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Happy St. Patrick’s Day Eve. The Irish Band,  Ring of Kerry, is performing tonight at the Fillmore Auditorium in Sartell.  Tickets are available online at www.granitecityfolk.org    I will be right here on campus at The Great Hall working the table for The Rose Ensemble   Their “Welcome The Stranger” honors the lives of the twin Saints Benedict and Scholastica.  One of Benedict’s rule is   “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.”   Tickets for this event are at www.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.  His sorrow is reflected in the words that he wrote, especially the second verse.  The song was published in 1913.

“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 this week is the first of a run of three rebroadcasts by turning back to last October and a show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Fiona Apple sings “Fast As You Can” and “Every Single Night”; Dan Auerbach plays “Shine on Me” and “Stand By My Girl” and joins Robert Finley on “Get it While You Can” and “Medicine Woman”; Hilary Hahn plays Max Richter’s “Mercy” and teams up with Chris Thile and Paul Kowert for a little Bach.   Nick Offerman stops by with a song dedicated to his wife. Plus: Madison Cunningham’s “All At Once,” and a word about Non-Essential Oils from our acting company. Tune in tomorrow at 5pm CDST and either your Classical MPR station or your MPR News station or 11am on Sunday on your MPR News station. Join the gang back live on April 7th from the State Theatre in Minneapolis.

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