Pat Rainey - An Old Irish Folk Song - Hive Open Mic 152

Hi Everyone

When I saw that this week's theme is "Traditional Music" I thought I would take a shot at playing a version of a lovely old Irish folk song called "Pat Rainey" which I heard an Irish Bouzouki player named Daoiri Farell play in this podcast interview a couple of years ago.

Daoiri didn't write this song, I belive in the interview above he mentions he heard an old guy sing it at a folk club in Dublin and that old guy had found it in an old Irish novel. You gotta love songs and stories like that.

These old folk songs always have the most beautifully poetic wordplay.I love collecting them and finding a way to accompany them with a basic chord progression.

I believe as is the case with most of these old songs the character of "Pat Rainey" mentioned in the song was a real person. An Irish bagpipe player who was part of the traveling community.

Hopefully, you guys will enjoy my version of this catchy little folk song.

"Pat Rainey"

Oh me name is Pat Rainey, I'm a travelling man
I'll mend your auld pots, or I'll make you a can
I'm prince among nomads, I'm king of me clan
Oh fol di lol dol dol dol day

I tramps down the road with me horse and me dog
There's game in the fields and there's turf in the bogs
I sing like a lark as along I do jog
Oh fol di lol dol dol dol day

Ill camp by the river and I catch me a fish
I've always got plenty to put in me dish
Me brogues and me shirt well I surely can stitch
And sing fol di lol dol dol dol day

Ill grab hold of me pipes and I'll head into town
Find a good spot and I'll sit me'self down
A squeeze on the bellows the throng gathers round for me
Fol di lol dol dol dol day

I play 'Misses McClouds' and the 'Wind in the Gap'
And it pleases the crowd so they dance and they clap
And many's a bright shilling they throw in me cap for me
Fol di lol dol dol dol day

Well I'm fond of the drink and I'm sure it's no crime
To sit down in the shebeen with comrades sublime
Lets dance till the morning, were no slave's to time
Singing fol di lol dol dol dol day

Well the housewife each night comes down from the farm
Her husband is cold but I am quite warm
And here in me tent she'll come to no harm with me
Fol di lol dol dol dol day

But when winter comes round for fear of the damp
I'll whistle me dog, down the road we will tramp
And that housewife will sigh when she sees we broke camp
All fol di lol dol dol dol day

But when springtime comes round I'll pass back this way
Fire up me billy and I'll have me some tea
I'll check if the buffer has one on the way
And sing fol di lol dol dol dol day

For me name is Pat Rainey, I'm a travelling man
I'll mend your auld pots or I'll make you a can
I'm prince among nomads, the king of me clan

Oh fol di lol dol dol dol
fol di lol dol dol dol
fol di lol dol dol dol day