Get all 9 Brendan Melia releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Boots on the ground, The bitter sweet and warm, Craige hill, Ceólminer, Dublin Girl, Forgotten Freedom, The Ballad of a Mean Cavan Hoor, The Lakes of Pontchartrain, and 1 more.
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T'was on one bright March morning I bid New Orleans adieu
And I took the rode to Jackson town, me fortune to renew
I cursed all foreign money, no credit could I gain
Which filled me heart with longin' for the Lakes of Pontchartain.
I stepped on board of a railroad car beneath the morning sun
And I rode the roads 'til evening and I laid me down again
All strangers here, no friends to me 'til a dark girl towards me came
Till I fell in love with a Creole girl from the Lakes of Pontchartrain.
I said my pretty Creole girl, me money here's no good
If it weren't for the alligators I'd sleep out in the wood
You're welcome here kind stranger, our house it's very plain
But we never turn a stranger out at the Lakes of Pontchartrain.
She took me to her mammy's house and she treated me quite well
The hair upon her shoulders in jet black ringlets fell
To try and paint her beauty I'm sure t'would be in vain
So handsome was my Creole girl from the Lakes of Pontchartrain.
I asked her if she'd marry me, she'd said it could never be
For she had got another and he was far at sea
She said that she would wait for him and true she would remain
'Til he returned for his Creole girl from the Lakes of Pontchartrain.
So fair thee well my creole girl I never will see you more
But I'll ne'er forget your kindness and the cottage by the shore
And at each social gathering a flowin' bowl I'll raise
And drink a health to my Creole girl from the Lakes of Pontchartrain.
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2. |
Navigator
04:52
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The canals and the bridges, the embankments and cuts,
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
They never drank water but whiskey by pints
And the shanty towns rang with their songs and their fights.
Navigator, navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
They died in their hundreds with no sign to mark where
Save the brass in the pocket of the entrepreneur.
By landslide and rockblast they got buried so deep
That in death if not life they'll have peace while they sleep.
Navigator, navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
Their mark on this land is still seen and still laid
The way for a commerce where vast fortunes were made
The supply of an empire where the sun never set
Which is now deep in darkness, but the railway's there yet.
Navigator, navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
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3. |
Peggy Gordon
04:22
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O Peggy Gordon, you are my darling
Come sit you down upon my knee
And tell to me the very reason
Why I am slighted so by thee
I'm so in love that I can't deny it
My heart lies smothered in my breast
But it's not for you to let the world know it
A troubled mind can know no rest
I put my head to a glass of brandy
It was my fancy, I do declare
For when I'm drinking, I'm always thinking
And wishing Peggy Gordon was here
I wish I was in some lonesome valley
Where womankind cannot be found
Where little birds sing upon the branches
And every moment has a different sound
O Peggy Gordon, you are my darling
Come sit you down upon my knee
And tell me the very reason
Why I am slighted so by thee
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4. |
Spancil hill
05:16
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Last night as I lay dreaming of pleasant days gone by
My mind being bent on rambling to Ireland I did fly
I stepped on board a vision and I followed with the wind
And I shortly came to anchor at the cross of Spancil Hill
It being the 23rd June the day before the fair
When lreland’s sons and daughters in crowds assembled there
The young and the old, the brave and the bold their journey to fulfill
There were jovial conversations at the fair of Spancil Hill
I went to see my neighbors to hear what they might say
The old ones were all dead and gone and the young one’s turning grey
I met with the tailor Quigley, he’s a bould as ever still
Sure he used to make my britches when I lived in Spancil Hill
I paid a flying visit to my first and only love
She’s as white as any lily and as gentle as a dove
She threw her arms around me saying “Johnny I love you still”
Oh she’s Meg the farmers daughter and the flower of Spancil Hill
I dreamt I held and kissed her as in the days of yore
She said, “Johnny you’re only joking like many’s the time before”
The cock he crew in the morning he crew both loud and shrill
And I awoke in California, many miles from Spancil Hill.
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Brendan Melia County Meath, Ireland
Folksinger/songwriter Based in rural Co Meath.
Music has always been a passion for me, between singing in
pub sessions in the 80s to now gigging and recording music as a profession. It's been a sometimes torturous journey, but music has always been my friend. Even when I was alone, I was never truly alone. It's food and medicine for your soul.
... more
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