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We're back in the Republic of Ireland, and we've driven south from Dublin to County Wicklow, a really rural area, and it's the beginning of June.You might be able to hear the cattle lowing in the background here.
And we've come to meet the band Rannegrae, to find the place where their name comes from, and to hear about the ancient roots of their music.
So we're in the farmyard now with Ranagrai, with Eliza Marshall, Donal Rogers, Eleanor Dunstan and Jordan Murray.And we know Don and we know Eliza because they were with us on the Freedom to Roam walk.
But it's lovely to see you, Ellie, and it's lovely to see you, Jordan.Thank you very much for joining us.
Tell us exactly where we are, Don.Well, we're in Ranagrai.It's on the border of County Carlo and County Wicklow.So we'll be actually walking in Carlo and Wicklow. And this is your family farm, isn't it?It is, since 1658.
My goodness, you've been here that long.Well, yeah, I'm looking good.So generation after generation of your family have farmed here.Yeah, generation after generation.And normally the eldest son would take it over.
There'd be big families of 10 kids, 11 kids, more.And of course, they'd all have to travel because you couldn't all stay.
So one of the reasons we're here for this walk hopefully is and some of the project we're doing is exploring what happened to people, why they went away and exploring the place that everybody's from as well.
So you, your family went away and you were actually born in the UK weren't you?Yeah absolutely yeah and so Ma came in her 20s to England but then she soon came back.And she's here too isn't she, your mum Lena?
Yeah she is, she's kind of the last one now here on the land and my brother's here So it was a brief stint in England, and then they came back.And she has great memories from the past, I think, of this place.So many, yeah.
And they all pop out every now and then.There's a lovely story about the travellers, the knights of the road.And they're the kind of homeless people. who might have given up on life a little bit.She always talks about a headmaster.
I don't know who the headmaster was, but you would just give up.And then they'd go traveling and they'd stop at each farm and sing a song and ask for a bed and they'd sleep in the shed in the barn.
So maybe a hundred years ago, and then up to when she was little, somebody would pass and say, if I sing you a song, would you give me a little bit of food and give me a bed for the night?And they would, and they'd sleep in the barn.
That's fantastic.You didn't ask me to sleep in the barn last night.
No, we didn't sing a song.
I'm hoping you might sing a few songs on the walk.
Oh, should we do it and see if we can earn some supper?Yeah, where are we going to first?First of all, we go down to a tributary of the Dereen, which is a little river.And we might stop there first.
And we thought we'd write a little tune and play it for you.Wonderful.
Let's get going. So tell us a bit more about the farm, Don, and what kind of farming goes on here.
Well, in the past it's been everything.We used to grow barley, oats.When we were little and we were here, we grew everything to live.So we're about to pass through the carrot field, where we'd pick the carrots, the cabbages, the potatoes.
It was our job to go and fetch them because we were little. The well would be down in the second field.That's where we'd get water from, because there was no pumps or anything like that.So did you have to carry it up in buckets?In buckets, yeah.
We'll go this way, I think.Through the gate.So there was a pump which wasn't as nice tasting as the well, and the pump is up the road.We'd take the horse and we'd fill a barrel, and that would be our washing water.
And then that would be our drinking water from the well.So there was no inside bathroom?Nothing. Right, so where was the loo?Your imagination's going to have to handle that.Oh really?No facilities?
Well not for hundreds of years, probably until the 1970s, 80s.And then somebody decided to make a loo on site, as it were.
But that was an outside loo, outside the building?
Yeah, and that was then outside, yeah.
Paulina, it's lovely of you to have us here at the farm.Thank you.
It's nice to have you.It's a pleasure.
I want to know how long have you been here?Were you born here?
When I was born here, there was ten of us.Ten children.
And what was the house like in those days?
A house like that was like Crofter's house.It was absolutely terrible, if you like.But we didn't mind that.We were used to it because everybody had the same.
So how many rooms did you have here?It was thatched.Thatched was it, right.
And how many rooms did you have?
We only had the three rooms.
I'm just wondering, with 10 of you in the three rooms, where did you sleep?
Well, there was press beds, wasn't there in them days?Like wardrobes, up against the wall, secured.And then you could let them down at night.And then in the daytime, you could shut the doors across.So that was how that was.
So the beds folded up against the wall?
They folded up, yes.And then we also had what they called settle beds.It's like a monk's bench.
A monk's bench?It looked like that.
Like sleeping on a wooden plank.And they always had them in the kitchen.
Part of the daily stuff was then we'd go to the dairy with my Gran and we'd start making the butter in the churn.So that was hand done?All hand done, by me a lot of the time because she'd say, now turn that for a while.And how long was a while?
