Weave and Mend, folksong from Daughters of Copper Woman

The Poets & Writers Townhall meeting led me on a very merry goose chase tracking down an earworm of a song I had once heard long ago that haunted me—as we were discussing how to teach during the time of Covid. As with all earworms, the song interrupted my thoughts and became a message. I finally succumbed and looked it up, and was glad I did too. I learned a lot. I love being a folksong armchair historian.

My first go-to was Mudcat, of course, I found a Mudcat thread on the song. At first I couldn’t find anything on the song because I didn’t have the right title. The Browne Sisters—the version I’m familiar with—called it Old Woman, which yielded a wild goose chase, and no lyrics. 

Now I  love the Browne Sisters, and know them well from various Highland Games, but sometimes it’s hard to glean the lyrics from their amazing harmonies. Many thanks to Shay Black who saw my query on Facebook and sent me the full lyrics. He also gave me another lead, songwriter Mary Trup. But I also discovered that Anne Cameron wrote the poem.

No one on the Mudcat thread connected the song up with the writer, Anne Cameron, or where she grew up, Nanaimo, or that she was tapping into Nootka creation stories in Daughters of Copper Woman, so this is theoretically where this song came from. 

More research is ahead for me. Note that the name is spelled Mary Troupe here. I kind of like it. Created ca. 1981. Still searching, still sleuthing. Meanwhile, I found simple acapella version here. No ads. Great graphics in this vsrsion and Janet Russell’s harp accompaniment suits this song. No ads.

Below is songwriter Mary Trup’s version as sung by Shay’s sister, Irish Senator Frances Black. Now I am officially obsessed by this song. Words by Anne Cameron, slightly rearranged but that is the way of folksongs—even newly minted ones. I can’t seem to find anything on the songwriter Mary Trup, where she’s from, or if the tune is borrowed, or based on Celtic music, but it does have a Celtic echo and lilt. It’s certainly a song and melody that grabbed me by the heart strings.

Weave and Mend

Old woman is watching, watching over you
In the darkness of the storm, she is watching
She is weaving, mending, gathering the colors
She is watching over you. 

Chorus:
So, weave and mend
Weave and mend
Gather the fragments safe
And win the sacred circle,
Sisters, weave and mend,
Weave and mend,
Oh women, weave and mend

Old woman is weaving, gathering the threads
Her bones become the loom she is weaving,
She is watching, weaving, gathering the colors
She is watching over you.

Chorus:

For years I’ve been watching, waiting for old woman
Feeling lost and so alone, I’ve been watching.
Now I find her weaving, gathe ring the colors
Now I find her in myself.

And another version on the Black Brothers Band webpage. 

(It took me a while (a year and a half) but I finally got around to recording the song for Carol Hoorn, replete with a cat who was concerned about me. Link.)

My persistence paid off, with the clues I had uncovered, eventually I found a great book review. The Wordpress blog is called Historian’s Notebook, by Faith L. Justice. Ironically I was in Naniamo during that summer of 1981. I could have met her, if only I had known. But I had to wait a half lifetime to put this story together.

There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama

Certainly there are many amazing Obama tidbits floating out there on the Internet, but imagine my surprise when I saw on YouTube, a sean nos send-up on Obama at the Starry Plough's Sunday Session in Berkeley by none other than Shay Black.

The viral video, "There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama" was recorded at the precocious 13-year-old weekly Sunday night Irish music session on September 14th, 2008.

The basic verses of the song, "There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama" were created by the Corrigan Brothers (aka Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys) in Ireland. The tune itself was borrowed from "The Green Hills of Tara. After a bit of a scuff, permission to add additional verses was later given to Shay Black by the Corrigan Brothers. Extra verse contributions (in some form) were added as well as Celia Ramsey, Chris Caswell, Walter Askew (Salty Walt), Craig Johnson, Tom Clancy, Barry Gleeson, Dave Sahn, and Peter Heelan.

Apparently rumor has it that Obama himself has seen the video and it is reported that he loved the song. It's goin' down in folk history alright, as it's already posted on Mudcat. Cafe.

Painted on the back wall of the Starry Plough is an apt quote from Irish activist James Connolly:

In the preface to "Revolutionary Song " (1907), James Connolly, who was also later a leader of the Easter Rebellion, wrote:

"No Revolutionary movement is complete without its poetic expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears, and hopes the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is the dogma of the few and not the faith of the multitude."

I've reread that quote many times at Sunday Sessions. Now it takes on a whole other level of meaning. Defiant singing indeed.

Before Barack, there was Jack....

Apparently it's a getting pretty viral out there, folks, with over 700,000 views.

O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare, & O'Hara
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

Saints be praised! Who'd a known Obama was as Irish as bacon and cabbage?

From the ol' Blarney Stone to the green hills of Tara...
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama....

Once upon a time Barack did go by the name of Barry. Barry O'Bama  or make that   Bairi O Bhamaigh?

Rumor has it that Hardy Drew and The Nancy Boys were invited to open one of the inaugural balls after the US Presidential election. Not too sure how singer Shay Black fits into all this as he's the one we're all listening to on the video. But the tune's catchy.