"Soul of a Harper" was a song written by my friend, and fantasy author, Rie Sheridan. She wrote it for me several years ago. I liked the lyrics so much I named my first CD after the song--Soul of a Harper. And then a couple years later, Andrew and I recorded the song for Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales.

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I had finished a show. I wanted to play in a session. So we walked through Lisdoonvarna, Ireland and found the Roadside Tavern. No music was happening that night. So I asked if they would mind if 20+ people came in and sang Irish songs. They were all over it.

So gathered in the back room, and I started playing music. And EVERYONE started singing along. It was a beautiful thing. Then when someone requested "Soul of a Harper", I smiled internally, because I thought of Rie who wrote this song for me. And here I was in Ireland AND a score of people KNOW the LYRICS and were singing HER SONG!

I haven't finished messing with the rest of the music that I recorded that night, but today, I made a quick mix of this song with me and everyone singing along. My vocals weren't in the best shape that night, but it's a beautiful thing to hear.

I hope you enjoy it!
Yes, it's now in my Myspace Profile.

Slainte!
-Marc

I know. I know. I don't need to start any more podcasts, but this is something that's been dear to my heart for a long time. So I thought I'd go ahead and start officially promoting it as such. It's called the Irish Songs & Lyrics Podcast. It began as just my Celtic lyrics directory on The Bards website, but kinda exploded outside of that.

Every Tuesday (or so), the podcast will feature one new Irish or Celtic song that you can download for free through the podcast and share with your friends. All the songs will pretty much be me solo on the autoharp. That's the easiest way to stay consistent with it.

To start off, I'm gonna duplicate songs from the Irish Stout thingy, but my Irish Drinking Songs: A Cat Lover's Companion CD is almost complete. Once it is all start releasing some of those songs and start recording some more.

What's the reason behind this? I'm sort of returning the favor to all those Celtic artists who I listened to and learned songs from. I'm a big proponent of keeping traditional music alive. So this is my chance to do just that. If you like, please share with your friends.

Meantime, you can subscribe by posting the following RSS feed into your podcatcher:
http://www.irish-song-lyrics.com/podcast.rss

Back in high school, I was huge fan of Weird Al. It was a natural progression because my dad was a fan of his comedic predecessors. When I grew up, he sang lots of comedic songs. He'd parody songs and write songs on the fly while playing his banjo. So it was natural for me to hear Weird Al's parodies and become a huge fan.

I bought Weird Al's albums and listened over and over again. But I had one small problem. Not all the songs were parodies. And those that were I wasn't entirely sure what the original songs were because I lost the cassette jackets or the jackets were incomplete. So in my senior year of high school, I made my own compilation tape featuring the Weird Al song, followed by the original version. It was neat to hear the differences.

It was this desire to hear the original that inspired me to record a new CD: Irish Drinking Songs: The Cat Lover's Companion CD. This album features all of the original songs found on my Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers CD. You can hear how a song evolved from a fun Irish song into a purrfectly fun song about the cats we love.

While the production isn't nearly fancy as on Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, it still has all the energy and fun that you enjoy from that CD. All the music comes from my producer Ari Koinuma and Marc Gunn.

Find out more about Irish Drinking Songs:
The Cat Lover's Companion

Here are the songs you will find on this CD:

1. Finnegan's Wake
2. Black Velvet Band
3. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
4. The Moonshiner
5. I'll Tell My Ma
6. Patriot Game
7. Black Is The Colour
8. Bonnie Ship the Diamond
9. Gypsy Rover
10. Wild Rover
11. The Barnyards of Delgaty
12. Fiddler's Green
13. Lord of the Dance

If you enjoy Irish drinking songs, then this is a delightful album for you, full of feline vitality, and also a nice compliment to the Brobdingnagian Bards latest CD, The Holy Grail of Irish Drinking Songs. These are the CDs you will want for St Patrick's Day.