Symbiosis-Essence (SYM02)

Down by the glenside

Like most of the non-selfcomposed tunes on this album, this is an Irish ballad which you can hear often done by nowaday folkbands. On this cd we emphasized the more conventional side of the music. Although we couldn't resist using keyboards in the background, you hear, apart from harp and guitar, the flute doing the second melody line.

Red is the rose/Galway Bay

These two ballads went together so well, that we also decided to record them together. Once again, we picked these tunes because we think that without the words, the melodies themselves are strong enough to provide a beautiful atmosphere.

O'Carolan's ramble to Cashel

One of Eddie's favourite tunes to play live. As already mentioned in the cd-booklet, our friends from Northern Lights also recorded this Turlough O'Carolan tune.

Where the sun don't shine

Ben, the guitarplayer at the time, composed the melody for this piece. Eddie put the chords to it and together they developed it into what you hear now. On this recording, we asked our friend Henk to play the intro on piano.

The Curragh of Kildare

Another song we picked up from Christy Moore. After recording this tune, we learned that there are actually two ways to accompagny this melody with chords. Many people play the song like our cd-version, but the other way is also very nice. This happens a lot with these old songs. Sometimes, people only knew the melody and made up different chords to it; it is impossible to say, which version was the original. However, we don't aim to play pieces authentically; we just want to play beautiful music. At the moment, we play a 'mixed' live-version.

Down by the Sally gardens

No, we did not mix things up when putting the comment on this song together on our cd-booklet; first there was the poem by W.B. Yeats, then came the tune. Harris Moore, the hammer dulcimer player from Northern Lights (who runs an archeological museum in Co.Kerry, Ireland, at the moment) and Jerry Spurlock on lapzither joined in recording this.

Springtime

Another original composition. In this one, Eddie tried to make a melody with a traditional flavour to it and therefor recorded it fairly 'dry'. Just harp and guitar, and a violin to colour the piece.

Sonny's dream/ The Rose

Although played by many Irish folkbands, Sonny's dream is a Canadian song. It tells the listener about loneliness.
Bette Middler had a big hit with The Rose, a romantic song about love. With our friend Nicola Galvin from Ireland we used to sing these two songs often in the pub, which is the reason we linked them on this album.

The time has come

A rather sentimental song about parting. We usually play it after not getting any attention for a while when we're busking.

Seems so long ago, Nancy

Some people only have one reaction to hearing the name of Leonard Cohen, who wrote this song. Usually it's something like 'get the razorblades out!'. It is true that 'Laughing Lenny' didn't write the happiest-sounding music and words ever, but we think that a lot of it is beautiful. This song appeared on his album 'Songs from a room'.

The foggy dew

What do you get when you open up a pub next to a synagogue?

Nancy Spain

Another true classic Irish song. Was the intro really written by Bernard Joyce or did he pick it up from yet another artist?.

The lakes of Pontchartrain

In the USA, an Irishman met a Creole girl by the lakes from the songtitle. One of the recordings Eddie is most proud of.

Paasloo, Xmas 2000

Winter in Paasloo Even in a small country like Holland, there are places that seem far away from the rest of the world...