Jerry Early Arranmore Friends - Feile Artist Introduction

In this episode, Kevin sits down with Jerry Early of Jerry Early Arranmore Friends, to spend a few minutes getting to know more about what audiences can expect at this year's Féile. We'll also share a couple of their songs to give you a taste of what's in store.

You can find more information about the Feile and purchase tickets at the Beaver Island Irish Heritage group website:  www.BIIHG.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You can find more information about the Phaela and purchase tickets at the Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group website, www.bihg.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation. In this episode, Kevin sits down with Jerry Early of Jerry Early Aaronmore Friends to spend a few minutes getting to know more about what audiences can expect at this year's Phaela. We'll also share a couple of their songs to give you a taste of what's in store. You can find more information about the Phaela and purchase tickets at the Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group website at www.bih.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hello everybody! This is Jerry Early here from Armore Island. So yeah, I will be appearing for the fourth time at the Fala on Beaver Island in September. Really looking forward to it. Well we're advertised for that can be construed into the ear of somebody that becomes sort of the head guy. That's not the truth. Bottom line is just one of four years, well for the fourth fourth year myself. My cousin John Gallagher, who is from Glasgow. John, a great storyteller, great song songwriter. John and I have collaborated on a few TV projects together. So yeah, John John has so many gems of songs and stories about the songs. And then we also have Anne Conahan who plays the well, she's multi- multi-instrumental. But she she normally plays the uh accordion or the virtual. And the reason that she only plays accordion is because she's traveling that this isn't that she couldn't bring all the instruments that she can play. So she may also be you'll probably hear her on a 10 whistle or maybe even a low whistle, low D whistle that she plays. And it's just an exceptional, exceptional musician, also brilliantly talented teacher of not just music but also dance and being old, also all that is good about Irish traditional music. She's very much at the forefront of the as opposed to the uptake with the young people in the island here playing different different instruments. It's really very similar to the change program that used to run on Beaver. There's a real uh really good vibe now with the young people and it's central to that. A really good teacher, patient, it just you know makes it simple, makes everybody feel welcome, it's all very interesting. Um the fourth member of the band is John Flanagan, who is Anne's husband. John plays Byron at the very end of the art as well. He does the marmors program, um that has been done uh a couple of times at the festival at least in two years. So John is all about that. John solid, solid foreign player, good storyteller, great company, and adds adds a lot to uh to the group. So that is that is basically the makeup of the group. What we do we're very, very, very uh adaptable to all types of music. I could sit down here or I could I could tell you now the style of music and the type of songs that we will be doing, and when when we get there go on stage, it'll be totally different. There's a little bit of a mistake about that, but the raw results or it's just the way it is. I have never done a sad lesson in my life, ever, ever, ever, unless it's you know in a very formal, formal situation. I don't feel that the failure is formal, I think it's very loose. And I I I think that probably the end of what we do is that you know we you play it in the crowd, you you make a judgment on on what works and what doesn't work. But typically speaking for myself, I can also speak for John. You know, songs about the story has a better mean and has a better depth, you know. I would say that you know both of us would sort of lean towards as a genre. But that's not to say, you know, that's all we do. You know, we always like to talk to you then, but again, it depends on what the audience wants, is what we tend to try and get with. And then ad is so flexible also, uh, would be you know, if you want flat stuff, we can do a lot of that, we can do you know, Jesus reels island bar dances and and then incorporate part of that into dance like the old-fashioned Irish dances that would be under still are danced here, you know, to the present day and come back a long, long time. So what you're gonna get is a mix of it all, it's very done it all basic. And it's very simple, there's nothing complicated about what we do. In fact, sometimes we feel like we're fraud, and people actually sit down and listen to it at all. But someday they will we will be found out and and our creators will come to a shudder and shudder and cult. But while there's still a bit of interest, we're we we love what we're doing and we love getting out there and sharing our songs and our stories with all the famed people on that beautiful island.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Not tonight of any nights of the coxswain of the crew. The chances of survival on a night like this are few. December nineteen forty, around the coast of Donego came a great north wind that could have been the cruelest of them all. Fourteen men were missing, eighteen more in great distress. Jack boy knew that their future and his hands have come to rest in the man to the CF any man we show the way without delay. Oh don't I'll go to a bit done. I'll go I am my father, I'll best I can I am my father. I wonder how that life would possibly survive. They all agree that some at least the credit price would pay. And the own that shed a tear I knelt down on the ground to pray. While standing on the pier with his hand, the squad of men Jack told each one that they might never see their homes again. And he told them there would be no shame, this time they said no. He strapped across upon his brows dump dump i done Against the storm, against the gale, against the mighty whale. Those men write me honored as the bravest of the brave, and let everyone lift them a thank God for men like these Who would rest their lives for strangers and peril on the sea. With the boils and the burns and rogers, the fate deceased from hell, with the waves of all them crashing down on a heaven mass below. God bless them everyone amid the buttons stay out. They faced the biggest storm that they had ever seen before, but they brought them eighteen sailors home and left them on the land. Now they're safe and well and home again by the grace of God's own hand. Now the spirits soar above the waves and they varned eternal rest. I'm surely if there's justice, they are stay there with the best. And I'd like to think I'm at last a god who has spoken stuff down low and welcomed home the eight brave men who made the voter I'm my father. Yes, I'll go and do the best I can, I'll do what must be done. I'll go cause I'm an island man. I am my father's son, I will go and do the best I can. I'll do what must be done. I'll go cause I'm from Iron Moor. I am my father's son.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

