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Irish Rovers
The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians that originated in Toronto, Canada. Formed in 1963'Irish Rovers are Digging out those old Folk songs', By Ballymena Weekly Editor, Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, N. Ireland – 20 August 1964 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover" they are best known for their international television series, contributing to the popularization of Irish Music in North America, and for the songs " The Unicorn", "Drunken Sailor", "Wasn't That a Party", "The Orange and the Green", " Whiskey on a Sunday", " Lily the Pink", "Finnegan's Wake" and "The Black Velvet Band". The primary voices heard in the group's early songs were Will Millar (tenor), Jimmy Ferguson (baritone), George Millar and Joe Millar, and in the last twenty years, also John Reynolds and Ian Millar. Wilcil McDowell's accordion has been a signature sound of the band throughout their more than fifty years. Founding member George Millar and his cousin Ian are both from Bally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Unicorn (song)
"The Unicorn" is a song written by Shel Silverstein. It was originally released in 1962 on his album ''Inside Folk Songs'' (Atlantic 8072). Background The lyrics to the song also appear, printed as a poem, based on the biblical tale, ''Noah's Ark'', in Shel Silverstein's book '' Where the Sidewalk Ends''. In the original version of the song, the Irish Rovers speak half of the lyrics, as well as the part of the fourth chorus. The final line is spoken freely without music: "And that's why you'll never see a Unicorn to this very day". Irish Rovers recording "The Unicorn" was made very popular by the Irish Rovers in 1968. It remains one of the best-known songs in the Irish Rovers' long career. It sold 8 million copies worldwide and in their native Ireland, the song peaked at #5 on the Irish Singles Chart. In addition, the song was nominated for Best Folk Performance at the 1969 Grammy Awards. Elsewhere, "The Unicorn" peaked at #4 in Canada, and in the US, reached #2 on the US ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Indigenous peoples have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Millar
Will Millar (born 1940) is a Northern Irish-Canadian singer best known as a co-founding member of The Irish Rovers. Until his departure in 1995, he was the group's front man. He plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and tin whistle. Early life and career Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Millar and his sister Sandra Beech performed as ''The Millar Kids'' before the family emigrated to Canada in 1953 when Millar was 14. Millar formed a Calypso Band, ''Kalypso Kews'', that performed for two years in Toronto's Yonge Street at the Calypso Club. Millar moved to Calgary, Alberta and hosted a children's television show as well as forming an Irish folk trio. In the 1960s, Millar invited his brother, then 15, George, his cousin Joe and Jimmy Ferguson to stay with him in Calgary. He brought them on his television show and started performing with them at Calgary's first folk club, The Depression. Irish Rovers Under the guidance of Les Weinstein, Millar's manager, he took ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dumfries, Scotland
Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the Anglo-Scottish border and just away from Cumbria by air. Dumfries is the county town of the historic county of Dumfriesshire. Before becoming King of Scots, Robert the Bruce killed his rival the Red Comyn at Greyfriars Kirk in the town on 10 February 1306. The Young Pretender had his headquarters here during a 3-day sojourn in Dumfries towards the end of 1745. During the Second World War, the bulk of the Norwegian Army during their years in exile in Britain consisted of a brigade in Dumfries. Dumfries is nicknamed ''Queen of the South''. This is also the name of the town's professional football club. People from Dumfries are known colloquially in Scots language as ''Doonhamers''. Toponymy There are a number of theories on the etymol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cork (city)
Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's boundary in 2019, its population is over 222,000. The city centre is an island positioned between two channels of the River Lee which meet downstream at the eastern end of the city centre, where the quays and docks along the river lead outwards towards Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world. Originally a monastic settlement, Cork was expanded by Viking invaders around 915. Its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185. Cork city was once fully walled, and the remnants of the old medieval town centre can be found around South and North Main streets. The city's cognomen of "the rebel city" originates in its support for the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses. Corkonians sometimes refer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballymena
Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, with a right to hold two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity. , the Saturday market still runs. Ballymena is a shopping hub within Northern Ireland, and is home to Ballymena United F.C. Ballymena incorporates an area of and includes large villages such as Cullybackey, Galgorm, Ahoghill and Broughshane. It had a population of 29,551 people at the 2011 Census, making it the eighth largest town in Northern Ireland by population. History Early history The recorded history of the Ballymena area dates to the Early Christian period from the fifth to the seventh centuries. Ringforts are found in the townland of Ballykeel and a site known as Camphill Fort in the townland of Ballee may also have been of this type. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Black Velvet Band
