Monday 11 February 2019

Frank Harte/Donal Lunny - You Lovers All

An old recording from 2003 which shows fine singer Frank Harte together with Donal Lunny on Bouzouki. This is a lovely Irish/Canadian emigrant song which has been recorded several times, Goitse did it, and there's a fine version sung by "Open the door for three" and Mick Moloney, but I first heard it sung by Len Graham.

A woman sets off in to search for her lover. She has no idea where he might be found. But she knows he is in North America. And fortune is with her, she finds him in the first bar she enters.



Ye Lovers All
Ye lovers all both great and small
Who dwell in Ireland
Oh I pray you pay attention
Whilst I my pen command
It was my father’s anger
That drove my love away
But I still have hopes
We’ll meet again in North Americay
My love he was fair and handsome
And to him I gave my heart
Ah but little was our notion
That we would ever part
It was in my father’s garden
That this flower it did decay
But I still have hopes twill bloom again
In North Americay
Now I did not want for money
Kind fortune on me shone
So out of my father’s castle
I took five hundred pounds
It was in the town of Belfast
My passage I did pay
And then set sail across the sea
To far Americay
Now the captain’s wife was kind to me
As you may understand
And she kept me in her cabin
Until we reached dry land
It was in the town of Quebec
We landed on the quay
But I knew not where to seek my love
In all Americay
Now I being sick and sore and tired
Well I went into an inn
And it was there I found my William
The lad I loved within
He took me gently by the hand
And to me he did say
Oh I never thought I’d see your face
In North Americay
Now I hear this couple has got wed
As you may understand
And I hear they live quite happily
In a town they call St. Johns
And the money that she took from home
Well in gold she paid it down
And they think no more of Ireland
Nor Enniskillen town.
There you can find a lovely recording of Niamh Parsons together with Gerry O'Beirne on Guitar.
I tried to tab the intro Donal plays. Here it is, Capo 4th fret:

Here's the first verse, hope it is nearly correct. Unfortunately Tabledit recognizes chords not always correctly and I don't know how to change the names of chords:


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