Anne Rynne - Rynne Folk

Anne Rynne 2016

My name is Anne Rynne and I am a singer of songs.

I am a member of a ‘singing’ family and I was always very shy when asked to sing, so much so that for most of my life I didn’t really sing. About five years ago my son Davog, who lives in Lyon in the south of France, said to me, “Ma would you ever learn a couple of new songs and come over and join me in a song circle”? OK sez I, why not!

So began a whole new adventure for me. Fast forward a couple of years and I am in conversation with my brother Barry and am telling him that I fancied being a ‘funky’ granny and that I was going to learn the ukulele. No comment from him!
But……next time he came to my house he was carrying a guitar. He handed it to me saying…..”I’m not giving you this, I’m loaning it to you for fifty years, on condition that you play it every day”. Oh but this was some challenge and one that I grasped with both hands and it has honestly changed my life. I have in the past three years with great help from my songpal, Doutsen Roelofs, learned to play guitar and I have learned a bunch of songs. The secret to learning the guitar is to pick it up every single day and play. I do at least one if not two hours a day on it. I am very lucky at this stage of my life to have the time to do this.

Barry has been a great mentor and his advice has really helped me to find my voice. I will never forget the day he told me ………..”Remember, sis that you are the messenger, that you need to remove yourself personally from the song”….instantly I could feel a huge shift and I could almost feel my nerves flowing out of me and off with them! I do get a tiny bit nervous still but nothing like before. In a way – I got over myself!

My parents were the first influence in my life when it came to singing. My father Andy Moore had a deep baritone voice and even though he died very young I remember him singing with us on drives to visit Granny Moore. My darling mother Nancy had a most beautiful soprano voice. She was the keeper of the music and songs in our home.

My two singing brothers Christy Moore and Barry Moore aka Luka Bloom – two very different singers, both writers of terrific songs and both a huge influence on me. I am so grateful for all their generous sharing of their experience. My ‘other’ brother Andy is a mighty fine singer too as are my two sisters Terry and Eilish. When we gather, we have dinner and then spend the rest of our time together singing. There is nothing like hearing siblings singing together – there is a resonance, a magic, a tone that is supreme. And the next generation are singing too and this makes my heart soar.
This new life of mine has brought so much peace, joy and downright happiness like I have never felt before. I feel totally privileged to have found my voice and cannot believe as I write these words that this is what I now do.
So here you have it – in my 68th year – my debut album. I am a singer of songs.

Be Still Now is the song I always start with because it is like a meditation and it calms me. It is a gentle song written by Luka Bloom.

I walked along the western shore
One bright November day
I watched a heron watching me
Thought I heard her say
Just be still now for a while
Let life come to you
Just be still now all your dreams
Are on the breezes passing through

I walked along the city streets
Wished that I could fly
I watched a heron watching me
Thought I heard her say
Just be still now for a while
Let love come to you
Just be still now all your dreams
Are on the breezes passing through

Who’s Gonna Stand Up is a song from Neil Young and is an urgent plea for us to think about what we are doing to our home – Earth. “This all starts with you and me”……..it sure does Neil.

Protect the wild tomorrow’s child
Protect the land from the greed of man
Take down the dams stand up to oil
Protect the plants and renew the soil

Who’s gonna stand up and save the earth
Who’s gonna say that she’s had enough
Who’s gonna take on the big machine
Who’s gonna stand up and save the earth
This all starts with you and me
This all starts with you and me

Ban fossil fuel draw the line
Before we build one more pipeline
Ban fracking now and save the waters
Build a life for our sons and daughters

Dam the dams and save the rivers
Starve the takers and feed the givers
Build a dream and save the world
We’re the people known as earth

My Dear Someone is a lovely lilting song about dreaming for love and for a better life and is from the pen of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings.

