My musical trip to IRELAND. Meeting Mickey McConnel and Gavin family.

On August 22, we met the Family Gavin, and their Gypsy Wagon TV. They had invited me to sing and to be recorded in their wagon, and I had the luck of knowing their natural paradise in the middle of Fintown's Nature; a green paradise of trees and grass, lakes, rivers... They were very kind with us and we spent a happy and nice afternoon of music and friendship. You can see their awesome channel of folk and music.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoiry3FOj-18ibNQe9FijDA

The other great experience of this summer was meeting Mickey McConnell.

First of all, I met the song. “Only our rivers run free”. I listened to it some years ago, through YouTube, sung by a young man in a pub of England; this man seemed a worker or a syndicalist, and he sang for freedom. I felt upset with that song, it made me cry and I didn’t know why. May be It happened because its meaning was applicable to the situation of my country, Catalonia. As I told you, It happened some years ago.

From that moment on, I searched and I discovered that that song was written by a man called “Mickey McConnell”. I learnt things about him. He was born in Northen Ireland. His song “Only our rivers run free” talked about the constittutional status of Ulster, and this song became a hit in Ireland in 1968. He made many other songs like “The little drummer boy” and “Follow the flag”. The songs of Mickey were sung by singers like Christy Moore, The Wolfe Tones, Mary Black, The Kelly Family, The James Last Orchestra...

I listened “Only our rivers run free” again in YouTube from a young singer called Sheena (now she is older and lives and sings in pubs from New York. Few weeks ago she was in derry) and I cried again. Finally I learnt to sing this song, and... from time to time, even now, I perform it in the kitchen of my home for my daughter. Now she is 11, but when she was three or four, she hardly ate his dinner, and I sang this song, an others too, so that she had dinner easier, and really she did. Now, I have just made a Catalan version of the song. I told it to Mickey last night and he loved the idea.

So… after all that… I met Mickey McConnell through facebook one or two years ago. This summer, my family and me decided to visit Ireland and I asked Mickey where did he sing and he told me about McMunns, in Ballybunion. We went to have a dinner there on August, 26, and it was great, magic, exciting… My family and me enjoyed a lot, and, in two occasions, Mickey put his guitar on my hands and asked me to sing a couple of songs. It was very exciting to contribute to the magic of the pub with two Catalan songs. If only I had knew that I was going to sing I would have prepared some irish song; I usually sing “Grace” and “The great majestic Shannon” but I don’t know them by heart, and I sang two Catalan songs that I remember and feel very well. Anyway, It was great. The atmosphere of the McMunns was bewitching, entrancing, gripping, awesome… Mickey sang “only our rivers run free” “Viva la quinta brigada” and many others. Other man whom name I don’t remember that had been a very good football trainning (and player) many years before sang too (a deep song about a worker). A woman stood up and sang too (Me and Bobby McGee). Mickey made us feel welcomed; he dedicated songs to us, he explained to the whole pub that we had come from Catalonia, he introduced ourselves to one of the owners of McMunns and some other kind people, he helped us to feel very happy in a warm and kind human climate. That night, the Irish people of McMunns turned out to be like a group of friends for us, openminded, open to other culture (Catalan culture), cheery…

So… I want to thank Mickey such a wonderful night, three days before I turned fifty years old.

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Singing in GypsyWagonTV

Singing in GypsyWagonTV, on August, 22, 2018. In Fintown (Donegal, Ireland).

Our actual life hides in these foolish things.

More covers in my  YouTube Account

Take my hand, and I'll give my heart.

Today the Moon shines, big and bright.

Our greatest treasure
is the kindness that flies
where it wants;

the kindness that has made our core.
 

Everywhere
a pure soul
draws great designs.

The simplest things
are the most valuable jews.

I'm the owner
of the actions that I made
just because I like making,

I'm the slave
of the habits
that are suppossed to rule
the way I live.

Nothing of what I freely do
makes me different
to the most of the people.
Nothing of what I freely do
is lost forever.
Nothing of what I enforced do
does any good. 

We really live
when we enjoy the simple breaths
of our daily pace.

Our actual life, 

makes us deeply live.
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The best way of starting the first week of june

I heard this song sung by Manu Chao, and I learnt a little bit about rythm. I discovered that rythm is not only a pace to sing a song but also a way of life. Life has the colour we feel inside of us.

