My Second Album, Bean na hÉireann!
note: IGNORE the text for numbers 11 and 12!! It’s wrong, I just changed it after I’d made it and gave too little fucks to go through the effort of remaking the ENTIRE tracklist!
TRACKLIST: (in case you couldn’t read it above)
4: The Maid That Sold Her Barley 3:01
5: Rocky Road to Dublin 3:17
8: She Moved Through The Fair 4:48
10: The Wind That Shakes The Barley 6:13
11: The Star of the County Down 3:12
12: Mary and the Soldier 4:01
13: Searching For Lambs 3:15
14: Wild Mountain Thyme 3:45
Bean na hÉireann (translation: Woman of Ireland) is an album entirely of traditional Irish (except for Wild Mountain Thyme, that’s Scottish 🫣) songs. It came out in 1995 and sold over a hundred thousand copies.
Boru’s March is a traditional musical piece celebrating the legendary Irish king Brian Boru. It’s the only instrumental in this album.
Dúlamán is a song entirely in Irish. “Dúlamán” translates to “seaweed” from Irish. The whole song is basically a metaphor for a courtship using seaweed, or at least, that’s what I was taught! Like most folk songs, it has many interpretations!
The Night Visit is a traditional hookup song, or as I like to call it, the hottest hookup song of 1453! It’s also the only song from the album that charted (😭) at peak number 67 on the Irish chart. The song is also known by the name of “As I Roved Out”, but I chose the other title to avoid confusion with another traditional song known by that name, a much sadder ballad.
The Maid That Sold Her Barley is another hookup song, but much shorter and with a different rhythm! It also focuses more on the singer’s attraction to the maiden in question than the hookup itself.
Rocky Road to Dublin is a song about one man’s journey to Dublin. There’s not much to elaborate on this one.
Banks of Claudy is another love song. Again, not too much else to elaborate on here. It’s a rather sweet song, though, and one of my favourites. (also one of the few love songs in my catalogue that doesn’t end in death, so…)
Siúil a Rúin is a war song, but in the category of “girl whose lover is at war” rather than “man at war who misses his girlfriend”. This is one of two love songs in this category on this album, the second one being Danny Boy. It’s a rather peculiar type of folk song, given that while the verses are in English, the chorus is in Irish. I’m fairly certain that this is referred to as a “macaroni” song, but I could be wrong.
She Moved Through The Fair was written by Padraic Colum. It’s a rather tragic story about a man whose true love “moves through the fair” and somehow dies. The final verse is the man dreaming of her. Funnily enough, when the song was set to be published in a magazine (as most literary works were first released back then), Colum actually forgot the third verse, the verse that explained the lover’s death. Although it was added later, most renditions of the song still don’t include it. Don’t worry though, mine does.
Danny Boy is arguably the most famous traditional Irish song. It falls into the same category as Siúil a Rúin, except it’s entirely in English and there’s an extra layer of tragedy: the girl is dying. Although I don’t sing it as often as other songs on here, I love it dearly and almost always cry when singing it.
The Wind That Shakes The Barley is another Irish war song, but this time from the point of view of the person going to war. I won’t spoil it for you now, but let’s just say it’s a hauntingly tragic tale, and by far my favourite song on this album.
The Star of the County Down is quite the tone shift from the tragedy of the previous two songs into an upbeat song of courtship. At first, I was going to sing another tragic love ballad (The Rose Of Tralee), but I felt it didn’t stand out much compared to others such as The Wind That Shakes The Barley or She Moved Through The Fair. So I decided on this instead!
Mary and the Soldier is another upbeat love song. Although sweet, there not much else to say here.
Searching for Lambs is a happy song of courtship. I know, I know, a lot of songs on here are about love. Sorry to all of my aromantic listeners, I guess…?
Wild Mountain Thyme is a song that, although Scottish in origin, is still rather popular here in Éire. I’ve always loved the song for its uplifting theme of togetherness found in nature. It’s the final song of the album because there was simply no other place to put it. It’s perfect there, ending off with a theme of hope.
