Terence Winch & Billy McComiskey, 2016 Eileen Estes, Susan Campbell, & Chérie Campbellcat
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Last year I collaborated with one of my all-time favorite singers, Eileen Estes, on a song called “Pilgrims on the Ocean.” Eileen wrote a beautiful air to my lyrics, and late last year we recorded the song at Blue House Productions in Silver Spring, Maryland, with Jeff Gruber at the controls. We asked our friend Billy McComiskey, the great Brooklyn-born button accordion player now at the center of Baltimore’s Irish music scene, to lend a hand. For an outro to the song, Eileen had the very good idea to have Billy go into a tune by the legendary Clare fiddle player Junior Crehan. The tune has a number of names, all variations on “With Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back.”
The lyrics are below, and the song can be heard by clicking
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Pilgrims on the Ocean
There’s an awful thing that happens when the people go out marching.
There’s a sad but true confusion when the walls come tumbling down.
When the emcee takes the microphone and shoves it in our faces
and the castles feel the tremors shake, and crumble to the ground.
We were stumbling in the darkness when the houses caught on fire.
We were eating late-night dinners when the cops came cruising by.
But we sold our books and diamonds and stripped off our posh attire
and surrendered to the gender squad when they all began to cry.
[bridge]
Where the mountain meets the lake
where the lovers hearts all break
in the greening without meaning
when the give all turns to take
We’re the pilgrims and the children all forsaken on the oceans
where the storms divide and waves collide and we’re about to drown.
That’s what it’s like down here tonight drenched in our emotions
but swimming for the sunlight and the sight of higher ground.
©words Terence Winch/music Eileen Estes
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Junior Crehan
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Author: Terence Winch