I hope you like...

I'm coming.

I'll be arriving in the sunset, when sky gets red. The awakening is bound to be delayed, because I'm weak, and blind, and dark... But inside of me, there is a seed that is germinating. And I'm coming. Expect to see me around sunset-ish. I will have sung all my old sweet songs, the tunes that always make cry us. I'm really looking forward to seeing you. And the gift I ordered is due to arrive just when I met you. I've been dealing with a muse, and she has promised me that she will bring it. I'll be fitting it before night falls.

I'll be arriving with the soft wind, when the thyme's scent spreads around, and time stops, and west inflames, and your face be another sun beside the woods. My wisdom is bound to be delayed, because I'm just a poor monkey playing to be human. But I love you, and I love everybody. So... I'm coming. Expect to see me when my voice sounds. I will have left my possessions far away, and I'm going to be only me. I will have left my lies, and I'm going to be only me. I'm really looking forward to kissing you. And the gift I ordered is due to be here just when I dream of you. I've been dealing with a muse, and I can see her when I think of you. I'll be fitting it before night embraces all.

You, freedom, clearness, lives here, and I'm coming.  

The happiness is in the wide and red expanses where the wind sings and the sun reddens the landscape in the sunset

You may want the flashes and the fame, but the life is in the meadows, the happiness is in the wide and red expanses where the wind sings and the sun reddens the landscape in the sunset. The life is settled in the crepitation of the campfire when stars shine on sky. Life hides on the mountains, between the scarlet big rocks, in the middle of the mixture of scents of rosemary, thyle, pines, and holm oak trees...

I don't yearn the distressing race to reach the possession of all the things; the new things, the expensive things, the funny things, signs of class... I want only a song sung by people that don't sing very well but sing with passion. I want to the people I love... people that love woods, and hills, and streams, and the dark paths in the forest, and the warbling of unknown birds, and long rambles towards the wild nature.

Once upon a time a lonely boy, a sad and lonely boy, that was exiled from his homeland. He lived in a world of concrete and bricks. He was dominated by handlers consciences that wanted to lead him towards the golden jail of myths of conveniences and eternal fears. One day, this boy heard the "Waltzing Mathilda". The "Waltzing Mathilda" was sung by two lovely girls of thirteen in the middle on the wild Australia, beside a campfire. The lonely boy was fourteen, and he had never known any girl because handlers consciences had forbidden any meeting. They said that girls were dangerous because they could put the lonely boy out of the holy way. That day, when the boy heard the girls singing "Waltzing Mathilda", he understood that the life was a magical gift, and that the Earth and the existence were the materialization of a misterious love that rules the universe. With the “Waltzing Mathilda” the boy regained freedom, and this is the reason why this boy has this song as a personal hymn of independance and freedom.

Nowadays, this boy is forty five, and in spite he is a Catalan man, he sings the Waltzing Mathilda (an Australian folk song) beside his son and his daughter, as a song of freedom, love and nature... as a song of love to the life's diversity, and as a song of love to the mountains, the woods and the meadows of the Earth.

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(Images from Parc Natural de Sant Llorenç del Munt)
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Freedom wings

I watch the red warm blood of sons of wood

that dreams a life of water, sun and mud

the songs beside the fire under sky

stars like candles, signs of brotherhood

I read this hope in golden words of love

made all of sweat, and hands and heart and work

of people that  for ever will be kings

without harsh crowns destroying freedom's wings.

Jeremias Soler

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 Foremost, I wrote this poetry.

Then, I thought that It could be a song. I caught the guitar, I went to the kitchen, I accepted to sing bad, without worries about perfections or image, and I improvised the melody I felt while I read and sang these words. My video camera was on because my original idea was hear the song after the recording and to write it. This is a way of composing that I have put into practice some times.

The result is this that you can watch on video; It is not the best interpretation of my life, but It is unique, because is the recording of the song in the same time the song was composed. I hope you like.

Here you are the lyrics and Chords. In the video I put the nut in the sixth fret. I means that Do turn into #Fa, Sol into #Do, lam into #rem, etc. You can put the nut wherever you want.

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This song is registered in some offices of author property, you can freely sing citing the author. Licence Creative Commons.
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