It seemed to be an age, gosh, until butter started forming on the top and then people used to like drinking the buttermilk and all that.Yes.
In them days we always had the big cast iron pots.My mother would buy a ten stone bag of flour from the shops and she would bake her own bread always, soda bread.She was brilliant.
She would sit up at night and by the time we got up in the morning there would be at night four big loaves of bread sitting on the dresser.
Made on the cast iron range.
Yeah, yeah.The range was the fire, an open fire.And, of course, we didn't have gas cookers then.In fact, we didn't have any electric.There was no electricity whatsoever.
We had candles and we had paraffin oil.
Lena, did you ever help out on the farm?Did you work on the farm?
Oh, I used to work.Anytime, I'd always help.You know, it was important to me.And I would get up with my father at about five in the morning, and I would follow him down the fields and watch the tracks in the dew of the grass.
He'd always say, it's too early, but I would always like to go.And as time went on, and I'd be coming from school, I'd always go and help my auntie, yeah. I'd always go and milk the cows or feed a calf or hens and chickens or whatever.
The chickens were local, very local, so we'd have them ourselves.And the eggs we'd have, we'd be able to pick.There were little woods out the back and we'd be able to pick, find like 14 eggs a day, 20 eggs a day.
So that would be, everything was very on site.And we'd probably have, especially at harvest time, about seven, eight, nine farmers join us because if we take it in turns,
to help each other's farm during the harvesting and then we'd feed them all, so my mother would have. like a zillion farmers all around the table.What did she feed them?Bacon and cabbage and potatoes.That was a staple diet.Almost every day.
And I have to say, Don, that you very kindly cooked us some bacon, cabbage and potatoes last night, which was absolutely delicious.
Oh, good.Glad to hear it.
I felt we were joining the tradition of the farm.
It was, yeah.I mean, and we cooked the cabbage in the bacon water. which was an old thing that people used to do in the cauldrons on top of the fire.This should be a cookery programme, shouldn't it?
And then they'd get the big heads of cabbage and they'd stuff it around the bacon and then the cabbage tasted amazing.
We had the horse and the cart, and then the lads used to plough.Harvest time, that was when all the oats and that was brought in, and make big pits, and then they'd bring in the big chassis engines.
And every one of the farmers from around, we'd have a be over 20 people working and every one of them would be fed all day.They'd come about 10 o'clock and then they'd be working and they'd get all the, fill all the sacks.
In them days we had to hire out the sacks for to catch the oats.We'd play then until 12 or 1 at night in the chaff, all the kids.It was all very, very happy and very jolly.
So you were making a mess with the chaff?
Having a party in the chaff?
Yeah, very much so.Lots of bacon, big hams.Everybody was, you know, looked after.
Was it a hard life though?I mean, I can imagine that in the winter it could be quite tough.
Yes, it must have been, especially in the winters. And with no kind of heating in the house, except for one fire, you'd find people around the fire quite a bit, getting as close as they can.
And then they'd start singing songs, because there was no TV, and there was no radio.Everything was in-house, feeding, working, living, and entertainment-wise.But we'd sing songs ourselves, me and my brother Tony especially.
Because he's a musician as well, isn't he?He is.There's five of us, and three of us are musicians.Alex teaches. Sound technology down in the south of England.Tony's a piano player, Hammond player in the charlatans band.
And when we were little kids we'd just sing Irish folk songs.
And Tony comes back to the farm still doesn't he?He goes on tour with the charlatans and then comes back and lives here?
Yeah he does, he does that.He tours and then he, I think he prefers his tractors over anything else.And the tractor was Chris de Burgh's tractor.A red tractor.Tractor in red.
It is, yeah.But he lives here in Ireland on the farm up the road.And so you feel a strong sense of attachment here, presumably.Very much.Yeah, very much.It's just knowing where your ancestors are.And because you know that they were here,
and you walk and you see the ditches and somebody will say that ditch was built by your great-great-great-great-granddad with massive stones and you just you start wondering about their life and how they had it and when you go to the graveyard in Nakanana I can see so many of my relatives so you feel a sense of belonging there.
So when Ma was a kid, she would come down to the river on a daily basis.
Oh yes, we used to always go down there and paddle in the river, catch trout.And my brothers would catch the trout and all the minnows and we'd catch them and put them in jars and all the rest of it.
And we'd sometimes come back from school and come back up the river.We'd walk up the river sometimes from school.You know, there were so many roots with the Dureen.
Eyes that never sleep Tears that never cry Words that never plead Eyes never sleep, tears never cry, words never repeat.
My father died when I was 10, unfortunately.It was in the springtime of the year in 1947.He seemed to have a bad cold and then it developed into pneumonia.The doctor came and gave him an injection and he just turned over and died. Just like that.
