A CHANCE OF A MELODY
Long have I dreamed of a love like an open highway
In my heart have I carried
The charts that will bring me home
To her Treasure Island
With the sun goin’ down
With the sun goin’ down
On that gentle and strange lovin’ town

I dream of the spéirbhean
Who will come an’ sing my lovesong
Clear as the blackbird
High in the singin’ tree
Full of madness and charms
Though I lie in the arms
Though I lie in the arms
Of trouble as deep as the sea

Chorus
And I’ll search the world ‘round
And I’ll search every town
Though I win or lose my dreams
In a kaleidoscope
Of wishes and hopes
And the chance of a melody
A deep and a sweet melody

I see you tonight in the light of all the lovers
Who lived in the sunlight
And sang in the singin’ tree
And were all taken prisoner
But two lovers broke free
Two lovers broke free
And lived for eternity

Chorus
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BROWN EYES
I have been a roamin’ soul
Hawked my heart from door to door
In the rain and cold and wind
In the house of foe and friend

Searched in churches pubs and bars
On the highways in the stars
Found a girl one crazy night
Dressed in marigolds and white

Come with me lady to Paradise Hall
Where your freshly ironed clothes hang like flowers on the wall
Come with me lady to Paradise Hall
Where your freshly ironed clothes hang like flowers on the wall

She had poetry and style
Youthful girl with sad brown eyes
I was there to break to break her fall
Sang ‘The Homes of Donegal’

And she listened to my songs
And the night was deep and long
Tales of wonder and despair
And she told me all her cares

Love is no easy pedestrian stroll
You stop in your tracks and it cries in your soul
Love is no easy pedestrian stroll
You stop in your tracks and it cries in your soul

Now I’m drinkin’ crazy wine
Earth and sky and sea are mine
And the doctrines of the wind
When will I see her again?

Never ever is the name
Of the night and of the rain
Never ever is the song
Of the place where I belong

I’ve been in this valley for many long years
I’ve had the delights and I’ve had all the tears
I’ve had all the love and I’ve had all the pain
But I’d do it all over and over again
For her brown eyes …

I’ve been in this valley for many long years
I’ve had the delights and I’ve had all the tears
I’ve had all the love and I’ve had all the pain
But I’d do it all over and over again
For her brown eyes …
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I LOST MY DEAR TRUE LOVE LAST NIGHT
I was workin’ one bright Winter’s morning
When someone walked out of the room
And left me alone with the windows
And the presence of someone was gone
Though he was little more than a stranger
I wanted to follow him right
To the door of his house filled with presence
For I lost my dear true love last night

Like a child’s there was light in a window
Across the dark valley alone
For the one who was out for the evening
And the ones who would never come home
And I wept full of sadness and wonder
For the ones who had lived in that light
And parted and gone on their journeys
For I lost my dear true love last night

Chorus
And I’m longin’ to walk in the mountains
And I’m longin’ to walk in the light
Where the clear mountain streams
Still sing of my dreams
For I lost my dear true love last night

I see in the skies of my memory
The blue of her beautiful eyes
I remember the first time I saw her
I remember the first time she cried
I remember the first time I loved her
I remember a time in my life
When I wandered the dark roads of Ireland
For I lost my dear true love last night

No more can I call on the Winter
To speak for the loss in my heart
Or the house that is sun-dark and empty
Since the hour we were broken apart
No more can the songs of my people
With image and story put right
The pain in the heart of my love-song
For I lost my dear true love last night

Chorus …
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THERE’S A ROOM IN MY MIND FOR YOU
There’s a room in my mind for you
Come and make it your own
Though you know I’m just passin’ through
Tonight I can give you a home

There’s a room in my heart for you
Forever if only you know
That love is a dream come true
For one who is always alone

‘Cause your homeless like the wind
I am the trees and the sea
And my room is as wide as the world
You’ll not be imprisoned in me

There’s a room in my soul for you
It’s light comes from your life
I’ve been drinkin’ the whole night through
To keep the light alive

‘Cause I’m homeless like the wind
You are the trees and the sea
And my room is as wide as the
world You’ll not be imprisoned in me
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YELLOW SOMBRERO
I could see she was free by the tilt of her yellow sombrero
And she moved like the wind in its wild and its beautiful way
& I knew she would rattle my mind
& I’d cross every border and line
& I’d never return to the land where my forefathers lay

I was timid and wild and I once was a child of a country
Where pastors and fairies and fears ruled the night and the day
But the innocent grace of a girl
That I saw in her bright yellow world
Sent me out on a journey that lovingly led me astray

There were sentries and spies with their blue Irish eyes ever smiling
& loved ones whose love was too strong and too heavy to bear
Though we lived just a mile from the sea
Still only our rivers ran free
& we hated and loved in the halls of delight and despair

& I rode a white horse that was equal on land or on water
& I cowered in ditches too blind and forgetful to pray
& I once caught a glimpse of a star
Or the ball flyin’ over the bar
And I saw the horizons that true lovers reach every day

& I’m singin’ a song and it’s comin’ from deep in my mem’ry
Of a girl with a yellow sombrero I met on my way
& once with the moon shinin’ bright
I told her the tale of my life
& she brought me back home to the land where my forefathers lay
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MY LOVE IS IN AMERICA
My love is in America One hundred years or more
She crossed the wind-swept ocean
That she’d never seen before
She crossed the wind-swept ocean
She was anxious in her mind
Oh my love is in America
Tonight …