I wanna go all over the world and start living free
I know that there is somebody there who’s waiting for me
I’ll build a boat steady and true
As soon as it’s done
I’m gonna sail away in a dream of my own dear someone

One little star shining tonight knows where you are
Stay little star shining and bright and guide me afar
Rush little wind over the deep as soon as its done
Hurry me straight into the arms of my own dear someone

Repeat first verse

Homesick for New York was written by Clareman, Micheál Marrinan. I first heard him singing it during the Willie Clancy Summer School a couple of years ago and fell for it.

Oh I love to be lost in a place where you can’t go astray
And I love to be found in a town where the streets they are straight
Oh I love New York to walk in the crowds all alone
I’m gonna stay in New York I hate leaving New York
Homesick for New York even though it was never my home

And when I go there Manhattan’s the place I love best
Take a stroll in Times Square walkin’ east river to west
And I’m touching the clouds and I feels like I’m never alone
I’m hate leaving New York I’m gonna stay in New York
Homesick for New York even though it was never my home

You say we’ll meet there where the avenue meets the street
And we’ll go to a bar take a cab though its not very far
And we’ll stay out till dawn ’cause we know our time here isn’t long
I’m gonna stay in New York I hate leaving New York
Homesick for New York even though it was never my home

Back home in my dreams I dream of the town never sleeps
And I’m going back there to be lost in the crowds on the street
Going back to New York dreaming of New York
Homesick for New York even though it was never my home

Oh I love to be lost in a place where you can’t go astray

Two Mothers I learned from the singing of Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow an English folk duo. It appealed to me as I have never heard a song about this topic before.

As I lay you gently down to sleep
I hear my mother’s voice lilting to me
Unexpected child was I upon a young girl
Through her tears she sang me farewell

Wrapped up in mother’s crocheted shawl
I crossed a faraway sea to land turned around
New hands a bottle kind eyes a strange lullaby
My new mother answered my cries

Come sing a song for the mothers
Who held you in their arms when you were a child
Who sacrificed their dreams for ours who taught us to fly
Soothing our fears with a sweet lullaby

Time like the tide it ebbs and flows
Now in my arms I cradle a child of my own
Her eyes the forest green whilst mine are cornflower blue
Perhaps they’re a keepsake from you

Come sing a song for the mothers
Who held you in their arms when you were a child
Who sacrificed their dreams for ours who taught us to fly
Soothing our fears with a sweet lullaby

Hills of Coore was given to me by its author Catherine Talty of Clounlaheen. She wrote this song way back in the 1940s. She told me she wrote it for all her friends who had emigrated leaving her behind in West Clare. Catherine is one amazing woman and she celebrates her 100th birthday this year.

I am bidding you a long farewell my native County Clare
It’s been years since youthful folly bade me leave your shore
Always have I hoped to see your hills and dells once more
Till now alas I feel that death is knocking on my door

Oh what would I give to see once more the dear old Hills of Coore
To meet again the friends I knew outside the chapel door
To stand upon the Castle HIll and see my own dear home
Ah Clounlaheen I rue the day that from you I did roam

In fancy still I see those hills those purple hills so bold
And Doolough Lake like a silver shield nestling in their fold
Full many a day with rod and line I spent by your quiet shore
When your sparkling waters yielded trout by dozen and by score

Oh my heart still swells with grief and woe when memory wanders back
And thinking on the hours I spent with one dear Irish lad
With eyes so blue and heart to true could I but clasp his hand
For this I prayed with many a tear in far off distant lands

Oh those hours we spent those joyous hours
When heart and hand we pledged
When hand in hand we wandered through the Glens of Shanaway
Mount Callan with its lofty peak stood guard while we were gay
Ah memory often wings its way over darling County Clare

Adieu my friends adieu to you I bid a long farewell
To all my friends so dear to me oh how my heart does swell
How well and true I loved you all no tongue of mine can tell
And oft I will in fancy roam among you all again

I’m Still Standing appealed to me because I cannot believe how lucky I am to have found my voice and because Janis Ian’s words resonated with this ‘oul’ wan!

