House Session, 11-26-11

A few highlights (shot in very dim light @ISO 6400):

Frank Forde

This news arrived today from Rosanne Santucci via the Greenbriar mailing list:

Sad news!
We just heard from Larry Reynolds that Frank Forde - our gentle singer of a thousand songs in English and Irish - passed away quietly this morning. There are no details as yet about his funeral, but when they are available we will pass them on.
All of us at the Green Briar will very much miss Frank. He knew endless song and, weak as his voice had become lately, always started singing precisely in a standard key. I'll never know how he did that.
We would like to express our sympathy to his family - and particularly to his grandson, Brian, who was always at Frank's shoulder, supporting him.


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
(May his soul be on God's right hand . . . May he rest in peace!)

I loved Frank - who didn't - and especially loved watching Frank and Brian together. Frank didn't know me all that well, but he always made me feel special.  God bless you, sir.

The following are from Frank's Birthday celebration at the Greenbriar last January.

We'll Go No More A-Roving/the Wise Maid

The audio was recorded last Saturday night, November 12, 2011 at the Littlest Bar, Boston, Massachusetts - one of the best sessions I've ever been to - and the photos are a compilation of some of the favorites I've taken in the past year and a half, in various sessions in Boston and on Martha's Vineyard.



Sunday November 20 - I discovered today that the first tune is called The Jolly Beggar Man.

There was a jolly beggarman
Came tripping o'er the plain
He came unto a farmer's door
A lodging for to gain
The farmer's daughter she came down
And viewed him cheek and chin
She says "He is a handsome man
I pray you take him in"

We'll go no more a roving
A roving in the night
We'll go no more a roving
Let the moon shine so bright
We'll go no more a roving

He would not lie within the barn
Nor yet within the byre
But he would in the corner lie
Down by the kitchen fire
O then the beggar's bed was made
Of good clean sheets and hay
And down beside the kitchen fire
The jolly beggar lay

We'll go no more a roving
A roving in the night
We'll go no more a roving
Let the moon shine so bright
We'll go no more a roving

The farmer's daughter she got up
To bolt the kitchen door
And there she saw the beggar
Standing naked on the floor
He took the daughter in his arms
And to the bed he ran
Kind sir, she says, be easy now
You'll waken our goodman

We'll go no more a roving
A roving in the night
We'll go no more a roving
Let the moon shine so bright
We'll go no more a roving

Now you are no beggar
You are some gentleman
For you have stolen my maidenhead
And I am quite undone
I am no lord, I am no squire
Of beggars I be one
And beggars they be robbers all
So you're quite undone

We'll go no more a roving
A roving in the night
We'll go no more a roving
Let the moon shine so bright
We'll go no more a roving