What a terrible shock for you when you were just ten.
It was a terrible shock for everybody around.For us, for the children, for everyone.I'd never left my mother anyway.The shock didn't.
Eyes that never sleep Tears that never dry Words that never keep.
She had to carry on was the case of having to on her own.It was unbelievably tough.
Eyes that never sleep.Tears that never cry.Words that never keep.
Eyes that never sleep Tears that never cry Words that never keep Eyes that never sleep
Tears are never a crime, words are never a key
That sounded fantastic and I have to say for an instrumental it had a lot of singing in it.It did.
The voice is an instrument as well.
Is there some controversy about how you pronounce the river?
Well the whole thing is interesting in a way it's to do with language so it's spelt you see on a map it's the Dereen, D-E-R-R-E-E-N, so we'd say the Dereen.
Anybody local calls it the Dereen, but then I think, oh you're pronouncing it wrong, and then I realized of course a lot of things were anglicized, so Rannagri has been anglicized as Rathnagru, which is Fort of the Hare in Gaelic, a ra and a guria being a hare, and over time the locals would say Rannagri,
The English came over when they said they just spelt everything in an English way.We're going up to a place called Rathbane and it's actually Rathborn and born would probably be be a fodder n and an a fodder is an or sound so it'd be Rathborn.
Everybody around here says Rathborn. But on the map, if you read it, because it's been anglicised, it's Rathbane.So you have to.So everything is kind of up for grabs, really.
And language is very political, isn't it?So language is about the incomers and the people who are here already, indigenous people and so on, tussling over their language.
Totally.So much so that they used to build head schools, hadn't they, so they could teach.So up on my brother's farm, Tony,
There was a hedge school, you can still see the remnants of it, where it was illegal to teach the kids, either in Gaelic or at all, because it was years ago.
And they used to build hedges so that people could hold classrooms in the fields, surrounded by hedges.
And talk Gaelic there, as a sign of kind of defiance.Yes.
So it's very kind of, yeah, language is obviously very important to a lot of people.
So let's go on, because there's politics in the next song, I think, isn't there?Yes, there is, a little bit, just a little bit. But we're all friends now.
I just want to make it clear here that people are sacrificing themselves for their art here and that Ellie is carrying a harp because wherever Eliza and Don are there has to be a harp.
Last time we had to lift the concert harp for Catherine Finch up the Malvern Hills.Now Ellie, it's not quite a concert harp is it?What is it?
So this is a clarisac or a lever harp so yeah I can't complain. quite as much.
Well you can complain a bit because it's quite heavy, it's on your shoulder isn't it?It is, yeah.Do you normally take it for a walk?
Not this far usually, no, I've normally shoved it in the back of a car by now.
Well it's very kind of you to do it and I have to say I'm available for carrying duties.Thank you very much.Should you get tired.
I've noted that, thank you.
And Liza you've got several flutes as usual, there's never less than say ten are there?
Something like that, actually, Matthew.Yeah, I mean, I'm just greedy.Look, I've got this amazing harp to compete with again.
You've got a big cylinder on your back.
Yeah, it's an amazing case.
You've got a bass flute in there or something.
I've got my bass flute and I've got lots of whistles and Indian Bansuris and things in my flute.
What have you got, Jordan?I've just got the one drum with me today, Mr Baron.Travelling Light?Yeah, for once.It doesn't happen often.Normally I've got the most stuff, but... So you decided against bringing the whole kit?
Yeah, it was... You've got a gong and a... Basically, we've got an orchestral bass drum on stage these days, so it's normally... And that dulcimer, do you play the dulcimer?
Yeah, the dulcimer, we're starting to write that in with some of the new material that we're working on.It's just a nice little kind of colour that we're trying to bring in.And Don, you've got the guitar?
Well, no, Jordan's just done it.I should carry on.Yeah, Jordan's my roadie.Yeah, just a guitar and a bouzouki now.We're kind of layering that into some of the new writing as well.
Elijah, I want to hear a bit about the history of Rannegrae, the band, not the history of Rannegrae, the place, which Don's been telling us about.But how did the band come into being?
So Don and I had spoken for years about our love of folk music.We're all from very different kind of musical backgrounds, I suppose.I was classically trained.
The original harpist and baron player that we started the band with, Gene Kelly from Cork, was also classically trained.
Don comes from a very sort of bluesy indie background, but we really wanted to bring all of these kind of flavours together, I suppose, into our love of folk music that we all grew up with.
