Irish Music. Folk music. In Haste. Well, with Hastings. Rob Hastings, that is. Rob is a great guy who I met this year through work and we’ve always said that we should bust out the guitars and run through a few tunes when we get a spare three minutes and five seconds. Little did he know that we’d be playing a random song he’d never even heard before and I’d be putting the first and only take on the internet forever!! Well, he knows now (at time of writing). This being a Terrible Recording, it did not really pick up his guitar playing too much, but he IS there jammin’ in D with me.

Now, I’m half Irish and quite proud of my heritage, but I’m also quite happy that the music of my forefathers is so good and that it isn’t all just good looks and fancy hats with us Irish lads and lasses. There is such a storied history in so much of the music, whether it be the narrative of a story or the list of the people who have performed the songs. Tell Me Ma is no different. It began as an English children’s song that made it into the mouths of Tommy Makem, the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners, Gaelic Storm, the Young Dubliners (whose version I’m basing mine off of), and apparently even Sinead O’Connor.

A point about folk music, if you will indulge me dear reader, is that it would probably be my favorite style of music if someone made me pick (BTW don’t EVER make an artist of any stripe pick their favorite anything because it changes every 5 minutes, usually). The reason is you get to cheat when you say that. Folk music encompasses such a wide breadth and depth of content that it’s kind of like asking the genie for infinite wishes when he tells you that you only have 3. I can say ‘folk music’ and now everything from children’s songs from the streets of 17th century Italy to Jeff Tweedy counts.