Chance of a Start

by Patrick Clifford

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    edition of 50 
1.
03:19
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2.
03:40
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3.
05:05
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4.
04:31
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5.
04:32
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6.
05:36
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7.
05:05
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8.
04:26
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9.
05:07
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10.
05:19
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credits

released 01 October 2012
Produced by Patrick Clifford

Randy Decker: Drums/Percussion, backing vocals
Marty Guilfoyle: Accordion
Wolf Hul: Fiddle
Ed Hummel: Fiddle
Peter Kane: Fiddle
Martin Kelleher: Backing vocals
Judy Minot: Vocals
Dan O'Dea: Fiddle, mandolin*
Mark Stewart: Bouzouki
David Yeates: Backing vocals
Jane, Grace, and Bennett: Backing vocals

Otherwise performed by Patrick Clifford

Recording assistance: Courtney Greenwood and Peter Kane.

Executive Producers: Linda Zdepski, Linda Jeffers, Martin Rutherford, Bernadette Clifford, Wolf Hul, Jim Clare.

Thanks to Jane— as always; for always.

Thanks also to Randy, Marty, Wolf, Ed, Pete, Martin, Judy, Dan, Mark, and Dave, Grace, Bennett; Courtney; my executive producers and sponsors; Jenny Greenwood; WDVR-FM (Sergeantsville, NJ; wdvrfm.org); Spruce Run Lutheran Church (Glen Gardner, NJ; SpruceRunLutheran.com).

* Dan O'Dea plays Breedlove instruments.

tags

tags: world celtic folk irish irish traditional st. patrick's day New York

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about

Patrick Clifford is an Irish-American musician, songwriter, and producer.

He performs and records Irish traditional standards; skillfully crafted original songs and compositions; and discerning covers of contemporary Irish and American songwriters such as Pete St. John, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.

Read more:
www.patrickclifford.com/clifford/about/ ... more

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Track Name: The Ferryman
The little boats are gone from the banks of Anna Liffey
The ferrymen are stranded on the quays
The Dublin docks is dying, and a way of life is gone
And Molly, it was part of you and me

Where the strawberry beds sweep down to the Liffey
You kiss away the worries from my brow
I love you well today and I'll love you more tomorrow
If you ever loved me, Molly, love me now

It was the only life I knew, it was hard but never lonely
The River Liffey made a man of me
Now it's gone without a whisper, forgotten even now
Sure it's over, Molly-- over, can't you see

So now I'll tend the yard and I'll spend my days in talking
And I hear them whisper "Charlie's on the dole"
But Molly, we're still living, and darling, we're still young
And that river never owned me heart and soul.
Track Name: Pole to Pole
Got a head of things to tell you
Got a good mind to do it, too
Got a will that will not be denied
So much time I’ve spent, so long content
To let ignorance be my guide
Come on, take a look
My mind’s an open book
Come and see what someone’s scribbled inside:
“Happiness, it’s clear, is happening here,
And happiness will abide.”

Is it heart or mind or body
Or all of the above?
O my love
That gets my pulse to racing,
Sets me sailing pole to pole?
O my soul

Tell your ma, tell your pa
Send them back to gape in awe
Tell my friends, too, I don’t care a bit
Tell the news, tell the world
You’re my It Girl
When I met you I said “that’s it”
Get the sitter on the phone
Get your red dress on
Got to get you into my hands
All true, all true
And all because you make me feel like a natural man

Didn’t know any better
Didn’t know any worse
Didn’t know what what was missing implied
And didn’t a deep, wide, high, long emptiness come
While I was otherwise occupied
So much time I spent, so long content
To be tumbling out of control
Into a big black hole
O my soul
O my soul
Track Name: The Morning Sun
Rent’s late again, skies are all gray
You wish you could be 100 miles away
If you only had the money you’d go
She’s complaining again, about this, that, and drinking:
“Don’t you know, can’t you see
how low you’ve been sinking?”
All you know is that you don’t want to know
All the dreams you had last night are all gone
Scattered like moonlight with the morning sun

You hear the wind whisper as it blows where it will
And the rain tapping on the bar windowsill
You sit there waiting for some kind of sign
Close your eyes, remember old times, old places
All names forgotten, but you still see the faces
Till you’re brought back to New York
By the passing subway line
All the dreams you had last night are all gone
Scattered like moonlight with the morning sun

Starting to feel the sharp pinch of hope
But the end of your money, the end of your rope
Are all that’s ever left to you at the end of the day
Pick up the receiver, listen to the tone
Try to remember her number
And how to dial a phone
Try to remember what you meant to say
All the dreams you had last night are all gone
Shattered like moonlight with the morning sun
And all the things she said still cut to the bone
But fade into the distance, like the last train going home
Track Name: Freeborn Man of the Traveling People
I'm a freeborn man of the traveling people
Got no fixed abode; with nomads I am numbered
Country lanes and byways were always my ways
I never fancied being lumbered

