Music From The Deep South - Way Down on the Leeside Bayou.

* Sean O'Riada & Jimmy Crowley, a Cork Music Tradition. 

* A short post, this, mercifully, says you. And it is very Cork-centric, about the music from my home-town.

It's also about what seemed like the only record we owned, when we were v small kids. I blogged last week about my Grand Uncle Timmy Delaney and the strange sport of Road Bowling, a throw-back to the Williamite Wars of centuries ago. Timmy and my father's family are name-checked in one of the most famous Cork City songs, The Boys Of Fairhill, which also goes into Road Bowling.

Here's a vintage clip of The Song - together with some images of Harrier Dogs & their masters in Cork, another strange sport that is best described as fox hunting for men who can't afford horses. And it still goes on to this day. (There's a song called The Armoured Car about a very famous dog, it's part of the last clip at the bottom)

The Boys Of Fairhill

When we were kids, our family home had an old record player and one of the few LPs we had - until I started getting old enough to buy and play-to-death the 1st Smiths album - was Jimmy Crowley's Boys Of Fairhill LP - a collection of local Cork ballads. I still have it, on CD and MP3 and it gets a run out on a regular basis.

Weirdly, until we started getting more records for the family collection, I kinda assumed that all LPs would name-check members of my extended family - and was very disappointed when my sister's Joan Armatrading LP didn't mention my auntie Mamie.

And on St Patrick's Day, here's a short-ish clip (in Irish with subtitles) about Jimmy Crowley and the music of my home town; Click on the blue link - for some reason I can't get Youtube to work directly.

Jimmy Crowley

Another Corkman was the great Sean O'Riada - who took the Irish folk tradition (although he probably wouldn't be happy with the folk label) and mixed it with the more orchestral tradition of the likes of O'Carolan to create some beautiful music.

Here is O'Riada being interviewed by Danish TV in 1970, comparing some forms of Irish music to Indian ragas - pretty far out there for a music professor from Cork in the early 1970s.

Sean O'Riada

There's not many clips of O'Riada's music being performed in the proper, orchestral setting - but here's some blurry video from Dublin in the 1980s

And now to get VERY Cork - a clip of music & images from the southern city that will probably only be of interest to those who grew up on Leeside.

Clip here; Cork, music and images

So there you go - some very home-centric music and images for the Day That's In It.

And just in case we get accused of promoting Cork supremacy - here's The Dubliners with yet another song about a famous sporting dog - The Master McGrath.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!