easy way down

Recorded winter 2019 at Broken Wing Barn in Saugerties, NY. Engineered and mixed by Jefferson Hamer. Mastered by David Glasser at Airshow. Cover art by Sally Caulwell.

“Easy Way Down is an intimate but bold nine track affair that like their first album again captures their brand of magic.  It includes five traditional ballads, with the balance being songs of more recent vintage and each one, I’m happy to report, is a banger.” — Daniel Neely, The Irish Echo

the murphy beds

Eamon O’Leary – Vocals, Bouzouki, 2nd Guitar (track #5)
Jefferson Hamer – Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin (track #7)
Recorded by Jefferson Hamer
Mixed & Mastered by Erick Jaskowiak at J Studio, Nashville

“their great feat turns out to be taking what’s best of the classic Irish folk revival without falling into any of its clichés. The resulting album bears repeated listening from start to finish, with ten beautiful, crystalline songs.” –Huffington Post

TRACK NOTES:

1. Rise Up, My Darling
Learned from the Donegal singer Lillis O’Laoire, this song, ‘Eirigh Suas a Stoirin’, was translated from the Irish by Julie Henigan in 1991. Her original translation below:

Rise up, my darling, if you are within, Open the door and let me come in, I have drink for your mother to make her heart gay, And I hope she’ll not deny me her daughter this day. When I rise in the morning and I look far away, And I look towards the town where my love she does stay, Oh, the tears they fall from me just like two streams of rain, And with sighs and sad longing in grief I remain. In the green, wooded glen I sit weary and sad, From Sunday to Sunday the time I do pass, My eyes on the high road that keeps us apart, And not one thing in this wide world to comfort my heart. How glad are the wee birds that rise every day, And fly back each night to the same branch always, Not so for the likes of my true love and me, For it’s far from one another we must rise every day.

2. Bonny George Campbell
From Francis James Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, melody inspired by Nic Jones

3. Lovely Willie
From the Fermanagh singer Paddy Tunney

4. Come In (The False True Love)
‘The False True Love’ was recorded by Shirley Collins on her 1960 album False True Lovers

5. The Old Churchyard
From Arkansas singer Alameda Riddle, recorded by Waterson/Carthy on A Dark Light

6. Sweet Bann Water
From the book Sam Henry’s Songs of the People

7. Young Emily
Learned from our friend Emily Miller with some additional verses from various other versions

8. Her Bright Smile Haunts me Still
Learned from the recording of Eleazar Tillett & Martha Etheridge, released on the Warner compilation of the same name

9. The Navvy Boy
From Sam Henry’s Songs of the People

10. Donal Og
This version based on the translation from the Irish by Frank O’Connor. Learned from the singing of Al O’Donnell, Karan Casey, and others.