So it was about 10 years ago we just started we thought right we'll just we'll get together we'll just write and we'll see what comes out and it's really interesting being here with you because often we're described as an Irish Anglo band and I think sometimes that's almost confusing for people because they think oh an Irish band that of course means traditional Irish music
actually it's more of the Irish, it's this land, it's where we are, that's the context of the Irish heritage and influence I suppose and yes we love Irish music and we bring that flavour but we also bring a lot of those other colours, indie,
folk from all over the world.I love African music.Ellie, our harpist, Eleanor Dunstan, is up in Scotland and she loves Scottish music, so it's like a melting pot, I suppose.
And also the instrumentation is really interesting, isn't it?To have the flutes, the harp, the guitar, the percussion.It's the different colours that you bring to the music.
Yeah totally and you know what's lovely and I'm sure you've seen this with other bands over the ages as you sort of morph and change and different people come and go what I love about that is that people bring their own flavour and their own input and that to me is really important because it's so lovely to allow people that freedom so for example Jordan plays the dulcimer
and he also plays the concert bass drum and he plays kit and frame drum.
So suddenly Rana Gwaii of 10 years ago has got a whole load of new kind of spices I suppose that you can add to the cauldron and that's really exciting and as writers that's a really it's a lovely opportunity I guess to expand the sounds which is what we've been doing in this year and for our new album.
And then you have them sort of inspired by this place.
Yeah, I think some of the stories that we have heard over the years from both Don and his mum and the family are very special, you know, and they're important to sort of hold within the writing.
And we're keen to capture the idea of homeland, the necessity and the beauty of where we're born, but also what we can bring when we leave our homelands and what we can take to places.
And what's the role of traditional music as opposed to the new music that you're writing together?
Actually, within this album, it's going to be completely original, so we're not actually taking any old traditional melodies.
But you've recorded traditional material in the past, haven't you?
We certainly have.We've recorded two traditional albums, actually, and they are only traditional tracks that we've kind of ripped apart.
and then put back into a ranugrai box and that's really good fun actually and really lovely because then you can go and search the stories from elsewhere and from other people and also looking at other people's interpretations of particular songs and seeing how we want to interpret them and what colours we want to bring Now Don's seeing off another cow
I'm just looking at the cattle now, so we have to weave our way through.They're lying in the middle of the path, aren't they?
Yeah, we'll probably go around them and not stick to the path.
Yeah, I think you're right.Discretion is the better part of valour.Because they've got calves, haven't they?
They've got little ones and they'll be quite protective.Bessie?Don't think about it.
Yeah, Bessie's little.He likes to tease the cattle.
We have a little tiny hut down here, a tiny ruin.
There are several different ruins on this farm but this one... So this is a little dwelling, an old dwelling, where some Gibbonses lived.
Gibbonses is our kind of original family name and my mother's maiden name but they departed because of TB and it kind of wiped them all out and then
the farm took this over and burnt the cottages out, because that's what they used to do, burn them out to kind of kill the disease.Whether that kills disease, I don't know, but that's what they would do a long time ago.
So it's left the stone walls standing but no windows and a corrugated iron rusting roof.
Absolutely, and that's more the dwelling with little windows.You can just about see where an old window would be again.But in here, it's nice and dry.So we thought maybe it might be somewhere to do a little tune.That would be great.
The song we're going to do is Follow Me Up to Carlo, and Fierce McHugh O'Byrne was like a warrior in 1580. And the British were here, Black Fitzwilliam and Lord Grey.
And there was a famous battle where Fieke McHugh-O'Byrne ran down the mountain and basically won the battle.And they didn't win many battles.Beat the English.Yeah, for a change.
They awoke your face, bootin' over the old discreet, That black Fitzwilliam stormed your place, Drove you to the puddle, they said victory was sure, Soon the fire ran, he'd secure, Till they met at Glen Malour, Fick McHugh will burn.
Curse and swear, Lord Kildare, Fick will do what Fick will dare, Now Fitzwilliam, have a care, Fallin' is your stronger, Up with halberd, up with sword, Done will go, for by the Lord, Fick McHugh Who's given the word?Follow me out to Calhoun.
See the swords of Glenamal Clashing over the English pail See all the children of the gale Beneath the burnt pallet Rooster of a fighting star Would you let a Saxon cop throw out a paw?
We need some banners, first in the square, Lord Kildare, it will do what it will dare.Now Fitzwilliam, have a care, all it is to startle.Up with Halberd, up with Soar, on we'll go for by the Lord.Iggy Q has given the word, follow me up to Garlow.
Who's a stream of Saxon gold, great as Rorio?
Now for Blackford's William's head Send him over, dripping red To Liza and her lady Girls who swear Lord Kildare Faith will do, faith will dare Now it's William, have a care All that is to straddle Up with halberd, out with sword Long will go to by the Lord Faith in you has given the word Follow me up to Carlow Follow me up to Carlow
That was wonderful, thank you very much.
