Out of the Rain was never a professional band but rather a group of friends who made music together and did an occasional concert. The group formed in the early 1980s. The original trio was Richard Adrianowicz (vocals, guitar, tin whistle, fiddle), Marla Fibish (vocals, mandolin, mandolin, guitar), and Suzanne Friend (vocals, tin whistle, bodhran). Over the years we were joined by Keith Livingstone (accordion), Jack Gilder (concertina, tin whistle, flute), Cait Reed (fiddle, flute) and Michael Harmon (guitar, vocals).

The tracks on this CD come from various live performances we have done over the years. These are songs that do not appear on our two previously released cassettes. Songs were chosen on the basis of sound quality with the exception of one or two in which content and energy of the performance was good enough to overcome less than perfect sound. 

THE CREGGAN WHITE HARE - Track 1

Concert location: The Musician’s Coffeehouse in Walnut Creek, California, 9/1986.

Lead: Suzanne

The Creggan White Hare is an Irish hunting song in which the hare foils all attempts at capture. We got this one from the singing of Andy Irvine who considers the song a fairly modern local ballad. According to Irving’s book Aiming for the Heart, he fleshed out the words and wrote a new melody for it. He learned it from an old BBC disc recorded in 1952 by Sean O’Boyle and Peter Kennedy. The source was Vincent Donnelly from Castle Caulfield, County Tyrone. The tune we play in between some verses and at the end is Toss the Feathers, an Irish reel.

SIÚL A RÚIN - Track 2

Concert location: The Musician’s Coffeehouse in Walnut Creek, California, 9/1986.

Lead: Marla

This song is often called Shule Aroon, which is how it sounds phonetically. It’s an Irish song that Marla heard on an old Clannad album. Siúl a Rúin came out of the 1688 Irish rebellion against England that was broken by the English King William of Orange. According to the treaty of Limerick in 1691, Irish rebels could take an oath of allegiance to England or leave Ireland for exile. A majority of the leaders chose exile, many joining the French army to fight against the British (reflected in the verse “Now my love has gone to France, to try his fortune to advance - if he e’er comes back, ‘tis but a chance..”). Some Irish men who stayed behind were drafted into the British army. Some were shipped to North America to fight in the French and Indian war in the 1700s. They brought he song with them and adapted it to fit the battles there. Other colonists picked up the tune and the words became anglicized as a farewell song for soldiers off to fight for independence in America. Derived from Siúl a Rúin is the American song Buttermilk Hill (Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier), originally popularized during the American Revolutionary War and also sung during the American Civil War. In these versions the Gaelic refrain became a set of nonsense syllables or disappered entirely. Siúl a Rúin has also survived as part of the vernacular tradition in Newfoundland off the Atlantic coast of Canada where Irish people immigrated to from County Waterford, County Tipperary, and east County Cork. The translation of the chorus is: “Walk, walk, walk with me, my love. Let us walk softly and quietly. Walk to the door, and escape with me. And may you go safely my loved one, safely.”

IF I WAS A BLACKBIRD - Track 3

Concert location: The Musician’s Coffeehouse in Walnut Creek, California, 9/1986.

Lead: Richard

This is Andy Stewart’s re-working of an Irish song usually sung from the woman’s point of view. Andy Stewart (of the Scottish band Silly Wizard) changed it to a man’s point of view and composed some additional verses to the song.

REELS: THE MERRY SISTERS/CRAIG’S PIPES/THE CURLEW - Track 4

Concert location: All Saints Church, Hayward, California, 4/21/1990.

Lead: Cait Reed

Cait starts us off on this set of Irish reels. The Merry Sisters is associated with the playing of Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples, Craig’s Pipes was popularized by the Bothy Band and The Curlew, frequently played in sessions in the San Francisco Bay Area was written by Josephine Keegan.

THE GREY FUNNEL LINE - Track 5

Concert location: The Musician’s Coffeehouse in Walnut Creek, California, 9/1986.

Lead: Suzanne

The Grey Funnel Line is the last song Cyril Tawney wrote before leaving the Royal Navy in 1959. You can feel that suspended feeling of waves and the rocking of the sea in the melody. Grey Funnel Line is the sailor’s nickname for the Royal Navy. It is a euphemism that equates the color of its funnels with those of company emblems found on commercial shipping lines (e.g., the Blue Funnel Line or the Black Ball Line). The song is about a sailor leaving home and his loved one. He’s fed up with the Senior Service and he’d rather be outside, but he has to go away yet again. Cyril got the idea for the chorus from a shanty with the refrain “rock and roll me over for one more day.” A short negro lament called Dink’s Song, which Cyril found in a book of American Folk songs collected by the Lomaxes, provided some of the inspiration for verse two. “The likes of me” in the second verse refers to a young man who had discovered too late that he had other gifts that were of little use in Her Majesty’s Fleet.

