Origins Page

The song is sung from the point of view of a young man who chances to meet a charming lady by the name of Rose McCann, referred to as the "star of the County Down". From a brief encounter the writer's infatuation grows until, by the end of the ballad, he plans to wed the girl.

Don't think twice, it's alright. Originally from the Bob Dylan album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

"Goodnight Irene" is a folk standard, made famous by Leadbelly in a 1950 recording. It is associated with the Bristol Rovers football team.
Leadbelly, nickname of Huddie William Ledbetter, 1885–1949, American singer, b. Mooringsport, La. While wandering through Louisiana and Texas, he earned a living by playing the guitar for dances. For a time he joined with Blind Lemon Jefferson, the blues singer, who influenced his future style. Leadbelly's blues and work songs are a survival of the earliest African-American music. He was jailed in 1918 for murder and put on a chain gang; he was pardoned in 1925 but was again put in jail for attempted murder (1930–34) and for assault (1939–40). The folklorist John A. Lomax discovered Leadbelly in prison and used his songs for a book, Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Lead Belly (1936). In the 1940s Leadbelly made numerous nightclub appearances, accompanying himself on his 12-string guitar; in 1949 he made a concert tour in France.

The Molly Maguires were members of a secret organization of miners in the anthracite-coal country of northeastern Pennsylvania in 1865-1875. These men (all of whom belonged to an Irish-American fraternal society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians) took their name, and to some extent their methods, from an extralegal association in Ireland organized to resist oppressive landlords. Angered by the grim conditions under which they lived and worked, frustrated by the mine owners' ability to prevent all union activity, and denied legal recourse by the owners' control of local police and politics, the Mollies turned to intimidation, arson, and murder.

In 1875, they finally succeeded in forming a miners' union and called a strike. At this point, the president of the Reading Railroad called in the Pinkerton Agency, and one of the Pinkertons, James McParlan, successfully infiltrated the Molly Maguires. Based on the testimony of McParlan and other agents, the organization was destroyed and twenty of its members hanged in 1877. Amid the bitter class conflict that characterized the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Mollies were remembered by some as brutal terrorists, whereas others saw them as martyred heroes of the labour movement.

City of New Orleans

Written by Steve Goodman (July 25, 1948–September 20, 1984) an American folk music singer and songwriter.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Goodman began writing and performing songs as a teenager. By 1969, after a brief sojourn in New York City's Washington Square, Goodman was a regular performer at the well-known Earl of Old Town folk music club in Chicago, while attending Lake Forest College. During this time Goodman also married Nancy Pruter, and paid bills by writing and singing advertising jingles.

It was also during this time that Goodman wrote many of his most enduring songs, including "City of New Orleans", the song which would become most associated with Goodman. Goodman's songs first appeared on a locally-produced record, Gathering at the Earl of Old Town, in 1971.

In 1971, Goodman was playing at a Chicago bar called the Quiet Knight as the opening act for Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson, impressed with Goodman, introduced him to Paul Anka who brought Goodman to New York to record some demos; these resulted in Goodman signing a contract with Buddah Records.

Seeing Arlo Guthrie in a bar, Goodman asked to be allowed to play a song for him. Guthrie grudgingly agreed; Goodman played "City of New Orleans" which Guthrie liked enough that he asked for the right to record it. Guthrie's version of the song became a hit in 1972, and provided Goodman with enough financial success to make his music a full-time career. The song would become an American standard, covered by many other musicians including Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, and Willie Nelson.

In 1974, singer David Allen Coe achieved considerable success on the country charts with Goodman's "You Never Even Call Me By My Name", a song which good-naturedly spoofed stereotypical country music lyrics.

Goodman's own success as a recording artist was more limited. Although known in folk circles as a great song writer and highly influential, his albums received more critical than commercial success.

Goodman's singing career remained centered around the folk music clubs of Chicago, and Goodman wrote and performed many humorous songs about the city, including two about the Chicago Cubs: "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" and "Go, Cubs, Go." Others included "The Lincoln Park Pirates", about the notorious Lincoln Towing Company, and "Daley's Gone," about Mayor Richard J. Daley. He could also write serious songs, most notably "My Old Man," a tribute to Goodman's father, Bud Goodman, a used car salesman.

Goodman was closely involved with the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he met and mentored his good friend, John Prine.

Around the time Goodman's career began to take off, he was diagnosed with leukaemia. The entire time he was writing and signing, he was also fighting cancer. On September 20, 1984, Goodman died at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington . Eleven days later, the Chicago Cubs, the baseball team Goodman rooted for and wrote two songs about, would play their first play-off game since 1945 at Wrigley Field.

South Australia is a sea shanty used by the wool

traders who worked the clipper ships between Australian ports and London. It is now a very famous folk song that is recorded by many artists and is present in many of today's song books.

This is well known as a farewell song, sung at the docks as the big ships were leaving. The men grew a sentimental attachment to the song and were even known to request a rousing chorus on their death beds, so that they could die happy.

"N17" is a song about an Irish emigrant longing to be driving on the N17 trunk road that connects Galway with the Saw Doctors' hometown of Tuam.