkable by themselves, but you have also assembled an impressive group of Irish musicians to play with you on the CD. Had you worked with any of them before? Kincaid: No. I had never even met any of them. I knew their names, that they were excellent musicians and that they lived in the NY City area. I just got in contact with them and explained what I was doing and asked if they would like to play on the CD. Then I sent them each a tape of myself playing and singing some of the songs. Pipe and whistle player Jerry O'Sullivan was the first to respond, he was very enthusiastic about it as soon as he heard the songs, so were button accordion player John Whelan and fiddler Liz Knowles. They helped me tremendously, they were all great players, of course, and also very knowledgeable and helpful in other aspects of recording the songs. And they were just great people, never putting on any airs, just very natural people, and so wonderful to work with. They gave the album a real Irish feeling also; I was very lucky to have them involved. Q: Now that you have this one done, do you have an plans for, maybe, a "Confederate Irish" CD? Kincaid: Well, I have a deal with Rykodisc for two more albums. I don't know if I could dig up enough Confederate Irish music to do a whole album or not. They didn't find any at the Brown Library. It would probably take some very hard research to do it. There were many more Irishmen fighting on the Union side, so there are more Union Irish songs out there. Maybe we can do one with a mixture of Union and Confederate songs, that might be a possibility. ED: If anyone out there knows of any obscure old Irish Civil War songs, especially any Confederate ones, send them on to us at jgann@thewildgeese.com and we'll make sure they get to David. For everyone who cares about Irish and Civil War history, I would like to say, "go raith mile maith agat"* David for helping bring this music back to us and, even more importantly, for helping to honor the men the songs are about by ensuring it will not be lost to future generations. At Gettysburg and recently at Antietam, monuments of stone and brass have been erected in tribute to the men of the Irish Brigade; David Kincaid has produced a living musical monument to those men. *(Many thanks - literally, may you have a thousand good things.) Discography: "The Irish Volunteer: Songs of the Irish Union Soldier, 1861-1865" By David Kincaid, 1998. The Irish Volunteer [RealAudio] Boys That Wore Green Opinions of Paddy Magee The Boys of The Irish Brigade Paddy's Lament The Irish Volunteer (Nr. 2) My Father's Gun Meagher Is Leading The Irish Brigade Free And Green The Harp of Old Erin & Banner Of Star The List of Generals Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade For more information or to order, follow this link. E-mail us for more information about The Wild Geese Today Click to return to The Wild Geese Today's Home Page Copyright © 1998, GAR Media. All rights reserved.