"The Black Velvet Band" (Roud number 2146) is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides. The Dubliners released a popular version of the song in 1967 based on a version sung by the traditional English singer Harry Cox. Synopsis The narrator is bound apprentice in a town (which varies in different versions). He becomes romantically involved with a young woman. She steals a watch and places it in his pocket or in his hand. The apprentice does not try to stop this from happening, which is speculated to be out of his love for the girl. However the man does wish bad luck towards the woman, as seen in the line "Bad luck to the black velvet band". The apprentice appears in court the next day, and is sentenced to seven years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finnegan's Wake
"Finnegan's Wake" is an Irish-American comic ballad, first published in New York in 1864. Various 19th-century variety theatre performers, including Dan Bryant of Bryant's Minstrels, claimed authorship but a definitive account of the song's origin has not been established. An earlier popular song, John Brougham's "A Fine Ould Irish Gintleman," also included a verse in which an apparently dead alcoholic was revived by the power of whiskey. In more recent times, "Finnegan's Wake" was a staple of the Irish folk-music group the Dubliners, who played it on many occasions and included it on several albums, and is especially well known to fans of the Clancy Brothers, who performed and recorded it with Tommy Makem. The song has been recorded by Irish-American Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys. Summary In the ballad, the hod-carrier Tim Finnegan, born "with a love for the liquor", falls from a ladder, breaks his skull, and is thought to be dead. The mourners at his wake become rowdy, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lily The Pink (song)
"Lily the Pink" is a 1968 song released by the UK comedy group The Scaffold, which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. It is a modernisation of an older folk song titled "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham". The lyrics celebrate the " medicinal compound" invented by Lily the Pink, and humorously chronicle the "efficacious" cures it has brought about, such as inducing morbid obesity to cure a weak appetite, or bringing about a sex change as a remedy for freckles. The Scaffold version The Scaffold's record, released in November 1968, became No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for the four weeks encompassing the Christmas holidays that year. Backing vocalists on the recording included Graham Nash (of The Hollies), Elton John (then Reg Dwight), and Tim Rice; while Jack Bruce (of Cream) played the bass guitar. The lyrics include a number of in-jokes. For example, the line "Mr Frears had sticky out ears" refers to film director Stephen Frears, who had worked with The Scaffold early in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whiskey On A Sunday (song)
"Whiskey on a Sunday" is a song written by Glyn Hughes (1932–1972), which became popular during the second British folk revival. It is sometimes called "The Ballad of Seth Davy". The song laments the death in 1902 of a performer, Seth Davy, who sang and performed with a set of "dancing dolls" outside a public house in Liverpool. The dolls were attached to the end of a plank, and when the plank was struck and vibrated, this caused the dolls to "dance". Seth Davy was in fact a Jamaican who performed outside the Bevington Bush Hotel around the turn of the century. It was located just north of Liverpool City Centre. The original song contains lyrics and idiom specific to Liverpool. In an Irish version, the first-line mention of Bevington Bush appears as Beggars Bush, referring to a location in Dublin. Other versions refer erroneously to Bebington, which is a township in Wirral, on the other side of the River Mersey. Recordings The Irish folk singer Danny Doyle covered the song in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Orange And The Green
"The Orange and the Green" or "The Biggest Mix-Up" is a humorous Irish folk song about a man whose father was a Protestant ("Orange") and whose mother was a Catholic ("Green"). It describes the man's trials as the product of religious intermarriage and how "mixed up" he became as a result of such an upbringing. This song was written by Anthony Murphy of Liverpool, and has been recorded by bands such as The Irish Rovers, The Wolfe Tones, Paddy Reilly, the Brobdingnagian Bards, Marc Gunn, and The Spinners and among others. It is sung to the same tune as "The Wearing of the Green", which is also used in " The Rising of the Moon", another Irish ballad, and " The Army of the Free”, an American song. History Liverpool, home to a great many Irish immigrants, has a large number of Catholics. On the other hand, the Protestant Orange Order is also very strong. The Orange Lodge marches every year in July, with bands of fifes, drums and bagpipes, to celebrate the victory of Protestant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drunken Sailor
"Drunken Sailor", also known as "What Shall We Do with a/the Drunken Sailor?" or "Up She Rises", is a traditional sea shanty, listed as No. 322 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It was sung onboard sailing ships at least as early as the 1830s, and it shares its tune with the traditional Irish folk song "'' Óró sé do bheatha abhaile''". The song's lyrics vary, but usually contain some variant of the question, "What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?" In some styles of performance, each successive verse suggests a method of sobering or punishing the drunken sailor. In other styles, further questions are asked and answered about different people. "Drunken Sailor" was revived as a popular song among non-sailors in the 20th century, and grew to become one of the best-known songs of the shanty repertoire among mainstream audiences. It has been performed and recorded by many musical artists and appeared regularly in popular culture. History Origin and melody T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