Have you ever played here before, Don?Never.It's lovely to bring a bit of music back to the little old houses.
I imagine that some of those houses must have had the dancing, because there was no television or radio or anything like that, so it's self-entertainment again.
And you'd have had people learning Irish dancing perhaps, and singing songs, playing the fiddle.So it's actually nice to bring a bit of music back and evoke some of the old ghosts, perhaps.
They'd be well in telling stories too, presumably.Ghost stories would have been told round the fire, wouldn't they?
Oh gosh, they would, yeah.And to frighten the kids.And probably to keep the kids in line as well.
We do a song we won't do today called The Bogeyman, but we were always told to be scared of the bogeyman, and our story is more about Donald Trump than anything else.Well, that's scary.
Yeah, we kind of tried to mix a bit of politics in with humour and storytelling and that, and some of the stories around the fire that we had when we were younger about the Banshee and about Black Shuck the dog and the Lady of the Bog, who apparently
fell into the bog on her way back from mass all dressed in black with a black handbag and now she's seen with a white handbag all dressed in white on the bog.Transformation.Yes, but it's a strange one.
I think when you become, you get to about 10 years of age you go, that can't be right.
When I was much younger, all the people would come storytelling all night.There was all the old gossip and the stories and you could go back years and years and all the ghost stories, how so-and-so had returned or something.
So somebody had come back from the dead?
Yeah, that's right, all the time.
And you used to sit round the range and listen to them tell the stories?
Listen to them all night.Or we would sometimes go down the road to a man down the road, brilliant at telling stories.We'd be terrified coming home because he used to say, just down there, there was big hounds or something sitting at a coffin.
And we'd walk back home, backwards, In case something is coming.
So Jordan, is this your first visit to Rana Grae?It is actually, yeah.We've heard so many stories from Don Analyzer actually and quite a lot of the tracks in the sets that we do live have reference to this place.
So it's actually so nice to come here and put a place to the stories.
Yeah, so how does it feel to play here, to play some of the songs here?
It's amazing actually because there's so much history here already and then as a band as well we have a lot of time before myself and Ellie joined so it's kind of nice to kind of play all these songs that we're kind of bringing them back to the place that they're meant to be almost.
It feels a bit like a pilgrimage.
Do you ever wish you'd taken up the tin whistle, Ellie?Don't start.I think Eliza has enough instruments that it's not even relevant anymore.Let me just get through this huge pat of mud.So Ellie, what drew you to the harp in the first place?
I think I just wanted to make my parents' life a misery, really.
So did they have to take you everywhere?
They did, yeah.I was very lucky.They were very supportive.Both of my parents are musicians.
So they're both jazz musicians, so they both play woodwind.But I was offered harp lessons.I was very lucky.A scheme set up by Luke Daniels, who is a melodion player, and he was getting Irish trad music into primary schools around Berkshire.
So that was my introduction into traditional music.
So the harp was available to you in school, in Berkshire, was it?
Yeah, yeah, through the Girl Music Trust.I was offered free lessons for a year, so otherwise I would never have touched the harp.
That's an amazing thing.And what sort of harp do you learn on when you're first starting out?
It was a very small 22-string lap harp, so I could just about kind of have it on my shoulder, and it was on a chair in front of me, so it was the right height.
And then you progressed to larger and larger instruments, do you?
Yeah, so the one that I'm playing now is about as big as lever harps get.They've got 34 strings.
And tell us about the particular instrument that you're carrying so strongly down this path.
wobbly actually.This harp is, it's a starfish harp so it's built up in Glencoe in Scotland by Dave and Davy.They have a workshop up there.
They used to be boat builders and Davy's married to a harpist so he built a harp and that was how that happened.That's a very romantic story isn't it?
I quite like telling that story.
And is traditional music part of your heritage?Is that what you have grown up playing?
It's how I started learning the harp.I was taught, I was trained classically before that, so I grew up playing piano, classical piano, and then started learning the harp by ear.
And then I studied traditional music in Scotland, so that's kind of the world that I live in now, yeah.
What about you, Jordan?What was your route into percussion?
Similar to Ellie, I kind of started with piano and then my first study was actually organ for about six years.So I was an organist and then percussion kind of was very much a kind of second or third instrument.
And then I went out to America for a year to kind of pursue percussion a little bit more deeply and then came back and kind of took it on kind of more as my principal instrument. So the organ is the least portable instrument you could find.
Where did you play?Were you associated with a church?
The school I studied at, they had an organ in the hall basically, so I stood on that and then I did some stuff at Bradford Cathedral and then I did quite a few courses around the country, so going to like York Minster and Peterborough Cathedral and things like that.