So typically we arrive on Beaver at the beginning of the week. Well I like to arrive, you know, two or three days before before everything kicks off. Just for a bit of downtime and I I like to I like to to help out as well, you know, just if anybody wants my thoughts on anything, I'm I'm I'm generally very fortunate with that regular on me, but I tend to uh I tend to love watching the dynamics of the festival, such as Philothy, you know, start and have a set of so that leads on to the third night, which is which is a very special night, actually. It's called the holy hour, which would have been adopted from the session we have back and are more black and are holy. The holy hour is where sometimes three or four musicians, sometimes one or two musicians, sometimes just myself. And the holy hour is and it takes on many different forms. It can be native, it can be native stories, it can be both the organizers on on the work on the failure. Kevin didn't think that it'd be worth trying it. Uh the the logistics of trying to bring that what we have on our more uh to a much bigger room. What a much more formalizable. I'm not gonna lie, it did cause me a little bit of you know, I I cannot possibly work. But we take it you know, this will be the third year we've done it, we take it from year one to year two, and again we re-jake it again in year year year three. And it's just a really, really cool night very unscripted, like I say, but it's it's as much for the supporters and the sponsors of the festival. For for the for the failure committee, for the failure organizers to recognize as opposed to all the help that they have got and all the help received, whether it be monetary contributions, whether it be the common plan, but a whole lot of people contribute to make this festival what it is. It's one of the most unique festivals in the world. There's no question about that. And it's it's just a chapter, you know, tap the hat for a hat to those people to make it and and sponsor it and make contributions to make it what it is. So that's you know, it's it's a special night for them and they're getting to see a lot of people I suppose I can say that you don't know what to expect, but everyone is gonna be different, and I think it's become a really, really special part of the festival, and I hope that for as long as the failures are I do hope that they have that holding everything that the plan is the small plan but that always works out really really well. So looking forward to that. Really am looking forward to that. It's just a chance to to meet people together to spend a better time with people. Um we have musicians it's very open to all musicians and singers, and it will be you know I'll sort of lead it somewhat, but I'll be calling people out of the audience, you know, some people who did not even expect to be playing the song. And that's the beauty of it, that's the mystique of it where you know everybody's in the room, everybody's together, whether you're listening or whether you're playing, and everybody feels part of the holy hour. And if you attend the holy hour, it also gives you absolution from going to church for at least two to three weeks. So that's the that's another benefit. And and you can confess your sins to whoever's sitting next to you, and that's after that ratified then from the Vatican, so that people's conscience would be very clear and have a clean soul for that weekend to mess it up again. So lots of good things happen at the Holy Hour. So looking forward to that as well.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

If we could see your smile, we'd give the world away. If we could hear your voice or gently hold your hand, we could speak the words we wish we could have said the dead. There's a chance that it might help us understand. But maybe there was somewhere you just had to be some higher power knew where you belong, though you were with it every time the music play to the song to bring you home and song and we hope that you can hear us when we run. What you chuck what the last we are tomorrow? I don't know what we find from you to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Now from somebody that pretty much spent all my work and days on our more involved in so many different things on the island. I always felt envious of the people that were either off the island or coming to the island for the first time, or people that were from the island coming home. Is that I would go through the year without having to do something like Armour, return to Armour, come to Armor to look forward. And I found that I found that on my very first legitimate work. This was my armor. This was my common home. Um and that's it's a feeling I suppose that I can't really explain what it's something that lies deeper than you. You know, that's my armor, that's my place to go to. And as long as I feel like that I will continue to

SPEAKER_02 22:40

An old man stood at the head of the pier. I could tell he was watching a boat disappear. He knew me alright, I could see by his smile. He said it's so good to see sit down for a while. And I did, and we spoke of days long gone by as we stared at a spot where the sea meets the sky, and we sat on the edge, our feet hanging free, and we swapped tales of fishing the zone and me where the soft breezes blow on the way from the west and water dogs glide in the ocean's white crest. I feel welcome, privileged, honored, and blessed with the souls of all fishermen. I remember the days we played round the pier as the fishermen tended their boats and their gear. We learn how to fish, we learn how to swim, and we learned about living from men just like him. But we learn so much more out of patch and two men and never say no to a neighbor or friend to respect the old ways and the freedoms we'd won, and leave something behind when your time here is done, where the soft breezes blow on the way from the west, and water dogs blade in the ocean's white crest, I feel welcome, privileged, honored unless we're the souls of old fishermen. He talked to the boats, the skippers, the crews, and how the help of the peer I knew it was true, and they left it to the children, we left it to you. So please treat it with kindness as you pass on true and the peace and comfort old souls understand. He then bid me farewell with a warm, callous time. I turned for a wave, a final goodbye, but he couldn't be seen, and I wasn't surprised where the soft breezes blow on the wave from the west on water dogs drive in the ocean's white crest. I feel welcome, privileged, honored, and blessed where the souls of old fisher, where the soft breezes blow on the way from the west, water dogs fly in the ocean's wide crest. I feel welcome, privileged honored on the west, where the souls of old fishermen are.