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Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day Eve and The Irish Band,  Ring of Kerry,  will be performing at the Paramount Center for the Arts in downtown St. Cloud.  Tickets are available at paramountarts.org.  I have tickets to Delfeayo Marsalis & The Uptown Jazz Orchestra which is at Escher Auditorium on the campus of the College of Saint Benedict.  Tickets are available at csbsju.edu/wow. 

The origin of the song “Danny Boy” is an interesting story.  The tune is known as the “Londonderry Air” and it originated in the northern most county of Ireland.  The story goes that sometime in the 1600 hundreds, a blind harpist, Rory Dall O’Cahan, was traveling home after having finished a gig at a castle in the Valley of Roe.  He had a little too much to drink, and he fell asleep in a ditch along the road. He was awakened by the sound of a fairy playing the most beautiful tune he had ever heard on his harp.  He returned to the castle and proceeded to play the first rendition of what became known as the “Londonderry Air.”

In 1851, Jane Ross heard a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry playing the tune at a fair and she wrote the notes down.  The tune spread all over the western world.  Many tried to come up with words to the tune, including some of the best known poets of the time, but none seemed to work.  Finally an Englishman, Fred Weatherly, a teacher and a lawyer who had written nearly 1,500 songs in his lifetime, was sent the tune by a sister-in-law who lived in America.  Over a three month period, Fred had lost his father and his only son. The song was published in 1913.  His sorrow is reflected in the words that he wrote, especially the second verse. 

“But if you come and the flowers are all dying.  If I be dead, as dead I  might well be.  You will come and find the place where I am lying and kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.  And I shall hear , though soft you tread above me and all my grave the warmer, sweeter be, and if you bend and tell me that you love me, then I shall sleep in peace, until you come to me.”

Live from Here tomorrow will be a live show from The Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul.  Jon Batiste will be the guest host.  Special guests include Emily King, Nick Waterhouse and Rachael Price. 

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”  Leonard Cohen