Ep 63 Karan Casey

Karan Casey


 Does Singing Songs Make a Difference?


This episode is a recording of Karan Casey’s keynote presentation
at the close of the conference of the European Music Therapy
Confederation in Edinburgh, 8-12 June 2022. Karan talked about
songs and social justice, arts practice research, and about her
own life and experiences as a performer and campaigner on social
issues. She performed a number of songs as part of the
presentation, and then had a conversation with Luke Annesley to
explore these issues further. It was an inspiring ending to a
varied and exciting conference.


About Karan:


Singing songs charged with a sense of social responsibility in a
career spanning over 25 years Karan Casey has released eleven
albums as well as contributing to numerous other artists’
projects – appearing on more than 50 albums in total. She has
toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan,
performing with her own band as well as collaborating with such
diverse musicians as Maura O’Connell, James Taylor, Bela Fleck,
Boston Pops Orchestra, Kate Ellis, Niall Vallely, Pauline
Scanlon, The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Peggy Seeger, Karen
Matheson, Mick Flannery, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Tim O’Brien,
Solas and Lúnasa. 


In 2018 Karan helped found FairPlé which is an organization aimed
at achieving fairness and gender balance for female performers in
Irish traditional and folk musics.


Karan tours with her band Niamh Dunne, Sean Óg Graham and Niall
Vallely.


Karan’s most recent album Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale was
released on the Vertical Records Label. Her song “Down in the
Glen” was nominated for Best Original Folk Song at the RTE Folk
Awards 2019 and she completed a PhD in music in 2019. Karan has
recently performed her new show with Director Sophie Motley
called I Walked into My Head which was premiered at the Kilkenny
Arts Festival 2021.


Karan is currently working on a new stage show to be produced at
the Everyman Theatre in Cork in early 2023 as well as an album of
new songs about women in the Irish revolutionary period.


Please note: As we are awaiting permission to include the
performance of 'The King's Shilling' in this episode, here is a
YouTube link to Karan's studio version of the song.


Reviews of Karan's music:


"Karan Casey’s latest album is revelatory. She’s always been a
singer of songs that tell a story and show their muscle…This is a
strikingly three-dimensional work that stands the test of
intensive and repeated listening with ease. A vivid and dazzling
snapshot of Casey invincible, at the height of her powers.”


Siobhán Long, Irish Times


 


“Casey’s voice is among the loveliest in folk music and she’s a
wonderful interpreter of both contemporary and traditional
material.”


BOSTON GLOBE


 


“Karan Casey's latest solo venture is a thing of rare beauty.”


SING OUT


 


"The most soulful singer to emerge in Irish traditional music in
the past decade."


THE GLASGOW HERALD


 


“If ever any doubt existed about who's the best Irish traditional
woman singer today, "Exiles Return" sweeps aside all
pretenders…Karan Casey has no vocal peer.”


IRISH ECHO


 


Songs


Siúil a Rúin (trad.)


The King's Shilling (Ian Sinclair)


Rocks of Bawn (trad.)


Ballad of Accounting (Ewen MacColl)


I'm Still Standing Here (Janis Ian)


Hear How the Music it Heals (trad.)


Bog Braon (trad.)


 


Other links and references:


Casey, K. (2017, September). Singing my way to Social
Justice. In Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy (Vol.
17, No. 3). 


Davis, A. Y. (2011). Blues Legacies and Black
Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday.
Vintage.


www.karancasey.com


info@karancasey.com


 


Lyrics


 


Siúil a Rúin


 


I wish I was on yonder hill
'Tis there I would sit and cry my fill


Until every tear it would turn a mill


Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


I would sell my rock, I would sell my reel


I would sell my only spinning wheel
For to buy my love a sword of steel
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin


Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


And now my love he has gone to France


To try his fortune to advance
And if he returns, 'tis but a chance
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin


Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


 


I wish, I wish, I wish in vain


I wish I had my heart again


And it’s vainly I think that I would not complain


Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


 


The King’s Shilling


 


Oh my love has left me with bairnes twa


And that's the last of him I ever saw


He's joined the army and marched to war


He took the shilling


He took the shilling and he’s off to war


 


Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar


Take the King's shilling and you’re off to war


 