Verse three has perhaps an even more interesting history. From his now defunct own website he notes:

“It was a long time before I began writing down the words of my songs; my theory was that if they weren’t memorable enough to stay in my own head, then they weren’t likely to stay in other people’s. It was a foolish notion and, as it turned out, a risky one. I’ll never know whether I’ve ever lost any worthwhile verses that way, but I nearly lost this one. Luckily for me, in 1960 I formed what turned out to be a lifelong friendship with a fellow folk pioneer, Lou Killen from Gateshead, and around the end of that year I went up to spend New Year with him and to do a sort of booking at the Newcastle Folk Club. Lou had a tape recorded at home and I sang him all the songs I’d written so far. In time, we both became established folk professionals touring the length and breadth of Britain. In 1962 I started a folk club in Plymouth and Lou became a frequent guest. On one occasion in 1964 he was booked just before Christmas and we adjourned to a member’s house for an informal party. My host asked me if I’d sing his favourite, The Grey Funnel Line, but I declined because I’d heard from other people that Lou had been singing it around the clubs and, out of curiosity, I wanted to hear it. When he sang it there was this rather attractive verse comparing the lover’s heart with a floating spar that had been washed ashore. I congratulated Lou on the extra verse he’d written, especially as he’d never shown any talent in that direction before. He smiled across at me and said, ‘I didn’t write that, you did.’ It was lucky he’d taped the song five years earlier. I then had to learn the damned verse from him and add it to my own performance.

To go back to that New Year recording in 1960, another interesting thing was that when I’d finished singing The Grey Funnel Line for Lou he remarked that in a way the tune had come full circle. I asked him to explain and he reminded me that it was reminiscent of the tune of the cowboy song Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie which, in turn, was a reworking of the sailor’s song The Ocean Burial - Bury Me Not In The Deep, Deep Sea. So, in The Grey Funnel Line we have a related tune being used once again for a sailor’s song.”

A “walkashore” (verse six) refers to a method of passing from ship to shore and back again without the need of a boat, even though the ship isn’t alongside. It’s usually a series of pontoons, and it’s generally only used if the ship in question is at a fairly permanent berth. The only walkashore Cyril remembers using was from the submarine depot ship Forth in Malta. Modern Anglo-Saxon compounds fascinated Cryil, so he couldn’t resist getting the word into a song.

Cyril Tawney joined the Royal Navy as a sixteen year old and served in a variety of craft, but mainly submarines. His role as a folk singer evolved out of his activities as a script writer and performer in Naval entertainments. He came to the attention of the BBC in 1957 and soon had his own fully networked television program. It was around this time that he decided to buy himself out of the Service and became a full-time singer. Apart from his own compositions, Cyril has specialized for the most part in English folk song, mainly South-Western and Maritime, and he played an important part in establishing the Folk Revival in Devon and Cornwall.

WILL YE GO TO FLANDERS - Track 6

Concert location: Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, California, 4/10/1987.

Guitar and lead vocal: Richard

An anti-recruitment song that we learned from the album Broken Hearted I’ll Wander by Dolores Keane and John Faulkner. Faulkner says he learned the song from Ewan MacColl, who sang two verses of it on an old record, John wrote two additional verses to it. According to Peter Hall in Aberdeen, the original stanzas date back to the 1st Duke of Marlborough’s campaign in Flanders in 1706. We combined the song with MacCrimmon’s Lament, led by Marla.

THE WILD ROVER - Track 7

Concert location: Opening set for a Pierre Bensusan concert on March 3, 1984.

Lead: Richard

Our version of this song, sometimes called the Drogheda Wild Rover, is taken from a private cassette recording at one of the Cecil Sharp House concerts in London. The performer was Irish singer Seán Corcoran*. A text much like Seán’s was posted at the Mudcat Cafe website from Gerry Cullen, who had the song from Irish singer Mary-Ann Carolan**. Another similar version was collected by Hammond and Gardiner in 1906 from Henry Lee of Whitechurch, Hants., and published by the EFDSS (English Folk Dance & Song Society) in Constant Lovers - 1972. These versions are closer in form and melody to the way this traditional song used to be sung, It is thought that either the Clancys or the Dubliners learned Sam Larner’s Norfolk set from Ewan MacColl, added the “no, nay, never (clap, clap, clap)” bit to the chorus and recorded it as a speeded-up drinking song, starting it’s life as a financially rewarding but more crass football-chant.