See these lines on my face
They’re a map of where I’ve been
And the deeper they are traced the deeper life has settled in
How do we survive living out our lives

And I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth and fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without feat
Another line another year and I’m still standing here

See these marks on my skin they’re the lyric of my life
Every story I begin means another end’s in sight
Only lover’s understand skin just covers who I am

And I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth and fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without feat
Another line another year and I’m still standing here

See the bruises see the scars hieroglyphs that tell the tale
You can see them in the dark through your fingertips like Braille

And I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth and fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without feat
Another line another year and I’m still standing here

Georgia Lee – A Tom Waits song with a tragic story to tell.

Cold was the night and hard was the ground
They found her in a small grove of trees
Lonesome was the place where Georgia was found
She’s too young to be out on the street
Why wasn’t God watching
Why wasn’t God listening
Why wasn’t God there for Georgia Lee

Ida said she couldn’t keep Georgia from dropping out of school
I was doing the best that I could
She just kept running away from this world
These children are so hard to raise good

Why wasn’t God watching
Why wasn’t God listening
Why wasn’t God there for Georgia Lee

Close your eyes and count to ten
I will go and hid but then
Be sure to find me I want you to find me
We’ll play all over again

There’s a toad in the long grass there’s a crow in the corn
Wild flowers on a cross by the road
Somewhere a baby is crying for her Mam
As the hills turn from green back to gold

Why wasn’t God watching
Why wasn’t God listening
Why wasn’t God there for Georgia Lee

Farewell Mayo is a ballad I first heard sung by my friends Veronica and Maurice McHugh. Written by Derryman Eamon Friel it plays a lovely film in my mind as I sing it. I’m always drawn to a song if a line jumps out at me and this happened with Mayo. “They say every child should have her share of Eden” did it for me with this gem.

When the school gets out for summer we get started
On a long awaited journey to the west.
I was feeling so excited and light hearted
I was headin’ for the place I love the best.
And the bus said “Sligo” on the destination
Through the Barnsmore Gap and Ballintra,
Then we caught another bus at Sligo station
And the Freestate writin’ spelt out Ballina.

At Enniscrone the broad Atlantic
Meant you hadn’t far to go
And when you saw the top of Nephin
You knew you’d landed in Mayo,
God bless Mayo

Friendly hands to take her hand and say she’s bigger
Hefty arms to hoist her high and hug her hard.
Take the road through Crossmolina to the river
And the side road takes you back to Garranard.

And I knew every windy corner
Of the little fields below
Every ripple on that river
Cross the stepping stones I’d go
There in Mayo.

When the day came to go back my heart was bleeding
With a grief that seems relentless when you’re small,
They say every child should have her share of Eden
But a city child needs Eden most of all.
Back to the darkening streets of Derry
Brokenhearted I must go,
Far from the splendor and the silence and the wonder of Mayo
Farewell Mayo……..Mayo…….Mayo………..

Vagabond is from a poem written in 1904 by John Masefield and the music is by Eddi Reader and John Douglas. A song very relevant to today about being down and out and tramping the roads

Dunno a heap about the what an’ why Can’t say’s I ever knowed Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky Earth’s just a dusty road

Dunno the names o’ things nor what they are Can’t say’s I ever will Dunno about God – she’s jest the noddin’ star A top the windy hill

VAGABOND – VAGABOND – VAGABOND

Dunno about Life – it’s jest a tramp alone From wakin’-time to doss Dunno about Death – it’s jest a quiet stone All over-grey wi’ moss An’ why I live an’ why the old world spins Are things I never knowed My mark’s the gypsy fires the lonely inns An’ jest the dusty road VAGABOND – VAGABOND – VAGABOND

Dunno a heap about the what an’ why Can’t say’s I ever knowed Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky Earth’s just a dusty road An’ why I live an’ why the old world spins Are things I never knowed My mark’s the gypsy fires the lonely inns An’ jest the dusty road

VAGABOND – VAGABOND – VAGABOND