songs of a coal miner’s son 7

With Gene Christy & Rod MacDow

Have a listen!

______________ FOLSOM PRISON
by Johnny Cash
performed by Collins & Christy
at the Olde Heritage Tavern
recorded on Tascam digital recorder!
Thurs evening, Apr 18th__2013

Cam Collins

episode seven . . .

So—how many bands have I been in?

I asked myself—and do you know?—I did not know the answer!

Let me sit down and make a list. I love making a list—-laundry list, shopping list, Library list—-list of all the girls—never mind that one!

How do I play thee? Let me count the bands!

Did Elizabeth Barrett Browning ever say that to Robert Browning?

All I know is that a roving musician is like a roving gypsy. You play in every band you can for a day or a night or a decade or something approximating half a lifetime—if you’re lucky, or unlucky, employed or unemployed, working a day job, or wishing you had one—because when that phone rings –you never know what might happen if they stop calling—because that one time, you said, no, I can’t, I’d love to, but–.

Crazy, huh?

Have another listen! While we’re waiting for me to finish that list!

______________ RAMBLES OF SPRING
by Tommy Makem
Performed by 2/3 of Rakish Paddy
Eileen Markland on fiddle and Gene Christy on Roland all-digital accordion
recorded on a TEAC VR-20 digital recorder!
25th of JUL 2013 at The Shamrock, Rte 9, Dalton, MA

Eileen Markland !

So here’s the list: (alphabetical or chronological it’s not!)

1 The Black Velvet Band 1985 – 95
2 Collins & Christy 2012 – 13
3 Daniels & Christy 2006 – 10
4 Dillon & Christy 1989 -91
5 The Dossers 2005 – 13
6 Gene Christy & the Strangers 2006 – 07
7 The Pat Buckley Band 1989 – 93
8 Rakish Paddy 2013
9 The Ramblin’ Rovers 1985 – 95
10 Revel’s Glen 2007 – 08
11 Seanachie 1985 – 89
12 The United Irishmen 1980-84
13 Waterford Crystal 1980 – 85
14 Ipadras 1972 – 74
15 The Eddie Dillon Band 1989 -91

That many?????

Crazy, huh?

Eddie Dillon !!

(btw–don’t miss Eddie Dillon’s website! Click on the link below!)

http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/ed_01.htm

Listen to this!

__________________EDDIE’S REEL
performed by
Eddie Dillon – who composed it – on acoustic six-string playing melody lead & rhythm
and Gene Christy on 1956 Excelsior 120-bass acoustic accordion playing melody lead and back-up
Recorded at Dillon Studios, Fairhaven, MA, 1991

What if I were to list the day jobs I held while I was doing all this? Okay, let’s say, warehouseman, Flying Tiger Lines, Logan Airport, Graduate Teaching Assistant, freshmen comp., URI, South County, Rhode Island, Supervisor, Kayfoam-Woolfson, Dublin, Ireland, Wimpy Bar manager, Soho, London, ESL Teacher, Tripoli, Libya, Radio DJ, Tripoli, Libya, GED Teacher, Lawrence, Ma, Scheduling Director, Merrimack Paper Company, Lawrence, Real Estate Vice-President Commercial Dept, Boston, LPN, Lawrence, Northampton and Great Barrington—-did I mention that I spent time as a Licensed Real Estate salesperson, a Licensed Cinema Projectionist, and – a donut-maker? How about supermarket cashier? Big and small, I did them all.

The BEATLES at Suffolk Downs, 1966

And in the meantime, my two daughters, Aisling and Tara, graduated from UCD, Dublin, and Harvard University, Cambridge.

Aisling in 1969

And I wrote a book of poems entitled This Storied House –one of the poems from that book, entitled “The Formidable Aeneas,” is scheduled to be published in the next issue of Classical Outlook, the journal of the Classics Department of the University of Miami in Ohio—in case you’re wondering, what ever did I do with that Master’s Degree in English that I got, once upon a time?

And now that I’m retired – – I’m keeping busy writing my first novel – 18 chapters in first draft are completed at this point . . .

Wish me luck! Only took me 35 years to finish that book of poems!

Would I trade it for anyone else’s life in music? Not a bit. I was never a star – – never a “success” – – I was a role-player. A back-up guy.

I spent ten years in The Black Velvet Band, and made plenty of money, which I used to send my daughters to expensive schools, and never sang but one tune with them in all those years. They had four other wonderful harmony vocalists in that band, so they didn’t need me to do anything but play the box!

Listen to them now!

______________ COME WITH ME, MOLLY! MEDLEY

by The Black Velvet Band
recorded at New England Sound, Milford, MA 1989

Joyce McCartney, lead vocals-harmony vocals-tambourine,
Skip Hughes, baritone lead vocals and bass,
Bart Lee, lead guitar and harmony vocals,
Paul MacDonald, drums, lead vocals, harmony vocals,
and Gene Christy on the box

One thing this blog is—it’s real. We’re not making stuff up here. We’re not blowing things out of proportion or doing a puff-piece. We’re just a bunch of guys—that’s all – –

A bunch of guys WHO LOVE TO PLAY!

There’s a place for American Idol, there’s a place for Top Forty, there’s a place for Brian Mathews’ Top o’ the Pops. There’s room for all! Which of us would trade the hours of listening that enriched our lives, provided by the soundtrack of our lives, performed live and in studio, by Dylan, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis Presley, Smoky Robinson, Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Pete Seeger, Michael Jackson, Peter, Paul and Mary, on and on . . . ? Ray Charles???? Woody Guthrie!!! None of us! We love them! We do their tunes! They were and are truly stars in our firmament.

But guys like us were down at the grass roots.

Playing our hearts out and singing our asses off.

______________ DUBLIN IN THE RARE OULD TIMES

Words and music by Pete St John
Vocal by Gene Christy
Eileen Markland on fiddle
Christy on the box
at The Shamrock, Rte 9, Dalton, MA
recorded on a TEAC VR-20 digital recorder!
Thurs evening, July 25th__2013

Gene Christy