Áine O’Cleary (that’s me!): Vocals (2-14), Harp (tracks 1, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14), Cello (1, 3, 10, 13) Accordion (3, 11, 13), Bodhrán Drum (2, 5, 7), Hurdy-Gurdy (3, 10), Bagpipes (2, 4), Piano (9), Byzantine Lyra (10)
Dan Walsh: Backing Vocals (2, 7, 14), Whistle (1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), Banjo (2, 3, 4, 11)
Mary Colleen Moore: Fiddle (1-5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14), Backing Vocals (9, 14)
Éabha McClellan: Uileann Pipes (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9), Keyboard (10), Bodhrán (1, 11), Backing Vocals (3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14)
Gwen Jones: Flute (1, 7, 10, 12), Backing Vocals (14)
Sean O’Neill: Drums (1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 11)
Adrian Gallagher: Acoustic Guitar (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11), Electric Guitar (3, 5, 7, 10), Tabla (7)
Ronan Hannigan: Bass (3, 7, 9, 10, 11), Backing Vocals (14)
Angus Kearney: Viola (1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13), Backing Vocals (14)
Label: Purple Heather Studios (owned by me LMFAO and yes, I named it after that line in the chorus of Wild Mountain Thyme, sue me)
Mixer: Áine O’Cleary, William Flanagan
Sound Engineer: William Flanagan
(note: if you’ve been reading this and wondering hey, how the hell is she playing the cello AND the hurdy-gurdy AND the lyra at the same time?!?, well, the answer is, I wasn’t, the clips of me playing the instruments were simply looped over each other. I now have a larger band so I don’t have to loop everything anymore 🥳)
If you’ve read this and thought, damn, I should listen to some of these, well, although you can’t listen to the Áine O’Cleary versions in this reality, here’s some other versions you can listen to if you want
1. Boru’s March-Loreena McKennitt has a really good rendition of this piece on her 2010 album The Wind That Shakes The Barley, the only difference is that it’s called Brian Boru’s March.
2. Dúlamán-there are two very different yet very wonderful versions of this song, one by the Irish girl group Celtic Woman, and another by Donegal band Altan.
3. The Night Visit-Loreena McKennitt, although it’s under the title As I Roved Out.
4. The Maid That Sold Her Barley-Déanta
5. The Rocky Road to Dublin-I believe there’s a good one by the Dubliners…?
6. Banks of Claudy-Loreena McKennitt
7. Siúil a Rúin-Celtic Woman has two different versions: one, more heartfelt, is sung solely by now-former member Órla Fallon, another, with better fiddling, is sung by their whole 2015 vocal ensemble (Éabha McMahon, Susan McFadden, and Mairead Carlin) on their Grammy-nominated (Grammy-winning in my DR!!) album Destiny.
8. She Moved Through The Fair-not only is the Loreena McKennitt version the best (it always is with that voice of hers), but it’s also the only one I can in good faith recommend to you, as it’s the only one I’ve encountered that includes the third verse.
9. Danny Boy-Celtic Woman, sung by the wonderful Lisa Kelly.
10. The Wind That Shakes The Barley-if you must listen to one song in your life, let it be this one—no, actually, let it be Annachie Gordon or Beneath a Phrygian Sky or something—but let this be one of your top contenders. And yes, the version I am recommending to you is in fact by the magnificent Loreena McKennitt.
11. The Star of the County Down-two versions this time, yay! One is by—you guessed it—Loreena McKennitt and the other is by the Irish Rovers.
12. Mary and the Soldier-Loreena McKennitt on her live album The Road Back Home (it’s the only version of the song by her available)
13. Searching for Lambs-also by Loreena McKennitt from the same live album
14. Wild Mountain Thyme-there are two versions I’ve stumbled across: one by Celtic Woman and another by Loreena McKennitt. And look, the Celtic Woman version is fine, there’s nothing bad about it, it simply feels a bit…wrong. I can’t quite explain it, but it’s simply not performed the way it should be. The only reason I’m even mentioning it is A) to act as though I am not utterly obsessed with the magical music of Loreena McKennitt by recommending other artists and B) if you, for some reason, dislike live music. The Loreena McKennitt version is, as pretty much all songs of hers, absolutely perfect. She left no crumbs. However, the only version by her available is in fact, live, so if you don’t like live music (I honestly think you’d still like it though, her magnificent voice comes out much more live), then by all means, listen to the Celtic Woman version. There’s really nothing wrong with it, and all of their singers are tremendously talented.
Anyways, that’s all for now! Sorry I rambled on a bit, it’s late and I have to get up in three hours (not really have to, but I like hospitals, so…)
Slán! Love ye! I’ll be working on my first album list soon!