GERRY CULLEN’S LYRICS TO WILD ROVERr:

I have been a wild rover, this many’s the year

And I’ve spent all my money, drinking ale and strong beer

But now for the future, I will take better care

In case that misfortune shall fall to my share

Wild roving I’ll give it over

Wild roving give o’er

And I ne’er will be called

The wild rover no more

I went into an alehouse, I used to resort

And I told the landlady, my money was short

When she heard of my story, to me she did say

I can have many customers like you any day

I put my hand in my pocket, some money to find

And I pulled the full of my two fists, five times

When she saw that I had the money, and money go leor (go leor=lots of)

When she saw that I had the money, she called me her stór (stór=treasure)

She says, “I have the whiskey, and that of the best

And the words that I have spoken, were only in jest.”

If I had all the money, I have placed in your care

It would till all my lands and my family rear

It would thatch all my houses, it would build me a barn

It would buy me a coat for to keep my back warm.

HANRY LEE’S LYRICS TO WILD ROVER:

I’ve been a wild rover for many a long year

And I’ve spent all my money, boys, in fine girls and strong beer

So for my part I will lay up my money in store

And it’s never will I play the wild rover no more

Wild rover, wild rover

Wild rover no more

And it’s never will I play

The wild rover no more

I called at some alehouse where I used to resort

The liquor was good buy my money ran short

I asked them to trust me, but their answer was ‘nay’

Such a customer as you, my boy, we may have any day

Then I pulled out my handfuls of money straightway

It was only to try them to hear what they’d say

‘You’re welcome, kind sir, to liquor of the best

What I told you before was only in jest.’

‘Oh, no,’ I replied, ‘that never will be

I’ll se you all hanged if I spend one penny

For a man that’s got money, he may sing and may roar

But a man that’s got none must be turned out of doors.’

You should see the landlady, at ease in her chair

With her ruffles round her wrists, fine curls in her hair

It’s got by our money, boys, as you very well know

And for to maintain them - well, we’re fools if we do

* Seán Corcoran’s background: ‘My father and his mother’s side were all County Meath musicians; the classic rural background, but I came from a seaport town and people there had all kinds of fascinating songs. This whole thing about folk music being a rural thing is nonsense, it was a popular culture and it was everywhere.’ While still a schoolboy, he recorded locals and factory workers, in particular a great local song-source, Mary Ann Carolan - ‘one of the Ushers, a Drogheda woman who never left the town in her life.’ He ads: ‘My grandfather sang shanties.’ Seán Corcoran has been in different groups over the years, including The Press Gang and Crán,

** Carolan, Mary Ann (1902-1985). Singer, concertina player. Born at Tenure, Drogheda, County Louth, her father was Pat Usher, a concertina player. He played formidably even up to the time of his death in 1962 at age ninety-four; he also had a large song repertoire. Mary Ann’s brother Pat played fiddle and also sang. Her repertoire had Irish and Scottish songs, the latter including some of the classic Child pieces, including Jock o’ Hazeldean which she sang in Scots dialect. She also sang the formidable Burn’s song Highland Mary, and local scribe Johnny Brodigan’s scathingly satirical Wedding of Sweet Baltray. She is recorded on Topic Records.

GOODNIGHT AND JOY BE WITH YOU ALL - Track 8

Concert location: The San Francisco Folk Club’s Ploughshares venue, 12/3/1989.

Lead: Suzanne

Suzanne leads Goodnight and Joy Be With You All, a song from the singing of Dougie Maclean, written by James Hogg. This is Hogg’s re-working of the Scottish song Good night an joy be wi’ you a’. According to Bruce Olson’s Roots of Folk website, the song seems to have been so common in Scotland that few thought it was worthwhile publishing material. In Herd’s Scots Songs it is given without title:

O this is my departing time!

For here name longer maun I stay

There’s not a friend or foe of mine

But wishes that I were away

What I hae done for lack o’ wit

I never, never can recal!

I hope you’re a’ my friends as yet

Good-night and joy be wi’ you all

There is a one verse version in The Scots Musical Museum:

The night is my departing night

The morn’s the day I maun awa’

There’s no friend or fee o’ mine

But wishes the I were waw

What I hae done for lack o’ wit I never can reca’

I trust we’re a my friends as yet

Gude night and joy be wi’ you a’

There is also an extended version on a broadside of uncertain date, probably circa 1770, titled The Neighbor’s Farewell to his Friends,

THE BRIGHT SHINING MORNING - Track 9

Concert location: Opening set for a Pierre Bunsusan concert, 3/1/1984.

