Back
Vanishing Borders - Liner Notes

Scarborough Fair is probably the first tune of Celtic origin that ever caught our attention. Scarborough is in Yorkshire, England, and the melody is surely ancient. Our version is dedicated to the memory of Paul McNeill, legendary folksinger and busker in Norway, Switzerland, and elsewhere.

Killiekrankie is a Scottish tune dating back to the 17th century. Hewlett was composed about the same time by the Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan.

First Snow fell in early November. Bill Coulter wrote this song while gazing out of his kitchen window in upstate New York.

Trout Will Rise comes from an old gospel tune called I Will Arise that we first heard in West Virginia. We've added a new melody as a sort of hymn to trout. Trout and salmon were revered in ancient Celtic culture as symbols of divine wisdom and mystery. They also taste good. Promenade is the opening fanfare from Moussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, written in 1874 for solo piano and later orchestrated by Ravel.

Sheep Under the Snow is a traditional lament from the Isle of Man, a small, ancient kingdom which lies in the Irish Sea between Scotland and Wales.

The Spiral Dance was inspired by journeys to Kenya and the west coast of Ireland.

Conor Pass is a breathtaking road over the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. Dedicated to Sihan and Siobhan, our wild Irish friends.

The Gavotte is from the sixth cello suite by J.S. Bach. The Hornpipe, by Henry Purcell, is from the music for Abdelazar, or the Moor's Revenge, a play staged in England in 1695.

Princess Royal and Eleanor Plunkett were written by Turlough O'Carolan in honor of two of his charming patrons. Day of Grace is an introduction to an aria from Cantata #30 by J.S. Bach.

Midnight on the Water, the catfish are in bloom, and it's waltz time in Texas. An old fiddler's choice. Two Sisters is a traditional Irish ballad that tells the story of an older sister's desperate attempts to murder the younger in order to improve her own chances with Johnny. We play it like an old-timey American reel.

Return to Vanishing Borders