Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Take Her up to Monto
2. Nation Once Again
3. Big Strong Man
4. Holy Ground
5. Spancil Hill
6. Paddy on the Railway
7. Merry Ploughboy
8. Biddy Mulligan
9. Jug of Punch
10. Spanish Lady
11. Old Maid in the Garret
12. Bog Down in the Valley
13. Peggy Gordon
14. Finnegan's Wake

Disc 2:

1. It's a Great Day for the Irish
2. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
3. I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
4. Irish Washerwoman
5. Dear Little Shamrock
6. Dear Old Donegal
7. Eileen Alannah
8. Kerry Dance
9. Mother Macree
10. If You're Irish Come into the Parlour
11. With My Shillelagh Under My Arm
12. Rose of Tralee
13. Galway Bay
14. Wearing O' the Green
15. Mountains of Mourne
16. Cockles and Mussels
17. Kathleen Mavourneen
18. Danny Boy

Disc 3:

1. Wild Rover
2. Wild Colonial Boy
3. My Wild Irish Rose
4. Whiskey in the Jar
5. Minstrel Boy
6. Black Velvet Band
7. Whistling Gypsy Rover
8. Could I Have This Dance
9. Flower of Sweet Strabane
10. Spinning Whell
11. 40 Shades of Green
12. Goodnight Irene

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81546 in Music
• Released on: 1995-07-12
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

One out of three...
I came across versions of a couple of these songs by accident and spent some time looking for the CD, or CDs, they might be on. Now that I've got this it's kind of a personal treasure.

I've listened to Discs 2 and 3 of this set once each: overproduced stuffy old...stuff.

The payoff is Disc 1.

It's "kinda-live", with simulated Pub noises and "live-like" shout-outs from band members. We hear clinking glasses a little too regularly. Are they drunk or are they sober? Is there an audience? Who can say?

But this is far from cheesy.

The band rocks. They're tight and the textures are amazing. To my ear they catch bits of magic and mystery in just about every turn of phrase and melody. They exhibit an unusual knack for making every moment memorable.

I enjoy what comes off as a sort of authenticity too. For all the fine musicianship, one suspects that these gentlemen do this on the weekends; that they have day jobs in the village. For people who get a kick out of accents, the brogues on these guys are a riot.

I haven't counted, but vocals are taken up by three? five? members of the same group.

With classic wit, one fella, singing "Bog Down In the Valley", who has come off like a wasted yokel, overcomes amazing feats of articulation, like Horowitz at the piano.

"Peggy Gordon" and "Spanish Lady", ballads sung by the same guy, are just lovely. It takes subtle chemistry to bring a tear to my eye with a line like: "I wish I was in some lonesome valley where woman's kind cannot be found/And the pretty small birds, they change their voices, and every moment a different sound."

Listen to "Jug of Punch"--that`s a characterful voice and attitude. Listen to any sound sample: "Paddy on the Railway". They might be out of "Juno and the Paycock".

That's why I want to party with these guys.

This strikes me as the sort of work that Ezra Pound refers to as being "plucked from a living tradition".

I started off liking a couple of the songs and never having cared for the versions I'd heard of some others. Now I play the whole thing through and I love it all. If you have an appreciation for Ireland and its history, the arts of Irish men and women, a sense of sociology, or just good folk music, you'll appreciate this.

It's a shame that you have to buy a 3-CD set for one great CD. The packaging sucks too. It's criminal that this band--and the bands on the other CDs--go un-credited. No documentation at all aside from the titles of the tracks!--thus my 4.5 STAR rating (rounded up).


P.S.!

I just discovered that this group is called "The Jolly Beggarmen". Of all things! Well! The Jolly Beggarmen rock!

I found their "Whiskey In the Jar", which, though short, is my favorite.

Is it Shane MacGowan?
I like this collection. In particular, I like the 1st CD. I think that Peggy Gordon is sung by Shane MacGowan, formerly of the Pogues. Anybody confirm or deny that?