I've always felt that if you were a power-hungry person, sitting up in the organ loft at York Minster must be quite a feeling.
It's amazing.It's because you've got all these different keyboards, basically, and all the pedals, and you pull all the stops out, and you're playing a building.It feels amazing to do it, really.
So what about the percussion?What drew you to percussion?
I joined a scout band when I was fairly young and then went into the kind of drum call circuit, which is very much an American discipline.And then that's what I went out to the States to do.So what is that marching bands?Essentially?Yeah.
So basically you're wearing a uniform.
Yeah.Yeah.So we met on weekends and we basically just would learn the show repetition until it's perfect.It was competitive.
Oh, right.So you go in, it's like strictly come dancing or something.There are judges and they're giving you marks and you're marching against other bands.
And so you're no stranger to walking around. carrying your instrument?
Oh no, not at all.It seems to follow me around somehow.So what were you carrying in the marching band?
So a lot of the time I did the tune percussion which was stationary at the front of the ensemble but then I did a little bit of marching tenors which is a group of six drums on a harness you have to march around and it's all the formations that you create with all the other members of the band and it's quite intricate and exhausting.
And then you've got to march in time presumably at the same time.
which sometimes was harder to do when you think actually, but you try to concentrate all these things at the same time.
And if you're syncopated in the rhythm of the drums presumably it's tricky to keep your feet not syncopated.Yeah, exactly.
And also there's a massive thing about distance because you're on a football field, so sometimes you're so far away from the brass or the tune progression at the front that you have to anticipate the beat by almost half or full beat sometimes just to try and get the sound to line up at the front.
Did you win?Yeah, we won quite a few European championships.And then when I went out to the States to group out there, we won the world championships with them actually.So it's been, it was great like climbing the line into percussion.
They're really like sticklers for getting technique, everything like nailed and perfect.So was there a lot of practice?Oh yeah.It'd be 12 hours, Saturday, Sunday, every weekend.
All the way through.You'd break for lunch, break for dinner.Did you lose the skin on your fingers and things like that?Calluses, yeah.I had like huge lumps on the side of my fingers from playing like four mallet marimba stuff.
they took years to actually go down actually, because when I got to London I went to Guildhall to study, it was so much less intense, it felt a lot easier on the hands.
I'm thinking about that movie, the jazz movie where the drummer is, but what's it called?
Whiplash.Whiplash, yes, was it like that?Where he's got to beat you into submission and keep going and keep going and keep going.
Yeah, very much so.It was a good day, everybody there was really invested in the end goal, it was like a really nice team unit sort of thing.
And I think you've just finished with Eliza being part of the on-stage band at the Royal Opera House for the ballet Winter's Tale.Yes, yeah, yeah.
That must have been amazing.Oh, it was fantastic.And again, Eliza thankfully gave me a heads up before the run started that they wanted the dulcimer to move around.
Obviously a dulcimer's not really a moving instrument, so I had to kind of craft this whole harness that I could move around with it on.And I think the drum call training kind of came in handy with that a little bit.
Yeah, it was fantastic because we were on stage with all the ballet dancers.In costume again.In costume, yeah.It's amazing to see the ballet from the opposite side to most people.
And to see it up close like that, to see the way the dancers' bodies work must have been so revealing.
It showed you how rigorous their schedule was when they were all injured during the process and they're all just marking through the rehearsals so that they could get the performances to be 100%. It seems very intense for them.
It kind of makes what we do almost seem easy.
But it sounds like there's a sort of parallel between the way they push themselves and the way you were pushed when you were doing marching balance.
Yeah, it seems to be a kind of just repeat and flip.Yeah, very much so.
So, listen, we're getting left behind, so let's move on because we've got to catch Don and Eliza up.We're going through an absolute quagmire here.I think somebody's driven a tractor through the bog.
And if you went into it, your wellies would definitely get wet and squelch.And we have to just climb.It's like the sort of surface of the moon here.So we have to get through this muddy bit to catch them up.
So we've climbed over a little ditch now and into a group of pine trees.There's a carpet of pine cones and pine needles and moss underfoot and we're inside the canopy of the trees.It's really atmospheric in here, isn't it?
Yeah, it's one of my favourite places.It looks like an alien landscape at the bottom in some parts of the year. The grass grows in these kind of strange alien shapes, I don't know why.
And the river, the Dereen tributary, it's bigger down there, but there's a swamp on the way, so it's better not to go through it, probably, with a harp.
But I think it was planted, this tree, by a man called Jimmy Goss, who was kind of a neighbour, an old family relative.And he planted this whole wood, and gosh, when we met Jimmy,
when we were kids, obviously, and we saw him every day of his life, almost.Did he live next door?He lived next door, yeah.And when I told my Ma that I loved this bit of the woods, she said, Jimmy Gloss planted those trees.
