1. |
I'll be here for today
03:30
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2. |
St Albert's Night
04:08
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Pull out the cork from the bottle my friend,
G Em A
Take your coat off and sit on down beside me
D A Bm A
We’ll be around here till morning – there’s no hurry
G Em A
We can play all night and we can sing in harmony
Bm A G F sh.m
We’ll leave all our cares and our troubles behind
Em A D
We’re here for the music again
G A
Ch. So pull up a chair – you can sit anywhere
D A Bm
And we’ll play well until morning light
Em A
Though this doesn’t happen too often these days
G A
We’ll still get together when we find a way
D A Bm A
And we’ll play and we’ll sing just like in the old days
Em A D
And we’ll toast St. Albert tonight
2. The landlord’s a madman – he’s locked us all in
Although we have surely committed no sin
Resistance is useless – don’t put up a fight
For he has condemned us to stay here all night
And we’ll get more beer if we play our cards right
And then we can play once again
3. It must be your turn now to buy the next round
It’s hours since you bought your last one
Our eyes they are red and our fingers are sore
The sun it is risen it’s daytime one more
But we’ll sing once last song and a chorus before
It’s off to the grindstone again
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3. |
Cold Lady
04:37
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In the streets of the town where I ran as a child,
Most houses were broken and the weeds they grew wild
And the cranes in the dockyard ran idle and still
And I looked for a job but I found none
So I left all my friends and I joined the navy
For five years I’d sail and the world I would see
A trade and good craic all was in it for me
And I never once thought of the Argie
In the raw and the cold south Atlantic Sea
Twas there I met the Cold Lady
Well we had our good times when we went on shore leave
From Plymouth to Gib, Singapore and Pompey
Never watching the years pass on by before me
Never thought I might fight with Argie
But when the Falkland war came to the islands we sailed
It was called a just war when the talking had failed
It was there without warning the missile blast came
And we most of us met the Cold Lady
Well they found and they saved us and back home we came
The newshounds kept asking us who was to blame
And I no longer felt like I wanted to sail
So I looked for a job but I found none
So now as I stand at the top of the town
Before me the dockland waste stretches on down
And I think now I’m idle of the lads that went down
Who met and who walked with the lady
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4. |
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5. |
Nick Drake's song
03:56
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6. |
Daddy's Little Big Man
04:18
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7. |
Our last show
06:02
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Fm Bfl9 Bflm Bfldim Fm
Stealing through the crowded streets tonight I keep to all the shadows as I go
Fm Bfl9 Bfldim C7 Fm
Collar turned up hat brim down I pass by so I can’t be seen by anyone I know
Afl Efl7 Bfldim Fm
That tune runs through my head and every footstep sets its gentle rhythm as I go
Afl Efl7 Bflm Bfldim Cmaj
And every chord and note is a reminder of the songs you're singing on the radio
Fm Bfl9 Csh7
But tonight I won’t be playing that old love song
Csh7 C7 Fm C7
Cos it brought the curtain down on our last show
From the shadows of the dark and smoky bar I watch the faces of the punters down below
The rogues, the geeks, the businessmen, the lovers - the old men with no other place to go
But that tune it hits my head as I open up the case - it seeps into the body and the strings
And every chord and note is a reminder that no-one else gets close to the way you sing
But tonight I won’t be playing that old love song cos it brought the curtain down on our last show
I guess that I always know for certain that there’d have to be a final show
You were born to be a star I just could feel it - I couldn’t hold you back you’d have to go
A voice that strong that bitter sweet that tender could work its way inside the hardest soul
I just wish you well and I keep hoping that you’ll still remember your old Joe
And tonight I can’t forget that certain love song
Though it brought the curtain down on our last show
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8. |
I'll be going on my way
04:32
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9. |
November Song
05:50
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10. |
Dartmouth Song
06:02
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11. |
The Lydford Watchmaker
04:02
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Don't you cry don’t you frown as his time it runs down
Be you journeyman ploughman or baker
You bold men of Devon from country or town
Drink a health to George Routleigh watchmaker
I’ll sing you this song if you’ll hear of his fame
His town it was Lydford, George Routleigh his name
Time’s been his life as he helped time to run
As he worked as the Lydford watchmaker
When he was new made his movement was fast
His hands never stopped as the hours they flew past
Without care as the sands of his youth ran away
