|
'The Irish Volunteer' Finds His Bard
David Kincaid's new CD resurrects passion, war, and politics of
the Union's Irish soldier with sparkle and dance REVIEW: "The Irish Volunteer: Songs of the Irish Union
Soldier, 1861-1865." David Kincaid, 1998. Manufactured by Rykodisc Ltd.
DISCOGRAPHY
The Irish
Brigade Association always does its best to throw a great hoolie
on the night before we all march in the New York City St. Patrick's
Day parade. A few years ago, when the march was held on a Saturday
(the saint's day was Sunday, but of course we don't march on the
Sabbath) there was a great crowd of men dressed as Civil War
soldiers in the Officer's Club on Governors Island, all of us
sitting around tables pushed together, pints in hand and singing
every Irish and Civil War song we knew, one after the other into the
night. It was heaven. The sound of men's voices, with unequal gifts
but united passion, singing "Minstrel Boy," "Spancil Hill" or "Roddy
McCorley" has the power to transport my imagination back to the
night before Bull Run, when the Irish Brigade sang Thomas O. Davis's
songs to swell their courage.
Ah, where...or when -- was I? Ah, yes, the "Irish Volunteer"
review. Forgive me.
That night an energetic young man sat down next to me with an
1860s-style guitar. He added a fine voice and harmonies to our
chorus and played his guitar with variety and skill. He even played
us a few songs we'd never heard before. It was David Kincaid, a
professional musician and one of the 116th Pennsylvania re-enactors.
Below right, Michael Corcoran leading his men
into action. Currier & Ives lithograph
When I heard, this month that he had produced a CD of
songs of the Irish Union soldier of the Civil War, I was eager to
hear it. When I read that he had searched original lyric sheets and
soldiers' song books to find songs that had not been heard in this
century, I was greatly relieved. I'm always looking for great new
songs to learn, not more renditions of "Wild Rover" and "Rising of
the Moon." This CD has a dozen songs and only two of them were in my
repertoire: the tragic "Paddy's Lamentation" and the rollicking "Pat
Murphy of the Irish Brigade," sung here with all twelve quatrains.
The five I had learned from Jerry Silverman's collection of Civil
War songs portray Pat as a bellicose, glory-seeking buffoon but
David Kincaid restores stanzas that show a greater political
sophistication, as Pat ridicules Jeff Davis, John Bull and Northern
Abolitionists with equal wit.
The musicians include Jerry O'Sullivan on Uilleann pipes and tin
whistle, John Whelan on accordion, Liz Knowles on fiddle, David
himself on guitar, banjo, mandolin and bodhran, and other musicians
playing harp, piano, cello, cittern, bones and more, with a
four-part harmony for that round-the-campfire feeling on some of the
songs.
| Illustrations From the Liner Notes of "The
Irish Volunteer" | Kincaid has the
good sense not to use all his musicians on every song. He uses them
in appropriate combinations to produce arrangements with distinct
flavors, from plaintive air to Victorian parlor piano-ballad to
American Music Hall style to traditional Irish string-and-pipe-band
enthusiasm. Kincaid shows he can sing with a vehement bravado on "My
Father's Gun" or sweetly to his Mary Mavourneen on "Irish Volunteer
-- #2". There's a great range of style here that fits the material
very well.
Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher leading the
Irish Brigade against the Confederates at the Battle of Fair Oaks,
Va. Currier & Ives lithograph
The title song opens the album and reclaims that great Irish
tune "The Irish Jaunting Car", appropriated by the secessionists for
"Bonnie Blue Flag." Thanks to David Kincaid for rediscovering such
lyrics as:
Now if the traitors in the South should ever cross our
roads,
We'll drive them to the divil as St Patrick did the
toads,
We'll give them all short nooses that come just below the
ears,
Made strong and good from Irish hemp by Irish
volunteers.
Many of the songs relate the War for the Union to historical
struggles for Irish freedom, as in the chorus to "Meagher Is Leading
the Irish Brigade":
You true sons of Erin, Awake from your slumbers!
No longer
leave tyrants your valleys invade
Let the long silent Harp
vibrate its loud numbers.
Now Meagher is leading the Irish
Brigade.
Or "The Opinions of Paddy Magee" (who must be a close relative of
Billie Barlow, another boastful character featured in a jig-based
tune):
With Columbia defying the bould British Lion,
The sons of
ould Ireland forever shall be,
I'll have no intervention, if
that's their intention,
And that's the opinions of Paddy
Magee.
In the case of the lyrics to "Boys of the Irish Brigade", Kincaid
had no tune reference but discovered that it fit perfectly the
lovely waltz we know as "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" or "Believe Me If
All Those Endearing Young Charms":
For fighting, for drinking, for ladies and all,
No time
like our times e'er was made, O,
By the rollicking boys, for war,
ladies and noise,
The Boys of the Irish Brigade, O!
WHAT'S YOUR VIEW?
Have you listened
to "The Irish Volunteer" yet? Do you think songs, like poetry,
make poor history, as some wags have observed? What do songs
reveal to the generations that follow? What do you think of
David Kincaid's new CD? To discuss these questions and many
others, drop by The Wild Geese
Forum, where the epic sagas of Erin and Erin's far-flung
exiles are our daily fare. |
I do
wish the collection had more historical documentation. Though the
beautifully printed liner notes include all the lyrics and some
background for each song, missing in many cases are the dates of
publication and lyric authorship. David makes it very clear in the
notes which songs he dug out of period sources. He tells of the
eerie coincidences surrounding the writing of "Free and Green" by
himself and Carl Funk, and even notes when he had to select a tune
when none was specified with the original Civil War lyrics. So I do
not mean to charge him with misrepresentation when I point out that
not all the songs are clearly dated in the liner notes. Dates are
important to anachronism-sensitive re-enactor musicians who are
careful not to present a song in a time before it was written. I
have never seen an author or a date documented for the lyrics to the
powerful "Paddy's Lamentation" and I question its authenticity as a
song from the Civil War period. Kincaid does not enlighten me with
his notes on the song.
This is a collection of fine and professionally produced music,
but it is not background music. It has too much passion, war and
politics. Pick a CD of harp instrumentals to play with your dinner
party, unless you want to restart the Civil War. But if you care a
wit for these exiles and the story of their fight for their adopted
country, these songs will fill you with pride of them, and if you're
a reenactor musician, you'll be after learning some of this music
that David Kincaid has restored to us.
Good on ya, boyo!
-- G. Leslie Sweetnam
G. Leslie Sweetnam is a
member of the 27th CT
Volunteers Civil War re-enactment unit. His folk music roots go
back to the turbulent 60s (19, that is) and he has been playing his
banjo and singing Civil War and Irish songs for more years than he
probably wants to think about.
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.
Looking for Irish Coats of Arms or Irish Family History Data?
Click a Letter to look up your family!
|
|
|
David Kincaid presents 