So I like it even more because I love Jimmy. And is he with us still?He's not with us anymore, no.Perhaps seven years ago, I think, he died.And he was an amazing character and well known in the whole area.Everybody knew Jimmy Goss.
Kind of an enigmatic... What would you say, Eliza? as a character.See, Eliza's met Jimmy as well.So he was kind of very eccentric.
Yeah, he was very eccentric.He was very welcoming.When I first came here, actually, 15 years ago, and I brought all my pipes and I'd sit outside and I'd play lots of different tunes.And he was always really grateful for that, wasn't he?
He really enjoyed the music we'd bring with us.And I think, yeah, eccentric is a good word.He did things slightly differently and he was slightly unusual, but he was really, really welcoming and we all loved him, didn't we?
We definitely did, yeah.He gave you, I think, Boule of Vogue songbook to play and you played him Boule of Vogue, which is an old kind of rebel song really, but it's a beautiful old song.
Yeah, he appreciated that, didn't he?He loved that.
Did he used to come in and out of your house as if he lived there?
Daily.Oh yeah, he did.Exactly like he lived there.He'd keep his own food in our fridge.And then he'd walk in and he'd get his butter out and he'd spread his bread.He'd come in and he'd say, lovely day.
It was actually, it was one of the things I loved most when I first came here because you really got that amazing sense of community that you get the neighbours coming in and you don't know who belongs where and the tea is always on the boil and there's something very homely and very community oriented about that and I really loved that.
This is an amazing legacy though, isn't it?It is, actually.To leave this behind when you go for subsequent generations to enjoy and to experience is a wonderful way to be remembered.Yes, it is.
And maybe it'd be nice to play a song here, in fact, to play a tune.
That would be wonderful.Yeah, and I think Eliza said the hare was going to feature.
Well, that would be a good one because the hare's always trying to hide from the dogs.And as you can see, Bessie today, who's been travelling with us, Miss Bessie, that's her full name, the little collie.
She's always on the lookout and sometimes she'll catch the glimpse of a hare or a rabbit and she's off on the chase.So the tune that we're going to play emulates that really, it's about that chase.
There was lots of hares, lots of rabbits, and the hares were absolutely beautiful.
And did you see the hares boxing?
Yes, we did, yeah.They played up on their hind legs.
It's an amazing sight, isn't it?
It is, it's brilliant, yeah.But we don't see a lot of them now.And the cuckoo used to come, but the corn crake was so important.The corn crake was always in the meadows.
We always used to be chasing along in the meadow after the corn crake, but now there are no corn crakes.
Have you noticed things changing, Don, around here?Have you noticed, as we hear so much about the loss of species and the loss of wildlife... You don't see as many here as you would when I was younger, when I was little.
You don't see as many at all.I don't see... This lane's changed.This lane was famous.I always thought it was haunted.On the right-hand side there, there was a bank.
and it used to have like burrows in it and I was always told that the rats were going to come and jump at my neck.So I don't know why they told me that, so I was always so scared to come up this lane.
Were there rabbits burrowing in there?
Probably, but they wouldn't tell you that.
And how has it felt today to have Rannegrae the band at Rannegrae the place?
It's fabulous. It's given me the opportunity to play some music which I probably wouldn't have done just up there by the old ruins.I'm bringing some music back to places where there must have been music a long time ago.
So it's just lovely to do that because you're always walking around here but not playing.
And I talk to some musicians who say when a song is inspired by a place, they conjure that place in their minds when they're on stage.Is that something that you do?
I do totally and some of the songs that we're writing for the new album that we're doing are quite emotional and when you write them and you start seeing them you start you can quite well up quite a lot because you kind of know what your story is and you get right to the heart of it and you hope that you've written it so that everybody else can get that as well but you definitely have it in you and so that's quite
emotion at times.And wherever you play, presumably Rannagrai the place is with you.
Oh totally it is here.It's such a special place to me and one of the ways to hold on to it when I'm not here is through the music really.
You take the smell with you as well because there's a good smell of cows here, isn't there?
It is at this time of the year.
It's fantastic.We're just a bit out of breath because we're going up the hill towards the farmhouse.We're going to head towards a building behind the farmhouse.Yes.
What is that building?It's the site of the original house that the family moved to from who knows where in about 1658.
And there's still a ruined house there.
There is.So I don't know what the original one would have looked like back there, but my great-great-grandfather built this house.I think it was a replacement.Let's see what stories it might tell us.
underneath an ivy-covered wall to a rather overgrown yard at the back of the farmhouse.So it's a stone-built building, but there's absolutely no roof.You can see the gable end at one end.
