New videos recorded or made in Oklahoma, including original music and photos.
"Glenveigh" is a song I wrote back in the 90s after visiting the Irish national park in Donegal. The story is self explanatory, and mostly true!
"Road Cod" arose from my experiences of driving around New York State and Pennsylvania in the winter on the way to gigs. While it never really happened, I always imagined the song taking place heading north of Marathon, NY on I-81, before the curve that brings you to Hoxie Gorge.
"Salt Marbles" began with a newspaper article about the history of salt potatoes, aka, salt marbles,which originated in Syracuse around the turn of the 20th century. This staple of Central New York festivals made it out to California in the early part of the century, where they were marketed as a health food.
"Bunratty Mead" came to me as I was driving home from a gig in Watkins Glen. The chorus solidified between Odessa and Alpine Junction. The verses are a mashup of the Tain Bo Cualigne and Asterix comics which played a major part in my grad studies in Heidelberg, translated into German, of course. Shortly after writing this in early 2000s, I did sing verses at Bunratty Castle, which made a big hit with the performers and staff.
"The Token Song for Donal O'Shaughnessy"-- A song I wrote to accompany a cache of drink tokens accidentally brought from NY to OK. They resurfaced after being boxed for a year. I sent the cache back to Donal O'Shaughnessy, my partner in crime for many years who can put them to good use.
"Johnny Cope"--Robert Burns wrote numerous verses to mock Sir John Cope, I picked just seven of them to make this version.
A fun song about the great saint who converted Ireland to Christianity paired with John Ryan's Polka, a tune familiar to many from the movie Titanic.
The Munster Cloak is a slow air I learned from the playing of the Chieftains, and the dance tune, Jamie Allen, is a standard for players of the English concertina.
There was a complicated relationship between sailors and ports. Jack Tar ashore was always welcome to spend his money, but when it was gone, John Landsman took his place.
This song, "Red Is the Rose," I learned from the singing of Makem and Clancy. I have always loved the song.There were some glitches in this--mostly my words--but I decided to keep it because I like the sound of the accompaniment.
The song Rosin the Beau covers death and drinking, something that many Irish songs deal with. The melody was apparently used for Abraham Lincoln's campaign song.
The music in this video is a Celtimorphosis recording for a Christmas album. The music is a medley we entitled "Christmas in the New World," with the recurring melody being "The Huron Carol," a song I loved when I learned it in elementary school. Its associations with Native Americans in the colonial period struck me as appropriate for a video compiled from photos of Oklahoma, where so many eastern tribes ended up, due to forced relocations.