Suggestions for St Patrick's Day repertoire?

Riaan-Combrink

Our duo has been booked to play an Irish-themed venue for St Paddy's Day tomorrow. We were requested to mix some Irish songs into the sets given the occasion. Not songs by Irish bands, but Irish pub-type songs.

I've learnt the obvious ones: Leaving of Liverpool, Wild Rover, whiskey in the jar (both traditional arrangement and the Lizzy version for last set), Fields of Athenry, and also two cooler songs that apparently go down well in these places -Steve Earle's Galway Girl and The Pogues' Fairytale of New York.

Is there any must-do number I've missed. Any advice from those familiar with these types of events would be appreciated.

Squonk

"Dirty Old Town" Pogues did a great version as well.

singemonkey

Squonk wrote: "Dirty Old Town" Pogues did a great version as well.

Isn't that a Ewan Mcoll song? (a Scotsman who lived in England) ?

Squonk

singemonkey wrote:
Squonk wrote: "Dirty Old Town" Pogues did a great version as well.
Isn't that a Ewan Mcoll song? (a Scotsman who lived in England) ?

Yes it is, but the Pogues do a good version.

Last year at TJ's I saw Tom Howden perform this on Saint Paddys day, you can Irish it quite a bit ?

Squonk

You can always add some Plastic Paddy ? stuff (Belfast)

Come on Eileen, could be a challenge

Keira-WitherKay

Go to musica and find a compilation cd of irish trad hits they dead simply once you learn the lyrics mostly 3 chord wonders so you can learn if whole cd in a few hours , also keep that cd of irish songs to play in breaks as even if as a band you only say cover 20 irish songs which is prob only half a nights songs by playing em in the breaks the irish vibe will be carried thru the night . Also learn a few instrumental jigs they fun and again easy to play . Good luck and enjoy the green beer

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote:
Squonk wrote: "Dirty Old Town" Pogues did a great version as well.
Isn't that a Ewan Mcoll song? (a Scotsman who lived in England) ?

It is. It's not a particularly Irish song, but I think you can get away with it.

Irish jigs are great, but maybe Riaan's duo is not well suited to those. Some guys turned up at TJ's open mic night a while back - two fiddlers and a guy playing one of those wooden bodied flutes. They started playing jigs and every toe in the house started tapping - they're kind of hard to resist.

singemonkey

This would be my top choice to play if learning one song - but a little trickier to sing than some.

=

Bob-Dubery

"Oh, Danny Boy
The pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen
And down the mountain side."

There was a great rock 'n roll version of that by, IIRC, Lord Rockingham's XI.

Riaan-Combrink

X-rated Bob wrote: "Oh, Danny Boy
The pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen
And down the mountain side."
There was a great rock 'n roll version of that by, IIRC, Lord Rockingham's XI.

Bob, I did actually rehearse this one - just in case someone requests it. May happen to towards the end of the evening, when the green beer takes its toll (on the audience, I mean ?). PS: have you noticed how morbid those last two verses are? Frightening!

Squonk wrote:
singemonkey wrote:
Squonk wrote: "Dirty Old Town" Pogues did a great version as well.
Isn't that a Ewan Mcoll song? (a Scotsman who lived in England) ?
Yes it is, but the Pogues do a good version.
Last year at TJ's I saw Tom Howden perform this on Saint Paddys day, you can Irish it quite a bit ?

Great suggestion, Squonk. Another one that I did rehearse, but decided to ditch 'cause the track I had for it was'nt as good as the others. But I'm inclined to just do straight acoustic version of it.

Keira WitherKay wrote: Go to musica and find a compilation cd of irish trad hits they dead simply once you learn the lyrics mostly 3 chord wonders so you can learn if whole cd in a few hours , also keep that cd of irish songs to play in breaks as even if as a band you only say cover 20 irish songs which is prob only half a nights songs by playing em in the breaks the irish vibe will be carried thru the night . Also learn a few instrumental jigs they fun and again easy to play . Good luck and enjoy the green beer

Thanks, Keira. I did get two nice compilations, and will pull one or two from there still. My intention was exactly to use it for between sets.

singemonkey wrote: This would be my top choice to play if learning one song - but a little trickier to sing than some.
=

Singe, its a great song, but might be a bit hectic this late in the day! But I really like its vibe - so who knows!

Thanks for all the input, guys. I'm suddenly starting to feel quite nervous about the prospect of 150 drunken Irishmen screaming out random requests for folk songs I'd never heard. Still contemplating doing Metallica's arrangment of Whiskey in the Jar to sort them if they really get annoying!

AlanRatcliffe

Don't forget Brown Eyed Girl!

Riaan-Combrink

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Don't forget Brown Eyed Girl!

Of course! I'll also load the usual sets with songs by Irish bands that I wouldn't always do (Cranberries, U2, etc).