O we knew the woods and the resting places
And the small birds sang when winter days were over
Then we'd pack our load and be on the road
They were good old times for a rover

There was open ground where a man could linger
Stay a week or two, for time was not your master
Then away you'd jog with your horse and dog
Nice and easy, no need to go faster

I've known life hard and I've known it easy
And I've cursed the times when winter days were dawning
But I've danced and sung through the whole night long
Seen the summer sun rise in the morning

All you freeborn men of the traveling people
Every tinker, rolling stone, and gypsy rover
Winds of change are blowing, old ways are going
Your traveling days will soon be over
Track Name: The Auld Triangle
A hungry feeling came o'er me stealing
And the mice they were squealing in my prison cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

To begin the morning, the warden bawling
Get up out of bed you, and clean out your cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh the screw was peeping and the lag was sleeping
As he lay weeping for his girl Sal
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

On a fine spring evening, the lag lay dreaming
And the seagulls were wheeling high above the wall
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh the wind was sighing, and the day was dying
As the lag lay crying in his prison cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

In the female prison there are 75 women
And it's there amongst them I wish that I did dwell
Then that auld triangle, could go jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal
Track Name: The Shoals of Herring
With our nets and gear we're faring
On the wild and wasteful ocean
It's there on the deep
That we harvest and reap
As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring

Oh, it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring
As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger
For to go and hunt the shoals of herring

We had left the home grounds in the month of June
And to canny Shields we soon were bearing
With a hundred cran of the silver darlings
That we'd taken from the shoals of herring

Now the work was hard and the hours were long
And the treatment sure it took some bearing
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
As we hunted for the shoals of herring

Oh, we fished the Sward and the Broken Bank
I was cook and I'd a quarter-share in
And I used to sleep standing on my feet
And I'd dream about the shoals of herring

In the stormy seas and the living gale
Just to earn your daily bread you're daring
From the Dover Straits to the Farroe Islands
While you're following the shoals of herring

Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman
You can swear and show a manly bearing
Take your turn on watch with the other fellows
While you're following the shoals of herring

Well, I earned my keep and I paid my way
And I earned the gear that I was wearing
Sailed a million miles, caught 10 million fishes
We was following the shoals of herring
Track Name: The Galtee Mountain Boy
I joined the flying column in 1916
In Cork with Sean Moylan; Tipperary with Dan Breen
Arrested by Free-Staters and sentenced for to die,
Farewell to Tipperary, said the Galtee Mountain Boy

We crossed through pleasant valleys and over hilltops green
Where we met with Dinny Lacey, Sean Hogan, and Dan Breen,
Sean Moylan and his gallant men, who kept the flag flying high
Farewell to Tipperary, said the Galtee Mountain Boy

We trekked the Wicklow mountains, rebels on the run
Hunted night and morning, we were outlaws but free men
We crossed the Dublin mountains; the sun was shining high
Farewell to Tipperary, said the Galtee Mountain Boy

So I'll bid farewell:
To old Clonmel, that I never more will see,
And to the Galtee Mountains that ofttimes sheltered me,
And to the men who fought for liberty and died without a sigh.
May their cause be ne'er forgotten, said the Galtee Mountain Boy.
Track Name: Don’t Look Now
Don’t look now but I think you slipped
Let something past that you didn’t mean to say
Was it something you did?
Don’t speak it now
Some things you can’t just explain away

Over and over, I tried to reach you
To touch you, to feel you, to tell you I need you
To look you in the eye and have you look back
It’s too late
Don’t look now
I’m not here

Cry if you like, but I won’t give you the pleasure
There’s truth to the lie that reason becomes a man
Shed a tear for the past
There’s a prayer for the rest
For the things that I can’t do and the things that I can

Over and over I tried to reach you
To touch you, to feel you, to tell you I need you
To look you in the eye and have you look back
It’s too late
Don’t look now
I can’t see you anymore
Track Name: Travel
Away on a silent sea
Cries soothed like a child’s
To prayers and silences
Out on the sway of the sea
Music in the stilling night
“Nearer My God, to Thee”

Afloat, adrift, alone
In the dark depth of sky
An open road of receding red lights
The moon sails by, like the years
Each step takes me away
Nearer, my heart, ever nearer

You fill my thoughts
You fill my sails
Music on a silent sea of doubt
This heart is truer than the lies I’ve told you
This heart we’ve both tried to figure out
Away at the edge of this boundless sky
You sleep
Out of harm, out of view
Someday I will return
Nearer, my love, to you
Someday soon I’ll take my first steps back
Nearer, my love, to you
Track Name: The Parting Glass
All the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit, to memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all.

If I had money enough to spend, and leisure time to rest awhile
There is a fair maid in this town, who sorely has my heart beguiled
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips, I own she has my heart enthralled
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all.

All the comrades that e'er I had, they're sorry for my going away.
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, they wished me one more day to stay.
But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not
I will gently rise and softly call:
Goodnight and joy be with you all.