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HEAD
FOR THE HILLS
The song is my answer
to Will Wordsworth's lines about "London's Earth has not anything
to show more fair......" and that from a man who had smoked dope
under Helvellyn with Coleridge!
Mike
Harding:Vocals,
12 string guitars, Dobro, Blues Harp
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CAIT
O' MO CHROI
Kathleen N Houlihan
and Roisin Dubh, ("the Black Rose") are just two of the names
given to Ireland. I wrote this tune in the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry;
it is of Ireland and for Ireland and the literal translation of the title
means "Kathleen of my Heart".
Mike
Harding:Low
D Whistle, Keyboards
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VICTOR
JARRA OF CHILE
The words are by
Adrian Mitchell, one of our best contemporary poets and the tune is by
Arlo Guthrie. Meli Antu are a group of Chilean refugees now living in
Manchester who fled Chile to escape persecution when the elected government
of Allende was toppled by a CIA backed coup led by General Pinochet. Victor
Jara was one of many who became "the disappeared ones" I learnt
the song from Dick Gaughan.
Mike
Harding:Guitar, Mandolin -
Meli Antu:Pan
Pipes, Vocals - Brian
Peters:Button Accordion
Dave
Lynane:Bass
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THE
FIDDLER'S ELBOW / DINGLE REGATTA
I can't remember
where I learnt the first tune; the second tune is one of those session
tunes that egerybody used to play at one time. The Liverpool Ceilidh band
(of which my old friends of many years the Coyne family are prominent
members) always do the "Hi diddley diddley" bits when they play
for dances and it seemed wrong to leave it out in the studio.
Mike
Harding:
Bass, Mandolin - Eamonn
Og Coyne:Fiddle - Eamon
Coyne:Fiddle - Terry
Coyne:Flute
Michael
Coyne:Uilean
Pipes
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CHRISTMAS
1914
The story is true.
The war stopped for a brief few days that Christmas and a lot of soldiers
discovered what the politicians hadn't wanted them to discover, that they
were fighting other ordinary men who like themselves were only pawns in
the game. A notice was posted after the event forbidding any fraternisation
with enemy troops and an unkown Tommy scrawled on the bottom of one notice:
"You can buy my body but you can't buy my soul."
Mike
Harding:
Guitar, Keyboards,Bass, Mandolin, Strings, Harmonica, Hammer Dulcimer
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Listen!
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PLUTONIUM
ALLEY
Hormones in food.
Nuclear leaks in Russian and Cumbria, poisoned seas, areas the size of
Wales being deforested every month, hormone fed chickens in Mexico and
Brazil causing little girls of five and six to form breasts and menstruate.
400kg of plutonium missing, and the politicians tell us they're in control.
Mike
Harding:Cittern - Dave
Hassell:Tablas - John
Perkins:Sittar
Voices :Christine
Burn, Martin Oldfield
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BLACK
LUNG BLUES
I learnt this song
from an old miner called Nimrod Workman in the Appalachian mountains.
93 years old and a union worker all his life. Although he had black lung
he was still fighting and this is the song he wrote as the story of his
own life.
Mike
Harding:12
string Guitars, Blues Harp, Dobra, Gibson Acoustic Electric - Brian
Peters:Button Accordion
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THE
WILD GEESE
My mother's family
were Irish from Wexford and Dublin. Forced to move like millions of Irishmen
and women before and since, they neverthe less always looked homewards.
The "Wild Geese" were the Irish who went to fight for Napolion
and the name came to be applied more generally to anybody who emigrated.
IrelandŐs greatest tragedy is that she is still losing her young and gifted
people at a rate that no nation can afford, The days of the "American
Wakes" are not over. The Wild Geese now are entering America illegally
and hiding in bedsits in Boston working for sub-standard wages unable
to get legal status.
Mike
Harding:Guitar
and High Tuned Guitar, Keyboards, Hammer Dulcimer - Michael
Coyne:Uilean Pipes
Terry
Coyne:Flute
- Sarah Harding:Vocals
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KERRY
POLKAS
In the early seventies
I was on tour with Planxty, probably the first Irish supergroup. The first
two polkas were part of their set, the last polka I learnt from John Crawley
of Bantry, Co. Cork.
Mike
Harding:Bass,
Mandolin, Bodhran - Eamonn
Coyne:Fiddle - Michael
Coyne:Uilean Pipes
Terry
Coyne:Flute
- Eamonn Og Coyne:Fiddle
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CLOSING
TIME
Mary Asquith is
a great blues singer and songwriter from Manchester with a voice like
Janis Joplin singing through a chese grater. I often wondered how she
got such a wonderful gravelly quality to her voice and when I saw her
rolling Old Hobson and drinking large whiskies, I knew why. I think this
song says a lot about music stardom, friends and your roots. The Delta
Kid knows who he is.
Mike
Harding:Guitar
- Steve Gilbert:Drums
- Marcus Cliffe:Bass
- Phil Chapman:Soprano
Sax
Sarah
Harding
and Sue Cleaver:Vocals
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SANGRIA
WINE
I learnt this song
from a good friend of mine, Bonnie Dobson. It was written by Jerry Jeff
Walker. One of my abiding memories of Bonnie singing this song to 2000
people in a Greek amphitheatre in Cyprus one night as warm breezes moved
in from the sea and a host of shooting stars fell through the sky from
behind her like a magical backdrop.
Mike
Harding:Guitar
- Colin Goddard:Slide
Guitar - Dave Lynane:Bass
Sarah
Harding and Colin
Goddard:Backing Vocals - Dave
Browning:Trumpet - Hywell
Lewis:Trombone
Brian Peters:Melodion
Thanks to all
my friends who helped and played on the album. It was good working with
you all. Recorded and mixed at Moonraker Studios, Manchester.
Engineers Peter Beckmann and Les Monteverde
All programming Peter Beckmann Produced by Mark Vibrans, Peter Beckman
and Mike Harding.
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