It's quite a small building, and then the bright green corrugated iron door is hanging off its hinges a bit, isn't it?
Yeah, that was a lovely door at one point.What were you going to sing for us in there?Well, I used to, when I was a child, I'd come here and the lady there, Jimmy Goss's bond, this was Jimmy Goss's house,
she said would you like a feed of potatoes and I'd love that and she'd have the old cauldron over her fire and she'd feed me and I remember I remember just liking the atmosphere in there of course it's they've all gone now and but the shell is there
and so I don't know it brings lots of memories but the song perhaps is to do with there was 10 people in each family at least and they'd all have to travel somewhere they had to find work and they'd all promised to come back but a lot of them didn't so they'd write back and they'd say if you see Jimmy would you say hello to him if you see so-and-so say hello
And some of those people, in their minds, although they were coming back, because they didn't, the people that they were writing to would never age.
So they were the kind of people, the ghosts who they'd always love and always write to and always imagine would be that kind of the person that they left, even 50 years later, of course, which wouldn't be the truth.
So the song is called Say Hello, and it's to do with writing that letter, promising that you'll come back.
home to see your ma to see your brothers and sisters but maybe never owning enough to get back always trying to it's hand to mouth isn't it and we also mention in the song the pioneers and the pioneers were people who took the pledge my grandfather took the pledge
And the pledge was, you take the pledge and it's a little pin and we have it in the house.I had it in my hand this morning.You mean the pledge of abstinence?Abstinence, yeah.Not drinking?Not drinking at all.Right.
And so my grandfather wouldn't let an alcoholic drink over the step of the house and he proudly wore his pin.And it's just nice to mention them because they did such a lot.
And there was such a lot of, I suppose, people who turned to drink when times were hard and times were bad in England.And that's one of the reasons they never got back to Ireland as well, to see home. the navigators who kind of built the roads.
In England?Yeah, absolutely.So in the whole album we're trying to focus on some of these groups of people and the things they did. the pioneers part of it, the navvies part of it, and the people who never got the chance to come home.
And we're going in through the nettles here, and nature is reclaiming the building, isn't it?I mean, because the nettles and the weeds are growing up all around it.
But if we go in, we might find the musicians assembled, I think.
Yeah, hopefully.Hopefully they've put the kettle on.
Oh, there's a remarkable old cooker here.Is that a cooker?It's some kind of a range, yeah.
It's just rusting away in the middle of the floor here inside the building.
I mean, you've got old tools, like there's a good grass-cutting scythe here, which probably belongs in a museum.Yeah, certainly seen a bit of action there, hasn't it?
It certainly has.So what a great setting for this song.
Yes, and they would have sat there.There's a little window there.That's called a wainscot.And the door would have been that side originally.And it's been bricked up.And people would come in, walk around the wainscot, and sit around the fire here.
Jordan's in the fire at the moment.So be careful now.Don't burn yourself.
Hey, Johnny.You've got the stones but got no money.
♪ You've got holes in your pockets ♪ ♪ You've got nothing but neighbors and your rocket ♪ ♪ Oh, hey, Eddie, you've got the nerve ♪ ♪ You've got to stay steady ♪ ♪ You've got love by command ♪ ♪ You've got nothing to keep it in your pocket ♪ ♪ Won't you say hello to the ones I love ♪
You've got something but your soul ain't stillin' You've got nothin' in your pocket You've got reasons and nothin' so forget it Oh, hey Johnny You haven't written no letters to your honey You've got holes in your soul Got no reason so never go on
To the folks I love who won't grow old
A lot of them emigrated to America.There was eight before me, uncles, and they went to America.
So there must have been a lot of saying goodbye to people.
All the time.And of course, in them days, they had to take them to the train with the horse and cart.
I've still got letters from my aunt in America where she went on the train and went over to America and always intended coming back but never made it.
And she used to write and say what was going on, did she?
Yeah, how is everybody and hope you're all well and that sort of thing, you know.And one day she said, I'm hoping, I'm hoping to come back.
Say hello to the ones I know The folks I love who won't grow old To their pioneers working through the years Would you say a prayer and say hello?
That was absolutely fantastic and accompanied by the Rooks who were going in the background there.But thank you.So atmospheric here in the Seoul building.Thank you so much for spending the day with us.Thank you for the walk.Thank you for the music.
Thank you for all your stories and your hospitality.It's been amazing.
Thank you.Thank you for your time.
Thank you for everything. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Folk on Foot as much as we enjoyed making it.
There are over 60 episodes of Folk on Foot for you to explore, featuring amazing artists like Eliza Carthy, Johnny Flynn, The Unthanks, Kareem Polwart, Chris Drever, Sandra Kerr, Catherine Tickell and many, many more.
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