Often, when meeting people and describing my passion for folk music, those who don't listen to it will say things like 'that may have been relevant in the 60s, but not anymore.' True, ya don't tend to hear Kumbayah much today, but that's nae hardly the whole story! I've been going through my repertoire of songs that start out with variations on"'one morning in May..." and was struck by the parallels;
SLIABH GALLION BRAE
As I went a walking one morning in May
To view yon fair valleys and mountains so gay
I was thinking on those flowers all doomed to decay
That bloom around ye bonny, bonny, Sliabh Gallion Braes
How oft in the morning with my dog and my gun
I roamed through the glens for joy and for fun
But those days are now all over and I must go away
So farewll unto ye, bonny, bonny, Sliabh Gallion Braes.
How oft of an evening and the sun in the West
I roved hand in hand with the one I loved best
But the hopes of youth are vanished and now I’m far away
So farewll un to ye, bonny, bonny, Sliabh Gallion Braes.
It was not for the want of employment at home
That caused all the sons of old Ireland to roam
But those tyrannizing landlords*, they would not let us stay
So farewll un to ye, bonny, bonny, Sliabh Gallion Braes.
For the rents were getting higher, and we could no longer stay
So farewll un to ye, bonny, bonny, Sliabh Gallion Braes.
(as sung by The Gaping Maw, long disbanded, still loved)
*predatory lenders would scan fairly well in that line
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