She had no gold no fortune
Nor my love in her soul
When she crossed the wind-swept ocean
One hundred years ago
No credit cards no travellers’ cheques
For to keep her from the cold
But the winds and seas of Ireland
In her soul …

She polished floors and windows
For six or seven years
In lace-curtained filtered sunlight
I see her through my tears
Her queenly soul in service
Down on her bended knee
Oh ye winds and seas of Ireland
Set her free …

She married a blue-clad railroad man
And left me here to dream
Of seas and wind-swept oceans
And the Isle of Inisfree
I met her in America
An old lady in Inwood Park
And I brought her back to Ireland
In my heart …

And I wonder why I loved her
One hundred years ago
That sweet and lovely maiden
She had skin as fair as snow
She worked and loved and lived and died
Before my soul was born
Oh ye winds and seas of Ireland
Sing her song …
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WINTER LADY
On a day in late October
In a pub in London town
I met a dark-eyed lady
As the veils of night came down

Her eyes I could not read them
Her mind I could not know
And I said before the season
Has ended away with her I’ll go

She was my Winter Lady
As the frost and snow came round
I lay in the dream of her dark eyes
And love was all around

And the long cold nights of Winter
We did not fill with words
And she taught me many secrets
In the quiet of our new world

And I fell in love with Winter
With trees so bare and down
And the spirit of my dark love
All over London town

And I fell in love with Winter
When frosts began to write
Their fern-like shapes in windows
In the star-bright cold of the night

And now the Winter’s over
And Spring is on the land
I think of my Winter Lady
And I wonder where she’s gone
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AMERICA
It’s been a long hard century
And I lived every minute of it
I was born within sight of the ocean
But I never set foot on a ship
My brother sailed out to America
I thought that it might have been me
But I never did cross the Atlantic
Though my fortune lay over the sea

In America
America
Home of the brave and the free
That I never will see

I stayed knuckled down to my destiny
A farmer of mountain and fields
There were times when the work got the best of me
But I never I never would yield
I married and raised up a family
A son and two daughters were mine
And the land that I owned was the religion
I would hand to my son in his time

But my son was a rake and a wanderer
Though he loved every inch of the land
But his love was the love of a dreamer
And he’d never obey its commands
He left me one bright April morning
My heart was as cold as a stone
And he went without favour or blessing
To America and left me alone

To America
America
Home of the brave and the free
That I never will see

My brother came home from America
I’d not seen him for 40 long years
And I met an old man at the Airport
Who was almost a stranger to me
And we talked of the days of our childhood
There were times when I wanted to cry
But eyes on the road I drove onward
For cryin’ was never my style

We talked of the towns and the cities
And the streets of New York filled my mind
And the dollars and bar-rooms and women
But the loneliness crept through the lines

Of America
America
Home of the brave and the free
That I never will see

And now I’ve lived most of a century
When I think of it sometimes I smile
It’s been a long hard century
But somehow I’m ready to die …

And America
America
Home ofthe brave and the free
I never will see
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SEAL TAMALL AR STRAE
Bhíos tamall dem shaol
I mbarra mo réim
Bhíos cinnte is Ceilteach is cróga
Bhíos tamall arís
Liom féin in aon tís
Le púcaí is taibhsí is síoga

Do chaitheas-sa tamall
Faoi scáil is faoi scamall
The Lord of the Rings I mo chomhair
Na ríthe sa spéir
Ag eitilt san aer
Ag triall ar an diabhal is a chóisir

Ta tigh ar an sliabh
Is ta muintir an tí
Chomh haibidh le heornan sa bhFómhar
Ta Tigh eile fós
Gan díon na fuinneog
Is gan éinne ag feitheamh sna dóirse

Bhíos tamall dem shaol
Seal tamall ar strae
I gcistin i lár
Chorca Dhuibhne Bhí suaimhneas síoraí
I gceartlár an tí
Is m’athair ag déanamh a smaointe

Do chaitheas-sa lá
I bhfochair mná
I ndoire ‘ta gairid don teorainn
Bhí blátha ar fáil
Is grian le spáráil
‘Sa cuid gruaige ar ghile na heornan

Bhíos tamall dem shaol
Gan aingeal lem thaobh
Bhíos ciontach is
Ceilteach is cróga
Bhíos tamall arís
Liom féin in aon tís
Le spéirbhean a d’eitil thar teorainn
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THE BALLAD OF THE FINGLAS RIVER
Where the clear gentle light lasts forever
My heart will be simple and free
Where flows the sublime Finglas River
Through magical lands to the sea

‘Twas there on a bright April morning
‘Neath the shadow of Cathair Conraí
That Cúchulainn made sweet love to Gráinne
And the milk of the Finglas flowed free

And again as a child I will wander
On roadways of wonder and peace
On a clear frosty night in November
When the moonlight transfigures the trees

And at night as a child I heard stories
Of the faithful departed and gone
And I treasured their trials and their glories
And the fields where they fashioned their songs

And I searched for them many years after
By murmuring river and glen
And I found them way out near Gleann Dearg
Where their voices still sing on the wind

And I searched in the land of the living
For the ones who had crossed the wide sea
In faith and in hope and misgiving
On the ships of eternity

And one night in the light of a picture
A man taught me the meaning of home
On the wall in his room in Chicago
Was the one true possession he owned

And I can’t tell his life without danger
Of breaking his heart and his soul
But he gave me the dreams of my childhood
And the fields where my spirit may roam

Where the clear gentle light lasts forever
My heart will be simple and free
Where flows the sublime Finglas River
Through magical lands to the sea