Lead: Richard

An English fox hunting song, one of the first few songs we arranged back in 1983. It was the title song for Louis and Sally Killen’s album Bright Shining Morning (Front Hall Records, FHR-06). They learned it from the English band Swan Arcade, who got it from Popular Songs of Sussex, collected by Reverend J. Broadwood and Lucy Broadwood. Swan Arcade apparently added a verse of their own. We had a lot of fun with this song - apparently our audience was amused as well.

AIR & REELS: BLIND MARY/BELLES OF TIPPERARY/SHEARING THE SHEEP - Track 10

Concert location: All Saints Church, Hayward, California, 4/21/1990.

Cait Reed leads us off here with an air followed by two reels. Blind Mary was written by the famed harper O’Carolan. The Belles of Tipperary is also know by the title The New Policeman. Shearing the Sheep, played here in the key of A is also known as The Red-haired Lass (in the key of G).

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS - Track 11

Out of the Rain concert, date and location unknown.

Lead: Michael Harmon

Michael leads The Meeting of the Waters, written by Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852)*, Inspired by a visit with friends to the Vale of Avoca, Moore wrote these words to the old Irish air The Head of Old Denis. In County Wicklow, going south from Rathdrum, the Avanmore and Avonbeg rivers join to form the Avoca River, about three miles (five kilometers) north of Avoca village; this is the famous Meeting of the Waters. Overlooking the scene is Castle Howard. Nearby is Thomas Moore’s tree, where the poet is said to have spent long hours in contemplation. Now it is railed off to save it from souvenir hunters. The Vale of Avoca is especially lovely in late spring, when drifts of white blossom from the wild cherry trees show bright against the green foliage. On either side of the valley the ground rises in little hills, culminating on the western side in a background of mountains. In Avoca village a weaving center is open to the public, its products internationally renowned. Avoca is better known these days as Ballykissangel because of the Irish television program produced there.

* Thomas Moore is now probably best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. As Lord Byron’s named literary executor, along with John Murray, Moore was responsible for burning Lord Byron’s memoirs after his death.

SLIEVE (SLIABH) GALLEN BRAES - Track 12

Concert location: Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco, California, 4/10/1987.

Lead: Richard

Slieve (Sliabh) Gallen Braes is an emigration song we got from a recording of The McPeake Family. Their introduction to it is “this is a sad song, but nice.” Slieve Gallen is a mountain in the Sperins range in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. The mention of “taxes getting higher” is probably a reference to the famine. At that time there was no all-Ireland funding of care for the unfortunate. It was alll done locally, so middle-class farmers in areas badly hit by the famine found their taxes going higher and higher until they were driven to sell up and leave.

JIGS: AUSTIN BARRY’S/THE CLARE JIG/BANK OF TURF - Track 13

Concert location: All Saints Church, Hayward, California, 4/21/1990.

Richard starts off this set of jigs on the tinwhisle. Austin Barry’s was composed by Johnny Harling under the title The Dusty Windowsill (so we later found out). The Clare Jig and The Bank of Turf are well known, popular in many a session.

DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE - Track 14

Concert location: Place and date not recorded.

Lead: Suzanne

A song referring to the 19th century Fenian uprising, written by Peadar Kearney, an uncle of Brendan Behan, the playwright. Peadar also wrote the satirical God Bless England and the Irish National Anthem. Here’s an additional verse to Down By The Glenside we didn’t have at the time of this recording:

When I was a young girl, their marching and drilling

Awoke in the glenside sounds awful and thrilling

They loved poor old ireland and to die they were willing

Glory o, glory o, to the bold Fenian men

THE WALLS OF TROY - Track 15

Concert location: Place and date not recorded.

Lead; Suzanne; guitar: Michael Harmon; 2nd bodhran: Richard

A song written by the late Terry Conway of Hexham, Northumberland. We heard this on the album Word of Mouth by The House Band. An exceptional singer and songwriter, Terry worked for thirty years as a council roadman and many of his songs are based on that experience. He was always uneasy driving snowploughs, and his song Winter’s Weary Snaa’ draws on the downside of both job and season. Hawkhope Hill was composed after his wagon was “bogged” during the building of the roads and houses for those locals displaced by the building of the Kielder Dam. He used subversive wit and dialect to ballad the travails of the bus journey from Hexham to Morpeth. These and others of his songs have already entered the tradition. In the 1970s, at Hexham Folk Club, he sang from the Tyneside and Clancy Brothers’ repertoire, with his own effective guitar accompaniment. It was at this time that he started writing songs. Terry was a well-read and profoundly knowledgeable man. When English singer Pete Coe was asked recently which song he wished he had written, he chose Terry’s The Walls of Troy and described it as “the ultimate anti-war song.”