Never stopping to think of the future
Don't you cry don’t you frown as his time it runs down
Be you journeyman ploughman or baker
You bold men of Devon from country or town
Drink a health to George Routleigh watchmaker
But after the passing of youth’s brittle years
He learned of the meaning of other men’s fears
His days they slipped past at slower pace now
And prudence was his regulator
So calmly time glided he never went wrong
True was his life’s rhythm with joy in his song
Except when he was set going by those who knew and cared not for his key
Don't you cry don’t you frown as his time it runs down
Be you journeyman ploughman or baker
You bold men of Devon from country or town
Drink a health to George Routleigh watchmaker
He is an old man now his song it is sung
His movement is rusty his mainspring is sprung
His hands go but slowly his case it is scratched
He knows he is running down truly
But though in the churchyard his case will be laid
When his hands they are stopped he will not be afraid
He knows he’ll be wound up and taken in hand
In the next world was he meets his maker
Don't you cry don’t you frown as his time it runs down
Be you journeyman ploughman or baker
You bold men of Devon from country or town
Drink a health to George Routleigh watchmaker
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12. |
Henry Brown
04:52
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1. There’s an old house at the corner just beyond the Rose and Crown
There’s a low wall all around it you can see
And now the gate is rusty and it’s almost broken down
And the little bit of garden’s full of weeds
And standing in his slippers in the shadow of the door
There is an old man there called Henry Brown
Ch. And you wouldn’t think to look at him that he was once well known
You wouldn’t see him if he passed you on the street
You wouldn’t think that he was once the hero of renown
But some folks still remember Henry Brown
2. It was in the height of winter over 50 years ago
A gale blew from east on to the shore
The fishing boats and trawlers all tied up along the quay
The waves crashed 50 feet above the wall
The people in the cottages there were huddled round their fires
Waiting for the day to come around
3. There really was no warning – no shout, no light or bell
To tell them that a nightmare had begun
The wall was breached down by the shore the sea was in the street
There was nothing that the people could have done
And all in that dreadful night so many people might have drowned
But a score or more were saved by Henry Brown
Ch
4. And all throughout the bitter night he fought against the tide
And all night the raging sea denied
Cradling the women and the children that he found
And carrying them up to the higher ground
He didn’t stop his work until the day at last came round
And the sea receded from the broken land
And every year round Hallsands when November comes around
And the gale blows from the east so wild and free
And the gannets and the gulls are driven hard against the cliffs
And the boiling waves blow spume across the Ley
The people raise their glasses all remembering the time
When their lives were saved that night by Henry Brown
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13. |
The Westward Ho! song
05:58
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14. |
May you find love
04:19
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15. |
The Marino Waltz
05:10
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Down by the banks of the old town canal still waters glide by
Bfl C F Bfl
With their cargo of cardboard and garbage and all
Gm C F
As they slide slowly down through the town
C F Am
There in the wastelands where the factories all were
Gm Csus4 C
The railways, the steelyards the forges all were
Bfl C F Bfl
The boarded up houses in rows they still are
Gm C F
And there stands the Old Rising Star
F Am Gm C
Ch. On Saturday night in the Old Rising Star
Bfl C F C
We’re drunk we are laughing – we’re right where we are
F Am Bfl Gm
Ah we’ll have great craic, and a glass of the black
Bfl C F
And we’ll dance to the Marino Waltz
2. Now the Old Rising Star is a sight to be seen
Crammed with the memories of Erin’s old scene
In the depths of the city a shrine to the green
With the memories of far distant shores
With the faded old photos on nicotine walls
Of fisherman’s houses in old Donegal
The hills of Killarney and Bantry and all
And the grand racing plains of Kildare
3. On Saturday night it’s the time of the week
Old faces they shine as their pleasures they seek
With pints of the porter and the whisky drunk deep
To the tune of the Marino Waltz
And Patsy O’Reilly and Biddy McGann
They lift up their skirts and dance while they can
And Paddy and Seamus both drunk to a man
Are singing of far distant shores
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Alan Courtney England, UK
I've decided to collect here all my solo recordings from 2002 onwards, when I left my job and started to work for
myself.
I was born and raised in Devon, but have lived the last 40 years in Malvern. I've played folk music in clubs, sessions, festivals etc since the age of 15.
I played in rock n blues, then folk bands Malthouse Passage and Set em up Joe. I've recorded many albums showcased here
... more
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