Well did he look as he marched along


With his kilt and sporran and his musket gun


And the ladies tipped him as he marched along


He sailed out by


He sailed out by the Broomielaw


 


The pipes did play as he marched along


And the soldiers sang out a battle song


March on, march on, cried the Captain gay


And for King and country


For King and country we will fight today


 


Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar


Take the King's shilling and we're off to war


 


The battle rattled to the sound of guns


And the bayonets flashed in the morning sun


The drums did beat and the cannons roared


And the shilling didn't seem


Oh the shilling didn't seem much worth the war


 


Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar


Take the King's shilling and we're off to war


 


Well the men they fought and the men did fall


Cut down by bayonets and musket ball


And many of these brave young men


Would never fight for


Would never fight for the King again


 


Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar


Take the King's shilling and we're off to war


Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar


Take the King's shilling and you’ll die in war


 


 


Rocks of Bawn


 


Come all ye loyal heroes wherever you may be.


Don't hire with any master till you know what your work will be


You will rise up early from the clear day light till the dawn


and you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.


 


Rise up, gallant Sweeney, and give your horse some hay


And give them a good feed of oats before they stray away


Don't feed them on soft turnip put them out on your green lawn


Or they never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.


 


My curse upon you, Sweeney boy, you have me nearly robbed


You're sitting by the fireside with your dúidín in your gob


You're sitting by the fireside now from clear daylight till the
dawn


And you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn


 


My shoes they are worn and my stockings they are thin


My heart is always trembling for fear they might give in


My heart is always trembling from the clear daylight till the
dawn


And I never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.


 


I wish the Queen of England she would call for me in time


And place me in some regiment all in my youth and prime


I'd fight for Ireland's glory from the clear daylight till dawn


And I never would return again to plough the Rocks of Bawn.


 


 


Ballad of Accounting


 


In the morning we built the city


In the afternoon walked through its streets


Evening saw us leaving


We wandered through our days as if they would never e


All of us imagined we had endless time to spend


We hardly saw the crossroads


And small attention gave


To landmarks on the journey from the cradle to the grave,


cradle to the grave, cradle to the grave


 


Did you learn to dream in the morning?


Abandon dreams in the afternoon?


Wait without hope in the evening?


Did you stand there in the traces and let them feed you lies?


Did you trail along behind them wearing blinkers on your eyes?


Did you kiss the foot that kicked you?


Did you thank them for their scorn?


Did you ask for their forgiveness for the act of being born,


act of being born, act of being born?


 


Did you alter the face of the city?


Did you make any change in the world you found?


Or did you observe all the warnings?


Did you read the trespass notices did you keep off the grass?


Did you shuffle off the pavement just to let your betters pass?


Did you learn to keep your mouth shut,


Were you seen and never heard?


Did you learn to be obedient and jump to at a word,


jump to at a word, jump to at a word?


 


Did you ever demand any answers?


The who, the what or the reason why?


Did you ever question the setup?


Did you stand aside and let them choose while you took second
best?


Did you let them skim the cream off and then give to you the
rest?


Did you settle for the shoddy?


Did you think it right


To let them rob you right and left and never make a fight,


never make a fight, never make a fight?


 


What did you learn in the morning?


How much did you know in the afternoon?


Were you content in the evening?


Did they teach you how to question when you were at the school?


Did the factory help you grow, were you the maker or the tool?


Did the place where you were living


Enrich your life and then


Did you reach some understanding of all your fellow men,


all your fellow men, all your fellow men?


 


 


I’m Still Standing Here


 


See these lines upon my face


They’re a map of where I’ve been


In the deep they are traced a deeper life has settled in


How do we survive living out our lives


 


I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine


Or pretend that time stands still


I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear


Another line another year


I’m still standing here


 


See these marks upon my skin


They’re the lyric of my life


Every story that begins


Means another ends in sight


Only lover’s understand


Skin just covers who I am


 


I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine


Or pretend that time stands still


I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear


Another line another year


I’m still standing here


 


See these bruises see these scars


Hieroglyphs that tell the tale


You can read them in the dark


Through your fingertips like braille


 


I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine


Or pretend that time stands still


I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear


Another line another year


I’m still standing here