Live/Streaming Concert April 29th, 2pm PDT

For streaming links, go here: https://linktree.com/emilygroff ; to reserve a seat at the house concert (Bainbridge Island), email David@DavidHager.com . 

This will be a one and a half hour concert in support of Idaho Abortion Rights Mutual Aid Collective. There's no set donation for the concert; whatever you would like to give is most welcome and appreciated. There will be Celtic harp and vocals, traditional Irish and Scottish stuff, modern stuff, death, destruction, and Lionel Richie. You know. My usual. Tell your friends! Tell your foes! Tell people about whom you feel nothing worth remarking upon! 

Done and Dusted

 Hooray! We For One Another is finished, released, mailed out, linked and embedded on this website. I've put up all the lyrics to the songs, which you can find on the "Lyrics" tab. To purchase, go to my Bandcamp page. You can stream it for free if you like, up to three times before Bandcamp will ask you to buy it. Thanks for following me on this adventure!

Down By the Salley Gardens

 by W. B. Yeats with a traditional Irish melody

Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I did meet

She passed the Salley Gardens with little snow-white feet

She bid me take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree

Ah but I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree

In a field by the river my love and I did stand

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand

She bid me take life easy as the grass grows on the wiers

Ah but I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears

She bid me take life easy as the grass grows on the wiers

Ah but I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

 by George Washington Johnson and James Austin Butterfield

For this song I drew from Peter Ostroushko's lovely version on his album Duo with Dean Magraw. He took liberties with both the melody and lyrics, and I've taken further liberties in places.

I wandered today to the hill, Maggie

To view the scene below

The creek and the rusty old mill, Maggie

Where we sat so long ago

The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie

Where first the daisies sprung

And the rusty old mill is still, Maggie

Since you and I were young

They say I am feeble with age, Maggie

My steps are less sprightly than then

And my face is a well-written page, Maggie

And time all alone was the pen

And they say we are aged and gray, Maggie

Like spray from the white breakers flung

But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie

When you and I were young

And now we are aged and gray, Maggie

Our time here on earth nearly done

Let us sing to the days that were, Maggie

Oh, when you and I were young.

Song for the Twelfth of July

 by John Frazier and Seán Tyrrell

This song is about the ongoing conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. On the 12^th of July, the Orangemen hold parades in commemoration of William of Orange's victory over James II in the Battle of the Boyne. This tradition began in the late eighteenth century, and has long been an occasion for sectarian violence. 12^th of July celebrations were banned in the 1830's and 40's; soon after their reinstatement, Protestant cabinetmaker John Frazier wrote this poem. Seán Tyrrell wrote to me: "Of all the poems I set to music that is my favourite of all. It is also my favourite love song and I have recorded many." 

I'm influenced here by Cathie Ryan's version on her 1997 self-titled album. She made a few minor changes to the melody.

Come pledge again your heart and your hand

One grasp that never will sever

Our password be our native land

Our motto love forever

And let the orange lily be

Your badge, my patriot brother

It's the everlasting green for me

And we for one another

Behold how green the gallant stem

On which the flower is blowing

How in one heavenly breeze and beam

Both flower and stem are glowing

The same good soil sustaining both

Makes both united to flourish

But cannot give the orange growth

And cease the green to nourish

The more the hand that plucks that flower

Will vainly strive to cherish

In that hour the stem blooms on

But the flower it begins to perish

Regard them then of equal worth

While lasts their genial weather

The time's at hand when deep in earth

They will both sink together

And though it be in our country's cause

Our party feelings blended

'Till lasting peace from equal laws

On both will have descended

'Till then the orange lily be

Your badge, my patriot brother

It's the everlasting green for me

And we for one another

And we for one another