https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/star-of-the-county-down-2

In Bambridge town in the County Down
On a beautiful day in July
Down from a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me right by
Passed me right by

No pipe I’ll smoke and no horse I’ll yoke
Till my plough turns a rust colored brown
And till my smiling bride by my fireside
The most beautiful gem in the crown
Of County Down

A harsh punk sound with an extended retro fusion instrumental solo and a synthetic vocal.

I originally uploaded this with dumb lyrics and a dumb title (“Norwegian Weed”) but have decided to present it as a respectful treatment of the traditional Irish song, albeit in highly abbreviated form.

*** Song Memo ***

I cloned the BIAB fiddle to a synth for that Mahavishnu Orchestra effect, then added the other-than-human singer from Emvoice.

Guitar: Electric Rhythm PunkHeldPlus Ev 165
Bass: Electric PunkFuzzPicked8ths Ev 165
Drums: RockHardLA^1-a:Snare, HiHat b:Snare, Loose HiHat
Fiddle: BIAB solo but I don't know how to get info about it now

Interesting, different, and creative.

I love what you did with the synth from the fiddle. That Emvoice singer fits in well with the synth.

I enjoyed the sound you created in this.

Much thanks! I am ridiculously pleased with this strange little thing – especially the polyrhythms in the vocal passages!

PS – I just replaced the SoundCloud file with a minor but critical update that fixed a couple of missing drumbeats, but this unfortunately cost me your kind comment there. Sorry about that! Also apologies to TuneMonger, who commented on the earlier dumb version here in a now deleted thread.

You do the Jan hammer thing well.
This could go full DOOM...the BIAb style has cello rater than violin but it'd work.
This is pretty heavy. Nicely so.

Ah, so you ran out of that Norwegian Weed, huh? I'll admit I cringed when I read HARSH PUNK SOUND, but pushed Play anyway. WOW! So glad I did, Mark. This is really cool --very creative. Gave it a couple spins, and it deserves more. My Irish mom might not think so, but I think it is a great piece of musical magic. Really odd melody for the singer. Really enjoyed it!

I saw Jan with the rest of the Mahavishnu Moptops several times. He was always doing that note-note-note WEEEOOO note-note-note WEEEOOO thing with the pitchbend wheel on his keyboard, which of course is impossible to see from the crappy seats in Madison Square Garden. He'd wave his torso around a bit so you'd have something to watch but I remember it being a fundamentally frustrating experience watching him, there'd be this awesome sound and absolutely nothing to look at.

Thanks for listening and commenting. I value your take on the grim and grueling to which I gravitate.

Thanks, Marty! I'm really really glad you enjoyed. Even after "dedumbing" I was worried this might come off as a joke, you know, ha ha traditional song played as a headbanger, which was not at all my intent.

I learned the tune in the summer of 1980, from Robin Williamson's book on how to play the pennywhistle. I played it sitting on a rock near a waterfall while people bathed in the plunge pool (Ithaca, NY). I am outrageously delighted to have found this way to weld it into a heavier piece of metal in 2022.

Oh, and I did indeed swear off Norwegian Weed. Once you've had a taste of Boreen Green, "no pipe you'll smoke" without it. =&^)

I used to frequent renaissance festivals where I first heard Celtic tunes like Star of the County Down. I'm guessing most of those musicians would hate this because, you know, not trad. But I always award points for creativity and this is definitely creative. The fiddle still sounds somewhat to me like a hurdy gurdy (I am a big fan of that instrument.) The vocal is pretty good, I even stopped thinking about it as not human. Anyway, enough rambling. Nice job you did here, all told.

The vocal is quite good, and the polyrhythm is very cool.

Not a style I'd go out of my way to hear, but certainly a very musical result!

Hey, thanks for commenting again.

I actually had only a dim recollection of what a hurdy-gurdy is, so I went a-searchin', and look what we have here:
https://midigurdy.com

Thanks! But I stand on the shoulders of greats: tracing the development of this project back, the chain of files leads directly to an earlier project based on Beethoven's 7th symphony. (The sensitive listener will no doubt have noticed similarities to that work's 2nd movement.)

Also: the beginning takes me back to the opening of Mountain's "For Yasgur's Farm".

I actually had only a dim recollection of what a hurdy-gurdy is, so I went a-searchin', and look what we have here:
https://midigurdy.com


A mere 2400 euro. A pittance!

So how much Norwegian Weed did you have before composing this song? Just kidding!

Not my bag but a very interesting piece. It is very clever how you put punk into and Irish feel. The synth vocal was very good.

Although not my bag I will give it two thumbs up.

What a strange Wikipedia page I just wandered onto! I mean, population 2,677 and it has its own "Cannabis in ---" page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_Svalbard

Not a cannabis-friendly town. The irony is that Svalbard is the home of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which may in time need to restock the world with Norwegian Weed after a nuclear holocaust.


And that is much appreciated, Mario. Thanks.

Mark,
Very unusual synth punk tune. Cool vocal phrasing! I don't think I ever heard Irish folk inspired punk before. Interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Man, I love that area, Mark. I can pretty much guarantee that I photographed that waterfall.

Here it be.

Thanks, Misha! I surprised myself with this one, too. Glad you enjoyed. – Mark

Creative to the max!

What a remarkable sub-genre ... who would've thought it would work so well.

The vocal and synth really fit well. One of the better uses of that technology we have heard.

Great mix too.

Well done!

J&B

Yay, I'm my own sub-genre! =8^)

Thanks for listening, folks.

(Side note: I had a girlfriend once who laughed snortingly when she saw that my iTunes music was organized with "Mark Hayes" as a genre. I explained that it was just a way of getting at my own recordings easily, but she took it to mean I regarded my music as a primary domain of human creativity on the level of "Jazz" or "Classical". The relationship never fully recovered.)

Very cool, and very trippy.

REALLY trippy.

Thanks!!

Hi Mark,

I have a suggestion: maybe you and Ray can make a punksong?
You have a lot in common and you are very, very creative on all the instruments and tunes.
That is the very nice part in this and your other songs.
On the other hand, you still failed to convert me to this style of music.
Maybe when I am a little older...

But I'm impressed by how you composed it all and also about your drawings!

Hans

It's a thought, he and I both seem inclined to boldly go where others say "just because you can doesn't mean you should", and we both covered "Walk On By" in completely unnecessary ways (though +++my version+++ was only 20 seconds long, adding insult to injury.)

Can't say I really think of myself as a punker, though!


Hey, I'm not preaching, I don't listen to much stuff like this either. Anyway, I'm my own sub-genre, so if you liked this one at all, thanks, and you're already converted! =8^)

Seriously, thanks for these comments.

By the way, a while back you strongly encouraged me to add singing to my instrumentals, a very positive criticism I much appreciated at the time. My use of Emvoice singers is partly an attempt to do that (and I'm even considering maybe hiring a human singer online, now that I know how that is done) so thanks for the partial inspiration and I hope you don't regret it.

PS – Not my drawing, just an image I found on the net.

My new favorite... Brilliant.. for real.

Many thanks, Sir Bloc. I am very fond of this one myself because it is so peculiar and yet (I think) works unexpectedly well. Along with "Carrickfergus", this is my "Irish folk album". =8^)

"Téann siad seo go dtí a haon déag!"

Very different, and very cool!!! Reminds me of some of the experimental stuff I listened to in the old days. Clever and original!! Take care. Greg

* curtsies *

The listen and the comment is much valued! Be well...

Mark